Discussion thread -- November 2015 75-word Writing Challenge

[Mr Orange]

absurdist fiction? there goes my idea of trying to be serious this month...

 

[chrispenycate]

You could be seriously absurd - I suspect I will.

Verse again this time, I'm afraid - I have the inspiration and the construction, it is merely unfortunate that it takes me a considerable time to construct.

 

[Glen]

"Individual absurdist works include Joseph Heller's Catch-22;" says Wikipedia, studiously. Is that a fact?

It's the best book ever written. That is a fact.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

TitaniumTi -- Catatrophic

Bowler1 -- Googleperplex

 

[Bowler1]

Catch 22 is a great book.

I'm in. I have no idea if I've hit the brief this month, but I can now sit back and relax.

Thanks Victoria - certainly brief this month.

 

[TitaniumTi]

Thanks Victoria.

Coincidentally, I went to the cinema on Saturday and saw an absurdist movie, The Dressmaker. It didn't inspire me to write in that genre, so I planned not to enter this month's challenge. Then inspiration struck, in the form of an irritating feline.

 

[Mr Orange]

so i have written something which i think is suitable, but it's come in at 150 words. i'm not sure i can get it down to 75 words without making it absurd.

oh...

 

[Perpetual Man]

There is nothing quite so absurdist as walking into a room to catch the end of your seven year old saying, "...and I'll make a baby tomorrow!"

This has thrown me completely, out of my depth and floundering. But I do have an idea, not sure whether it will fit, but then we'll see.

I was trying to come up with a way of doing the comments this month that's be different and fun. But am struggling there too. Really impressed with Victoria's.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

reiverr33 -- Rushingroulette

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Alex the G and T -- Poeepic

 

[Cat's Cradle]

LOVE the reviews, Victoria!
I'm finding this one difficult...but it's a really nice challenge. I admire the stories already entered; I especially think yours is terrific, Victoria, and Alex, yours is really cool!

 

[Mr Orange]

well mine's up. i hope it's absurd enough

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Mr Orange -- Logicaltrop

 

[Mr Orange]

many thanks Victoria

 

[Alex The G and T]

Thank you Victoria and CC.

 

[Perpetual Man]

Holland – Must have. Want to have. Delivered in multi-hued wonder.

Ashleyne – This little finger on my right. Brilliantly illuminating.

Luiglin – To get to the other side!!! Balanced Routine, well delivered.

Robert Mackay – The perfect technicality. Heller ain’t dead!

Victoria – Not so much a dedicated follower, futuristic party mayhem. As always the language from the start is magical.

Drof – Cartoon hijinks becomes mundane monotony. A strange relationship ends.

Titanium Ti – Feline fun as a multitude of moggies end up trapped in a classic geometrical shape.

Bowler – The future of all deities could well be this. Ultimately a malicious god, or protector, a defender?

Reiver – Reincarnation can be a pain in the bum, but how random is it? Playing a fatal game of chance or making a pact with the devil like Faust?

Alex – Lost in a maze, with no way out how did he get there? Progressing nowhere in an infinite drawing.

Mr Orange – Caught in a riddle by a human harvester fellow, can our protagonist find the truth in the lie?

 

[TitaniumTi]

Tim James - A perfectly absurd authorisation of existential angst.

Thanks for the review, Tim James. As always, you've perfectly captured the essence of the entries.

 

[Droflet]

Thanks for the review, Tim.

 

[Starbeast]

Absurdist fiction is a genre of fictional narrative (traditionally, literary fiction), most often in the form of a novel, play, poem, or film, that focuses on the experiences of characters in situations where they cannot find any inherent purpose in life, most often represented by ultimately meaningless actions and events that call into question the certainty of existential concepts such as truth or value.[1] Common elements in absurdist fiction include satire, dark humour, incongruity, the abasement of reason, and controversy regarding the philosophical condition of being "nothing."[2] Works of absurdist fiction often explore agnostic or nihilistic topics.

Oh my! this sounds sooooo, not my kettle of fish!!

You're not kidding Parson. That combined with "THE PATH NOT TAKEN". I can't get my thoughts around this challenge. It gives me a headache. I'm out too.

 

[Alex The G and T]

Calm down, Beastley one. If you need some grounding, so to speak, in absurdity; go review some of the back pages in the playrooms. say, the question game, the limericks and more likely the "last Post" sort of thing. I know you've got plenty of absurdity in you, Beast. You CanDo It!