DISCUSSION THREAD -- January 2024 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge

[Parson]

You, Sir, Are Not as Charming as You Think You Are by @nixie for a wonderfully contemporary twist on an old and familiar tale

Parson hangs his head in shame. Sorry @TheDustyZebra I remember thinking I'd better check if that really was nixie, but I must not have. Still it is a wonderful story.

 

[paranoid marvin]

I was sadly unable to participate this month, but my vote goes to The Judge for a very good entry.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Parson hangs his head in shame. Sorry @TheDustyZebra I remember thinking I'd better check if that really was nixie, but I must not have. Still it is a wonderful story.

Well, let's not kick the vote out because she voted for herself, ok?

 

[Cat's Cradle]

I voted for @Definitely Not A Ghost's intriguing and well-written story, Recollections Of The Elders - well done! Some great lines here, and welcome to the Challenges.

My Honorable Mentions were:

@Victoria Silverwolf
@Christine Wheelwright
@Luiglin
@TheDustyZebra
@Phyrebrat
@Starbeast
@Elckerlyc
@The Judge

Thank you @Stable, @Christine Wheelwright and @johnnyjet for listing my entry.
I'm grateful to Definitely Not A Ghost for the vote. And thanks for the nice words about my entry (I am probably more pleased with the Quasimeato phrase than I should be ).

Looks to be a close one, best of luck in the voting, all, the rest of the way, CC

 

[Hugh]

And I voted for @Victoria Silverwolf 's great take on that Icarus business

And my runner up was @Christine Wheelwright 's insight into the true story behind that other business.

Others that caught my eye for one disturbed reason or another, in no significant order of disturbance:
@Luiglin
@BigJ
@The Judge
@Parson (pity about the last line)
@Definitely Not A Ghost
@emrosenagel
@AnRoinnUltra
@Phyrebrat

 

[DaCrazyKat29]

I like all the stories… but here is a short (by that I mean not actually that short) list.

My First Headline(s) (don’t judge me… it was well written -plus I’m a bit weird like that)
I, For One, Welcome Our Robot Overlord (I like the comedic element-well written )
You, Sir, Are Not As Charming As You Think You Are (A more realistic end to Cinderella, and a great idea for it)
From Beginning to End (I like Dystopia… this was similar, I love the repetition of the ending and beginning of that makes sense…)
A Land For No Story To Take Place In (relatable because I like to write… but I loved it and it was exactly how a brilliant story starts… why not make a sequel about this land for nothing to take place in? )
So How Does The Sequel Start? (again... don’t judge… I love the slightly unsure ending-don’t call the police.)
In The Beginning (Brilliant twist… and I laughed. It was brilliant )

in the end I voted for A Binary Choice-I just love Dystopia and it was similar to that

but they were all good so well done everyone

 

[The Judge]

Well, I began this with rather a long shortlist, so I started re-reading, which just added to the list as I then grasped the meaning/point of a couple of stories which had foxed me before. So I had to commence a drastic pruning, which has left me with the following starters:

BigJ -- Intellectually Robust Information System​

Cat's Cradle -- The Dinner Speaker​

JS Wiig -- A New Day​

mosaix -- Origins​

Provincial -- First Contact - Nostromo Style​

reiver33 -- Don Juan, Move Over​

TheDustyZebra -- You, Sir, Are Not as Charming as You Think You Are​

Voting was easier, though, as I was hooked by TDZ's unfairy tale on very first reading. She also gets a special prize for the wittiest title.

If I'd had a second vote it would have gone to Provincial's story of the alien baby (which took me several reads to understand!).

As for my circular tale, many Bacillus-free Beginning Thanks for the lovely mentions/shortlistings Pyan, Stable, Christine, Lacedaemonian, Bren G, johnnyjet, sule, Starbeast, CC, Hugh and DCK29! And humungous Thoroughly Not Depressed But Perhaps A Little Drunken Thanks for the glorious votes MRG, paranoid m, and Elckerlyc!

 

[The Judge]

This quote has made me go into philosophical mode.

I haven’t read any TS Elliot, so I don’t know how he generally approaches life - does he encourage people to live it to the full, for instance? I hope so, because otherwise the folks who need that message the most aren’t likely to read his stuff long enough to get it. In my experience, for an awful lot of people, ends remain ends. They choose to look back at what has happened, not forward towards the good stuff which could happen, or even refuse to look forward at all because the unknown is intrinsically terrifying.

Are there any poets who tell you that the future is not more scary than the past, because it looks pretty much the same? That nothing much is different beyond the top notes? That the joy comes out of your own heart, not out of new circumstances, and that the potential for change, not actual change, is what makes new beginnings exciting? If so, please point me at them!

Sorry to be so slow in replying -- I tend to stay out of the Discussion thread after posting until I come to vote. Not that I can really help with any of the questions you raise!

I've actually read very little Eliot, it's just that I've picked up odd lines here and there, and I understand them piecemeal -- ie I can grasp some meaning of some lines, but I've no idea whether my ideas are what he intended, how they fit together with the whole poem let alone his entire oeuvre, nor how they relate to his philosophy of life. I believe he was deeply interested in religion, particularly Christianity and the concept of eternity and redemption, but in some of his work there's a sense of horror about humanity and its degradation which doesn't seem very optimistic. I've read somewhere (if I'm not misremembering...) that in parts of the Four Quartets he dismisses the past and future as unalterable for the one and unknowable for the other, and the importance of living in the present, but how that relates to his approach to life, I've no idea.

As to other poets and the idea of living life to the full, John Donne's love poetry might perhaps count (urging his mistress to sleep with him!), and similarly Andrew Marvel's To His Coy Mistress has these lines:

The grave’s a fine and private place,​

But none, I think, do there embrace.​

...​

Now let us sport us while we may...​

And tear our pleasures with rough strife​

Through the iron gates of life​

But for the moment I'm drawing a blank on the other aspects you mention regarding the future, the potential for change and joy arising from one's attitude not one's circumstances, but I don't read any modern poetry, so there may well be some out there!

 

[Ursa major]

Just a note to remind people that their stories must stand by themselves, and further descriptions of, and explanations regarding, their stories must not be given before the voting is over.

 

[THX1138]

Vote for: @johnnyjet

Short list:
@Yozh
@Perky Very nice.
@genelewis
@Starbeast Funny!

 

[Ursa major]

​

The poll is closed and we have a winner:

Congratulations, Christine Wheelwright!​

​

 

[THX1138]

Congratulations @Christine Wheelwright!


And thanks to @M. Robert Gibson, @Bowler1 and @Starbeast for the listings!

 

[paranoid marvin]

Congratulations CW!

 

[Culhwch]

Congrats, @Christine Wheelwright!!

My vote went to @emrosenagel, for a great little story with a title that just tickled me for some reason. Honourable mention to @TheDustyZebra who came in a close second for me.

Many thanks for the mentions, @DaCrazyKat29 and @Starbeast, and a huge thank you for the unexpected vote, @Bren G! My story was pretty straightforward this month - I don't usually write horror, but I thought I'd try something different, and this little idea popped into my head. The first draft was about twice as long, so it was a 'challenge' to pare it down (pun unintended, until it was).

 

[Christine Wheelwright]

Thanks to @Pyan , @Perky , @emrosenagel , @BigJ , @Ian Fortytwo and @cyprus7 for the votes and also to all those that gave my story a mention. Unusual to get a win with just 15% of the votes, but there were lots of good stories this month and I enjoyed reading all of them.

 

[Stable]

Congratulations @Christine Wheelwright !

 

[emrosenagel]

I’m a little late but my vote went to our winner @Christine Wheelwright ! Congrats!

My shortlist: Recollection of the Elders by @Definitely Not A Ghost, The Beginning of the End Effect by @DaCrazyKat29, A Binary Choice by @genelewis, Origins by @mosaix, A New Day by @JS Wiig, and You, Sir, Are Not as Charming as You Think You Are by @TheDustyZebra

I kicked myself when I realized I used “have” instead of “hast” in my story. But thanks very much for the votes, despite my lack of consistency , @Peter V, @Culhwch, @johnnyjet and @Ursa major! And thank you for the mentions @Hugh, @Parson, @sule, @AnRoinnUltra and @nixie !!

Great stories all around!

 

[Parson]

Congratulations to @Christine Wheelwright for her wonderful little story. It was another worthy winner.

----------

I found to my surprise that I had a vote. Sincere thanks to @Artoriarius for the stealth vote.

@Parson 's story really grabbed my interest, although I'm not sure I fully understood it. But the idea of finding a matching religious text elsewhere in the Universe would surely cause even the most ardent atheist to reconsider. But not the robot in the story, apparently.

@Parson (pity about the last line)

@Christine Wheelwright & @Hugh --- The last line was the heart of the story. What I was trying to say was that atheism can be as fundamentalist as any other religion. When religion of any sort has a fundamentalist stream there are only two ways to look at information, either it fits the fundamentalist bent or it is lie in one way or the other. To put a bit of a finer point on it, Fundamentalist Christians cannot see any other possibility than a 6 24 hour day creation and the Fundamentalist of the atheist persuasion would find it impossible to countenance any thought of a first mover in creation.

I'll leave this comment at that word. I realize I'm skating very close to discussing religion, and that isn't what I want to do.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Nearly forgot to come back and do my shortlist! (For those who have come along since the last time I was involved here, my system is (shortlist), (shorter list), and (*vote*).)

Culhwch - So How Does the Sequel Start:
*BigJ - Intellectually Robust Information System*
Christine Wheelwright - In the Beginning
emroseangel - Olde Habits Deyen Hard
genelewis - A Binary Choice
mosaix - Origins
TJ - From Beginning to End


Many thanks and cookies to nixie, mosaix, and TJ for the amazing votes, and to Stable, Christine, johnnyjet, sule, Parson* , CC, DaCrazyKat29, Cul, and emroseangel for the lovely mentions, and cake to TJ for the special title award! (Bonus cake if anyone knows where I stole the title from, and how could anyone not, around here?)

 

[BigJ]

Congratulations to @Christine Wheelwright on a well-deserved victory! The overall quality of stories this month was quite high, but yours was my favourite from the moment I read it.

For my own tale, thanks to Christine, @Bren G, @Peter V, @johnnyjet, @sule, @Hugh, and @The Judge for the mentions/listings/whatnot, and a great heap of gratitude to @TheDustyZebra for the vote. Pretty decent month, by my standards.

I don't think my story requires any additional explanation, and I can't honestly recall what spawned it; I might have been bored and trying to get chatGPT to admit its own intelligence, for all I can remember.

edit: just remembered I need to find time to throw something together for the 300 as well, oops . . .