Butch Malahide wrote: > On Oct 28, 1:45 am, darwinist <darwin...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Can a 100 word story be good? More to the point, have you seen it >> done? What about 200 words?
Machine. Unexpectedly, Išd invented a time - Alan Moore
Osamašs time machine: President Gore concerned. - Charles Stross
Which is itself funny, because I normally intensely dislike time travel in stories.
-- "The game of professional investment is intolerably boring and over-exacting to anyone who is entirely exempt from the gambling instinct; whilst he who has it must pay to this propensity the appropriate toll." -- John Maynard Keynes
cryptoguy wrote: > On Oct 28, 2:45 am, darwinist <darwin...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Can a 100 word story be good? More to the point, have you seen it >> done? What about 200 words?
>> Micro-fiction is an interesting idea, and there are some interesting >> examples, but it's hard to think of a really good one.
>> Would be grateful if any could be pointed out to me.
> Reading the thread title before I opened any messages, the one that > came to me instantly was 'Day Million' by Fred Pohl. But you guys are > going much shorter than its 300-odd words.
Two of my favourites:
"The Sign at the End of the Universe", by Duane Ackerson <ROT13> (Abj, lbh unir gb cergraq gur arkg ovg vf cevagrq hcfvqr-qbja, bxnl?)
Guvf Raq Hc. </ROT13>
And the other:
"Science Fiction for Telepaths", by Michael E. Blake. <ROT13> "Nu, lbh xabj jung V zrna." </ROT13>
Actually we did. In related news, I managed to overlook that someone had already worked out /and/ commented "Oh, so the letter e doesn't exist in the parallel universe", by the time I got to that one. It's easily done.
> I found these two rather amusing:
> Machine. Unexpectedly, Išd invented a time > - Alan Moore
> Osamašs time machine: President Gore concerned. > - Charles Stross
> Which is itself funny, because I normally intensely dislike time travel > in stories.
Oh, they're pretty well written.
Does the Moore one suggest a time machine experiment that you can't get out of? There are a few other stories like that.
And I wonder what you'd think of this plotline from a recent high- octane graphic print production of ALL STAR SUPERMAN:
1. Superman catches fatal sunstroke, but doesn't tell anyone. 2. A time traveller mocks Superman and shows him a near-future newspaper story: "Superman Dead". 3. We get a closer look at the story: "Superman Dead. By our reporter Clark Kent." Presumably Superman already saw this. 4. We see Clark Kent typing the story and then changing into his Superman clothes and dying...
(Well, all right, fighting mad scientist Lex Luthor and Solaris the Tyrant Sun, and then dying. Probably. He flies into the sun, which is how he got sick in the first place... doesn't come back.)
Presumably Superman can reproduce the entire story in advance, from memory - because he's Superman.
Furthermore, in the first chapter, we see Lois Lane writing the latest "Superman successfully rescues..." story before that has happened, because she has that much confidence in him. And that foreshadows Superman doing the same thing in reverse, but, for me, only on second or third or fourth reading.
> Machine. Unexpectedly, I'd invented a time > - Alan Moore
> Osama's time machine: President Gore concerned. > - Charles Stross
> Which is itself funny, because I normally intensely dislike time travel > in stories.
But Stross' is historically-unsound-- see "Operation Ignore" in _Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them_ for a succinct relation of the sad sad story of the fate of the Clinton- Clarke- and-Shoulda-Woulda-Been- Gore Plan (prior to 9/11) . . . .
--
The chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say hang the sense of it and keep yourself occupied.
On Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:17:24 -0700 (PDT), Nigel <ncwa...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>A Surprisingly Common Omission by David Langford
>A transworld shift is undramatic. All I saw was an ordinary >road, an ordinary town. Was this a parachronic probability world, >or >just our own? Warning against hasty conclusions, my boss had said: >"Watch out. A variant continuum could distort your thinking and >blind >you to incongruity... " Rubbish, I thought. I had four hours. >Slipping into a handy library, I found a Britannica. Any major >disparity in this world must show up in print. With growing >frustration I got as far as book III, "Claustrophobia to >Dysprosium". >Automatic shiftback caught my hand still fumbling for book IV, >"Fabulation to Lipogram"...
A world in which Georges Perec might be at home (except for his name!)
On Oct 27, 11:45 pm, darwinist <darwin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Can a 100 word story be good? More to the point, have you seen it > done? What about 200 words?
> Micro-fiction is an interesting idea, and there are some interesting > examples, but it's hard to think of a really good one.
> Would be grateful if any could be pointed out to me.
100 words! Hell I can name that tune in 20: "Three Pigs, Three Bears, a Wolfe, and Goldilocks get an agent, discover porn, and live happily ever after. The end."
> > Machine. Unexpectedly, I'd invented a time > > - Alan Moore
> > Osama's time machine: President Gore concerned. > > - Charles Stross
> > Which is itself funny, because I normally intensely dislike time travel > > in stories.
> But Stross' is historically-unsound--
Isn't that the point of that sort of thing, or do I misunderstand?
> see "Operation Ignore" in _Lies and > the Lying Liars Who Tell Them_ for a succinct relation of the sad sad > story of the fate of the Clinton- Clarke- and-Shoulda-Woulda-Been- Gore > Plan (prior to 9/11) . . . .
Huh, counterfactuals. But is it saveable if we suppose Osama tampers with more than just the election?
(I didn't actually see the latest Star Trek movie...)
Maybe he went way back and injected Clinton with a long-acting aphrodisiac, in college, when he wasn't inhaling.
Tina Hall wrote: >JimboCat <103134.3...@compuserve.com> wrote: >> darwinist <darwin...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> While googling I found a bunch of six-word sci-fi stories by >>> various (often famous) writers.http://www.wired.com/wired/archiv >>> e/14.11/sixwords.html
>>> Some are quite clever (for six words).
>> One that's been my favorite for some time was, I think, >> originally posted in this very group. I suppose you have to have >> used computers in the 80's for it to mean much to you, though.
>Maybe the first three are eighties specific (I don't get the joke), >for the last three, nineties are enough. Though I still don't know >the effective difference between Abort and Fail. <g> (Perhaps it >matters if you want more than one thing done in a row.)
The Author Speaks!
The first three are the common SF trope, popular since the '50s.
To me, it was funny in two ways; the '50s idea of the computer taking over the world versus our '80s/'90s experience of trying (and trying, and trying...) to get them to run stuff, and that there might be an anticlimactically easy way to regain control.
>On the subject, personally I think for something to qualify as a >story, you'll have to have an actual story. Else any of my sigs >would qualify; why they don't highlights the problem with too short >things.
Admittedly, it's half infodump and half plot, I really am surprised that someone liked it enough to remember it!
darwinist <darwin...@gmail.com> wrote: >Can a 100 word story be good? More to the point, have you seen it >done? What about 200 words?
>Micro-fiction is an interesting idea, and there are some interesting >examples, but it's hard to think of a really good one.
>Would be grateful if any could be pointed out to me.
Asimov did a book of his super-shorts. "100 short short stories" or some such. -- apart from one noisy guy up in Canada, no-one wants a three-cylinder tissue box on bicycle tires.
Walter Bushell <pr...@panix.com> wrote: >In article <hc9eih$2e...@news.eternal-september.org>, > "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seaw...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>> cryptoguy wrote: >> > On Oct 28, 2:45 am, darwinist <darwin...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Can a 100 word story be good? More to the point, have you seen it >> >> done? What about 200 words?
>> >> Micro-fiction is an interesting idea, and there are some interesting >> >> examples, but it's hard to think of a really good one.
>> >> Would be grateful if any could be pointed out to me.
>> > Reading the thread title before I opened any messages, the one that >> > came to me instantly was 'Day Million' by Fred Pohl. But you guys are >> > going much shorter than its 300-odd words.
>> "The last man on earth sat alone in a room. >> There was a knock at the door..."
>Not surprising that he would be popular with the local women.
Is there a difference between "popular" and "enslaved"? Sliders did an episode with very few men and the few remaining were locked (but threasured) in a "resort" and pushed to their limits. Arturo (the professor dude) pointed out that the reproduction would be vastly more efficient with electrostimulation and various glassware, and millions of audience members shuddered. -- apart from one noisy guy up in Canada, no-one wants a three-cylinder tissue box on bicycle tires.
"Mike Schilling" <mscottschill...@hotmail.com> wrote: >Butch Malahide wrote: >> On Oct 28, 1:45 am, darwinist <darwin...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> Can a 100 word story be good? More to the point, have you seen it >>> done? What about 200 words?
>As Jerry Leichter said about two of his less favorite programming languages:
>"C and C++ were grades".
Yeah, but they're passes. As Turing pointed out, any competent programming language can do everything that every other programming language can, in theory.
-- apart from one noisy guy up in Canada, no-one wants a three-cylinder tissue box on bicycle tires.
On Oct 28, 5:49 pm, "Mike Schilling" <mscottschill...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Butch Malahide wrote: > > On Oct 28, 1:45 am, darwinist <darwin...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Can a 100 word story be good? More to the point, have you seen it > >> done? What about 200 words?
> On Oct 28, 5:49 pm, "Mike Schilling" <mscottschill...@hotmail.com> > wrote:
> > Butch Malahide wrote: > > > On Oct 28, 1:45 am, darwinist <darwin...@gmail.com> wrote: > > >> Can a 100 word story be good? More to the point, have you seen it > > >> done? What about 200 words?
On Oct 31, 2:04 pm, John Pelan <jpe...@cnw.com> wrote:
> I'll see you and raise with:
> :What if Adam and Eve Failed to Conceive?"
> -end
> Unfortunately, I don't recall the author, might have been Brown or it > may be from one of those contests that F & SF used to run.
The ISFDB has a rather similar title: "If Eve Had Failed to Conceive" by Edward Wellen. http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?69830 I don't have a copy, so I can't verify the word count. If it's zero, I sure hope it's out of copyright, or else I just broke copyright law by quoting the entire text without permission.
> On Oct 31, 2:04 pm, John Pelan <jpe...@cnw.com> wrote:
> > I'll see you and raise with:
> > :What if Adam and Eve Failed to Conceive?"
> > -end
> > Unfortunately, I don't recall the author, might have been Brown or it > > may be from one of those contests that F & SF used to run.
> The ISFDB has a rather similar title: "If Eve Had Failed to Conceive" > by Edward Wellen.http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?69830 > I don't have a copy, so I can't verify the word count. If it's zero, I > sure hope it's out of copyright, or else I just broke copyright law by > quoting the entire text without permission.
> Walter Bushell <pr...@panix.com> wrote: > >In article <hc9eih$2e...@news.eternal-september.org>, > > "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seaw...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
> >> cryptoguy wrote: > >> > On Oct 28, 2:45 am, darwinist <darwin...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> >> Can a 100 word story be good? More to the point, have you seen it > >> >> done? What about 200 words?
> >> >> Micro-fiction is an interesting idea, and there are some interesting > >> >> examples, but it's hard to think of a really good one.
> >> >> Would be grateful if any could be pointed out to me.
> >> > Reading the thread title before I opened any messages, the one that > >> > came to me instantly was 'Day Million' by Fred Pohl. But you guys are > >> > going much shorter than its 300-odd words.
> >> "The last man on earth sat alone in a room. > >> There was a knock at the door..."
> >Not surprising that he would be popular with the local women.
> Is there a difference between "popular" and "enslaved"? Sliders did > an episode with very few men and the few remaining were locked (but > threasured) in a "resort" and pushed to their limits. Arturo (the > professor dude) pointed out that the reproduction would be vastly more > efficient with electrostimulation and various glassware, and millions > of audience members shuddered.
>On Nov 4, 7:00 am, Butch Malahide <fred.gal...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Oct 31, 2:04 pm, John Pelan <jpe...@cnw.com> wrote:
>> > I'll see you and raise with:
>> > :What if Adam and Eve Failed to Conceive?"
>> > -end
>> > Unfortunately, I don't recall the author, might have been Brown or it >> > may be from one of those contests that F & SF used to run.
>> The ISFDB has a rather similar title: "If Eve Had Failed to Conceive" >> by Edward Wellen.http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?69830 >> I don't have a copy, so I can't verify the word count. If it's zero, I >> sure hope it's out of copyright, or else I just broke copyright law by >> quoting the entire text without permission.
4' 33" is four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence, Batt's piece was called "a minutes silence" which was a pretty accurate description. If you can have copyright in a piece of music with no music you can probably have copyright in a word with no words. -- Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search http://www.mersenne.org/prime.htm Livejournal http://brett-dunbar.livejournal.com/ Brett Paul Dunbar To email me, use reply-to address
> In message > <0d747ca3-089f-407c-aac6-5418f8114...@k19g2000yqc.googlegroups.com>, > Butch Malahide <fred.gal...@gmail.com> writes
> >On Nov 4, 7:00 am, Butch Malahide <fred.gal...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> On Oct 31, 2:04 pm, John Pelan <jpe...@cnw.com> wrote:
> >> > I'll see you and raise with:
> >> > :What if Adam and Eve Failed to Conceive?"
> >> > -end
> >> > Unfortunately, I don't recall the author, might have been Brown or it > >> > may be from one of those contests that F & SF used to run.
> >> The ISFDB has a rather similar title: "If Eve Had Failed to Conceive" > >> by Edward Wellen.http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?69830 > >> I don't have a copy, so I can't verify the word count. If it's zero, I > >> sure hope it's out of copyright, or else I just broke copyright law by > >> quoting the entire text without permission.
> 4' 33" is four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence, Batt's piece > was called "a minutes silence" which was a pretty accurate description. > If you can have copyright in a piece of music with no music you can > probably have copyright in a word with no words.
Wow, does that mean that every time there is a "minute of silence" in a public ceremony, a royalty has to be paid to John Cage's estate? I would have thought "A Minute of Silence" was a piece of folk music, antedating John Cage. Say, has anybody copyrighted the letter E yet?
I suppose a parody of 4'33" could be performed without paying the Cage estate. Have any parodies been composed, and what are they like?
On Nov 4, 6:48 pm, Butch Malahide <fred.gal...@gmail.com> wrote: [...]
> I suppose a parody of 4'33" could be performed without paying the Cage > estate. Have any parodies been composed, and what are they like?
I'm imagining a pianist coming out on stage. He begins, um, the piece. There's a cough from the audience that earns a glare from the "performer." Perhaps some other noises: A cell phone ringing; Women whispering and one starts giggling; Depending on the show, maybe something cruder. A couple oblivious stage hands walk around backstage, talking loudly about some unrelated subject, or perhaps even criticizing a previous concert by the "performer."
Finally, when the "performer," um, completes the piece, no one in the audience knows it's time to applaud. In frustration, the "performer" smashes both hands down on the piano in a magnificent power chord that reverberates througout the theater. The audience, awakened, is stunned, and begins cheering and clapping.
Butch Malahide wrote: > On Oct 31, 2:04 pm, John Pelan <jpe...@cnw.com> wrote: > > I'll see you and raise with:
> > :What if Adam and Eve Failed to Conceive?"
> > -end
> > Unfortunately, I don't recall the author, might have been Brown or it > > may be from one of those contests that F & SF used to run.
> The ISFDB has a rather similar title: "If Eve Had Failed to Conceive" > by Edward Wellen. > http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?69830 > I don't have a copy, so I can't verify the word count. If it's zero, I > sure hope it's out of copyright, or else I just broke copyright law by > quoting the entire text without permission.
> > >On Nov 4, 7:00 am, Butch Malahide <fred.gal...@gmail.com> wrote: > > >> On Oct 31, 2:04 pm, John Pelan <jpe...@cnw.com> wrote:
> > >> > I'll see you and raise with:
> > >> > :What if Adam and Eve Failed to Conceive?"
> > >> > -end
> > >> > Unfortunately, I don't recall the author, might have been Brown or it > > >> > may be from one of those contests that F & SF used to run.
> > >> The ISFDB has a rather similar title: "If Eve Had Failed to Conceive" > > >> by Edward Wellen.http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?69830 > > >> I don't have a copy, so I can't verify the word count. If it's zero, I > > >> sure hope it's out of copyright, or else I just broke copyright law by > > >> quoting the entire text without permission.
> > 4' 33" is four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence, Batt's piece > > was called "a minutes silence" which was a pretty accurate description. > > If you can have copyright in a piece of music with no music you can > > probably have copyright in a word with no words.
> Wow, does that mean that every time there is a "minute of silence" in > a public ceremony, a royalty has to be paid to John Cage's estate? I > would have thought "A Minute of Silence" was a piece of folk music, > antedating John Cage. Say, has anybody copyrighted the letter E yet?
Certainly memorial silences occurred before Cage thought of it. I think people liwke /his/ silence either because they think it's funny to be perverse or because they've heard his music.
> I suppose a parody of 4'33" could be performed without paying the Cage > estate. Have any parodies been composed, and what are they like?
Mike Batt's piece was jokingly credited with a pun on Cage's name, but that seems to have been the reason there was a problem. I felt he could have appealed, but maybe it was worth more to get the publicity for losing the case.
Accordingly my idea is titled "A Parody on John Cage" and consists of a male performer walking on stage and urinating at the audience. I think I'm legally safe from the Cage family but there may be cleaning bills. Fortunately, it's still at the conceptual stage.
Robert Carnegie wrote: > Butch Malahide wrote: > > I don't have a copy, so I can't verify the word count. If it's > > zero, I sure hope it's out of copyright, or else I just broke > > copyright law by quoting the entire text without permission.
> Pff. It's my .sig. See?
You do not have a proper signature separator for that.
Brian
-- Day 276 of the "no grouchy usenet posts" project
|
