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Very Short Stories

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This is great. I found it yesterday and e-mailed it to Seb but it never occurred to me to post it here. Oh well. We thought Alan Moore's was great but closer inspection of the unpublished works reveals the idea to be slightly less original than it could've been. Arthur C. Clarke's is a pile of shite, though, I'm surprised it doesn't mention braincaps. I think Frank Millar's does quite well to embody the spirit of the original request as a lot of the others are more distilled concepts or jokes, where Millar's, like Hemingway's, actually suggests a narrative and emotional arc even in such few words.

By James H
October 26, 2006 @ 11:53 am

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It has to be said that none of them are quite as good as Hemingway's original, of course...

By Seb
October 26, 2006 @ 12:12 pm

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Arthur C. Clarke's would have been better if he'd written "God said, 'Cancel Program GENESIS.' End."

Or something.

By Sue
October 26, 2006 @ 1:00 pm

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Incidentally, James, since Frank Miller and Mark Millar both wrote ones... which one of them were you referring to above? ;-)

By Seb
October 26, 2006 @ 1:04 pm

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Arthur C. Clarke's would have been better if he'd written "God said, 'Cancel Program GENESIS.' End."

Or even just "And God said, 'Cancel Program GENESIS.'". The elaboration he adds is completely unnecessary, and in fact quite contrary to the entire spirit of the exercise.

By Seb
October 26, 2006 @ 1:05 pm

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'Help! Trapped in a text adventure!' made me laugh.

By Tanya Jones
October 26, 2006 @ 2:13 pm

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That'll teach me to comment in the morning. I meant Frank Miller, of course.

By James H
October 26, 2006 @ 2:31 pm

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My favourite is the bottom one - 'Dorothy: "Fuck it, I'll stay here."'

Let's do some -

'Family planning, torn rubber, oh shit.'
'Cellophane cell phone, transparent conversations suck.'
'Deathly dark shame burned, her Hell'
'Secluded lives, a chance lost, death.'
'I ate, you ate, we ate.'
'Saviour required, must not eat worlds.'
'Lover required, must not have syphilis.'
'Does truth exist within your intercourse?'
'I, I, I, I, I, ego.'
'Tesco closed, suicide rates septupled overnight.'
'Nine-eleven. Seven-seven. Seven-eleven?'
'Red Dwarf. Was better. At first.'
'Harry, Luke and Frodo. Are gay.'
'Who the fuck are you, pillock?'
'I don't own, Beat The Geek.'
'Sky bought Lost, so clitting what?'
'"Crappy little cunting crap," he pondered'
'Masturbation is allowed, when she won't'
'No-one heard. The Darkness's. Last album.'

By performingmonkey
October 26, 2006 @ 5:37 pm

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I was trying to think of a witty 6-word reply to performingmonkey's post, but none of them were better than Hemmingway's.

Putting 6 words into a sentence is easy. Putting them into a story is not.

By Jeffrey Lee
October 26, 2006 @ 6:00 pm

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That day, performingmonkey missed grammar class.

By Seb
October 26, 2006 @ 6:02 pm

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Damn you!

By Jeffrey Lee
October 26, 2006 @ 6:05 pm

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Until now, I was only aware of the various versions of The World's Shortest Horror Story:

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door..."
"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a lock on the door..."
"He sat alone in the dark, afraid. Someone put matches in his hand."

By Nick R
October 26, 2006 @ 7:03 pm

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Short straw: your turn to jump.

By Seb
October 27, 2006 @ 10:18 am

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Sign says "monsters here". Run away!

By Nick R
October 27, 2006 @ 11:14 am

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Vag poots like fat tuba player.

By Philip J Reed, VSc
October 27, 2006 @ 1:15 pm

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Two hours later, I was dead.

By performingmonkey
October 27, 2006 @ 8:50 pm

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