BS: Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

Subject: BS: Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
From: GUEST,saulgoldie
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 09:19 PM

Anyone ever heard of this? It is a scream!


http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/

Subject: RE: BS: Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 09:23 PM

yes...I have 3 books published of the winners of the 1st 3 contests...it IS cute, but they have a hard time maintaining focus and getting really clever entries. There sure is a lot of stream of consciuosness nonsense submitted now.

Subject: RE: BS: Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 09:59 PM

Yes, we grow them tall here in San Diego!!

"The day was packing heat and cracking wise as the scorching sun torched the hot dry Santa Anas like fry on rice, crispy with a snap, crackle and pop, and poured into the surreal bowl of the Los Angeles Basin as the red winds rattled every dwelling from Bay City bungalow to Bel Air chateau like a china shop in a bullring, the whole stinking, teeming tinderbox as combustible as a drill sergeant at clown college, as unsettling as corn on the cob rationing at an Iowa Society picnic.

Gordon Hauptfleisch
San Diego, CA"


I don't know Gordon, but I am glad to acknowledge him as a fellow resident of America's Most Beautiful City...


A

Subject: RE: BS: Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 10:06 PM

Actually I think Bulwer-Lytton's opening paragraph, which gave rise to this one is a pretty good one to encourage you to want to read on:

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

Subject: RE: BS: Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 11:06 AM

It is a classic, Kevin. And it's one of those interesting intellectual games in which you have to be pretty good with the language to participate.

A game I've suggested to friends a couple of times (but as yet have not actually worked out the rules) would be to write a long convoluted sentence (and save it as such) then let Microsoft Word, with every grammar and spell-check at the ready, check it, and accept every suggestion offered. Clearly the more obfuscation you can work into the original, the more Word will struggle to find some totally stupid replacement. Then post the two together to show the before and after paragraphs. This would work particularly well with scholarly essays. The first thing I do when I install a new version of those Microsoft programs is to turn off all of that grammar check and change-spelling-as-you-type stuff or it plays havoc with complex ideas within really long sentences. But given a little leisure time, I'd like to pull a few of my best sentences out and see what ol' Bill Gates would do to them. Might be pretty funny.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
From: Amos
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 11:31 AM

Great basis for a new computer game. THe output could be used to challenege the visiting team to come up with the original concept.

A