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Creation notes and queries

 
  

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Saveloy
12:53 / 08.02.02
Yeah, I'd say change to third person, but otherwise leave as is. It's just a sudden switch of scene, yeah? And needn't be set in a different time (which I'm assuming is now, right Flyboy?). The clinic and tech might be more advanced than we're used to, but that's because they're secret, right?
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
13:03 / 08.02.02
On another note: how do the people involved in the spontaneous play feel about Snoop Knodgy Knowledge's contribution?
 
 
Saveloy
13:13 / 08.02.02
On another other note: if anyone can provide me with the chapter headings from "Our Mysterious Spaceship Moon" and "Flying Saucers are Watching Us", or similar, please do and I'll be dead grateful. I'd like to bung 'em in with the OpMindCon ones (swap for the duller ones) to widen the scope a bit.

Aaaand - I see there are some contributions to be made to the Handbook thread. [camp irish priest]Flyboy, Rizla and NMA know who I'm talking about...[/camp irish priest]

Fantastic stuff going on in both threads, btw.

[ 08-02-2002: Message edited by: Saveloy ]
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
14:13 / 08.02.02
Saveloy: Udo Kier is an intense middle-european accented actor whose face you would know immediately. He plays mystics and baddies from time to time and was filmed in Andy Warhol's Factory in New York.

Bobcat Goldthwaite is a shrieky-voiced professional weirdo with a kind of Saturday Night Live/oddball comedy pedigree. I think he was in one of the Police Academy movies.

Flyboy: personally, I think it's a an annoying waste of space and I want to delete it. Although I love grant's save. I'm tired of Creation threads immediately devolving to Sex-Drugs weirdness. As a Moderator, I don't have the right to do that without asking you lot. Although I did say I'd edit like a fascist on this occasion.

Let me know.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
14:26 / 08.02.02
It's the Knodge: he's gonna call you a Fascist anyway, so you may as well act like one...
 
 
grant
14:26 / 08.02.02
Shit like that happens to Bobcat, man. He's sort of cross between Steven Wright and Sam Kinesin - utterly bizarre and given to fits of screaming.



quote:
SPACE GHOST: Bobcat, what is your superpower?
BOBCAT GOLDTHWAIT: I can bend forks.
SPACE GHOST: With your mind?
BOBCAT GOLDTHWAIT: Yeah. But only the ones at Denny's. And you have to look away. For a little while.

-- "Space Ghost Coast to Coast," quoted by James Randi


Onion interview here
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
14:34 / 08.02.02
That's the only reason why it isn't toast already. It actually might work for Bobcat. On the other hand, it's very out of whack with Peter and Udo.

Thing is, this isn't the 'write your way out of that' thread.

On the other hand...hey, who cares? It's not like plays don't get re-written. Onward!
 
 
Ganesh
23:14 / 08.02.02
Okay, I'm hardly a regular contributor to the Creation so I may be out of line for asking this...

... but are the 'One Sentence' stories typical of shared narratives? I ask because I was personally a little disappointed by how quickly they seemed to become pastiche, in-jokey, non-sequiteurs. I realise a 'properly' plotted narrative ain't gonna happen, but I do wonder whether an alternative exists to the "here's something inappropriate but kerrrazzzzy" school of shared narrative writing.

[ 09-02-2002: Message edited by: Ganesh v4.2 ]
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
23:14 / 08.02.02
Ganesh:

You're not wrong. It's partly because everyone wants to be a genius, and no one wants to build plot or suspense. Almost all of the sentences have the drama of a Grant Morrison/Warren Ellis mid-act climax or reveal.

I did actually suggest at the beginning of this burst of creativity that we should try to post more 'in line' with what had gone before. It worked, but it didn't last.

I think maybe if we want to achieve something coherent, we have to be a little more structured about it, and thrash out a plot before hand, then give anyone who wants it a piece to write.

It really is a 'micro-tragedy of the commons', in that it belongs to everyone, so people do things they wouldn't do with their own writing.

On the other hand, some of it is fantastic.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
23:14 / 08.02.02
Okayyyy...

I have just re-read the 'Sentence' topic, and I propose a radical pruning. With the greatest respect to everyone who posted after that point, the 'Fattyknuckle' segment is out of whack with the ignition ideas and tone...

So: I propose closing that thread and restarting the story from the last 'Cecily' post. Objections, comments, questions?
 
 
The Monkey
09:51 / 10.02.02
[temporarily resurrecting self]

could this space also be used for feedback relative to some of the writing threads, ie "morrison moore" and "handbook"?
since they're supposed to be collaborative efforts, it would help to know if other folks think you're stuff is crap, hard to follow after, etc.
sitting as i am on the tail end of both of the aformentioned threads, i'm a bit concerned that i've somehow rendered them diseased.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
09:51 / 10.02.02
That is what it's for, since it was retitled 'creation notes' - if it gets too unwieldy, we'll split it. In the meantime, go ahead!
 
 
autopilot disengaged
13:38 / 10.02.02
hehehehehehe

can't believe i just sat down and wrote sci-fi - this is too weird... was fun, though, i have to admit. and interesting for me to write in more conventional form, too.
 
 
The Monkey
17:09 / 10.02.02
autopilot,

loved your bit. great juxtaposition of creepy/slightly erotic. however, you might wanna note there are two people on the ship...Mara, the captain, and Minion, the scientist. given her name, I always figured Minion was somehow "less than a person" in the societal framework, but didn't get a chance to address it overlong. [I feared my bit was already running long]
 
 
Jack Fear
18:06 / 10.02.02
quote:Originally posted by Nick:
...everyone wants to be a genius, and no one wants to build plot or suspense. Almost all of the sentences have the drama of a Grant Morrison/Warren Ellis mid-act climax or reveal.
*places finger knowingly on tip of nose*

Blunderbuss?!? Fuck's sake...
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
06:08 / 11.02.02
Right. 'Sentence' is closed and reborn.

Knowledge, unless Tom reaches out his almight hand and stops me, I will prevent you from posting gratuitous m2f fantasy anal rape sequences, so don't bother. Liked the HST stuff, though.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
06:57 / 11.02.02
And Bio K9 may just be God.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
10:14 / 11.02.02
Curious to know whether anyone writing in the Handbook thread has been drawing on the old Barbelith Open Source stuff from last year - quote:Myra hangs suspended, arachnoid, above a sea of sodium. Above her (though it is, from her inverted perspective, beneath her feet) the customs vessel Absent Friends is running black. The glow by which she sees washes upward from the arclights of San Califa, winking by their thousands along roads and overpasses, in schoolyards and junkyards, backyards and swimming pools. She cannot see him, but she knows that Barnes is on the other end of the zipline, patient, massive, shaggy-haired Barnes, who can lift her bodyweight in one hand. Beside him is Cree, needlepoint neurotic in civilian life, sharp and clear tonight, as every night on the job. And in the pilot seat, her Captain. Myra smiles, and returns her attention to the city.

The suit she wears is not neoprene or lycra, but rather a distant relative of both, slick and warm, it assists her movements, insulates her from the frost at ten thousand feet, and will protect her later from flames, projectiles, and even sharps, although the designers are cautious about this last, and the guarantee rates the suit only for second chance in respect of knives. The suit wraps her in calm. On other days it pulls the small hairs on her body, tweaks her concentration and makes her snappy. But not tonight. Tonight, the suit is behaving, and Myra can focus, really focus, on the job.

She closes her eyes, joins her hands, and slips into the trance. And quickly, amazingly quickly, she hears. Myra is listening to San Califa's dreams.
 
 
Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?
10:31 / 11.02.02
Yes. The first thing Mussoini did after he seized power in Italy was to destroy all literature which seemed disrespectful in any way to women...
 
 
Spatula Clarke
10:32 / 11.02.02
Creator of the thread and moderator of the forum.

Following Tom's suggestions for moderator actions on the next incarnation of the board, I second Nick's decision. I'd dearly love to see one of these collaborative stories becoming something other than a poor attempt at Lovely Biscuits 2.
 
 
lentil
10:45 / 11.02.02
quote:Originally posted by Nick:
With the greatest respect to everyone who posted after that point, the 'Fattyknuckle' segment is out of whack with the ignition ideas and tone...



Being the person who posted the first sentence in that segment, i feel i must offer an apology. it was a genuine attempt to set up plot possibilities but having just reread the first page i appreciate that it didn't jibe.
Can I also say - "fattyknuckle" was supposed to be a compound adjective (I'm reading "manhattan Transfer" at the moment) rather than a character's name. not that it matters.
 
 
Haus about we all give each other a big lovely huggle?
10:54 / 11.02.02
We really are terribly sorry.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
10:56 / 11.02.02
quote:Tom:
We will attempt to weight the amount of moderators who must agree on something before it is done, so that small moderations (individual post deletion) may only require two moderators, while thread deletion may require three and the 'warning' of a member, four or five...


I've already spent far too much time acknowledging your pitiful existence.
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
11:41 / 11.02.02
Okay, I've just spent some time on the phone to Tom, and I'm going to start a new topic for this discussion.

MaChine, don't beat yourself up - it might have worked - although perhaps a 'CUT TO' instruction took us immediately into another kind of writing. God knows I've spent weeks writing on the wrong topic in my own work and had to cut the lot...

Which is part of the point: however we handle it, there has to be a mechanism for going back and reworking material in these online collaborations - though it's always going to be a more touchy issue in collaborative work - because you simply cannot get it right first time.
 
 
lentil
12:25 / 11.02.02
Originally posted by whisky piestess:

Autopilot - don't wish to piss on your bonfire, but I think you'll find there are already 2 on board - Mara (the captain/ship) and Minion.

Maybe the next poster(s) could get around this by using the fact that "the ship was its captain, and its captain was many, and her name was Mara Host." she probably wouldn't show up on a head count, as there's nothing to indicate she has a head. Although matsya has informed us of the existence of her wrist.
 
 
autopilot disengaged
22:09 / 11.02.02
will fix. don't worry 'bout it - the end of my post will remain the same - i'll resolve the mara/minion split by fair means or foul.
 
 
Whisky Priestess
07:06 / 12.02.02
In that case can one of the moderators delete my post when it's no longer relevant? Either that or I'll be forced to write the next segment.

I love the New Handbook btw. I honestly think it's the best collaborative fiction I've ever seen on Barbelith (with the possible exception of the A-Team/Buffy crossover last year). Great titles, a really cohesive and creative response. Fucking hell, I'd publish it.
 
 
autopilot disengaged
15:53 / 12.02.02
k - it's done. and probably makes more sense ('specially with the earlier mara/ship combo) than before. guess i got lucky this time.

i'd also like to second whisky's appreciation of everyones spontaneity. feel slightly awkward myself, considering sci-fi is a genre i haven't really touched - even so far as to read - for a looooong time.

and since i've been writing almost exclusively scripts and screenplays for the last year, my prose is pretty rusty. and i don't really think my pretty unadorned brutal/conceptual, sub-poetic style works quite so well as the cool, considered and articulate mode a lot of you are working in - but what can i say? - i guess i just saw a hairpin bend and took it.

lemme know if i fucked up again.
 
 
bio k9
17:52 / 12.02.02
quote:Originally posted by Nick:
And Bio K9 may just be God.

??? Does that mean I don't have to go to work today? ???
 
 
The Monkey
18:55 / 12.02.02
autopilot,

I think you missed it, but I threw up a post about your contribution to Handbook a while ago.

To elaborate on what I wrote there: I really like your bit...having read your redo, I like it more. I really don't think your tone is a hairpin turn in any negative way. It flows with the rest very well.

it adds some viscerality and human emotion/doubt, and furthermore the conclusion develops all sorts of suspense as to whether the strange "multiplication" was a glitch, sabotage, an unforeseen circumstance, or merely "normal functioning" for The Ship. Or is it just Dr. Smith...oh, the pain, the pain.

I already have about seven thousand ideas for the next bit, but it's probably best to leave it to others for now...
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
08:02 / 13.02.02
Nick - I have a continuation of that Myra/Open Source project sitting in progress on the computer at home. Maybe I should make a concerted effort to finish it... I just liked it so much (was very Gibson-obsessed at the time) I got a little too perfectionist about it...

And I will do my 'Handbook' entry today as well. Sorry Sav...
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
09:44 / 14.02.02
See here:
http://www.barbelith.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=15&t=000172

and here:
http://www.barbelith.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=15&t=000162
 
 
We're The Great Old Ones Now
13:11 / 14.02.02
Right...Snoop is, at least for the moment, dealt with.

This has left a few gaping holes in our narratives, which I'm going to try to gloss over so we can race onwards into the unknown territories beyond...help me out if you can, blow it all skyhigh and take us in a new, yet familiar direction if you want.

Thanks, everyone.
 
 
The resistable rise of Reidcourchie
18:45 / 14.02.02
Just to let everyone know I've erased my post in the Operation Mind Control thread as I'd hate to think that I killed it and I look forward to seeing how it progresses.

(In my defense I didn't spend nearly long enough writing it, it only took me about 20 minutes to do and I should have given it a lot more thought.)
 
 
autopilot disengaged
20:10 / 14.02.02
quoteriginally posted by [monkeys violating the temple]:
autopilot, I think you missed it, but I threw up a post about your contribution to Handbook a while ago.


no, i caught it - and thanx. am usually stoopid self-confident with my writing, but was feeling pressure - messin' with a genre i felt pretty disconnected from, especially after long prose absence. so reassurance more than welcome.

so...who's gonna step up next?
 
  

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