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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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I
see an interesting article this morning on slate.com: The Worst Novelist in
History.
Anna
McKittrick Ros wrote in the early twentieth century, with such witlessness that
she became a sensation in Britain. An Oxford University literary society
started up a contest: who could read from her work the longest without bursting
into laughter.
She was known to Mark Twain, who dubbed her 'The Queen and
Empress of the Hogwash Guild". She
has been said by some to have inadvertently invented post-modernism. One
prominent critic of the time wrote that (in reference to her work) he
"shrank before it in tears and terror".
This
stuff sounds just grand. I figure I can learn something that I can use in my
own over-the-top style.
She
did not write with comic intent, she was deadly serious, that is the whole of
her charm. She actually proposed to her publisher that she be entered for the
Nobel Prize in Literature.
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Joined: 2/27/2011
Posts: 353
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Bumping so others can see it.
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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This is great stuff. A quick perusal of wikipedia reveals this remarkable sample:
"Have you ever visited that portion of Erin's plot that offers its sympathetic soil for the minute survey and scrutinous examination of those in political power, whose decision has wisely been the means before now of converting the stern and prejudiced, and reaching the hand of slight aid to share its strength in augmenting its agricultural richness?"
And that was the opening line. Someone really ought to do a historical novel ABOUT this person.
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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What I love about that sentence is that after two read-throughs, I still have no idea what it's about.
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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I like the turn of phrase 'hand of slight'. I would totally use that, but only with cheek in my tongue.
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Her writing might be pretty bad, but for the all time champ, nothing compares to The Eye of Argon:
http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan/sf/eyeargon/eyeargon.htm
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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Thank you, Jay. Eye of Argon is marvelous also.
I am going to park this in my Odd Bits folder, for future reference. It is priceless.
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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Wow! Eye of Argon is a nightmare. Reads like the ramblings of a lunatic transcribed by an illiterate. I love it!
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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I dunno, there's always My Immortal:
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6200297/1/My-Immortal
See how far you can get before you start laughing.
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Joined: 10/20/2011
Posts: 350
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Well, to be fair, "My Immortal" is supposed to be bad. It's the ultimate troll fic.
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Joined: 8/13/2011
Posts: 272
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Wait, My Immortal is fake? Can you fake something that loony?
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And I thought I was bad about run-on sentences.
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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I do enjoy McKittrick Ros' unintentional loopyness. I have written a tribute to her, with the help of Percy Bysshe Shelley:
.
To Amanda
.
Hail to thee, blithe
spirit!
Bird-brain thou ever wert -
mocked for thy o’er-wrought
oeuvre,
yet poured from thy full
heart
in profuse strains,
thy inane,
unpremeditated art.
--edited by Mimi Speike on 4/2/2014, 3:25 PM--
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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Nice, Mimi.
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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Thanks, Atthys. Heartfelt, I assure you.
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Joined: 6/7/2011
Posts: 467
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I noticed you posted a new version of Sly, but I haven't had a chance to look at it. How does it feel to you?
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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Atthys, there is no new version yet. What is labeled a new version was only all my re-dos of my About the Book for the recent contest. I will have a new version ready in about another three months. I am close to sending it off to an editor.
.
To repeat, there is nothing new yet. Don't waste your time looking at it. But I have made many changes. For the better? Who knows. It's still over the top, even more so, but possibly easier to take, broken up and moved around and more active voice.
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Joined: 10/14/2012
Posts: 229
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Hey guys
I've been away for a while, writing myself in knots.
How'd you ever get on with the combi, one chapter each thingy... Where do I find it?
Mimi, I miss you... Say hi.
Mike
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Joined: 11/17/2011
Posts: 1016
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Hi Mike,
I've been laying low for a while, working hard on Sly. I'm trying too get back to more active. Sly is almost ready to ship off to an editor. The same editor who probably worked on your book. I've hired her, privately. I had many private conversations with her and found we were in agreement on many issues. --edited by Mimi Speike on 4/4/2014, 5:01 PM--
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Joined: 8/14/2014
Posts: 5
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Which is why it was called Post-Modern...I never understood most of the PoMo crap I was asked/told to read in my Lit Crit classes.
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Joined: 8/14/2014
Posts: 5
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Sounds like most of Games of Thrones, frankly.
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