The Heaper's Short Story of the Week club!

Odradek · 2014-08-10 14:20:32

In this thread, every Wednesday, we decide on a short story. We all read it and discuss it in this thread after we're finished.

Anyone have any ideas for a first story?

Klinotaxis · 2014-08-10 14:30:12

the machine stops

Mandelbrot · 2014-08-10 14:31:59

"The Mark on the Wall", Virginia Woolf

Odradek · 2014-08-10 14:39:42

I'm going to wait til everyone who wants to do this puts in their suggestion, then use a random number generator to decide.

One-Winged Eagle · 2014-08-10 17:26:36

I'm good with whatever.

Yarrun XIX · 2014-08-10 17:51:49

Barthelme's "Game"

Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Orozco's "Orientation"

Imipolex G · 2014-08-11 18:09:14

"In the Land of Time" by Lord Dunsany

Odradek · 2014-08-11 18:17:39

So

Klinotaxis-1

Mandelbrot-2

Any of Yarrun's suggestions-3(to make this fair)

Imi-4

Anyone else?

Obā-san · 2014-08-11 19:22:45

i think i have one, give me a moment

Aliroz · 2014-08-11 19:23:42

Izzy Azzy's The Last Question.

Obā-san · 2014-08-11 19:25:16

Angela Carter - The Bloody Chamber

Odradek · 2014-08-11 19:28:40

I should note that these need to be available online.

Aliroz · 2014-08-11 19:30:28

I know that THe Last Question is public domain and also available online easily.

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-08-11 20:38:34

^^^ I would have gone with "The Company of Wolves" because it's significantly shorter and I'm certain that it's available online, but "The Bloody Chamber" is also excellent. Really, anything from that collection would do.

Hmm...

I could be really typical but I don't know if I will.

sunn wolf · 2014-08-12 07:13:30

Eric Stenbock - The Other Side

Mandelbrot · 2014-08-12 09:51:34

Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper"

I actually an awful paper comparing this and "The Mark on the Wall"

Odradek · 2014-08-13 10:54:46

Naney-5

Aliroz-6

Sunn Wolf-7

Odradek · 2014-08-13 10:55:57

Rolling 1d7 on this site

And the result is 4! We are reading "In the Land of Time" by Lord Dunsany!

Imi, feel free to provide a link.

Imipolex G · 2014-08-13 13:07:16

granted

Odradek · 2014-08-13 13:08:47

Got it.

Discussion begins tomorrow so everyone has a chance to at least grab the link before spoilertalk happens.

Aliroz · 2014-08-14 15:01:33

It would have worked if they'd dug a tunnel and then a vertical shaft beneath time.

Imipolex G · 2014-08-14 15:04:41

You underestimate time, my friend

Yarrun XIX · 2014-08-14 17:41:14

This feels like it was very informative for young Imi

Imipolex G · 2014-08-14 17:46:32

nah, it's just a favorite subject

Odradek · 2014-08-15 14:02:22

I like Dunsany a lot, but sometimes the fake place names get off-putting.

Imipolex G · 2014-08-15 15:22:03

how can you not like the name Zoon

Klinotaxis · 2014-08-15 16:03:14

link's busted for me, so here's another one. on gutenberg.

Klinotaxis · 2014-08-15 16:15:33

pretty sure 'whereunder' isn't a real word, mainly.

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-08-15 16:21:27

OED says it's legit. It's just really archaic.

Aliroz · 2014-08-15 16:25:22

Klinotaxis said:
pretty sure 'whereunder' isn't a real word, mainly.

No, it's a real word.

Klinotaxis · 2014-08-15 16:29:40

next you'll tell me "leaguer" is a word

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-08-15 16:29:56

Now that I think of it, it's really just the converse to "whereupon."

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-08-15 16:31:46

Klinotaxis said:
next you'll tell me "leaguer" is a word

It is indeed! It has to do with waiting out a siege.

Or rather besieging people. Leaguered means enduring a siege. The prefix be has a specific grammatical implication.

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-08-15 16:36:26

Like, it's a subject-object thing in Middle and Early Modern English that comes from Old English.

Imipolex G · 2014-08-15 16:37:44

What's wrong with making up words, anyway? As long as they mean something

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-08-15 16:37:44

...crap, was I supposed to fall for that?

^ Six quarks for Muster Mark.

Aliroz · 2014-08-15 16:41:44

Klinotaxis said:
next you'll tell me "leaguer" is a word

But it is a word.

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-08-15 17:12:37

That's the joke, Al.

Fossilmaiden · 2014-08-15 20:38:45

Revengeance.

MetaFour · 2014-08-15 23:04:47

For some reason, I wasn't expecting them to actually fight an anthropomorphic personification of time.

Klinotaxis · 2014-08-16 00:19:53

yeah i figured they were just going to wander around until time killed them that way, but i suppose that metaphor would barely be distinguishable from the depicted events anyway

MetaFour · 2014-08-16 00:31:57

Seriously though, Time is a real dick.

Klinotaxis · 2014-08-16 00:33:18

i think pegāna had the same sort of "wait, how metaphorical is this" thing going on, but it's been a while

Imipolex G · 2014-08-16 00:43:16

MetaFour said:
Seriously though, Time is a real dick.

:o

MetaFour · 2014-08-16 00:45:36

Of course, what would they even do if they did kill Time?

Absolutely nothing, that's what.

Imipolex G · 2014-08-16 00:50:23

...now I want to read a story where someone actually does defeat Time.

Yarrun XIX · 2014-08-16 20:35:18

That does sound cool. Usually, when people try to kill abstract concepts, it's death, and that gets old quick.

MetaFour · 2014-08-16 20:54:43

Didn't Superman defeat entropy once?

Sredni Vashtar · 2014-08-16 22:01:24

That was a bleak and inevitable yet strangely satisfactory ending. I'm not sure to feel about how the battle played out, but it's a clever conceit for a tale.

Odradek · 2014-08-18 14:41:21

New short story in two days! Get your suggestions in!

MetaFour · 2014-08-18 14:46:18

I'd like to suggest "Poison" by Roald Dahl.

The Heaper's Short Story of the Week club!

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