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Post by WeirdRaptor on Jan 25, 2019 15:36:07 GMT -6
I actually love the part you put in the spoilers. Man, we can't even agree when we like the same things. Um… What’s your favorite ice cream flavor? Neapolitan.
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Post by Salzmark on Jan 25, 2019 15:39:39 GMT -6
Another online story I absolutely love is "The Art of Jacob Emory", by Peter Divine (Douglas Greenwood) There's a very potent message here. Love it! About halfway between Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zann” (which I’m sure inspired the title) and M.R. James’s “Casting the Runes” (Karswell’s magic-lantern slides). This is really good. The “ghost stories?” beginning is something I’ve used before too, interestingly enough, though I hadn’t read this before.
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Post by Salzmark on Jan 25, 2019 15:40:24 GMT -6
Um… What’s your favorite ice cream flavor? Neapolitan. I’ll say— mine too! What do you mean, we don’t agree on anything?
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Post by WeirdRaptor on Jan 25, 2019 15:50:18 GMT -6
Another online story I absolutely love is "The Art of Jacob Emory", by Peter Divine (Douglas Greenwood) There's a very potent message here. Love it! About halfway between Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zann” (which I’m sure inspired the title) and M.R. James’s “Casting the Runes” (Karswell’s magic-lantern slides). This is really good. The “ghost stories?” beginning is something I’ve used before too, interestingly enough, though I hadn’t read this before. Yep! I also love that it's not JUST about "flying too close to the sun." Jake Emory, instead of finding a real profession, dabbled in dark forces he shouldn't have and basically came up with an attraction that would do most of the work for him and he sat back to reap the benefits. He wasn't ambitious, clever, or even professional, which is what came back to bite him in the ass in the long run.
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Post by Salzmark on Jan 25, 2019 17:00:00 GMT -6
Love it! About halfway between Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zann” (which I’m sure inspired the title) and M.R. James’s “Casting the Runes” (Karswell’s magic-lantern slides). This is really good. The “ghost stories?” beginning is something I’ve used before too, interestingly enough, though I hadn’t read this before. Yep! I also love that it's not JUST about "flying too close to the sun." Jake Emory, instead of finding a real profession, dabbled in dark forces he shouldn't have and basically came up with an attraction that would do most of the work for him and he sat back to reap the benefits. He wasn't ambitious, clever, or even professional, which is what came back to bite him in the ass in the long run. We agree completely on this one. Quick, let’s document this for the next time to disagree! Not much of a reaction to my story on Reddit. I’m starting to think the folks there just don’t like ambiguous endings.
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Post by WeirdRaptor on Jan 25, 2019 17:12:06 GMT -6
Yep! I also love that it's not JUST about "flying too close to the sun." Jake Emory, instead of finding a real profession, dabbled in dark forces he shouldn't have and basically came up with an attraction that would do most of the work for him and he sat back to reap the benefits. He wasn't ambitious, clever, or even professional, which is what came back to bite him in the ass in the long run. We agree completely on this one. Quick, let’s document this for the next time to disagree! Not much of a reaction to my story on Reddit. I’m starting to think the folks there just don’t like ambiguous endings. They also might not know what to say. So... a guy finds an old manuscript reading something about 2,500 thurifers during a rare full house Mass for that town, turns the next page to find it completely blotted out, gets angry at this, and goes upstairs to demand to know why the object of his research was vandalized. Suddenly, the place is empty except for one thurifer who points him to the passage in Numbers where God's wrath caused the Earth to open up and swallow a bunch of people up when asked, and then a bunch of other Holy dudes walk and fill the place with incense. I don't know what to make of this.
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Post by Salzmark on Jan 25, 2019 17:16:17 GMT -6
We agree completely on this one. Quick, let’s document this for the next time to disagree! Not much of a reaction to my story on Reddit. I’m starting to think the folks there just don’t like ambiguous endings. They also might not know what to say. So... a guy finds an old manuscript reading something about 2,500 thurifers during a rare full house Mass for that town, turns the next page to find it completely blotted out, gets angry at this, and goes upstairs to demand to know why the object of his research was vandalized. Suddenly, the place is empty except for one thurifer who points him to the passage in Numbers where God's wrath caused the Earth to open up and swallow a bunch of people up when asked, and then a bunch of other Holy dudes walk and fill the place with incense. I don't know what to make of this. Yup! I’m rather fond of the Aickmanesque “strange story” where the events are clearly described, yet somehow it’s nigh-impossible to know what’s actually going on. That’s the effect I’m going for, on the whole. I suppose I should just try writing a straightforward ghost story one of these days, though…
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Post by Salzmark on Jan 26, 2019 13:13:11 GMT -6
We agree completely on this one. Quick, let’s document this for the next time to disagree! Not much of a reaction to my story on Reddit. I’m starting to think the folks there just don’t like ambiguous endings. They also might not know what to say. So... a guy finds an old manuscript reading something about 2,500 thurifers during a rare full house Mass for that town, turns the next page to find it completely blotted out, gets angry at this, and goes upstairs to demand to know why the object of his research was vandalized. Suddenly, the place is empty except for one thurifer who points him to the passage in Numbers where God's wrath caused the Earth to open up and swallow a bunch of people up when asked, and then a bunch of other Holy dudes walk and fill the place with incense. I don't know what to make of this. Someone at Reddit wrote something similar: One of the rules of writing is knowing your audience, and I feel like what the audience there likes and what I like are rather different. I’ll try to work on something a bit less—bizarre at best, incomprehensible (?) at worst, in the future.
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Post by WeirdRaptor on Jan 26, 2019 13:23:08 GMT -6
They also might not know what to say. So... a guy finds an old manuscript reading something about 2,500 thurifers during a rare full house Mass for that town, turns the next page to find it completely blotted out, gets angry at this, and goes upstairs to demand to know why the object of his research was vandalized. Suddenly, the place is empty except for one thurifer who points him to the passage in Numbers where God's wrath caused the Earth to open up and swallow a bunch of people up when asked, and then a bunch of other Holy dudes walk and fill the place with incense. I don't know what to make of this. Someone at Reddit wrote something similar: One of the rules of writing is knowing your audience, and I feel like what the audience there likes and what I like are rather different. I’ll try to work on something a bit less—bizarre at best, incomprehensible (?) at worst, in the future. Yes, you do have unique tastes and interests. Not a bad thing. The only thing I can figure out from your story is that the people at Mass somehow pissed God off and he cause the world to swallow them up while the other guy was upstairs studying, though that doesn't explain why more church people came in to bring more incense if God has literally just been right there. Willing to throw a guy a bone?
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Post by Salzmark on Jan 26, 2019 13:34:26 GMT -6
Someone at Reddit wrote something similar: One of the rules of writing is knowing your audience, and I feel like what the audience there likes and what I like are rather different. I’ll try to work on something a bit less—bizarre at best, incomprehensible (?) at worst, in the future. Yes, you do have unique tastes and interests. Not a bad thing. The only thing I can figure out from your story is that the people at Mass somehow pissed God off and he cause the world to swallow them up while the other guy was upstairs studying, though that doesn't explain why more church people came in to bring more incense if God has literally just been right there. Willing to throw a guy a bone? 1. Thanks. 2. I wasn’t particularly saying whether or not God was doing it—I actually don’t have any one particular idea for what the reader should think is going on. What the reader gets out of the story is what he gets out of it. I originally meant something much more prosaic, a ghost story: poor Ambling had disturbed the bones while working in the tombs, and the priest et al. at the end are ghosts. The 250,000 was the curse on the place based on Numbers’ originally 250—“dix foies,” “ten times,” the spectral priest says. But the point is that that’s not supposed to be totally clear; you’re supposed to read into it whatever you may see. I love spooky stories that work like that.
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Post by WeirdRaptor on Jan 26, 2019 14:28:00 GMT -6
Yes, you do have unique tastes and interests. Not a bad thing. The only thing I can figure out from your story is that the people at Mass somehow pissed God off and he cause the world to swallow them up while the other guy was upstairs studying, though that doesn't explain why more church people came in to bring more incense if God has literally just been right there. Willing to throw a guy a bone? 1. Thanks. 2. I wasn’t particularly saying whether or not God was doing it—I actually don’t have any one particular idea for what the reader should think is going on. What the reader gets out of the story is what he gets out of it. I originally meant something much more prosaic, a ghost story: poor Ambling had disturbed the bones while working in the tombs, and the priest et al. at the end are ghosts. The 250,000 was the curse on the place based on Numbers’ originally 250—“dix foies,” “ten times,” the spectral priest says. But the point is that that’s not supposed to be totally clear; you’re supposed to read into it whatever you may see. I love spooky stories that work like that. Thank you. This won't leave Knowhere through me, and I doubt any of your friends from Reddit will see it.
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Post by Salzmark on Jan 26, 2019 14:29:08 GMT -6
1. Thanks. 2. I wasn’t particularly saying whether or not God was doing it—I actually don’t have any one particular idea for what the reader should think is going on. What the reader gets out of the story is what he gets out of it. I originally meant something much more prosaic, a ghost story: poor Ambling had disturbed the bones while working in the tombs, and the priest et al. at the end are ghosts. The 250,000 was the curse on the place based on Numbers’ originally 250—“dix foies,” “ten times,” the spectral priest says. But the point is that that’s not supposed to be totally clear; you’re supposed to read into it whatever you may see. I love spooky stories that work like that. Thank you. This won't leave Knowhere through me, and I doubt any of your friends from Reddit will see it. Oh, it’s not some super great secret, and I don’t mind. But thanks.
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Post by Salzmark on Feb 3, 2019 16:24:21 GMT -6
WeirdRaptor (et al.) I wrote one I purposely tailored to appeal to the folks there… Let me know if you think it’s any better. It’s for something called “the Wikipedia challenge,” in which you click the “random article” button three times on Wikipedia and write a story based (tangentially or directly) on those three random articles. Again, rules stipulate it has to be under 500 words. As always, be as critical as you’d like. (John, by the way, is not my name.)
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Post by WeirdRaptor on Feb 3, 2019 16:28:25 GMT -6
WeirdRaptor (et al.) I wrote one I purposely tailored to appeal to the folks there… Let me know if you think it’s any better. It’s for something called “the Wikipedia challenge,” in which you click the “random article” button three times on Wikipedia and write a story based (tangentially or directly) on those three random articles. Again, rules stipulate it has to be under 500 words. As always, be as critical as you’d like. (John, by the way, is not my name.) That's actually pretty good. Creepy, and with unknowable forces at work.
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Post by Salzmark on Feb 9, 2019 13:56:56 GMT -6
Yet another horror piece I did, also for a contest on Reddit, also tailored for the audience there (my preëmptive apologies to Messrs. Rodgers and Hart for abusing their lovely song):
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