Round eight (over half way there!) of head-to-head challenge with Fiction 59 (59-word stories) involves defusing a crisis. Can it be done? Will it be done?!
| Shelly sat in the kitchen kneading her temples and staring at the blank paper in front of her. “Dad, I need a 59-word story about a man-made disaster, or my Creative Writing grade is sunk.”
The man left, and returned shortly with an ink-scrawled scrap of paper. “A spinning cat…the end of the world… 59 words – great! Thanks Dad!” |
- Meta! This is a thinly veiled reference to my very first Ficiton 59 submission, “Black (Hole) Cat” from back in Spookymilk Survivor VII.
- While the crisis of not having a Creative Writing assingment to hand in was averted, I think there’s now a crisis of ethics with Dad doing all the work, don’t you?
- At this point, I could turn in a random mix of letters and numbers, and Philosofer will judge it a winner. 😛
A “return” to mediocrity? RESULTS
Submission #1 in this match-up — the judges’ comments:
MATTHEW: Slightly less meta, story 1, but still meta. Again, doesn’t really bring me into a feeling of crisis or the aversion of same. Story 2 was an interesting take on the idea of a midlife crisis, and the last line actually made me chuckle. WINNER: #2
Novak – #1 is more of the true meta I was talking about. And I enjoy that. It’s a bit campy, but I applaud the effort to introduce character in meta. #2 has a funny last line. For the life of me, I can’t figure out where you could have added anything more, but the tone of the narrator makes them a fairly blank slate, and I wanted more character there. A solid entry. Also, what’s up with double cats? Are you all collaborating on your matchups just to mess with the judges? Anyway, I liked ‘em both, but the meta one won me over. #1 wins
ANDY: For a second you guys had me fooled into thinking you were working together to create the most awesome spectacle of a matchup ever! Oh well. Sorry, #1, you went totally meta on me and I missed the reference. Was it from this season? I’m too tired to remember or look it up, sorry. However, the concept comes across just fine whether or not I get the reference. It’s the fact that I recognize it as a reference that’s important, right? Also, why did you call the dad “the man”? Anyway, on to #2. Rescuing cats as midlife crisis? OK, not sure I would have ever thought of that, but it’s certainly an original idea. I felt like a bit more effort and time went into #2, and without a clearer distinction to help me make the call, that’s what I’m going with. Winner: #2.
WINNER: Pete Bruzek
I think we all knew how that one would resolve it self. Looks like for the next one the joke’s on me…
"é rayhahn, rayhahn" 
Thinly veiled reference? What veil? I read it as, “Remember judges, when I wrote that awesome story during Survivor VII, and everyone loved it and I got a perfect score? Yeah, I’d like to just go ahead and remind everyone of how awesome that was again. I was on the top of the world. YeeeEEAAHHHHHH!”
Well, when you put it that way!
I guess what I was getting at was these sets of judges might recognize it as meta, but not the actual reference