LSN = H.H.Munro reborn?

[L'Etranger]

Camion-ex-machina!

[broken link]

Holy Snakes, LSN, what a funny short story you delivered! Congratulations, I like it a lot.... though I object to your locking the thread lest we post comments!
It has that special Saki-touch that I like very much, people obviously acting perfectly logical in an absurd (not further explained, hence accepted) situation. And also ending in chilling matter-of-factness like in "Mrs. Packletide's Tiger" or "The Baker's Dozen".
Now, who was the dunderhead who didn't accept it, you said?

If you accept the Saki comparison remember to stay out of trenches with companions who smoke. Let's see what the result of the referendum in France is ...

[xidrep]

Oi! 'Wasn't much interested'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like the story a lot...But I have three LSN's in PX1, and I thought more would be unfair.
Pagh!
Tsk.

[L'Etranger]

Oh! 'twas you then!
"Dunderhead" is too nice and rare a word that I can't bring myself to delete it, begging forgivance, hehehe.
Yours truly L'E

PS: looking forward to the other LSN stories then, if this was the refused ...

[A_Non_Ymous]

Perdix was right to express a certain diffidence towards the original incarnation of this little anecdote. It's basically a fart joke as tall-tale. The first version I sent him was, shall we say, less than accomplished. Among other deficiencies, it suffered from a certain monotony of tone. This version is the result of some heavy-duty rewriting. Maybe it's better. My wife thought it funny enough, but casually remarked that I shouldn't give up my day job. I wouldn't dream of it. This kind of stuff is for fun.

By the way, I like Saki a lot. My volume of his complete short stories and his novel, The Unbearable Bassington, show evidence of much handling. I also like Ambrose Bierce's tall-tales. Take a look at "An Imperfect Conflagration."

LSN

[Doc]

I have to commend you for pointing out how sociology gives you powerful insight into humanity. And flatulence. :lol:

[HawkLord]

I was, indeed, quite a fan of this story.

[Anonymous]

I have, as a direct result of this story, now commenced an investigation into the flatulative capacity of the spotted dogfish, Scyliorhinus spp.
Saki would have been proud, too.

[A_Non_Ymous]

I have to commend you for pointing out how sociology gives you powerful insight into humanity. And flatulence. :lol:

I didn't say it gave me any insight. The female protagonist claimed it gave her insight. Whether that means it actually does so is open to interpretation.

This story is loaded with throw-away jokes, the silly remark about Descartes' discussion of the mind/body dichotomy conjoined with a living illustration of same being a case in point. There was something that struck me as fundamentally incongruous about the image of this trio, sitting at a small-town bar, drinking a foul brew (B*dweiser, no less), and discussing Malinowski, Durkheim, Descartes, and Schopenhauer between farts. I see evidence of such incongruity all the time,

The whole story doesn't amount to much beyond a pleasant exercise in nihilism and sarcasm.

"He used... sarcasm." :lol:

LSN

[A_Non_Ymous]

Oi! 'Wasn't much interested'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I like the story a lot...But I have three LSN's in PX1, and I thought more would be unfair.
Pagh!
Tsk.

Yeah, and the version I submitted to you was screwed up. I've come to recognize that Perdix-as-Politenessman reaction of bland acceptance to a story, the one where you say, "Ah, well, which of these various things you've submitted would you like me to run?" To me, that means I didn't give you a strong feeling about any of the works in question. It caused me to return to "The Martian Sojourner" with the idea of fixing its manifest deficiencies. I can handle rejection, really. :lol: Lapidary impulses aren't foreign to me, of course.

I still haven't given up on getting this story into PX-2, which is why I locked the thread. I wanted to see if other people found the story effective, and if there were suggestions for how it might be improved. After a decent interval, I'll delete the story from the site.

So far the reaction has been fairly positive. I don't mind some criticism. Be aware however that I'll privately critique the critic.

LSN

[A_Non_Ymous]

I have, as a direct result of this story, now commenced an investigation into the flatulative capacity of the spotted dogfish, Scyliorhinus spp.
Saki would have been proud, too.

But what of the flatulative capacity of the average MWM poster, expressed in newton-metres ? The central limit theorem tells us, of course, that we can use a normal distribution to describe the range and concentration of these capacities, yet I somehow expect that a skewed Gaussian might better model the reality.

Perhaps Perdix and I shall publish a joint paper, "A tentative predictive model employing Markov processes of the literary / flatulative potential of MWM forum visitors."

Think we can place it in Nature?

LSN

[L'Etranger]

outch!

[xidrep]

Maybe :D New Scientist...

[A_Non_Ymous]

outch!

Relax, L'Etranger. We need at least a few individuals to serve as statistical "controls."

LSN

[A_Non_Ymous]

Maybe :D New Scientist...

Meet the New Scientist!
Same as the Old Scientist!

Sorry, that just slipped out. :oops:

--

By the way, I hope a fair number of our readers can parse German. L'Etranger has an amusing, warm-hearted little story in PX-1 in that language. :-]

I offered to translate it into English for the issue, but he preferred to leave it in the original German. I can understand his position, so I didn't argue the case.

If you read German, I encourage you to take a look when the magazine appears. Our friend L'Etranger has a nasty sense of humor which (at the very least) is to my taste.

--

If, in the course of my numerous remarks on the mechanics of fictional technique, anyone has ever found reason to object and ask whether I know what I'm talking about, think of the story I posted as providing some evidence (one way or another). Have a ball.

LSN

[HawkLord]

Ah yes, lovely language is German. I just had my exam for that yesterday! And now it would appear I have taken German at school next year.
That will be most excellent to have a story in German, it would really help me brush up on my reading skills!