FAKKU Writers' Lounge

Mundane as in slice of life and something extremely easy to relate to. For example, I thoroughly enjoyed your recollections of what you have experienced back home. I think the most effective way to win people over ought to be a well written romance story which is way beyond me. Now, where to find Find_Vega?

Crazed ramblings, obscure references, strange writing techniques like convoluted sentences and bizarre repetitions as well as sarcastic quips do not go well with a lot of people judging from the response I get after getting a few persons to read whatever I have written.

ah I see. I enjoyed slice of life thingy for the same reason. romance stories huh, I just remembered about the winners of last year winter event. I also remembered about your distaste for romance thingies, which I could somehow relate to =D

dunno, maybe up with his GFs or something.

nah don't be too pessimistic, I think the best part about this thing is that we've participated, just like going to a party yeah. not saying that I liked parties but yeah, it's still festive when I celebrate it =)

A lovely retelling of the fable "The Emperor with no Clothes" by some journalist called Hitchens. I would like to reproduce it here:

Once upon a time a great emperor was approached by two charming and persuasive gentlemen. †˜Your Majesty’, they said to him. †˜We are the possessors of a wonderful new invention which we would like to offer to you and you alone because of your greatness and gloriousness’.

The two men explained that they had created a new fabric of almost supernatural beauty, which would make the wearer look superb beyond all previous measure.

The Emperor (like everyone else vulnerable to flattery) accepted the men’s offer. He ordered his treasury to pay the men a large sum in gold. The two visited the emperor in his private chambers, asked him to disrobe, measured him elaborately , while larding him with further flattery about his magnificent physique (it wasn’t, actually, but he liked to be told it was).

They then departed (with the gold) saying they would return with his new robes in time for his forthcoming wedding with a beautiful princess from a country he wishes to swallow up in his empire.

And they returned on the appointed day, bearing richly decorated chests, which they brought to his private chamber. Again, he was asked to disrobe, again they praised his physique. Then they opened the boxes. There was nothing in them.

The Emperor, having paid many thousands of golden ducats, looked at them in some doubt, snapping’ What is this? Where are the clothes? †˜The two men replied that they were only visible to the great and intelligent, and asked him to look again. Mindful of his thousands of ducats, and of the need to appear intelligent and a la mode, the Emperor managed to persuade himself that the boxes were in fact full of shining raiment, and stood still as the two tailors fiddled about with thin air. As they pretended to dress him, he pretended to be dressed.

Then he advanced through the Palace. He stood on the dais of his great hall, telling his courtiers, nobles and army commanders that the new clothes were visible only to the loyal and the good. Word of his declaration spread out into the crowds beyond, even reaching the Princess as she waited at the cathedral.

The procession began. The soldiers glared at the crowds. The crowds stared at their naked ruler, willing their minds to believe that he was in fact magnificently clothed. After a few minutes, they had persuaded themselves that the clothes existed. So did the priests at the cathedral, and the Princess.

But there is a little footnote. As the wedded pair left the church, a small boy cried out †˜But he’s got nothing on!’, just as the bands and the crowd had fallen silent.

The crowd fell on the child and his father, who were beaten severely before being seized by the soldiers, dragged to the palace dungeons and tortured until they, too, agreed that the emperor’s clothes were real. And they all lived miserably ever after.

The End

that was brilliant, I guess we know that the world was ruled by flattery and fakeness =D

This is the kind of writing I love. I am put off by the denial by some to accept that there are ugly bits to the world we live in and I definitely revel in attempts to point out those ugly bits through satire.

you know you love it =D

and I find myself liking it too.

Now that video made me smile. It is getting harder for me to laugh as each day passes.

Fables huh? Ever heard of The Little Red Hen?

It's about a hen who was going to make bread. Since nobody helped her make it, she made it herself never shared it.

I loathed that fable since I heard it at six. Because it conflicted with sharing and forgiving I was taught, and I imagined the hungry others. I consider to this day the hen as a type of antagonist or a selfish character.

Did any of you question your fables too? Leo?

Never heard of that fable. It sounds a lot like what Ayn Rand or other economic libertarians would come up with. I'm afraid I am in broad agreement with what the Red Hen did. (Strange why she is called the 'Red' Hen. You'd expect socialists and communists to behave otherwise.)

If I were the Red Hen, I would not give up my bread unless if it were exchanged for something of equal value or if the person asking for bread is someone I am on very good terms with.

For me it is about creating the incentive for myself and others to work for my (and their) bread. I make my bread for myself and those close to me. I refuse to give bread to those who are perfectly able to make bread themselves so that they could make bread themselves.

I can't think of a fable that I disagree with. I can think of one where I don't agree with how the rest interprets it.

You may have heard of it:



Most would say that the man is an inflexible fool. But considering what the author of that fable believed, I think the purpose of the fable is to commend the man for relying on objective standards like measures or tapes.

A bit of background: There are two Aesops of the Far East who lived around 3 centuries after Aesop's birth. One is the Taoist called Zhuang Zhou. The other is the Chinese Legalist (who I insist is a Taoist) called Han Fei. The story I've mentioned comes from Han Fei.

Considering I do not know how shoes were made and sold in the 3rd Century BC, I hesitate to call the man of Han Fei's fable a fool.

Everyone wants to have fun, not work, but if you don't work, you don't get to eat. Isn't that the moral of the story? The hen was in the right. How can you expect someone else to do all the work and still reap the benefits? Sharing is nice, but taking advantage of others isn't.

You did a better job in explaining the fable than me!

That aside, I contacted please_don't_ban_me about his roleplay. He wants me to take on Gene Smith however I am not familiar with the universe and the battle and game mechanics.

From what I have read from the roleplay, other than the tension between Gene and the newcomers, there were a lot of technical terms that are transaction related like 'caps', 'mapping', 'diem' and 'representatives' that I did not quite understand. Is it possible to help me out with this?

I know, but I loathed it, I completely loathed it. If you make a mistake you move mountains for fix it. I imagined as a child of how I would've stolen the bread when nobody was looking. Every time I was told to find a "moral" in a story, I was pissed off, I didn't agree with the endings, I thought of alternatives, so I'm amazed of you and leo's replies.

Also, dumping this old thing from Bradbury, which has my favorite topic choice: children.

http://fanfiction.net/s/8502328/1/All-Summer-in-a-Day-By-Ray-Bradbury

I checked through old books for his name and found this short. I think leo might like this one, remembering his taste about their sometimes evil behavior (like in Godlfish poem).

well I think some people might prefer a positive perspective about how life works, that's probably one reason why you loathed it. for myself, I don't care much about the others' opinions on how to live my life and just decide what works best for me.

I think it's just a mere viewpoint from the Author, definitely not the absolute truth as there's so many ways to look up on something. not saying whether I agreed or disagreed with the message, I just think about it as a story. if you want to learn about reality, just go look at the reality itself.

Can you help me recall when I said I liked evil being done?

I do remember saying that I quite enjoyed bad things done to people who asked for it, much like why I enjoyed the bad endings in fables, like how the hare was humiliated for his arrogance, how the grasshopper lost his life for his sloth and indeed those people who starved because they refused to help the hen make food.
_____

Thank you for the story. I enjoyed it by thinking that it is an allegory of sorts. The naysayer or the dissenter gets lampooned and ridiculed until they get vindicated. Makes it even more tragic that more often than not when they are proven right, they are no longer there.

I think it would be very apt to say that Margot died of asphyxiation after being released from her closet of a prison.

Bad endings, bad people, bad intentions, I mixed up those three.

In my mind I also hated the grasshopper story, "he could've just migrated". I recall not liking the rabbit because he was a braggart.

As of Margot's story I found recently, I pietied her deeply, she was so frail and innocent and was taken down by a mere mob. Bradbury still delivers.

well, I think those with tragic endings or story lines are there to induce awareness of the unfairness going around our society, so the ones trampled upon could see finally get the helping hand they deserved. that is, if we look at it in a positive way.

or should we say, the Author by itself loves to induce a feeling of Schadenfreude and could care less about humanity.

Most fables, and in the past stories, are written for educational purposes. So, I have to say that finding out the moral of the story is important. Of course that is not to say that one cannot have one's opinions of it.

well yeah, I think that's also what I had in mind. I kind of read that people could
learn a lot from stories =)

yup, well said.

Fables aside, has anyone heard of one of the greatest poets Scotland produced, the one William McGonagall?

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

’Twas about seven o’clock at night,
And the wind it blew with all its might,
And the rain came pouring down,
And the dark clouds seem’d to frown,
And the Demon of the air seem’d to say-
“I’ll blow down the Bridge of Tay.”

When the train left Edinburgh
The passengers’ hearts were light and felt no sorrow,
But Boreas blew a terrific gale,
Which made their hearts for to quail,
And many of the passengers with fear did say-
“I hope God will send us safe across the Bridge of Tay.”

But when the train came near to Wormit Bay,
Boreas he did loud and angry bray,
And shook the central girders of the Bridge of Tay
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

So the train sped on with all its might,
And Bonnie Dundee soon hove in sight,
And the passengers’ hearts felt light,
Thinking they would enjoy themselves on the New Year,
With their friends at home they lov’d most dear,
And wish them all a happy New Year.

So the train mov’d slowly along the Bridge of Tay,
Until it was about midway,
Then the central girders with a crash gave way,
And down went the train and passengers into the Tay!
The Storm Fiend did loudly bray,
Because ninety lives had been taken away,
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

As soon as the catastrophe came to be known
The alarm from mouth to mouth was blown,
And the cry rang out all o’er the town,
Good Heavens! the Tay Bridge is blown down,
And a passenger train from Edinburgh,
Which fill’d all the peoples hearts with sorrow,
And made them for to turn pale,
Because none of the passengers were sav’d to tell the tale
How the disaster happen’d on the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

It must have been an awful sight,
To witness in the dusky moonlight,
While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray,
Along the Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay,
Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay,
I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed.

Are these like Fallout terms or terms adopted into the game mechanics of the RP?