mighty midjet
Active Member
- Location
- syracuse
>>The professor told his class one day: "Today we will
experiment with a new form called the tandem story.
The process is simple. Each person will pair off
with the person sitting to his or her immediate
right. As homework tonight, one of you will write
the first paragraph of a short story. You will
e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another
copy to me. The partner will read the first
paragraph and then add another paragraph to the
story and send it back, so sending another copy to
me. The first person will then add a third
paragraph, and so on back-and-forth. Remember to
re-read what has been written each time in order to
keep the story coherent.
>>There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the
e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written
in the e-mail. The story is over when both agree a
conclusion has been reached."
The following was actually turned in by two of his
English students: Rebecca and Gary.
THE STORY:
>> (first paragraph by Rebecca) At first, Laurie
couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The
chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy
evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl,
who once said, in happier times, that he liked
chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs,
keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was
suffocating, and if she thought about him too much
her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was
out of the question.
<<(second paragraph by Gary) Meanwhile, Advance
Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron
now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important
things to think about than the neuroses of an
air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he
had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S.
Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his
transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit
established. No sign of resistance so far..." But
before he could sign off a bluish particle beam
flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through
his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit
sent him flying out of his seat and across the
cockpit.
>>(Rebecca) He bumped his head and died almost
immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of
regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who
had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards,
Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the
peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law
Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie
read in her newspaper one morning. The news
simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared
out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days
had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no
newspaper to read, no television to distract her
from her sense of innocent wonder at all the
beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose
one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered
wistfully.
>> (Gary ) Little did she know, but she had less than
10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the
city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first
of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy
peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace
disarmament Treaty through the congress had left
Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien
empires who were determined to destroy the human
race. Within two hours after the passage of the
treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for
Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the
entire planet. With no one to stop them, they
swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium
fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The
President, in his top-secret mobile submarine
headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of
Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion,
which vaporized poor, stupid Laurie.
>> (Rebecca) This is absurd. I refuse to continue this
mockery of literature. My writing partner is a
violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.
>> (Gary) Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a
self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at
writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Oh,
shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some
other sort of F--KING TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do?
I'm such an air headed bimbo who reads too many
Danielle Steele novels
>> (Rebecca) A**hole.
>> (Gary) B* $ ch
>> (Rebecca) F__K YOU - YOU NEANDERTHAL!
>> (Gary) Go drink some tea - whore.
>> (TEACHER) A+ - I really liked this one.
experiment with a new form called the tandem story.
The process is simple. Each person will pair off
with the person sitting to his or her immediate
right. As homework tonight, one of you will write
the first paragraph of a short story. You will
e-mail your partner that paragraph and send another
copy to me. The partner will read the first
paragraph and then add another paragraph to the
story and send it back, so sending another copy to
me. The first person will then add a third
paragraph, and so on back-and-forth. Remember to
re-read what has been written each time in order to
keep the story coherent.
>>There is to be absolutely NO talking outside of the
e-mails and anything you wish to say must be written
in the e-mail. The story is over when both agree a
conclusion has been reached."
The following was actually turned in by two of his
English students: Rebecca and Gary.
THE STORY:
>> (first paragraph by Rebecca) At first, Laurie
couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The
chamomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy
evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl,
who once said, in happier times, that he liked
chamomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs,
keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was
suffocating, and if she thought about him too much
her asthma started acting up again. So chamomile was
out of the question.
<<(second paragraph by Gary) Meanwhile, Advance
Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron
now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important
things to think about than the neuroses of an
air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he
had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S.
Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his
transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit
established. No sign of resistance so far..." But
before he could sign off a bluish particle beam
flashed out of nowhere and blasted a hole through
his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit
sent him flying out of his seat and across the
cockpit.
>>(Rebecca) He bumped his head and died almost
immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of
regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who
had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards,
Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the
peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law
Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel," Laurie
read in her newspaper one morning. The news
simultaneously excited her and bored her. She stared
out the window, dreaming of her youth, when the days
had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no
newspaper to read, no television to distract her
from her sense of innocent wonder at all the
beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose
one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered
wistfully.
>> (Gary ) Little did she know, but she had less than
10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the
city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first
of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy
peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace
disarmament Treaty through the congress had left
Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien
empires who were determined to destroy the human
race. Within two hours after the passage of the
treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for
Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the
entire planet. With no one to stop them, they
swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium
fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The
President, in his top-secret mobile submarine
headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of
Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion,
which vaporized poor, stupid Laurie.
>> (Rebecca) This is absurd. I refuse to continue this
mockery of literature. My writing partner is a
violent, chauvinistic semi-literate adolescent.
>> (Gary) Yeah? Well, my writing partner is a
self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at
writing are the literary equivalent of Valium. "Oh,
shall I have chamomile tea? Or shall I have some
other sort of F--KING TEA??? Oh no, what am I to do?
I'm such an air headed bimbo who reads too many
Danielle Steele novels
>> (Rebecca) A**hole.
>> (Gary) B* $ ch
>> (Rebecca) F__K YOU - YOU NEANDERTHAL!
>> (Gary) Go drink some tea - whore.
>> (TEACHER) A+ - I really liked this one.
