CharleyH
Curioser and curiouser
- Joined
- May 7, 2003
- Posts
- 16,771
HALOO Lit Poetry! It's been a while and I'd introduce myself to newbies, but let's just start fresh and go with the thought that I am a person who once loved me some good old fashioned gunfights. For those who don't know, a gunfight was a poetry challenge pitting one willing poet (victim) against another in a time-limited, real-time face-off.
Sadly, interest in the challenge waned, possibly for several reasons of which, no doubt, minimal participation was one. What I mean is that every gunfight had only two challengers and three judges and everyone else sat on the sidelines cheering mostly, and occasionally jeering (and I do mean by way of constructive criticism).
I've been thinking about how to expand the gunfight to involve as many people as possible, and as many judges as well. I think I've found a way in a challenge I like to call "The Bawdy Politic Challenge".
The challenge at hand:
The time is millions of years into the future. On a map, the earth looks like a super-Pangaea, but the future world is not technologically advanced. At some point, almost all human life ceased to exist and now the world is a throwback to the middle ages that we all know (the 5th to 15th centuries). In this new world, you are the main source of entertainment, both a minstrel, catering to the uneducated classes, and a troubadour catering to the educated. You have one tale to spread across the land, one story/song/poem that everyone wants to hear. It could be a fictional tale, a tale of romance, of tragedy, heroism or lust, a moral tale or even a tale about Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber.
Whatever fantasy world you create, you must write two poems/tales one from the perspective of a wandering minstrel speaking to common people, and the other, telling the same tale to aristocrats.
Everyone is welcome to take part, so come, cum (or cum laude) one and all.
Sadly, interest in the challenge waned, possibly for several reasons of which, no doubt, minimal participation was one. What I mean is that every gunfight had only two challengers and three judges and everyone else sat on the sidelines cheering mostly, and occasionally jeering (and I do mean by way of constructive criticism).
I've been thinking about how to expand the gunfight to involve as many people as possible, and as many judges as well. I think I've found a way in a challenge I like to call "The Bawdy Politic Challenge".
The challenge at hand:
The time is millions of years into the future. On a map, the earth looks like a super-Pangaea, but the future world is not technologically advanced. At some point, almost all human life ceased to exist and now the world is a throwback to the middle ages that we all know (the 5th to 15th centuries). In this new world, you are the main source of entertainment, both a minstrel, catering to the uneducated classes, and a troubadour catering to the educated. You have one tale to spread across the land, one story/song/poem that everyone wants to hear. It could be a fictional tale, a tale of romance, of tragedy, heroism or lust, a moral tale or even a tale about Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber.
Whatever fantasy world you create, you must write two poems/tales one from the perspective of a wandering minstrel speaking to common people, and the other, telling the same tale to aristocrats.
Everyone is welcome to take part, so come, cum (or cum laude) one and all.
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