The comment as short story?

May 16, 2006 11:45 AM

The comment as short story? One of my favorite MeFi comment styles (when done well) is the mini-story. Examples here (...a revolution has closed the elevators and the escalators are plagued by snipers.) and here (My idea home would include a nice lawn complete with 25-foot tall stone titans frozen in endless vigilance over my lands). Any other examples of "MeFi short-short stories" spring to mind?
posted by blahblahblah to MetaFilter-Related at 11:45 AM (34 comments total)

Oops, made a mistake, the second link should have been to here.
posted by blahblahblah at 11:50 AM on May 16, 2006

My movie pitch was a short story. It was everything.
posted by ND¢ at 12:08 PM on May 16, 2006

I don't engage in such blatant self-promotion, thank you very much! ;-P
posted by mischief at 12:13 PM on May 16, 2006

I don't want to read your Ruth Bader Ginsburg-on-bonobo slash anyway, mischief.
posted by sonofsamiam at 12:20 PM on May 16, 2006

I've been doing more of these, because I like them when other folks do them, and because I feel generally OK about them afterwards rather than feeling dirty and embarassed and kinda...itchy... like after I get involved in the usual in-joke pile-on.

I won't self link to mine, but I have been thinking that if more of us start doing these I'd make a Project to pull them out and blog 'em somewhere. So point us at ones you like, and maybe it'll encourage me to make MetaStories.org or something.
posted by freebird at 12:21 PM on May 16, 2006

Please, self-link away, freebird and mischief. Worse than self-posting in this situation is to assume that your stories are so good as to justify someone else going through all of your comments to find the appropriate ones. I would love to see a compilation, so please do link to your favorites.
posted by blahblahblah at 12:36 PM on May 16, 2006

I'll pimp freebird. I liked this one.
posted by The Bellman at 12:36 PM on May 16, 2006

Don't miss troutfishing's classic White House "pizza room" story.
posted by languagehat at 12:38 PM on May 16, 2006

Ehh, sounds too much like work.

I guess the comment where I started the "need a television" meme would qualify.

The "brown eyeballs" comment in MeTalk way back when was particularly well aimed, as well as the "Circle-Jerk For Membership".

I just don't tell mini-stories that often; my comments are more like maxi-pads.
posted by mischief at 12:45 PM on May 16, 2006

Two favorites come to mind: here and here.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 12:48 PM on May 16, 2006

Ah yes, the "piss steam" one was great.

Somebody had a wonderful vignette a few years ago about growing up in a little South American village and catching a mythical fish... damn, I can't think how to find it. If anybody knows what I'm talking about and links it, I'll be forever grateful.
posted by languagehat at 12:54 PM on May 16, 2006

Comment + Vignette = Comgnette?

Freebird, if you can make it so a midi of Ashokan Farewell plays over any of mine, that'd be awesome.

I'm not sure how many of these things I've posted, but I like doing them and am always worried that they overstay their welcomes in tangentally related threads. Good to read that when the muse strikes me, I should go for it, though then I would worry about developing a blighish reputation.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:04 PM on May 16, 2006

OK, fair enough blahblahblah. Here's some of mine I can still locate, but don't find entirely obvious, lame, or already mentioned. They're "titled" here with what I remember of the thread they're in:

I'm fairly proud of Environmental Offsets, Manatees, and Watchmaker.

Some people seemed touched by Henry Rollins Blogs.

I thought Flying Cars and United States of 24 were cute, Opera Star felt like a stretch to just write something.

Rules of the game for me are: relevant to thread, not too long, done in 20-30 mins at most.
posted by freebird at 1:24 PM on May 16, 2006

Thanks freebird, these are great!
posted by blahblahblah at 1:34 PM on May 16, 2006

I did indeed enjoy freebird's latest comment in the skyscraper thread. So should I take this post as license to make these comments myself? Not to force anything, just when the muse strikes. I've refrained in the past from not wanting to be a MeFiDonna; but if I can do it and folks will enjoy it and it won't be seen as shameless self-promotion, then why not?

Shit, I should have done it with this post. Dammit.

Wait, wait, don't go! Let me start over!
posted by Eideteker at 1:37 PM on May 16, 2006

I enjoyed writing this one.
posted by headspace at 2:05 PM on May 16, 2006 [1 favorite]

Double Word Score to headspace for getting some nice story action into an AskMe thread in a way that (I think, anyhow) is totally in keeping with answering the question. Nice!

While we're just brazenly pimping ourselves up in here, there's a story comment of mine I can't find. Does anyone remember a thread about a Gated Community (I think, maybe just a development) that required background searches and no criminal record? I can't seem to find the Post anymore.
posted by freebird at 2:21 PM on May 16, 2006

After getting home from work and cracking open a brew, I could only track down one two three of my comments that fit outside of the one linked by b-to-the-three.

This is the sort of stuff that makes me wish I could edit my comments for. I look back and see flubbed spellings and hamfingered typings that just scream out to my inner OCD to be fixed.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:40 PM on May 16, 2006

Oh, you don't have to point them out to us.

We all noticed. And. We're judging you.
posted by sonofsamiam at 2:43 PM on May 16, 2006

the life today of a Blossom/Sabrina fan must be a cold and lonely one bathed in the pale glow of NotePad as they pour over the latest Blossom/Sabrina slash from 1998. Coughing, they draw the pale blue blanket over thin shoulders as they lean forward, squinting, hoping to make pixelated and often misspelled words breathe life into their hollow shell again.

Awesome.
posted by freebird at 2:43 PM on May 16, 2006

I have to say, Freebird, those are some pretty spectacular comments, reminiscent of JG Ballard and Borges, in a good way.

Have you tried to sell any of your fiction? I'm confident that you could, if you took the time to polish those up.
posted by empath at 2:45 PM on May 16, 2006

My favourite, no doubt about it: Why do homeless people in the Paris metros say "seven", in English, to themselves?
posted by louigi at 2:54 PM on May 16, 2006

No need for a project. Not that it is a bad idea, but I don't think we use the wiki enough..

I added titles to some stories. Please, original authors, change them! If people think generic text is better than my titles I will happily remove my creative meddling.

I've only listed stories mentioned in this thread, and only upto this post.
posted by Chuckles at 3:09 PM on May 16, 2006

"I've been doing more of these, because I like them when other folks do them, and because I feel generally OK about them afterwards rather than feeling dirty and embarassed and kinda...itchy... like after I get involved in the usual in-joke pile-on."

I always find your "story" comments interesting and imaginative Freebird, but this is my favorite thing you have written.
posted by vronsky at 3:34 PM on May 16, 2006

I found this comment about biking around Lake Michigan, via the fantastic posts and comments page.
posted by hooray at 3:56 PM on May 16, 2006

Goodness, some of these little ficciones are fabulous, Freebird's especially.

And I wonder if Borges effectively strangled this form at birth by dint of the fact that he was a total fucking genius? Can't think of anyone else who has published similarly brief, condensed prose works. I feel an AskMe question brewing...
posted by jack_mo at 4:45 PM on May 16, 2006

Freebird does some nice ones - as indicated by many.

I've done a few, many on music, art and/or counterculture.

One of my first (and probably the best) here was the one about the SpaceShipOne X-prize launch.
posted by loquacious at 5:48 PM on May 16, 2006

All the linked comments are great. But part of the reason they're great is that they're also rare.
posted by mullacc at 6:12 PM on May 16, 2006

I loved that X prize story.

I agree about the rareness aspect, to some extent. I think if a lot of people wanted to write MeFi stories, we might have to encourage them to put them elsewhere and link from the threads. But there's not a lot of it going on, and I feel like I would rather see more of it than less in most threads, so I don't think we're too close to that point yet.
posted by freebird at 6:25 PM on May 16, 2006

Thanks, freebird. And yeah, I agree about the rareness.

I think the whole process is self-rarifying because a number of things need to be in place for these kinds of posts to happen: The writer needs to have the very real free time available, the writer needs a jumping off point, and the writer needs the focus and drive to actually write it and post it in a timely manner - because MeFi threads are very time-sensitive.

In the case of the SpaceShipOne post, that was pre-written and fit in nicely as is - an eyewitness report. For the rest I've also written some multi-page monster posts in real time, and it can be hellaciously challenging. The time constraints, the adept readership, the subject matters - all of these conditions have improved my writing and even my thinking. By force, even by fire. And that kicks all kinds of ass.

Note: I don't say any of this because I want to toot my own crotchetal regions or I think I'm some hot shit writer - but as someone else once put so eloquently in a MeTa thread - "I just like typing." I like typing as well, and I like typing well. It's addictive. I get off on it like a drug - and it goes well above and beyond the wicked, selfish pleasures of simply hearing yourself speak. Every single longish, story-like post I've posted here has been a pleasure to create and not at all like work. Which, as a writer, is something very valuable. It's one of the things that attracted me to MeFi was the good writing and thinking, and one of the things that keeps me here.
posted by loquacious at 7:01 PM on May 16, 2006

And I wonder if Borges effectively strangled this form at birth by dint of the fact that he was a total fucking genius? Can't think of anyone else who has published similarly brief, condensed prose works. I feel an AskMe question brewing...

Not as technically proficient, but I'll always have a soft spot for the short-shorts of Fredric Brown.
posted by EarBucket at 7:10 PM on May 16, 2006

This kind of thing?
posted by Jofus at 1:49 AM on May 17, 2006

Mew and mew?

Also, viva freebird.
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:56 AM on May 17, 2006

Not quite a short story, but I had fun.
posted by bigbigdog at 9:01 AM on May 17, 2006