Does a question count as a story?
For sale? Baby shoes, never worn?
Finally, goth GF. Penis stops working.
Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1540/
Because, of course, there’s an XKCD.
um akshually...
It’s an imitation xkcd – from here.
Relevant xkcd
But is there a relevant XKCD about recursion?
First that comes to mind is Hofstadter.
Not only relevant to recursion, but also to 6 word stories. Truly perfect!
Both of the panels with Hemingway speaking are also 6 words each, meaning they can be viewed as their own short stories.
Five panels on famous six words.
🎶This comment’s just six words long.🎶
Another verse: it’s now a song. 🎶
Steam Library: hundred games, never played.
Edit: counting is hard
On a tangent, here I go:
Wedding dress delivered. Groom never returned.
He called once. Then silence forever.
Letters unopened. He died that week.
Dog waited. Door never opened again.
She smiled. Then the monitors flatlined.
Mirror smiled after I walked away.
Closet door open. I never moved.
Funeral today. I’m still breathing, barely.
Grave dug early. They knew already.
My reflection blinked. I did not.
Two hearts: One stayed, one wandered.
Her perfume lingered years after goodbye.
Lottery won. Lost the ticket. Typical.
Ghosted her. Married her later. Oops.
Bought a treadmill. Great clothes rack.
Sold soul. Gave refund. Customer dissatisfied.
Baby monitor crackled. Crib was empty.
He knocked. She’d buried him yesterday.
The photograph moved slightly overnight. Again.
Door locked. Knob still turned slowly.
She smiled. Her eyes stayed still.
Found diary. Last entry dated tomorrow.
Wedding called off. Groom found headless.
Funeral roses wilted before they arrived.
Swings creaked. Children gone years ago.
Widow slept. Husband’s ring felt warm.
Coffin opened. No one inside, again.
Did the doll wink at me?
Mother hummed lullabies to the ashes.
Eyes in mirror weren’t my color.
House sighed. Walls remembered the screaming.
Child drew me perfectly…before meeting.
Therapist wrote “delusional.” Then vanished, too.
The dog one is the saddest.
Can’t beat Hemingway at his game.
Writing short stories is very hard.
One short story explains the other
I see what you did there.
A misatribution of Hemingway leading all the way back to Babylon is one hell of a rabbit hole. I love the Fediverse for this.Replied at wrong level.
Damn, that title tho
wasn’t impressed by the gun hands dracula, and then got sucker punched by the one in the title
That’s the original six-word story.
Are hyphenated words just one word?
I think they aren’t? Not sure.
Eternal life suckling from the creature.
Forced alone. Ejected from the creature.
Dim lights. Gentle embrace. The creature.
I wiped. Then noticed the creature.
The creature filed taxes. Again. Incorrectly.
I brought chips. So did the creature.
We hugged. The creature erect. Alarming.
The creature moaned. My kneecaps buckled.
You fuckin wot m8?
Darmok and Jalad and the Creature.
Not just a story, it’s a graphic novel
A comic book of epic proportions.
I feel like that’s a question, and not a story. A six word story could be more like: “Gun-handed Dracula shot Van Helsing dead” or, if you count hyphenated words as two words, you could do: “Gun-handed Dracula shot Van Helsing”
Can’t a question be a story?
Is there no balm in Gilead?
That got dark quickly. I’m sincerely impressed. Good job.
Just a paraphrase of Poe, no credit due to me!
Is that not from the Bible?
Yeah, Jeremiah is what Poe was referencing in terms of his narrator character’s desperation to recover from the heartache of his own loss, but it was The Raven that I had in mind, not the prophet in Babylon.
A misatribution of Hemingway leading all the way back to Babylon is one hell of a rabbit hole. I love the Fediverse for this.
Is this ai art?
Obviously the writing is a person…
I don’t think it is, I think it’s just simple art.
It’s consistent, the shirt collars remain the same from panel to panel, the beers are all drawn the same way, and the shape of Ernest’s beard doesn’t change either.
I hate that we’re now forced to do this kind of analysis on everything.
I found out that a band I had fallen in love with was slop. The music immediately turned into sound files and was deleted.
I’m so tired of being hypervigilant.
Who is forcing you?
For me, my own principles and appreciation for human art, thought, and effort.
Or you could just… not?
Sure, just let the AI happen with no criticism. No problem will come from that.
I mean… exactly?
Just let me stick it in. You don’t have to scream.
What did this analysis here accomplish?
Prove there’s a human doing the work.
Ok
I think it’s important to be careful in what I consume - so I do always try to make sure it’s actual human art, and not algorithmic sludge
But you already consumed it
When I say “consume”, I suppose I mean “dwell on” and “appreciate”. You’re right, “consume” is a bit of a crass word actually and I should probably be more careful using it to describe how I interact with media! That’s a very fair point. Thank you 🙏
I am fairly certain this predates the current AI tools. But then my memory is far from perfect. I’m only human after all. Don’t put the blame on me.
Would you tell us if you were AI?
