[extropy-chat] Re: Transhumanist short story

Damien Broderick thespike at satx.rr.com
Wed Aug 10 20:34:05 UTC 2005


At 04:58 AM 8/10/2005 -0700, Stuart wrote:

>Once upon a time, transhumanists overcame impossible
>odds, and lived happily ever after.

Why so verbose? I have to admit that I find my own fairytale version more 
concise:

"Once upon a time, everybody lived happily ever after."

There is a great temptation to shorten these things. I'm reminded of the 
chilly modification made to a classic short short by my late friend Ron Smith:

==================

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1439751 :

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door..."

This two-sentence horror tale is presented as a story within a story, right 
at the start of Fredric Brown's 'Knock', published in the December 1948 
edition of Thrilling Wonder Stories.

... in July 1957, Ron Smith produced what he called 'A Horror Story Shorter 
by One Letter Than the Shortest Horror Story Ever Written':

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a lock on the door..."

======================

Here is my upload version, "A Horror Story Shorter by Two Letters Than 'A 
Horror Story Shorter by One Letter Than the Shortest Horror Story Ever 
Written'":

"The last man on Earth sat alone in a ROM. There was a log on the door..."

Damien Broderick




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