Journallers and bloggers have been playing around with this 23/5 meme for a little while, and I ran across this Exquisite Corpse variation the other day at language hat that looked interesting:
Take the nearest six to ten books from your shelf.
Open them to page 23, and find the fifth sentence.
Write down those sentences and arrange them to form a short story.
Post the text in your journal along with these instructions.
I figured I’d give it a try, so here’s what I came up with:
The taxi back to New Orleans cost me forty dollars, but at least I wasn’t violently ill during the taxi ride, although I felt myself beginning to gag several times.1
I found the envelope, the keys, and rushed to Belbo’s apartment.2
The law descended on me.3
But they’re not just confronted with their own dogmatism.4
I realized what was happening, and in an instant this great truth flashed into my mind: that I was, true, a Latin and not a Greek, but, before these infuriated Latins could realize that, there would no longer be any difference between me and a dead Greek.5
This model answered well to common sense.6
Eh, not so great, but what do you want? Anybody else wanna play? Compose your story, and post it in the comments! (Or, if you’ve got your own blog or journal and want to put one there, leave a link to your site in the comments.) For extra fun, list your sources, too!
Here are mine, for the record:
1John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces
2Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum
3Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt
4Christopher Phillips, Socrates Café
5Umberto Eco, Baudolino
6Timothy Ferris, The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report
Oh, and why 23/5? Well…(?!)