Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Say it With Haiku

Have you ever thought
That anything you can write
Looks artsy in verse?

Here's a fun project. Take a random book passage and paraphrase it in a haiku. Like this:


Another policeman was standing in the hall. He looked terribly young, and he was leaning very slightly back against the wall, staring at the floor and holding his helmet against his stomach. His face was pale and shiny. (Douglas Adams, The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul)

becomes:

Second cop, so young
Off-balance, pale and shiny
About to be sick

More:

A bulging sack remained at Stilgar's feet. He crouched, placed his palms against it. Someone came up beside him, crouched at his elbow, and Paul recognized Chani's face in the hood shadow.
"Jamis carried thirty-three liters and seven and three-thiry-seconds drachms of the tribe's water," Chani said. (Frank Herbert, Dune)

becomes:

Thirty-three liters
A fighting man's life reduced
To rounded measure

"Riddikulus!" he shouted, and they had a split-second's view of Snape in his lacy dress before Neville let out a great "Ha!" of laughter, and the boggart exploded, burst into a thousand tiny wisps of smoke, and was gone. (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

"Riddikulus! Ha!"
Snape in a dress. Explosion!
Only smoke remains

It's a fun game. If you like that sort of thing.

20 comments:

egan said...

You're more creative than ten Matt Groenings. I know talent when I see it.

Anonymous said...

Brilliant, C. Great game. You play so well.

I've tried to do the first star wars film.

A kid and a rogue
Travelled and found a weak spot
Then blew the thing up.

By the way, sometimes asked in the comments to my last post if I could send you to him. I felt I should tell you, as I thought you may want a say in this matter.

Anonymous said...

TYPO!

"Someone has" and not
"sometimes." ARGH!

Trundling Grunt said...

It doesn't seem to work that well with Sam's Teach Yourself Brain Surgery in 24 hours somehow.... my printer manual isn't too promising either. Maybe I should get up and walk to the book shelf....

Toby said...

Want some gum?
Thank you. Juicy Fruit.
You sly son of a bitch, Chief. Can you hear me, too?
Yeah, you bet!
Well, I'll be goddamned, Chief! And they all, they all think you're deaf and dumb. Jesus Christ! You fooled them, Chief. You fooled them. You fooled them all! Goddamn you! What are we doing in here, Chief? What's us, two guys, doing in this fucking place? Let's get out of here.

Out.

Canada?


Canada. We'll be there before these
sons of bitches know what hit 'em.


Ken Kesey written
Masterpiece, loves chewing
gum. obviously.

C said...

Egan - Life in Hell? Or is he also the Simpsons guy?
Is that some sort of backhanded compliment?

Winters - why thank you. These are the kinds of thing I enjoy doing. What a geek. Your summarisation of SW is BRILLIANT! :)

It gratifies me that you make the same sort of typos that I do. And then, just as I do, feel compelled to fix them. :) Perhaps we are kindred souls.

See your blog for attachment information. And now to suck the last drips of wine out of my keyboard while looping that audiopost.

TG - LOL! Do I want to know why you have a brain surgery book on your computer desk? How about some Terry Pratchett??

Toby - One might almost think that guy was Cuckoo. :) It seems Cindra was just talking about him a few posts ago.

C said...

Winters - I'm not calling you a geek. I'm calling myself a geek. Not that calling you a geek wouldn't be a compliment. I like geeks.

Anonymous said...

Candace, I think you are amazing.

C said...

Why thank you, Cindra. You amaze me far more with your knitting and creative goo talents. :)

tshsmom said...

Haiku paraphrasing? That might be a neat way to help Z remember important facts. Thanks!

C said...

Awesome!! I came up with the idea after another hsing friend told me about an assignment where you take a passage from a book and simply rearrange it as a poem. I love words! ^_^

egan said...

Not a backhanded compliment. Mr. Groening did both of those you mentioned so give yourself a pat on the back... butt.

C said...

Better than the front butt. . .

Anonymous said...

Candace, you amaze me far more with your martial artistic talents and the curves and cute butt cleavage!

C said...

Butt cleavage!! I bet there's a word for that. Is there?

Anonymous said...

hmmmm...i don't know...the only things i found when looking were pretty gross...so i leave it to you to find out, hon. i still have the stomach flu...blech.

Jacob said...

I agree with Egan cuz, like him..........I see talented people.

Do you have any idea how hard I have to try to come up with just one Haiku?

By the way, was exactly IS a Haiku? Some sort of fish, I heard. Kills you if you eat it wrong or something like that, right? Good. Thought so.

The other word for butt cleavage is "crack." Funny, cuz it's not really a crack at all. That presupposes its having once been intact. Intact/Cracked.

Could you please write out the Beaufort Wind Scale as a poem for us?

C said...

Good to see you Gawpo! :)

LOL! :) Japanese for "Quick Death" ;)

Surely there must be a word for only the cleavage at the top. Much like breast cleavage is only the top bit. No? The Urban Dictionary has only "Butt Cleavage." How sad and inefficient.

Mmmm, I do love a challenge. Not saying I can overcome it, but it's always fun to try.

OK. Beaufort Wind Scale

Observe surroundings
Water and waves will tell you
How hard the wind blows


or perhaps (because I love those cute pictures down the right side of that page)

Can you see the house?
When it disappears from sight
It's a hurricane!

Or, for the more informationally desirous

See how the wind blows
Calm, light, moderate, heavy
Gale, storm, hurricane!

or

Mirror or ripples?
Waves mounting, foaming sea spray
Total destruction!

Jacob said...

Aaaahhhggghhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!Hahahahahahah! You did it! So very cool. I am rolling, C. Crap, that's good stuff. Don't you just love that "Total destruction!" I'll dig it up and take a run at it, maybe. (MAY-be.)

C said...

Hee hee! Thank you. :)

I've always loved Haiku-fests. :)