Critique Of Passing Sentence Game #2

Harried Houdini: Superhero As An Ex-Cape Artist

This critique of the Passing Sentence Game #2, which you can read at These Booths Are Made For Walking , is by Nirmal Ghosh, the Thailand-based foreign correspopndent, author, photographer and award-winning film-maker. And I’d like to thank the popular blogger McGlinch for the accompanying doodle. Here’s Nirmal’s review ….

The most interesting part in this exercise is the element of unpredictability, which tests each subsequent writer's inventiveness. It brings out the child in many ways, I would say. And the challenge is not only to be inventive and pose a quirky challenge to the next writer, but to keep some semblance of the story line alive as lifeline, so to speak.

It seems to work here, though the story line of course is a bit basic (have to keep it that way in the first experiment, otherwise with more complex stories one would need the moderator to step in at some point maybe, to nudge it back to some kind of sense, so one of course one can't expect War and Peace on the first round!).

It is exhilarating to read, because the imagery comes in an unpredictable rush. It is impossible to say whether some of the sentences were the product of deliberation, or of spontaneous creativity. The very fact that one knows they were written by different people at different times in different parts of the world is exciting. Also, the sentences are well matched. Congratulations to the writers on achieving this apparent seamlessness.

Try an experiment: edit out the credits and read the whole thing in one shot and see how it comes off.

I can think of some variations in the formula. Try rhyme for instance. Or nonsense prose? Keeping a story line alive and kicking for any length of time would be a challenge, and you can make it as easy or difficult as you like. Another question : how long can this be sustained until a reader loses interest/track? 25 sentences? 50? 100? 1000? Whew, exhausting.. just think of the prospect of a collectively written novel perhaps? The mind boggles.

On the whole, great stuff, and a great start. Most importantly, it makes one smile :) and that's good enough for me!