Thursday, April 3, 2014

OULIPOST #3: DEFINITIONAL LIT


The prompt:

Select a single sentence from a newspaper article. Replace each meaningful word in the text [verb, noun, adjective, adverb] by its dictionary definition. Repeat this treatment on the resulting sentence, and so on, until you’ve had enough! Note that after only two such treatments with a relatively compact dictionary, even a two-word sentence can produce an accumulation of 57 words.

*Note: I've seen all these gorgeous blogs and websites with images..I felt jealous. I am web designer by day but can't bring myself to do it at all at night.

When I read this prompt, I got nervous. I thought how the heck will I do this. I then realized..I can stop when I want to. I stopped after finishing the third lines third verb. I felt it wrote and completed itself. I did remove some "a's", "to's" and cut off longer definitions. I am not too sure of this piece but it is something and I am writing again so yippee!!!


Now, I found one of the most ridiculous sentences I've ever read on the front page of a newspaper. It was probably the first that I read today and I couldn't stop laughing.....

"It had all the appearances of a serendipitous selfie."


To possess
The whole quantity or extent of a particular group or thing
The way that someone or something looks
Occurring or discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way
A photograph that one has taken of oneself,

Have as belonging to one,
All of, entire
The amount or number of a material or immaterial thing not usually estimated by spatial measurement,
the area covered by something
Used to single out an individual member of a specified group or class

A number of people or things that are located close together or are considered or classed together
An object that one need not, cannot, or does not wish to give a specific name to,
a method, style, or manner of doing something
Unknown or unspecified person
direct one's gaze toward someone or something
Happen,
Find
A possibility of something happening

Source: Farrell, Michael B. "White House selfie furnishes a closeup of the marketing world." The Boston Globe, 3 Apr 2014.

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