Date:         Fri, 5 Jan 1996 09:41:25 EST
From: "A punching bag..." <mbarker@MIT.EDU>
Subject:      EXERCISE:  Pick a Story...
Comments: To: Golden Gloves! <writers@mitvma.mit.edu>

We will start the year with a simple exercise.  Pick a number from one
to six.  Those of you equipped with dice should use one--roll it, and
see what number turns up.

Well, did you pick a number?

You can't go on until you pick a number.  If one to six is too hard,
just pick one of your fingers and use the other hand to count and find
out which one it is.

[yawn...yes, I'll wait...just don't scroll down until you get that
number...here, let me show you the choices.

there's one, two, three, four, five, or six.

heck, Dr. Woggle says he can count them on the toes of one foot, but
that's a foot of a different species...:-]

You got a number, right?  So, look at the corresponding entry, please?

1.  Churinga--a name given to sacred tablets of wood or stone containing
the souls of members of Australian tribes.  After death these tablets
are hidden in trees or clefts until such time as a suitable mother for
the reincarnation of the soul appears in the vicinity when the soul
leaves the tablet and follows her home.

2.  Couvade--a ritual custom, common all over the world, whereby after
the birth of a child the father takes to bed for ten to twelve days.  It
has been suggested that this is a form of Geasa, Tabu, or Novana,
whereby individuals, or even whole tribes, have applied to them the same
preclusion and precaution as are imposed on the mother of the
(presumably) royal child.  An alternative explanation is that the
practice is intended to obviate the ritual sacrifice of the first-born,
which formed such an important part of the religious background of many
peoples, including the Hebrews.  A Basque family living in the south of
France practiced the couvade as recently as September 1952.

3.  Cyhiraeth--a celtic goddess of streams who degenerated into a
spectre haunting woodland brooks and whose shriek foretold death.

4.  Daksha--in vedic myth...there was a great quarrel between Daksha and
his son-in-law, during which Siva, infuriated at not being invited to a
great sacrifice which Daksa had organized, sent a monster, Vira-bhadra,
which cut off the head of Daksha.  Subsequently the parties were
reconciled but it was only possible for Daksha to be given a goat's head
in place of his own.

5.  Fei Lien--chinese god of the wind.  He is also associated with
drought, through his ability to dry up the soil and so prevent the
growth of crops.  He keeps his winds in a large sack, from which he lets
them escape in the direction he chooses.  In his human form he is known
as Feng Po.

6.  the cord used to restrain the Fenris Wolf of Nordic myth...made by
the dwarfs from "the noise of the footfall of a cat, the beards of
women, the roots of stones, the sinews of bears, the breath of fish, and
the spittle of birds."  as light as silk but strong enough to hold
Fenrir...

Some interesting little nuggets from "Who's Who in Non-Classical
Mythology" by Egerton Sykes, eh?

Your task, should you be moved to words, is to take this quirky little
nugget and build it into a story.  Maybe your heroine, faced with
having a child, insists that hubby follow her family's long tradition
of couvade?  Or maybe the police pick up an old chinese homeless
man--who blows them off their feet with his bag of winds?

I like taking old bits and pieces and building them into modern reality,
but maybe you'd prefer just telling us the story of the fading of the
stream goddess, a sad poem of lingering loss and dying beliefs...

Do what you like, but (as always) write soon, and write well.

[*Starting is such sweet agony, you say?  okay, okay...how about

    "There must be a way to take an ear off," she said as she rummaged
in the tool chest.

Whose ear is she going to take off?  Why?  And what kind of tool do you
think she is going to use?

And just who is she talking to?...*]

For those who are confused, the first part is one exercise.  The little
bit in the [* *] is a second exercise, just a "seed sentence" which
someone might use to start a piece with.  Admittedly, a few members seem
to like doing both exercises at the same time, making a single joint
exercise...but we won't ask and they won't tell if they inhale.

be reading you!
tink