I just had an amazing experience that history will show to be significant one day. I contributed the words ‘Jennifer wept.‘ to (yet another) online story being written by (yet another) bunch of interesting people.
My feeling is that something significant is going on with this one - an early experience of future literacies and connectivism that I understand but cannot yet credibly explain. I will attempt to do that in future posts, for now I want to record my experience while it is still fresh.
If you are not already familiar (or bored or incensed) with twittories check out this, this and this.
I joined the gang at position #18 and didn’t really think much of it until about Tuesday night. The story was underway and it appeared that I might need to write something on Wednesday. I could hardly get to sleep - my mind raced on long complex sentences comprising no more than 140 characters. About 2am I hit on the idea of using the minimum number of words to cause maximum disruption to the plot line. (I have always hated writing, was self branded as slow learner at school because of my hate of serialised text). I thought I could kill off the main character and maybe shift time in a very short sentence.
Wednesday arrived and the plot was progressing nicely. I took computers to work and made sure I was on the net all day. The pace of updates was torturous - sometimes very fast, others excruciatingly slow (and all of it non-deterministic). To my horror the main character was already under threat, no make that dead - probably.
Thursday morning and still two people ahead of me in the queue. Finally @notaphysicist put us out of our misery and made Julian drink the poison - but he still wasn’t dead - and those ‘watery eyes’ kept my mind racing (from the Bible to Mustang Sally if you must know). Off to work, home again, the agonising wait for @hugosharp and my turn. Then I received the call (via SMS courtesy of twitter direct message). Quick check the twittories wiki - still nothing from the author ahead of me. Back to twitter for ‘twittories @fang you’re up, I’ve bumped @hugosharp tot he bottom’.
Finally, its my turn. The pressure, the intense gaze of my newfound peers and the entire interweb (well maybe not entire). Indellible ink - recorded for all time on the intertubes. Fingers twitching I issue the most significant tweet of my life:
‘ @twittories Jennifer wept. ‘
Refresh, Refresh, … Refresh, not showing on twitter. Then, to my horror this: twittories
@fang is that your entry? did you see hugo got in?
about 3 hours ago
from Snitter
in reply to fang
. What? @hugosharp has posted a line - what does it say? Nothing in twitter, nothing on the twittories wiki. Oh, well - I suppose my entry will look stupid now. So much for my subversive plan to potentially name the ‘Cold One’ and imply the end of the confict with the overlords (or introduce a new character) in just two words.
Finally, the wiki is updated to reveal something even better than I could have planned:
#13 - (@iankath) - moved to #141
#14 - (@Bronwen) He was as tactless as she was cold. “Perhaps,” she said, “I do this on my own.” His obsession had gone far enough.
#15 - (@andrewsayer)
“At least the poison in his drink will be be fast acting” she reassured
herself. It was not the first time she had killed a man
#16 - (@notaphysicist)
Julian gulped his drink and collapsed into the sofa, numb. He felt the
poison. The bitch! All he had left were his watery eyes.
#17 - (@hugosharp) How? How did she know he was an overlord?! His system rapidly deteriorating, visions of the last few weeks raced in his mind.
#18 - (@fang) Jennifer wept.
#19 - (@abuttigieg)
SWEET - now things are even more ambiguous. Is Julian dead? Is Jennifer the cold one? Is the conflict with the overlords over? We will have to wait and see what @abuttigieg and the rest of the team come up with.
The Darkness Inside - The Story So Far
“I have this rule,” she said, colder than the dark side of the moon. “We only talk using public channels from now on.”
Julian bolted up knocking his seat over, fists tightly clenched. “You
can’t be serious! We’re being closely monitored as it is!” She, the
Cold One, who will remain nameless due to the ongoing conflict with the
overlords, stared at J with ice daggers as eyes. Her history with
Julian spanned years, to their time in Majorca, through Europe and
Asia, then to here at the gates of hell.
“Ahh! I don’t like this new avatar of yours”, Julian said, “you were so
much hotter before! Can’t we roll back a few versions?” “Like hell,”
she said. “I don’t want you thinking that there’s more than there is.”
Privately, she cringed, hating the lies. He sighed, wondering why she
was making such a big deal. “OK, can’t we just agree to disagree, at
least until it’s done?”
She thought for a while. Disagree? No she would not have it. Why could
he not see her metamorphosis? She poured another gin. I’ll play his
game, and once we’ve conquered the overlords, i’ll unveil the real me -
stripped from this avatar facade. Until then… She raised her glass in
a gesture as scripted as it was joyless. Would it be enough? “To
truth,” she said. They drank, a smile creeping across her face as she
watched Julian empty his glass, the little umbrella resting upon his
cheek.
“So where do we go from here?” Julian asked her. “I don’t like leaving
things just hanging. I need to know how we stand and what happens now.”
He was as tactless as she was cold. “Perhaps,” she said, “I do this on
my own.” His obsession had gone far enough. “At least the poison in his
drink will be be fast acting” she reassured herself. It was not the
first time she had killed a man. Julian gulped his drink and collapsed
into the sofa, numb. He felt the poison. The bitch! All he had left
were his watery eyes. How? How did she know he was an overlord?! His
system rapidly deteriorating, visions of the last few weeks raced in
his mind.
Jennifer wept.
If you are interested in helping me organise a team to record an audio podcast of the story please read THIS and get involved. No rules - any help appreciated.
p.s. I don’t care if twittories was first, or if Cam is a wanker - something significant has happened here.
Fang - Mike Seyfang
technorati tags:seyfang, mikeseyfang
6 responses so far ↓
1
jerry
// Dec 14, 2007 at 8:03 am
Interesting stuff Mike - I have been drifting away from twitter but really like this use of it. I’d like to hear more about your plans for an audio version.
Cheers,
Jerry.
2
Clay Burell
// Dec 15, 2007 at 6:02 pm
Mike, I’m overdue dropping this note of admiration of your headspace on this blog. Your creativity is right on. Keep it coming.
I think I’ve lurked for so long because you seem too far ahead of me in Geekland for me to feel like I can keep up. But that’s a lame excuse ;)
3
mseyfang
// Dec 15, 2007 at 6:35 pm
Thanks for making yourself known Clay.
I too love learning (and hate school ;-)
Fang
4
Judy O'Connell
// Dec 15, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Good stuff Fang. Needs more exploring for sure. Help wanted? No better offers then count me in. Otherwise go with the best. :-)
5
Invitation to a Twittory | Beyond School
// Dec 15, 2007 at 8:10 pm
[...] what a Twittory is? Yet another amazing OZucator, Mike Seyfang, turned me on to this with his most excellent post today (from his most explosively creative edublog), in which he writes: The story was underway and [...]
6
Jane Nicholls
// Dec 17, 2007 at 6:09 am
Sounds like fun! I would love to be involved in a twittory, however, the pressure may get to me… Profound, be profound Jane, people are reading this…
Oh my, imagine the power of this with our students !
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