The Mystery of Black Box by Alysa Castillo

The Mystery of Black Box

On a bright summer morning I opened my blinds to let in some sunshine. Just then

I noticed a tall man, a little over weight with dark black hair, wearing an all gray sweat suit

jogging. In my mind I just thought that he was trying to get in shape for the summer season to

impress the ladies, but then I saw something strange. He man the man was wearing fancy shoes

like the kind you would wear with a suit. “How could you jog in dress shoes?” I asked myself.

The story of Dr. Kim and Mr. Tamjung Kim by David Kim

The story of Dr. Kim and Mr. Tamjung Kim

I had an important mission, to keep a golden diamond that was the last jewel in the whole world, and give it to the right person. Since I had to secure the gem, I slipped the luxurious gem into my underwear, decorated with different, colorful crystals. Waiting for my destination to Bangbae in Korea,

Bulyer-Lytton Writing Contest: Worst Opening for a Novel Imaginable, San Jose State University

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

--Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

Write your own otiose prose. How?
1. Imagine yourself a vain writer, debonair, hardly one to mix with the "unwashed masses."
2. Imagine you think every thought you ever had was pure gold, for "the pen is mightier than the sword."
3. Write! Make it long; stretch the comparison too far.


Some past examples:

Purple Prose:
The dark, drafty old house was lopsided and decrepit, leaning in on itself, the way an aging possum carrying a very heavy, overcooked drumstick in his mouth might list to one side if he were also favoring a torn Achilles tendon, assuming possums have them.

Scott Davis Jones

Valley Village, CA

Purple Prose:
The wind whispering through the pine trees and the sun reflecting off the surface of Lake Tahoe like a scattering of diamonds was an idyllic setting, while to the south the same sun struggled to penetrate a sky choked with farm dust and car exhaust over Bakersfield, a town spread over the lower San Joaquin Valley like a brown stain on a wino’s trousers, which is where, unfortunately, this story takes place.

Dennis Doberneck

Paso Robles, CA


Through the verdant plains of North Umbria walked Waylon Ogglethorpe and, as he walked, the clouds whispered his name, the birds of the air sang his praises, and the beasts of the fields from smallest to greatest said, "There goes the most noble among men" -- in other words, a typical stroll for a schizophrenic ventriloquist with delusions of grandeur.

Tom Wallace

Columbia, SC


When Hru-Kar, the alpha-ranking male of the silver-backed gorilla tribe finished unleashing simian hell on Lt. Cavendish, the once handsome young soldier from Her Majesty’s 47th Regiment resembled nothing so much as a crumpled up piece of khaki-colored construction paper that had been dipped in La Victoria chunky salsa.

Greg Homer

Placerville, CA

Detective:
As Holmes, who had a nose for danger, quietly fingered the bloody knife and eyed the various body parts strewn along the dark, deserted highway, he placed his ear to the ground and, with his heart in his throat, silently mouthed to his companion, “Arm yourself, Watson, there is an evil hand afoot ahead.

Dennis Pearce

Lexington, KY

Fantasy:
The wood nymph fairies blissfully pranced in the morning light past the glistening dewdrops on the meadow thistles by the Old Mill, ignorant of the daily slaughter that occurred just behind its lichen-encrusted walls, twin 20-ton mill stones savagely ripping apart the husks of wheat seed, gleefully smearing the starchy entrails across their dour granite faces in unspeakable botanical horror and carnage – but that’s not our story; ours is about fairies!

Rick Cheeseman

Waconia, MN



To enter:

The rules to the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest are childishly simple:

Each entry must consist of a single sentence but you may submit as many entries as you wish. (One fellow once submitted over 3,000 entries.)

Sentences may be of any length BUT WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND THAT ENTRIES NOT GO BEYOND 50 OR 60 WORDS, and entries must be "original" (as it were) and previously unpublished.

Surface mail entries should be submitted on index cards, the sentence on one side and the entrant's name, address, and phone number on the other.

E-mail entries should be in the body of the message, NOT IN AN ATTACHMENT (and it would be really swell if you submitted your entries in Arial 12 font). One e-mail may contain multiple entries.

Entries will be judged by categories, from "general" to detective, western, science fiction, romance, and so on. There will be overall winners as well as category winners.

The official deadline is April 15 (a date that Americans associate with painful submissions and making up bad stories). The actual deadline may be as late as early June.

The contest accepts submissions every day of the livelong year.

Wild Card Rule: Resist the temptation to work with puns like "It was a stark and dormy night."

Finally, in keeping with the gravitas, high seriousness, and general bignitude of the contest, the grand prize winner will receive . . . a pittance.

Send your entries to:

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
Department of English
San Jose State University
San Jose, CA 95192-0090, or

Inflict your entries electronically, here: srice@pacbell.net (and please include your name, phone number, and addresses--Gastropoda and e-mail [Note: this data is for our contact information, not for public consumption.]

For the full site, click here, but note that there are some entries better left unread.

April Fools

1. Spaghetti trees, smell-o-vision, stocking-colored TV's, and more!

2. Check Grammar

3. AP Preview 1994: "My Picture"

4. Grammar Part II: Comma 32f

5. "A Worn Path" pp. 631-638; RJ 29: WAL 1

HW: RJ 29

Is it needful?

1. Pray: Consider Martha and Mary

2. Poems
Read and collect

3. Commas: Section 32e, essential vs. nonessential clauses
Copy rules
Read examples
Create examples
Do letters and numbers

Spring Continues

1. Pray: Proverbs 29:25, variations on the theme

2. Literary terms

line

stanza

rhyme scheme

alliteration

consonance

assonance

3. Read Housman's "Is My Team Ploughing"
Read Hopkin's "Spring"

4. We read "Loveliest of Tree" by Housman. How does it compare with Hopkin's musings on spring?

HW: RJ 28 Write a poem of 12 or more lines

All the World's a Stage

Wednesday, 10/27

Present words

Act III, scene i
Notes on a play within a play
God is interested in art:
-Bezaleel in Ex. 31:3ff
- the OT sacrificial system was a play within a play
- our life, practice for heaven, etc.
"Art imitates life" - Aristotle (about 320 B.C.)
"Life imitates art" - Oscar Wilde (1889)
Here, art imitates art: reflexive, self-conscious, simultaneously creative and critical,
easily overdone, often satirical

Read

RJ 10:
a. What aspects of his own profession might Shakespeare be satirizing with the mechanics?
b. Give examples of life imitating art today (style, movies, music, etc.).
Length: 1/2 page

HW: RJ 10

Midsummer Reading (Finish Act II)

Tuesday, 10/26

Present words
Read together: Act II, scene ii

HW: None

Midsummer's English Accent

Monday, 10/25



1. Review the week

2. RJ 9: Assign two words to each student from unit 6 vocabulary

3. Read Act II, scene ii.
a. Notice the punctuation of "Nay," in context.
b. Note the difference between our two texts with a single word ("interchanged"). What does this difference signify? Which version is correct?
i. Note iambic pentameter
ii. Note rhyming couplets

4. Work on tomorrow's teaching ("A" for fun and accurate presentations, "B' for good presentations, "C" for complete presentations).

HW: RJ 8-9 (RJ 8 was the second coastal poem; you are encouraged to write about an aspect of the coast we often glance over or don't discuss)

Reverence and goldy fear...

"Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:28-29).

What would the opposite look like? Perhaps playing "Another One Bites the Dust" or "Highway to Hell" at a funeral...which it appears may be a temptation to some.

Diabolical Epistle

Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape. Click the link and scroll down for a dramatic retelling of a wicked writ.