0276: "Fixed Width"

[missingglassmarbles]

Pssh, if he really loved her, he would have been IMing in limerick form

No, he'd do that if she was a really cute girl and the sex was great, but not if he loved her. If he loved her, it would be in sonnet form.

[jmce]

Yes! A new type of sonnet: instead of having a set number of syllables in each line, there is a set number of letters (incl. spaces etc., of course). It would't really be any more restrictive than the current forms.

I know it won't be long before the first sonnet in xkcdian form shows up...

[tessuraea]

The real trick would be to write one with not only the same number of characters, but also a strict meter.

What do I get if I write one?

[Syrin]

Mad Props (tm).

And also a macadamia nut cookie, if you make it before they all disappear.

[tessuraea]

I have six of the lines right at this point...

Hard work when I should really be doing other hard work.

Edit to add: done! Although it's not very good and I wasn't as careful with the unaccented syllables as I usually am. (I wonder how many people who have xkcd tendences write formed poetry? Strict meter is a joy to work with.) When I have more time I can work on a better one...

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My world, once wild, will never change again.
Mine eyes have seen the splendour of thy gaze
while underneath the standing pine we've lain
through countless long, alluring summer days;
within our hallowed glen light's distant rays
did illuminate thine eyes, such radiant green
within that faint, effulgent, entrancing haze
lovers enjoy when daytime drifts toward e'en.
The world is fretted with a pearlescent sheen
each day that is extinguished o’er our heads;
I bless the fearless Fate, that she hath seen
and made it thus, of two once-tangled threads
has ravelled instead one strand of tapestry--
forever entwined, a love both bound and free.

(Also, anyone who gets a poem like this from someone they aren't sure they're in love with should run away. Very far away. And prepare to get a restraining order in advance.)

Oooh, another one... much better, in terms of form at least, although it's an experimental, repetitive sonnet form and the last bit sounds strange. I don't know what to do about it, though, I like the form. I could change the last couplet to an entirely new rhyme, maybe... anyway, here's fixed-width sonnet number two:

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A mirrored pleasure, often-imagined joy--
I marveled at a touch of breast to breast
and recognized the curves that I caressed
with wiles I’d only hoped I would employ.

The echo of your heart within my breast--
a voice beneath my skin singing your name
in tones admitting of no shadowed shame--
thrilled me with its resonance unguessed.

You were my mirror-self, sharing my name;
a gentle twinning, flesh reflecting flesh
and cherished sweetly in desire's creche.
In a thousand tiny ways, we are the same.

In you, I found a hidden wish made flesh:
an imagined partner and wholehearted joy.

[Vaniver]

Yes! A new type of sonnet: instead of having a set number of syllables in each line, there is a set number of letters (incl. spaces etc., of course). It would't really be any more restrictive than the current forms.

Pfff, why replace rules when you could add rules? Set number of syllables and set number of letters ftw!

[tessuraea]

/points up

[Vaniver]

/points up

Hence the win. (My point was that "instead" was suboptimal)

[tessuraea]

Oh, ooops. I thought you actually somehow missed my post with all the lots of text in it.

I win!

[laughter]

NOTE: I am insane because I have some form of insanity.

after all, it's RM who is xkcd!?

You could argue that without readership, xkcd isn't much more than bits on a server. And since we're the readers, therefore we're xkcd as much as Randy.

[jmce]

@tessuraea : ... wow . That is really amazing. Those are amazing sonnets, not least because they don't sound at all forced despite the extra restriction! Mad props to you.

@laughter : stop kidding yourself. Randall = xkcd. That's all there is to it.

[Alpha Omicron]

Although it's not very good and I wasn't as careful with the unstressed syllables as I usually am.

Quoted to fix pet peeve.

[straight]

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> I once wrote an essay comparing full justification to the rigors
> of writing within a scheme of rhyme/metre. Fully justified ASCII
> requires as much discipline, and can convey as much emotion as a
> Sonnet. The purpose of my essay was to call for serious critical
> consideration of this art-form. For instance, I would argue that
> the most satisfying examples of justification include consistent
> spacing after punctuation, paragraphs of four or more lines, and
> paragraphs the last line of which is flush, with no extra space.

I would also point out that it is important to properly employ the
verb so that one does not arrive at a sentence with a subject that
is plural followed by a singular verb, although it is certainly no
easy task to keep track of such thing when possessive pronouns are
in use and certainly I would say that errors of this kind are much
more forgivable than the other sorts of errors which one might and
often does see being made as the author attempts to force the text
to fit into the justified format, rather than letting it flow in a
natural fashion, gently conforming to the parameters that are laid
down by the genre; to this I would add the deep satisfaction of an
extremely long run-on sentence, one which has been designed from a
structurally perfect premise, a sentence that contains subordinate
clause after subordinate clause, prepositional phrases galore, the
judicious and grammatically proper usage of the subjunctive tense,
all of which is contained within the framework of the margins in a
way that compels the reader with its regularity and consistency in
line after line of neatly arranged prose, until it finally arrives
at the end of the paragraph, culminating in a terse period, as so.

[jmce]

Yeah.


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[I <3 Shadows]

I'm just going to throw this out there and see if anyone had the same thought I did when I read this one.

He wanted to say I love you, but couldn't, because quite frankly, it was most likely about the sex and he only can to the realization through allowing his thoughts to be restricted by the spacing. When you're forced to think on the spot and make things up, it much more difficult than simply telling the truth. You can lie to yourself all you want as long as you have the time to put the lies together. If you set aside the assumption that he loves her, it makes more sence that he could answer that strongly in a negative way. Hell, things couldn't have been going that well between <rob> and <emily> to begin with if she needed to ask if it was just about sex. A) It's always about sex. B) That's not the important part, it's the everything else that matters. The "just" part of the statment that makes the difference.

In this case, OCD allowed him to get to the core of himself faster. Maybe I'm just thinking this because that's the kind of thing that was going on in my life at the time, but the fact stands. If they were close, she wouldn't have needed to ask, she would have known better than to freak out, he would have found something better to say, and it would have been something to laugh at.

The end result. I think <rob> meant everything he said. It was just about sex even though he was hoping for more.

[pegasos989]

This thread had been dead a year and two days.

Over a year.

No, raise dead isn't enough. You would need resurrection. And with 5 posts, you can't possibly be able to cast 7th level spell. And you think that 4th edition will save you? HAH! Don't get me started on that ritual!

tl;dr; You didn't post that message.

[Alpha Omicron]

The fora have been experiencing a rash of necros recently.

[LE4dGOLEM]

Given the necro I would like to point out that I love when text widths match. LOVE it.

[Daoshi]

"i love you, my emily" = fixed-width.

[PickleMan]

Poor guy...

He should have said: definitely true luv