Lab #5
While we read each other's submissions and everyone pummels mine into oblivion, here's the next lab to get everyone thinking.
Title : Sahib, Biwi aur Golem.
[That's right, a piece in the style+vocabulary of early Indian fiction, in the social-novel milieu, but with a western supernatural creature inserted into the plot. That means traditional creatures like fairies, golems (duh), vampires, werewolves. Not creatures mentioned in only a specific book or movie, like Cthulhu, He-who-must-not-be-named, Jason Voorhees, or Replicants.]
Constraints : Note the vocabulary bit above. I mean it. Really.
Word Limit : 500 words or so.
Deadline : 10th November.
Title : Sahib, Biwi aur Golem.
[That's right, a piece in the style+vocabulary of early Indian fiction, in the social-novel milieu, but with a western supernatural creature inserted into the plot. That means traditional creatures like fairies, golems (duh), vampires, werewolves. Not creatures mentioned in only a specific book or movie, like Cthulhu, He-who-must-not-be-named, Jason Voorhees, or Replicants.]
Constraints : Note the vocabulary bit above. I mean it. Really.
Word Limit : 500 words or so.
Deadline : 10th November.
Labels: lab5
posted by Sudarshan at 1:51 AM
9 Comments:
Nice. I wonder if the title came first ;-)
wow. I don't know whether I have any clue about the milieu, but will try. The title alone is worth the effort :-)
But of course the title came first :). I thought of requiring a literal golem, but this much seems better.
As for milieu, JR, you could look through books on books.google.com, there are several books set in the Raj era that give some idea of the style.
Doubt: What do you mean by "western supernatural". Does it have to be an existing, well known figure from fantasy (movies/books) ?
Abhishek : From Western folklore. I should've been more specific. By that I mean, traditional creatures like fairies, golems (duh), vampires, werewolves. Not creatures mentioned in only a specific book or movie.
S, how about a few titles @ books.google.com? that way we don't have to worry about getting on the wrong train and can focus our creative energy on The Lord, The Wife and Saamri ;)
Well, Tagore is a good starting point : http://www.readbookonline.net/books/Tagore/134/
If you can read Kanthapura by Raja Rao, that's another reference point. The whole book isn't on google, but there's quite a nice long appendix. Search for it.
In case the links below don't work, you could do a search...
'Folk Tales of Bengal', by Lal Behari Day is a good example: http://books.google.com/books?id=bZ26QiZeJpMC&dq=bengal+folks+tales
'Memoirs of the Emperor Jahangueir[sic]' Not strictly fiction, but well...
http://books.google.com/books?id=keMnAAAAMAAJ&dq=Memoirs+of+the+Emperor+Jahangueir
Stuff by Mulkraj Anand and translated Sharadchandra would probably fit, though this might mean more work than expected for a writing exercise :)
I think some explanation also needed when you mean "vocabulary". You're the one who's going to check, so what are you looking for? What words are banned for example?
Dude, use your imagination - if a word/phrase feels like it belongs to desi-type fiction, go ahead and use it. Everyone has different ideas, and so everyone's going to produce something different. That's what we want. I'm certainly not going to be 'checking'/grading submissions, this isn't a test.
PS. You probably shouldn't be using 'dude' in the submission. 'doodh' might be usable though.
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