The Six-Word Memoir Blog

Six Word Cliffs Notes

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

By Larry Smith

Salon’s Table Talk discussion group goes wild with a Six words to great lit’rature thread. Here are a few of my favorites:

The times were good. Also bad.
A Tale of Two Cities

Man Sleeps with Mother. Gouging Ensues.
Oedipus the King

Woman Sleeps with Preacher. Branding Ensues.
The Scarlet Letter

Hell, Purgatory, Heaven and sweet Beatrice.
The Divine Comedy

Vile man pities self, hates world.
A Confederacy of Dunces

Nothing happens. Then nothing happens again.
Waiting for Godot

You too can play. Submit your six words at Table Talk or leave them as a comment here.

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32 responses

  1. kathi says:

    hairy ass kisses the fairy queen

    (a midsummer night’s dream)

  2. MeGo (Melissa Gould) says:

    White boy, funny name, black friend.
    Huckleberry Finn

  3. MeGo (Melissa Gould) says:

    Many French words, some about cake.
    À la recherche du temps perdu

  4. Lionel Ancelet says:

    Under the age, riding old sage.
    (Lolita)

  5. Evelyn says:

    Whale eats man’s leg. Stalking ensues.

  6. Evelyn says:

    Two men. A woman. Civil War.

  7. Evelyn says:

    Stayed in bed. Kept a journal.

  8. yvonne says:

    Remarkable strength. Not a pushover. Willpower.
    INVICTUS

    Takes his punches. Walks away humbly.
    INVICTUS

    Someone whos knows who he is.
    INVICTUS

    NO matter what happens, I decided.
    INVICTUS

  9. Yen says:

    Man learns lessons while seeking God.

    “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” by John Bunyan

  10. sean says:

    Man versus nature. Nature wins. –Moby Dick

  11. sean says:

    War ain’t good. So it goes. — Slaughterhouse Five

  12. Nikki says:

    Three pages plot. Rest is sex.
    -Voyeur

  13. ali says:

    Short people obsessed with shiny jewlery.
    - Lord of the Rings

  14. Poppy Juliet Bourne says:

    Gibberish. Gibberish. Gibberish. Gibberish. The End.
    (The Sound and the Fury)

  15. Olivia says:

    Bitterness is like cancer; eats host.

  16. Olivia says:

    Nearer the dawn, darker the night.
    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  17. Perseus says:

    Gibberish. Wait, making sense now. Brilliant!
    The Sound and the Fury

  18. Peeps says:

    Eats biscuit, remembers to write memoirs.

    In Search of Lost Time - Proust

  19. Peeps says:

    Shipwrecked boy invents zippers for trousers

    Lord of the Flies

  20. Peeps says:

    Visonary author invents TV reality show

    1984

  21. Poppy Juliet Bourne says:

    Hit thirty. Lost the plot completely.
    Bridget Jones’s Diary

  22. Kate West says:

    Pulled sword, became king, betrayed. Legend.
    THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING

  23. Kate West says:

    Played God, made man, learned lesson.
    FRANKENSTEIN

  24. Poppy Juliet Bourne says:

    More sex than teenage boy’s daydreams.
    (Earth’s Children Series)

  25. Acerebel says:

    Murdered father. Horny mother. Suicidal son?
    (Hamlet)

  26. kara bernatowicz says:

    love, hot-tubs, fauns, pomegranates, Mardi Gras!

    -Jitterbug Perfume

  27. kara bernatowicz says:

    role models, references for drug use

    -sisters of the extreme

  28. kara bernatowicz says:

    gambling, “broads”, fishnet stockings, children’s book

    -French Kitty in - Las Vegas Pair-a-Dice

  29. kara bernatowicz says:

    The unbearable labour of reading, zzzzzzzz

    -The Unbearable Lightness of Being

  30. Elaine S. says:

    Teen love. Faked death. Real suicide.
    (Romeo and Juliet)

  31. Werner Prigg says:

    Well I definitely liked reading it. This information procured by you is very useful for correct planning.

  32. Six Word Cliffs Notes | The Six-Word Memoir Blog – SISA Gamification Test says:

    [...] Source:Six Word Cliffs Notes | The Six-Word Memoir BlogOK – This is a great exercise in the art of summary and succinctness.  As newspaper people used to say “Write tight, write bright”.  Basically fewer words with more meaning. [...]

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