Fire

Nov. 16th, 2005 01:41 am
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[personal profile] jack
Flashback. The ancestors of the current greenenders cast huddle in a damp cave, scraping the last of the meat of antelope bones, and shivering in the cold of the oncoming winter. Then the shaman shouts, and the humanoids turn to look. He is waving some carefully dried sticks, and in a moment they blaze with light and heat, and ignite a pile of kindling. The tribe draw round awed. Winter is averted, man has triumphed over nature.

End flashback. I turned on the radiator in my bedroom.

Winter has begun[1].

[1] cryptonomicon reference

PS. I shouldn't really have used the 'fire' tag, but it felt left out, you know?

Date: 2005-11-16 11:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] minipoppy.livejournal.com
Aha
The leaves of Shanhai
Pale doorways in a steel sky...

I am a bit suspicious about the number of syllables in the second line, I know you can say pale all in one go, and ditto with steel, but both together seems like he's cheating.

Btw, did you know that Greenenders is the name of an environmentally-friendly coffin company? Possibly you did, and that is the joke and not knowing you I missed that...

Date: 2005-11-16 02:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
Yay!

I am a bit suspicious about the number of syllables in the second line, I know you can say pale all in one go, and ditto with steel, but both together seems like he's cheating.

Yes, I don't know if that counts. Though earlier in the chapter he does wonder this about 'tires' and 'wail' , so it's supposed to be an effort, not a perfect haiku.

I really don't know enough about it. I've picked up enough to know that the japanese system doesn't translate to syllables exactly, and afaict all english systems are approximations.

Date: 2005-11-16 02:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com
Btw, did you know that Greenenders is the name of an environmentally-friendly coffin company? Possibly you did, and that is the joke and not knowing you I missed that...

LOL! No. The morbidity sort of works, though!

The derivation was I think thanks to pete, because (a) I think my life is a soap opera and (b) I have a lot of friends associated with the greenend server, chiark.

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