This seems real, because to be a postmodern thing would be too much of a good thing. Surely there’s something we could do with this. Dare I propose an Assignment?
(Conversational Phrases seems most promising, but all of them yielded opaque gems.)
This seems real, because to be a postmodern thing would be too much of a good thing. Surely there’s something we could do with this. Dare I propose an Assignment?
(Conversational Phrases seems most promising, but all of them yielded opaque gems.)
For example, Section XI – Miscellaneous Phrases – S is particularly fecund.
That’s too strange
One can have fun with these:
“The air was full of the cry and clamor of the accumulated bitterness of failure, the agonies of conscious failure. The applause was unbounded.”
Yes, I think a mini-Assignment. We can do them in comments right here:
Create a short passage using no more than five phrases from 15,000 Useful Phrases. The phrases must appear in the book together, with no more than one other (unused) phrase between them. In other words, the total span of phrases can be no more than nine. You do not have to use the phrases in the order in which they occur in the book. Your passage should contain only the phrases from the book with just enough connecting matter to make the passage Art.
Go.
I am torn between employing randomizing processes and choosing through an exercise of appetite.
So much word smoke. My eyes cannot focus through the tears.
Our relations with your house must have hitherto been very pleasant, although on referring to your account we notice our letter must have gone astray. Our services are at your command, but owing to our inability to collect out-standing debts, our stock has been temporarily exhausted.
See, that’s the problem. I’ll read everyone’s effort as a knife to the heart.
Piffle, man. Go select one of the sections, hit a letter of the alphabet at random, and report the first thing you see. It’s not going to be good necessarily, although with you it will be incisively brilliant with very little visible effort.
A fluttering as of blind bewildered moth. A giant galleon overhead looked like some misty monster of the deep. A glacial pang of pain like the stab of a dagger of ice frozen from a poisoned well. A glance that flitted like a bird. A great moon like a red lamp in the sycamore. A grim face like a carved mask
The abnormal talents of the adolescent youth won the affectionate approval of the affianced lady, interrupting her absorbed reverie.
Like a dead leaf might as reasonably demand to return to the tree, the drowsy murmur floats into the air like thistledown on a fatigued, faded, lusterless air, as of a caged creature to a face as imperturbable as fate, as pale as wax, and tempered like steel.
I am compelled to inform you
I am confident that you will be thoroughly satisfied
I am directed to say to you
I am giving the matter my personal attention
I am, my dear sir, yours faithfully
I am still holding this offer open to you
I ask that you be good enough
I beg to request that you give me some information
I believe I understand perfectly just how you feel about
I look forward to pleasant personal relations in the future
I shall be pleased to forward descriptive circulars
If you desire, our representative will call