Paula’s Comments (group member since Oct 28, 2015)

Paula’s comments from the Science Fiction Microstory Contest group.

Fine poem, Jot.

We're to memorize those and compare to the terms to the tech we may think of--? ;)

I hope we will all find the heart to contribute to this!Jot wrote: "A participant of the contest, Ree Denhere, asked me to share a link to her's mom's gofundme page for her emergency spine surgery:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/jtken5-spi......"

I rather agree, Marianne. You are not alone in this.Marianne wrote: "My 2 cents. I do this for fun and to keep my sanity. I have no interest in ranking systems, and if I happen to win one month, I raise a glass, and that is about it. But this is just me,"

Nicely said, Marianne. ;) Marianne wrote: "Thanks, Justin, WTF 001 behaved liked a New Yorker ;) We get the job done, bitching and moaning all the way. And when a crisis hits, it is all hands on deck.

Thanks, C."

Thank you, C.
I didn't notice the "garbage" requirement, lol. Oh well.
Thanks again.
C. wrote: "Critique of Compat by Paula Friedman

1-5 Hypernova stars:
A. Overall story enjoyment: 4
B. Writing quality: 5
C. Scientific content quality: 4
D. Emotive quality: 4
E. Ending strength: 5
F. Compli..."

Jack wrote: "Paula, your story made me think of some future version of an old and stuffy English black and white film. Everyone knows best until the man says, "woman, you bore me." Then no one knows anything. N..."
Thank you, Jack. Do you know the 1950 film Rocketship XM? Where the guys are constantly ignoring the woman (the scientist's daughter--this is a 1950 film) and her points, but they keep turning out accurate? (Screenwriter was the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo.)

Ha, finally got one posted this month.

Compat
Copyright © 2019 by Paula Friedman

“Every happy marriage is alike, every unhappy marriage is 24/7 living hell for those spice (read: spouses) reciprocally entrapped, and btw God help their offspring; therefore”—the First Magistrate peered down from his box upon them—“it was in 2069 determined that when, after 5.9 years. a couple be deemed incorrigibly irreconcilable, a full data-determination derived out of their in-home autovids, sound-media postings, Netstream records, MMPI I-III and IV(a) results [EliPhoneB-interpreted], blood draws, mDNA and DNA co-samplings, bloodtypes, height, and BMI scores, and all other practicable and cost-effective findings, are to be applied so that there be enabled, for each member of the separating pair, his/her/zee’s or its Perfecto-Matched and unique Compat: that is, what the ancients termed”—here the First and Second Magistrate each appeared to smile—“one’s Other Half. Or, today perhaps oftener, Other Fraction.” Again, that appearance of smiles.

“And, indeed, thus is assured, to the outmost limits of human attainability, complete and permanent marital content, at least in 99999999999999999999999999999999999999.9999999 percent of cases, if not necessarily of joy.” Again, the Magistrates’ synchronic smiles. “So why, Amanda?”

Behind the long brown waves of hair that hung across the broad white forehead, half-hiding her long golden eyes, the young woman’s head shook back and forth. Tears streamed down her soft pale cheeks. The eyes seemed to plead, fixed first upon the Second Magistrate and then upon the First.

“Well, Ralph, can you, perhaps, enlighten us?” The First Magistrate commanded, beaming his gaze upon the tousled, swarthy youth sitting, legs crossed, a Vapo-Lite in matte-black holder clenched between long manicured fingers. “Tell this Court—how can you two not be compatible?”

The youth shrugged, made a small cough, shrugged again.

“Your honors—” The woman called Amanda had half-risen from her bench. “I am despairing. Ralph has not—” Tears fell; eyes still pleading, she sat back down.

The Magistrates moved together, conferred. Only thirty and three-quarter days had intervened, they noted, since Ralph and the woman had been introduced; he had been matched with her for temperament-in-action, capabilities for showing joy, and ways of handling anger; even their initial bursts of love had been the same.

“And so . . . perfectly compatible with you, Amanda,” said Magistrate 2. The woman only sobbed.

“Perfectly.” The Magistrates turned. “Ralph, answer.”

Deep Baritone voice barely tremoring in the courtroom’s sudden silence, Ralph clicked to its feet and, almost inaudibly (as a yawn intervened) replied a taut “Very well.” Lifting the matte-black holder and inhaling, “How you bore me, Amanda,” It said.

[419 words]

I loved your story, Greg. The situation/worldbuilding, the liveliness of it, the visual vividness, the ending! Terrific.

Jot, who would be doing the rankings?
As I've been seeing on a photographers group on FB, as soon as rewards are involved (in that case, having the top-ranked "photo" be the profile shot for the following week), the collegial, mutually supportive spirit among the people involved either fades bit-by-bit or simply vanishes. Otoh, using outside "judges" only works if everyone agrees the judges are capable (though, of course, that's true with peer rankings too).

Jack wrote: "Could even turn it into a monthly magazine. Submit stories after logging in. Top 5 or 7 vote getters appear in the next issue"
There are only 6 or 7 regular story-contributors each month, so how would this differ from current mode?
C wrote "A Darth Vader tie or scarf would be nice. : )" --category scoring, if you must go "ranking" one another, certainly is a good idea, though, and those are excellent categories. ;)

Fascinating story, Jack.
Marianne--nice one--intriguing.
Jot--I've thought before that you've a definite sensibility for poetry and could well be doing more of it. This is a very lively, flowing piece!

Surely the rating algorithm would have to factor in the number of persons entering--and number voting--in each contest. And you would want to rethink letting anyone in the wider sf group or Goodreads generally, even if unknown to this sf microstories group, vote in the contests.
Sorry if that sounds picayune, but I've just been looking at Daily Kos's and a couple other political "polls" and it makes one very skeptical about polls and weird-form vote-counting. I believe the operative phrase would be "how to obfuscate with statistics."
However, if you're going to run the group, or a monthly magazine, based on vote count, please note that this removes some of the (imho) best writers to have participated in these monthly contests--many of whom have already dropped out, of course. This in fact brings out again the very major difference in aesthetic taste between those active in the first three years of this group and those most active since.

Justin, I found your story crystal clear, to begin with. Sorry anyone made you feel it needed explanations. It's a very fine piece; send it to magazines.

Brilliant and delightful story, Justin, with its marvelously told "incident." Nice work.

Tom wrote: "Thank you, very much, Paula. That's very flattering. Classic? Thank you, but I didn't think the story was all that original, really.

I'm sorry to say, I don't know what you're referring to with re..."
I guess I felt that the angle/point was clear before the last paragraph (not by the penultimate paragraph, but before the ultimate paragraph), and so the last paragraph was not needed or, if retained, should have some additional point or twist.

Thank you, Tom. I like writing reviews. And stories. Just so little time to, as editing pays poorly and so I'm always hustling/working. Tom wrote: "Paula...Thank you for contributing reviews last month. I've always appreciated your input, as I'm sure we all have."

Tom, what a brilliant use of this theme! You may have written a story that can become (find the right publisher for it now!) classic. Only, the last few lines--from just before the three-starred last paragraph, approximately--weaken it, imo--so many other ways you could take it (maybe a bit longer). Wow.

Thank you, C. I am honored and flattered--much appreciated.