Saturday, January 17, 2015

Sunday Mini-Challenge ~ In Other Words

I have chosen two fantasy novels for our word substitution challenge this month. The first is the brain-child of Neil Gaiman and the second features a fantastically realized world created by Walter Moers.

Cover Art (CC)
Click HERE for Review


The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a 2013 novel by British author Neil Gaiman. It follows an unnamed man who returns to his hometown for a funeral and remembers events that began forty years earlier. Themes in The Ocean at the End of the Lane include the search for self-identity and the "disconnect between childhood and adulthood". Among other honours, it was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards. (Source)


Cover Art (CC)
Click HERE for Review


The City of Dreaming Books (original title: Die Stadt der Träumenden Bücher) is one of four in the Zamonia series written and illustrated by German author Walter Moers, translated into English by John Brownjohn. Protagonist Optimus Yarnspinner (Hildegunst von Mythenmetz in the German) is a Lindworm (dinosaur) who inherits his authorial godfather's possessions, including a perfect story written by an unknown author, in search of whom he travels to Bookholm, a city devoted to literature above labyrinthine catacombs containing many valuable books, among various monsters and perils. (Source)

OUR CHALLENGE

I chose these titles because they demand our reassessment of how we read words and phrases. The authors have chosen word pairings which are not commonly used together: an ocean and a lane; a city made of books (which are sleeping). Our challenge is to substitute our own nouns and adjectives for those used in these titles. Rather than making them more comfortable, I encourage you to use imaginative pairings of your own.

1. The Ocean at the ______ of the ______

2. The _____ at the End of the _______

3. The City of _______  ______

4. The _____ of Dreaming ______

These are some suggestions of how the titles might be manipulated, but feel free to use your own combination of words. The idea is for your title to bear some resemblance to the original but with an original twist.

As with every weekend challenge, posted at noon on Saturday, this prompt is open through Sunday and will still be first on the home page on Monday. This allows plenty of time for the creative process. Please return to the site after posting to read and review other works.




12 comments:

Magaly Guerrero said...

What wonderful choices, Kerry. I love the first title and the description of the second.

Outlawyer said...

Fantastic prompt, Kerry. Don't know about my time this weekend as a number of guests (and unfortunately, I have two weeks away from home coming up that are making me kind of nervous) but I will be thinking of it, and hope I come up with something. Thanks. k. (manicddaily--I've given up trying to interface with blogspot except through blogger id.)

brudberg said...

Very nice titles to work from.. I will try to come up with as innovative combinations as possible.. hopefully without too much decomposition this time :-)

Fireblossom said...

I had some art by Shuichi Nakano picked out to go with my poem, but I found out it was copyrighted. Oh well.

Margaret said...

I will probably post Monday - I have a horse clinic this weekend - my daughter is working cattle! :)

Grace said...

Thank you Kerry for the interesting titles ~ Have a good Sunday & weekend ~

hedgewitch said...

This one was truly mind-twisting, Kerry. I hope my offering is not too mundane.

Susan said...

Kerry, I finished this poem just now and remembered your challenge to find the perfect title. Thank you! I haven't read these two books. I'm taking this as a recommendation.

Anonymous said...

I usually refrain from fantastical forms of poetry, because I think I cannot write it, but after reading bits of Walter Moers, I was more than inspired and actually had to cut stuff that came flowing out of my brain! This is a huge step for me.

Hannah said...

I love this challenge, thank you, Kerry!

Susie Clevenger said...

Great Challenge Kerry!

Margaret said...

Very late to the challenge - I will comment on a few tonight and will finish up visiting tomorrow. I was at a horse clinic this weekend - my daughter and our Oberon were working with cows! Lots of fun.