Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Reading SIX-WORD Memoirs on Love and Heartbreak


Janet Leigh reading.

This six-word memoir fad is really humming. I have a library book in my hand with hundreds of them on the subject of love and heartbreak.

These six-word dittys tend to be pithy, witty or humorous. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But I don't get the point. I can see it more for six-word stories-a clever way to state the subject. But to sum up yourself in six-words reduces you.

Perhaps one word to define us is the ultimate test.

Online.

What's your one word--or six if you like.


28 comments:

Todd Mason said...

Sleepy. (Or, as word rec would have it, "antinept." I haven't nept nearly enough of late, and I am feeling the opposite of ept as a result.)

Charles Gramlich said...

a six word memoir sounds very weird to me. I could just see listing emotions maybe.

pattinase (abbott) said...

His shoes under bed gather dust.

That's mine but they tend to be like that-of course, the topic on this volume was love and heartbreak.

J. Kingston Pierce said...

Sum myself up in a single word? Patti, you do post the most daunting challenges. For me, the appropriate word might be WAITING.

Cheers,
Jeff

Iren said...

1 word: Interloper

6 word:
Dad died
Mom zombiefied
Family forever

Dorte H said...

I wrote one about Hemingway some time ago: He was born, wrote and died.

Todd Mason said...

Six words...How could I have done better>?

pattinase (abbott) said...

Eric-plain creepy. Jeff-that's a good word for all of us. Todd, I know you can outwit me.

Todd Mason said...

Perhaps mine should be How might I have typed better? Hemingway's would be How could I have been Manlier? (I mistyped that one as Mailer...or, Norman asks, Did I? I reply to Mailer, I did, and to *koff* Papa, Don't whine so much.)

Too sleepy to outwit anyone, Patti.

R/T said...

"Life begins awkwardly but gets better."

Well, it may not be a memoir but it is six words.

In any event, for whatever it is worth, my blog has been revived, so please keep in touch at BOOKED FOR MURDER

pattinase (abbott) said...

Lovely RT and very apt. I will look on. Hope you are feeling better.

George said...

This seems like a variation on haiku. Love, laughter, working, music, reading, eating. That about sums me up. Notice, unlike Phil, I don't do yard work or gardening.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Sums me up, too. But do you cook?

George said...

I am a very good cook and love food...maybe a little too much.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Ah, as do we.

Clea Simon said...

And so, along those lines how's this:

Loves food, alas, but not mirrors.

(though I hope this isn't the entire sum of me!)
Thanks for the challenge

pattinase (abbott) said...

I think that is the sum of me.

Chuck said...

Life - taken for granted until it's at risk

Oops - eight words. Sorry.

the walking man said...

6
He's no romantic bone left unbroken.

1
beholden

Dorte H said...

Now I see all these inspiring examples, I remember a real one in five words from a Danish tombstone - a farmer´s wife, I imagine: "She did what she could."

pattinase (abbott) said...

Dorte-Tombstones have some great ones on them-although usually sad.
Chuck-I hope a few months from now you write something entirely different.
WM-Okay, you poets have the edge with this for sure.
Todd-Maybe we should just speak in six-word sound bites from now on.

Cormac Brown said...

Expletive.

pattinase (abbott) said...

Just expletive or should I guess which one?

Kieran Shea said...

jester born, befriends, prevails. roll credits.

pattinase (abbott) said...

That pretty much sums it up if you sub joker for jester.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I meant in my case, Kieran, not yours.

Thomas Miller said...

"Loved all; in love with some."

This would work much better for a famous person who was well known for something very specific.

For instance, I'll bet you can guess who this is:
"Child sensation, white glove, plastic body"

pattinase (abbott) said...

Sadly, yes.