an assignment

“today’s assignment is not so easy,” said miss anthony. “so pay close attention.” it is the year 3000. all living creatures live in a single society. the society is completely automated and powered to last forever (time has been abolished) each living creature has its own cell, or pod, where it is provided with air, water, warmth, and food. the living creatures are all identical to each other. every living creature is allotted the same amount of air, water, and warmth. every living creature is given the same food, in the same amount, every day. no creature has any contact with any other - thus avoiding any opportunity for oppression, exploitation, abuse, injustice, inequality, or alienation. but the creatures need art/entertainment. the art/entertainment can not be negative, abusive, exploitative, competitive, discriminatory, despairing, or hurtful, or deal with subjects that portray or imply the existence of negation, abuse, competition, discrimination, inequality, despair, or hurtfulness. for your assignment provide either a story meeting these requirements, or an outline for a series of stories meeting these requirements.

another exercise

by genghis gilgamesh

illustrations by eddie el greco

“today, class,” aggripina announced. “we have another of my favorite little exercises. one that is not quite as simple as you might at first think. the exercise is this - write a story without any adjectives or adverbs. any at all. many words you might not think of as adjectives actually are. for example, ‘hungry’ is an adjective. as are ‘happy’ or ‘sad’ or ‘white’ or ‘black’. it is not enough to avoid writing ‘the hungry lady walked down the dark street’. if you write ‘the lady was hungry’, or ‘the street was dark’, ‘hungry’ and ‘dark’ are adjectives. also, ‘his’ and ‘her’ and ‘their’ are adjectives.” * the rent by william howard taft when bronc got out of jail, his pals clyde and dave took him to a bar and bought him drinks. when bronc got back to the apartment, the landlord was waiting for him. “got the rent?’ the landlord asked. “i will have it tomorrow,” bronc said. “i hope so,” the landlord replied. when bronc got up in the morning, he remembered he had to get money to pay the rent. he went to see herbie. “got any jobs for me?” bronc asked herbie. “not today, “ herbie told him. “you should have taken the job i had yesterday.” “that was yesterday,” said bronc. “i need money today, to pay the rent.” after a pause, he continued. “do you think you will have something by the end of the day?” “no,” said herbie. “i have a couple of jobs, but i promised them to eddie and frank.” bronc nodded and left. he decided to get money by mugging people on the street. bronc walked down seventh street, a street filled with bars and bodegas. he saw a woman walking by and he grabbed her and dragged her into an alley. he strangled her and took the purse she had. when he got back to the street, he discovered that the purse did not have money to pay the rent in it. he could not pay the rent with what he had, but he could buy a burger and a coke so he bought those. he ate the burger and drank the coke. he went back out onto the street. he mugged a man and a woman. he killed the man but the woman managed to run. what he obtained did not add up to the money to pay the rent. when he was mugging a person on main street a policeman saw him. the policeman shouted at bronc to stop mugging the person. “hands where i can see them!” the policeman shouted. bronc ran down an alley. the policeman shot and killed him. bronc never ate or drank or slept or dreamed after that. the rent was not paid. the end