Reader Challenges
Group Challenge: Contribute to the Story
We're starting a story chain -- you can participate by adding a next sentence to the story so that it forms a sequence; let's see how the story unfolds. (I want to thank reader dvoizin for suggesting the idea of the chain and to dreamdust for suggesting the first sentence.)
O.K., here goes: The first sentence in the story -- from Tolstoy's Anna Karenina -- is (drumroll please):
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Replies (22)
Posted by
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Thus was the begining of the heavy tome assigned to us in Mr.See's Class. The book lay atop the slumped figure obscuring the face
Jun 13, 2011 11:19 am
by karen4191 -
The Slocums were so unhappy they did not even know it.
Jun 13, 2011 5:54 pm
by yodcha -
Some thought it was merely because they wanted to be so, because apparently, they had everything one could care vor.
Jun 14, 2011 11:33 am
by sidmary -
There was only one cause of their unhappiness: the false beliefs they had in your head, beliefs so widespread, so commonly held, that it never occured to them to question those beliefs.
Jun 14, 2011 2:17 pm
by swatir -
Marie looked away from her five children and studied her palm, fingers outstretched. Each child was as different as the fingers on her hand. From oldest to youngest, each child was needy in their own special way.
Jun 14, 2011 9:52 pm
by moengey -
Mr. See delicately removed the book from Gwenth's face. She burst out laughing, Mr. See was startled but then he never knew what to expect from such a prankster. Gwenth's mother, Marie had warned him he would have his hands full. But he did not really mind because Gwenth brought sunshine into the class, as well as unpredictability. When he had asked Gwenth to give her opinion on the women in the book, her reply was SO refreshing-the class was still talking about it. Gwenth had said, "I don't know why anyone ever agreed to marry back then, being a nun or an old maid seems much preferable to me." Mr. See wondered if Tolstoy had ever thought of that...
Jun 15, 2011 8:16 am
by dreamdust -
For a lifetime i have been trying to puzzle out whether I came from a happy family or an unhappy family.
Jun 16, 2011 2:01 am
by phanke -
Marie Slocum was puzzled about the family she had come from being happy or unhappy, perhaps that is why she had 5 children to attempt to create her own happy family. However she hadn't counted on Mr. Slocum, Eddie being such a...
by dreamdust -
and for that reason alone, it was most shocking to find sweet little RosaLinda Crowley down by the beach on that cold stormswept night calling for her grandfather's dog who had disappeared into the surf so many years ago. The wind, tearing at her hair-- the rain, streaming harshly across her face--, the lottery ticket tearing away from her fingers in the raging gale!! Would Shep never swim back out of that monstrous surf when she needed him so desperately???
Jun 18, 2011 12:24 pm
by hemeteer -
Instead of the dog coming out of the raging surf, a more surprising sight, a tall lean male surfer dragged himself coughing and gasping for air. He cried out asking for help... Rosalinda suddenly woke from her dream state and ran to help this stranger. What had he been doing in the ocean on a night like this and why was she at the beach?
Jun 19, 2011 4:02 am
by AdeleGeradts -
The tall, lean surfer was no other than Eddie Slocum who was a professional surfer and the most carefree spirit you'd ever meet. RosaLinda was distraught from losing the lottery ticket and mentally ill and was in no state to help anyone. However she was so surprised by Eddie's sudden arrival that she helped him stagger out of the surf, to a dry area before skittering off like a frightened bunny. Eddie only remembered her wet face as he faded in and out of darkness...
by dreamdust -
Such is life.
Jun 19, 2011 6:07 pm
by backinkc -
One of Mr. See's students, Dylan mentioned that the last time anyone had seen Gwenth's father, Eddie Slocum he had been very high on drugs. No one had seen him for months, where was Eddie?
by dreamdust -
Eddie Slocum didn't look good in a Speedo; perhaps that was why HE was unhappy and needed to blunt the effect of his mirror with a variety of recreational substances.
by SandyO -
My recreational substance of choice is chocolate mmmm.
Jun 23, 2011 7:00 am
by nomad -
Although Eddie had been disfigured by shark attacks over the length of his surfing career, he was still an older scarred dreamboat. He remained missing. Mr. See found it strange that none of his family inquired about him missing. The locals thought Marie had gotten fed-up and possibly done away with him. Where-oh-where could he be?
by dreamdust -
Dylan had sold the drugs to Eddie privately, and he felt bad when he saw Gwenth so lost and bewildered.
by dreamdust -
Gwenth couldn't understand why her mother, Marie had taken a young lover.
by dreamdust -
Mr. See spoke to the detectives privately. The police got involved when RosaLinda had a pychotic break and would only chant Eddie's name over and over. Marie had gone on an overseas vacation with her lover. Gwenth had stopped coming to school to watch over the 4 younger children. Dylan was now missing also...what's UP?
by dreamdust -
Mr. See asked the class to write their own happy ending to Anna Karenina. How would that be?
by dreamdust -
Is there an alternative ending where Anna could have a happier outcome?
by dreamdust -
Mr. See asked the class why they thought the most unloving person in the story (Anna's husband) ended-up with both children at the end? What was Tolstoy saying to us with this character?
by dreamdust