₦airaland Forum

Haa-haa!!! My babe is back!!

Sisi Jinx:
See, boss you don't have to stop calling me Sisi. Yeeeeep, I did. . . I did it all for you and it had absolutely nothing to do. . . 

Really, oww tha's sweet. Hey, know what? I believe I like ur new name even better than the previous ones. Be watching ya posts!

I know I should have replied to this post days ago, but there were so MANYYYYYY other things to handle - like a day-job. I grew up on Michael Crichton, from Congo, through The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, down to Prey (which was the last I read before my life got too crowded for 24-hours novel-jacking). Crichton was a scientist, a REAL one, and that made his books an exception in the world of Sci-Fi novels. His last novel (for me, anyway ), PREY, which took a stab at the fast-developing science of Nanotechnlogy, aptly underscores this fact. But Michael Crichton was also more than a scientist he was a superb story-teller, one who had the gift of turning an eternally-boring Biology lecture into a fast-paced thriller - Jurassic Park.

Michael Crichton will be sorely missed by fans world-wide; we sure miss him here at Lit-Nlnd.

RIP.

Bravo, Ayo. Bravo. Your story left me grim; do you understand? Grim. I can remember only two works that have given me that feeling of crawling awe/horror before - a novel simply titled "Juju" that I read way back in high school (I don't even remember the author's name); and Enya's Braveheart sound track (yes, a song). Stephen King, Bloch, LeGuin, Rice - they all good, very good in fact, but none of them has precipitated that feeling in me yet. Maybe it's because your story truly defines 'horror' in the Nigerian way - you know, concepts like "wicked fate" - so wickedly unfortunate and crude and heartless and diabolic, and oh so real. I salute your heroine's courage at the face of the sea, with her demons screaming at the shadows of her subconscious.
Bravo!

But hey, that's not to say the story doesn't couldn't do with a little tickering. iice was right: your paragraphs at the beginning (Mami-water, Xmas, Benin, masquerades) didn't quite connect. Mind, I don't mean removing 'em entirely - just "repackage" them so they bond more strongly to the main story.

And your style of breaking the story into three [b]titled [/b]parts - why not use a free-flowing flash-back style? Just a line of asterisks when you want to link back to start of the story, instead sub-titles. It's just my view, though.

P.S: You have to learn to ignore people who don't understand certain forms of literature - people who derogate stories simply because it offends them. Replying such posts is giving credence to their . . .umm, well, uninformed, lopsided views.

Holla back!

Baby Jinx:
I came back for one last look see before going to bed and guess I am to leaving in. . .
https://images.zaazu.com/img/cry-male-cry-tears-000352-large.gif

Oh, I'm so sorry Sisi - umm, Baby Jix. . . Jinx._{(this's going to' take a little getting used to).} You know I took a french-leave; that's why I didnt realize you'd gone and done the Jekyll/Hyde thing. Oh man, did I eff-up! Sooooo, guess I can't like call you Sisi anymore, right? Well, far as its still you in those baby jeans - yeah, yeah, I can live with it. Siskill = Babyjix. . . umm, Jinx, jinx. Baby Jinx, right, got it.

_{Damn, I'v got a migraine; talk about fine-grilled shit}

@bluspice n V: Hey, how r u guys taking this?? Sisi's gone and changed her name!!! 

vescucci:
And type Vesc in Vescucci's stead. It really does give me those involuntary muscular twitches at the corner of my mouth.

Even doyin - DOYIN of all people!! - got ur name wrong, V. Man, you must be popping blood vessels by now.

@doyin: hi dude, seems like your L.O.A was longer than mine. (L.O.A = leave of absence)

Bravo, Einstein! Well done; at last a REAL "Naija-made" horror tale. Not to compare with a King or Sheri S. Tepper, but still good - very good.

However (I don't know to say this without it sounding like a cliche), I think the story could do with a few more swipes of the literary brush - you get?

Boss?? Who told you. . . ?? Look-ee here, only SISI calls me that, ok?

Gee. Mama mia, ayayayayayayaya!!! Wait a minute . . .

vescucci:
Sounds like you'll re-introduce yourself till you develop a migraine. Baby_Jinx hardly sports a genealogy semblance with Sisikill. Start a thread that goes: Baby_Jinx=Sisikill. Thank God I made the connection on time for I'd be the one with the migraine.

I'm gonna' develop that migraine after all.

Yea, don't mommies and daddies just suck? Can't live wid'em; can't liive wid'out'em. Makes a body wanna weep!

Baby Jinx:
But. . . but. . . I am Sisi!

Nope. Sorry Jinxie, but you just ain't my good ol' Sisi - unless you missed me too. Did you?

Come to think of it, where the Bleep - pardon the phraseology - where the Bleep is Sisikill?? I ain't see her around here ina dog's years.

vescucci:
Where's Kay9?

Baby Jinx:
So seriously, where is Kay9? Do you think the. . . ghost from the machine got it?

I used to think the only person that ever missed me around here was Sisi (I'm never around that much, anyway), but you guys - you guys - oww, shucks, I'm flattered. But y'all know what? I promise from this day on, to be around much more - cross my heart! There, a guy's gotta be committed to something.

About that ghost in the machine - yea, I know, the topic should have cobwebs on it by now, but I'm going to bring it up anyway. See, guys, I've been around computers enough to the difference between a kb and a Gb - heck, I network computers for a hobby. My IBM wasn't the real McCoy, yes, but it was a tough little machine - P3, 27gig HD, 128MB RAM. If you understand compuspeak then you know the problem wasn't the memory cap. And neither was it a virus; viruses just slooooowww down your system and make oatmeal out of your files - they DON'T de-activate icons! Tell you, it was that WinXP I installed that did it - that was the last hammer-blow that shattered my IBM and let out the Stand-by Ghost!!

Ok, maybe I balooned the story a bit when i said the thing freaked me out. I wasn't really freaked out; that was just for effects, you know, Writer's Syndrome . I actually found out what went wrong couple a days later, but I never got around to fixing the baby. Just wasn't worth the stress any more.

Ndipe:
So, who has read the novel, "The opposite house"?

I haven't read it, but it seems likely to be a good read (going by Orinkila and Obong's posts). What I don't get, however, is why we have to start arguing whenever the issue of a "non-African" writer of "African" stories come up; does it really matter if Oyeyemi is African (or, if you prefer, Nigerian) or not? If it's a question of promoting African culture, then we should applaud works that celebrate black heritage; the writer mustn't necessarily be African by decent. After all, several black African-born footballers have won the European footballer of the year (I'm a fan of the English premier league, by the way) and nobody complained, so why cry foul when the table is reversed?

Personally, I don't care two straws if Oyeyemi is made a symbol of African literature, her statements not withstanding; it'd probably spur us home-grown writers to do greater deeds - you know, snatch the baton from her.

[quote author=Mad_Max link=topic=175654.msg3000449#msg3000449 date=1225110059]. . . . and I'm pissed,because I know I'm going to read it.[/quote]Too bad. When I was in high school, I thought I was the only person with the "hate-it-but-can't-drop-it" syndrome; I guess you have it too, Max.

Ever heard a true "ghost-in-the machine" story? I have. It happened to me in fact.

I bought my first laptop in last year, right after NYSC. I actually had to save like a miser in order to complete the money. Anyway, I finally got the money ready - forty-five miserly grand (in naira, of course ) - and I bought the laptop. It was an IBM Thinkpad. You know those laptops that have a knob in the middle of keyboard (instead of a finger touchpad)? Right, that was the type of system I had. And I luuuuved it, God knows I did. In fact, it turned me into a sort of software rat - java compliers, java builders, fast-download softwares, compatibility suites/programs, games - you name it, I wanted to get everything into that square piece of plastic contraption. In the end, the whole thing back-fired. My laptop developed a mind, nay, a ghost of its own. I know the cliche is well-worn and all, but it's the only way of aptly describing what happened: I raised a ghost in my IBM machine.

I think the last straw (or rather the last blow to the IBM coffin which raised the ghost) was the day I tried to install the sixth (consecutive) upgrade to my Windows XP op. system. I think it was the sixth, I'm not sure anymore, might have been more. Anyway, I got done upgrading the baby, restarted the machine and found out that my "Stand by" icon (from "Start'" had become inactive. Dead as a door-nail, if you please, but that was it. I tried every computing and configuring gimmick I knew, but the dead icon remained dead. But it didn't end there. Some icons simply disappered, others brought up an entirely different menu when clicked, and of course good, old "Stand by" remained dead. In the end, I just freaked out.

Now, I don't scare easy, see? I admit that after three grueling days of battling with my IBM, the fatigue had begun impress upon my crocodile-thick composure. But that hardly enough reason to start having morbid, "ghost" thoughts. What really undid me was when my girlfriend started saying laptop was infected with a "Stand-by" ghost. She actually called it that - the Stand-by ghost. You can't imagine the effect that had on me. And she kept on saying it all the time. Actually, I think it was because I'd had very little time for her since the IBM got "sick", but that hardly justifies what she did. Well, at last I had to agreed with her; I had a Stand-by ghost in my IBM machine.

I have a new laptop now. The IBM is back at Onitsha with my parents - somewhere under the loads of books I used in secondary school. I think the Stand-by ghost is still there, too.

Here, check this out: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-175654.0.html _{Tho you must be selectively blind not to have seen that thread}

Sorry, man. _{But you are not a baby now}

Umm, see guys, I'm a very lousy poster (Sisikill'll attest to it ); I drop one post today, then I'm gone for what seems like forever. Maybe that's why I'm just seeing this thread for the first time. But for good ol' Abacus's sake, why oh why did y'all let such a loovly thread go belly-up? Don't tell me you've all run out of weird tales, cos I ain't buying it. Hecks, this thread's got the weirdest posters in Literature-Nrlnd - bluespice, V (don't worry V, I won't do the "sissy" thing again ) - and the lady of the gothic herself - Sisikill. So cough it up, I know y'all have skeletons between your pages - I'll go last, of course!

Nice theme. Just hang on to the flow of words; you might have a good poem there.

Cayon:
At first sight
I thought you'D might
Be somebody I'D like.

You mean, you might ?

@ Orinkila: I like the poem, the first part in particular. Has the same style as Daniel Defoe's Africa, my Africa. Did you write it? I thought you were yoruba.

In the last installment you replaced "black liquid" with "oil"; I kinda prefer using black liquid - it sounds more like something Otakinima would say.

@SMC: Hi.

Hi Vini, sorry it took so long. My desk job had me occupied. Anyway, here it is (the remixed version, that is ):

The world is just a stage
Enter at your scene - read your lines -
And exit at your life's end.
Mayhap you'll be applauded;
Mayhap, unapplauded.
Pray, tell, thou that seeth tomorrow
What part I shall have to play.


Shall I, at the curtain's fall
Get the old gladiator's thumbs-up
Or the deadly boo?
Will Time's indelible sands
Remember my name, or shall I fall
An extra in the Iliad:
An unknown, un-mourned Trojan soldier?


Who am I, I wonder
Who am I?
My emotions run deep, so deep
Like the waves of the Atlantic. . .

Exploding against a rock.
It threatens to explode inside me.
Some day, I hope, I'll find out who I trully am.

I left the last three lines untouched - thought you might wanna do those ones yourself.

@ spicy007: I hope I didn't botch the assingment.