Essay Contest Thread (Win up to 4 Credits a month!)

[Lu Xun]

Can the essay be an assignment where we don't have to guess at what you want? Like can't you just say, "Write an essay explaining what Abraham Lincoln means with this quote: (Quote above) or something?

Write the coolest / best essay you can that's remotely related to the prompt. If I disqualify you for being too off base; argue with me and if you can convince me that your essay is still related, you'll get the credits. It's more fun than "answering" the prompt directly, spouting bullcrap, and failing despite fitting in the constraints. The reason I'm favoring Shylock is because his entry is both well-written and creative; obviously he's making fun of the prompt concept, but he's doing it well. That's why I'm not giving a strict "assignment", so you can get out there and have fun with the subject; I am way too old to look for people who want to do my homework for me.

 

As an example of what I like, consider: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den. This is not English, of course, but it's grammatical, playful (every phoneme in Mandarin sounds exactly the same, only the tone and meaning varies), and intelligent (it's making a point about the unsuitability of Classical Chinese for modern discourse, i.e, because there has been so much phonetic drift, what is written often cannot be spoken. Imagine a similar attempt in French, where the orthography has drifted significantly from the pronunciation.).

[Lu Xun]

Well, the server doesn't seem to want to come up before update, but if it does, I'll try to make the purchases and pass on the creds to Shylock ASAP.

 

That said, for the period September 1st to October 1st, excluding October 1st, the constrained format will be 500 words, the pot will be 6 credits, and the prompt will be:

 

"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride!-- how consoling in the depths of affliction! 'And this, too, shall pass away." And yet let us hope it is not quite true."-- Abraham Lincoln, Address to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, September 30, 1859, in Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, 1859-1865 (Library of America, 1985) vol. II, p. 101.

[greatkitteh]

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[Lu Xun]

You have 5 days for a contest with no entrants and 6 credits at your disposal. Wanna screw me out of $25 like Shylock did? (He entered, collected his money, then deleted). Post something suitable!

[Ibrahim (Banned)]

"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride!-- how consoling in the depths of affliction! 'And this, too, shall pass away." And yet let us hope it is not quite true."-- Abraham Lincoln

 

"'And this, too, shall pass away" is an adage indicating that all material conditions, positive or negative, are temporary.

 

The phrase appears in the works of Persian Sufi poets, such as Sanai and Attar of Nishapur. Attar records the fable of a powerful king who asks assembled wise men to create a ring that will make him happy when he is sad. After deliberation the sages hand him a simple ring with the words "This too will pass" etched on it, which has the desired effect to make him happy when he is sad thus it became a curse whenever he is happy.

 

Jewish folklore often casts Solomon as either the king humbled by the adage, or as the one who delivers it to another. Many versions of the folktale have been recorded by the Israel Folklore Archive at the University of Haifa. In some versions the phrase is simplified even further, appearing as only the Hebrew letters gimel, zayin, and yodh, which begin the words "Gam zeh ya'avor", "this too shall pass."

 

The story, generally attached to a nameless "Eastern monarch", became popular in the West in the first half of the 19th century, appearing in American papers by at least as early as 1839. In 1852, the English poet Edward Fitzgerald included a brief version in his collection Polonius: A Collection of Wise Saws and Modern Instances. Fitzgerald's unattributed version, titled "Solomon's Seal", describes a sultan requesting of King Solomon a sentence that would always be true in good times or bad; Solomon responds, "This too will pass away".

Edited September 24, 2015 by Ibrahim

[Lu Xun]

Guess who can copy paste Wikipedia... Ibrahim! We have a winner! Of the copy paste Wikipedia contest! Congratulations!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_too_shall_pass

[Ibrahim (Banned)]

Guess who can copy paste Wikipedia... Ibrahim! We have a winner! Of the copy paste Wikipedia contest! Congratulations!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_too_shall_pass

 

Lmao

 

Maybe I will dedicate some time to writing something...

Edited September 24, 2015 by Ibrahim

[Ibrahim (Banned)]

“And this, too, shall pass away.†Things don’t stay the same. Rather everything in this universe must come to an end; a tree will mature before collapsing in death; a sapphire will twinkle in the light but dull with wear; the winter’s frosty air will later give way to toasty spring. Everything is temporary. Life will change. And death, such a seemingly permanent thing in life, but even death may not be quite as concrete as we are led to believe.

 

When you hear it, the news may not register. You will die? But know that a person, who doesn’t consistently ponder and reflect upon their own temporary existence, hardly posses any intellect.  Consider this: After your death you will be wrapped up in a burial shroud, and though your family will surely morn you (for a time), they will be quick to abandon you, leaving you alone in your grave which they went to great pains to mark with a tomb stone. And ask yourself, how has the attachment to that which is temporary deluded you from the awaiting reality? And then let the realization full dawn on you, if it hasn't already, that you are most certainly going to die. It may feel like being sentenced to a life of misery at first, but as hours turn to days, and days to weeks, and weeks turn to months, the pain will slowly dissipate. The more you think and reflect upon it, the more you will start to feel it gnawing at your stomach, but don’t worry like everything it will change. The world continues to rotate even at the loss of a life, even your own life.

 

So use your intellect, as you stride around this temporary existence, and remember that you will soon be lost to the world. You, who created your own little bubble to live in comfort, complete with all your temporary enjoyments, a computer, a house, and yourself. You, who at the ripe age of nine declared your love for the temporary. With a feeling of complete freedom. That feeling which spread through you like wild fire. If you were smart, at some point during the next nine years, it would have abandoned you, and the lightness of your comfortable self-created bubble would've been replaced with shackles. Allowing you to slowly emerge out of the matrix, desperately clawing away from the temporary enjoyments you once indulged in, as though it were a cancerous tumour. It you only knew. Maybe at the age of 18 you would have been able to completely cut your ties to the worldly life, and the world would continue to move, but you would have gained great understanding.

 

Even after death there is life. With this belief, your outlook on life would have been brighter. You would spend your time doing things you couldn’t stand, with the knowledge that like all things, the situation was only temporary, allowing you to learn your personal limits.

 

Life will always go on. As the leaves fluctuate colour, as the sun shines on a rainy day, as the gold stops glimmering, as autumn approaches and summer ends in chilly nights; You would remember that everything is transitory and nothing remains the same. The pangs of your sudden realization, the temporary enjoyments and desires, and even the seemingly permanence of death, all lose their tangibility to the ticking of time for they, too, shall pass away.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Ibrahim

[Peace and War]

"And this too shall pass" These are the words my mother would tell me when things where tough, when there wasn't any food to eat or no coat to wear in winter. Those words, "this too shall pass" honestly I heard it so many times its almost the same as when someone says hello. You acknowledge it but you never really think about it. My mother had a rough life, raised in a large impoverished family, grew up to have 3 kids, husband died in the coal mines. Nothing seemed to go her way, but those lingering words on her lips "this too shall pass." I suppose it ran in her family, honestly I never asked where it came from.

 

She had an unwavering believe that me and my brothers would grow up to be something, that all these things would pass and the family will finally be something to admire. I'm not sure why she never worked, she just collected the miniscule amount of welfare from the state, it barely paid the rent, there was nothing left over for the rest of us. We where forced to steal,beg, do anything we could to get a bite to eat. The streets of Liverpool wasn't an easy place to live.

 

She died suddenly one day, right out of the blue. Doctor said she was real sick but I never saw that in her, just an unwavering believe in her sons and the lord above. At her funeral, over her coffin that the neighbours helped buy, they made sure she had a decent burial. I whispered, "and this too shall pass", my brothers looked at me, they knew exactly. The priest said "away" "this too will pass away" that's how it gos. I looked at my mother again, and so she did, her very own self inflicted prophecy, she too passed away, just like the time, all the years and all the people, my life too went this way. And on my deathbed with my children and wife on my estate, I whispered, my dying words, "And this, too, shall pass away"

 

I finally learned a great man said these words, for he knew, time destroys all things, good and bad, including myself.

[Arthur Wellington]

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride!-- how consoling in the depths of affliction! 'And this, too, shall pass away." And yet let us hope it is not quite true."-- Abraham Lincoln, Address to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, September 30, 1859, in Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings, 1859-1865 (Library of America, 1985) vol. II, p. 101.


Memhmet searched for truth ever since his father passed away. His father was a warlord. No doubt about that. But his father had to be a warlord. Ever since Memhmet knew he was supposed to be his fathers successor he knew was told the stories. His grandfather was a trader and leader of his people, not an official one but a leader in spirit. His kindness was known troughout the fertile crescent and everybody knew the son of this wonderfull man would become the next sjeik. 

As the years passed by Memhem't father indeed became a great leader to his people. In the entire region people knew of his kindness, his strength and his compassion. He was a judge for complex cases, a mighty lord in battle, battles that united the region, and a bringer of great prosperity. He had new waterwells dug, bought herds of sheep and camels, irrigated the land and build towns and government building to enlarge the greatness of the nation his own father started. 

Memhmet's father also was a wise ruler. In the centre of the great city Babylon he had build an immense tower. The purpose of this tower was to show the world the wonders of their culture, the level of sophistication. But once the tower was finished and his father climbed the steps to look down on his own people he grew remorsefull. Because the higher he came and the greater he felt, the more he became to realize something. That eventough his own people looked smaller each step he climbed, the realization came that he too would look smaller to the people with each step he took. So he ordered the destruction of the tower and he had a library build instead. It was supposed to become the biggest collection of knowledgde known to man. From all over the world traders brought in new books and the library grew and grew. This wealth of knowledge brought not only man of knowledge to the city but also traders and people who wanted to learn more about this fantastic place of wisdom. 

 

And now , after his fathers death, it was up to Memhmet himself to make the world known that Eastern rulers were not only powerfull but also wise. The people were unified and content. Nobody had to be hungry and the city was a place of great knowledge. What could Memhmet possible do to be able to stand next to his father and grandfather in the next life? With a heavy heart he walked into his council chambers..


note: spelling = bad.. sorry!

Edited September 27, 2015 by Vivke

[Lu Xun]

Let's end this early, on the night of the 28th. Since the termination date was changed, however, feel free to PM me, and only PM me entries between the morning of the 29th and the end of the 30th and I may give you credits on top of my payment to the initial winner. Starting next month, the contest will end 2 days before the end of the month so that if you haven't spent resources yet this month, you retain the opportunity to do so.

 

I'm divided between Ibrahim's entry and Slimshadyinc's entry. Slimshadyinc's entry is better, stylistically speaking, despite grammatical and spelling errors, but it barely has a point. Ibrahim's entry tends towards purple prose, but it actually argues something.

 

===

 

Starting September 29th, entries are eligible for the prompt: "1. You wake up in your college dorm bathroom. The only light is that filtering through the filmy windows high above the showers. You’re alone. You try the door, only to find yourself locked in. Then you realize that it’s the first morning of Thanksgiving break, and since the dorms were cleared out and locked, you’re stuck for the next four days. How do you entertain yourself?" I'm out of ideas and I'm sort of busy, but let's throw it out.

 

For the constrained section, the condition is try to impersonate the American writer Ernest Hemingway.

[Peace and War]

For the constrained section, the condition is try to impersonate the American writer Ernest Hemingway.

 

I am so down for this lol

[Ibrahim (Banned)]

I'm divided between Ibrahim's entry and Slimshadyinc's entry. Slimshadyinc's entry is better, stylistically speaking, despite grammatical and spelling errors, but it barely has a point. Ibrahim's entry tends towards purple prose, but it actually argues something.

 

I don't see the point of writing for the sake of writing.

[Lu Xun]

Split between Ibrahim and War and Peace; Ibrahim gets it for freestyle, War and Peace gets it for constrained. Good luck to entrants on the next essay, and if you want to be put up for consideration for the previous prompt, you have another 48 hours.

 

Credits should have been sent out, tell me on IRC if there are any problems (no channels, look for Inst)

[Dimitri Valko]

Anything for October yet?

[Ekejen Luish]

Okay I'm not to shabby on nuclear physics but... I'm not gonna write up an essay for no reason worth painstaking.. pain.

[Lu Xun]

You have a month if you want to play, usually submissions pick up towards the end.