quote: "I see us sitting on a couch on a cool mountain night, in front of a fire with only the flames, a blanket, and each other for warmth. You are curled up next to me on the couch with your head on my shoulder, and I have my arm around you, holding you close. We are talking about little nothings, and I am satisfied merely to listen to your voice and feel you close. After a while I stop watching the flames of the fire and watch with eyes only for you. In time you notice my attention, and return my gaze. For what seems like forever, nothing is said with voice, only with looks. Eventually, I give up resisting myself and lean over to kiss you. You return the expression and friendship, and we both find ourselves content to fall asleep beside each other in the dying flames and glowing embers of the fire."
Five points for a correct guess with either rationale for the guess or a critique of the story Two points for any guess with a critique One point for any guess with a rationale A for any guess with neither critique nor rationale
quote:You return the expression and friendship, and we both find ourselves content to fall asleep beside each other in the dying flames and glowing embers of the fire
Oooouuch.
Seems like a young writer, the "little nothings" line makes it sound feminine, and it shows aspiration, with both effective imagery and the ineffective repetition of close.
Something makes me think the narrator is female, even though it doesn't really say. The fact that it starts out with "I see us" is probably what made me think of a poetic and hormonal teenaged girl, probably aged 13 or 14.
posted
I agree that this author seems to be female. Forgive my sexism, but it seems unlikely to me that a man would wax so lyrical about cuddling on a couch.
quote: Five points for a correct guess with either rationale for the guess or a critique of the story Two points for any guess with a critique One point for any guess with a rationale A for any guess with neither critique nor rationale
These make me think female too. I would guess between 15 and 35. I know that doesn't help much but I think that's about the most I can narrow it down. I would guess closer to the one side (15) than the other (35) but that's my spread.
quote: we both find ourselves content to fall asleep beside each other in the dying flames and glowing embers of the fire."
I can't tell if this is intentional imagery conveying passion or not, but it almost reads like they crawled into the fireplace.
I remain unconvinced that either the author or narrator is female, though I think it more likely than not the author is female.
quote: You are curled up next to me on the couch with your head on my shoulder, and I have my arm around you, holding you close.
This passage and others indicate a male narrator to me. *shrugs*
Though I can't find any style pointers to her, for a guess I will pick Annie, because she wrote something about curling up on a couch that I read a few days ago.
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posted
Actually, it sounds remarkably like the first draft of something my wife would write; there's a certain flow to the sentences that reminds me of her....Is that the case?
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posted
i have to agree with the assesment that the narrator is male. as to the author, i honestly can't tell.
while i think i understand what the author is trying to convey, the whole passage seems, i don't know, run-together? like there should be a slowness to the moment but the text is in a hurry.
posted
My guess is that the author is definitely female. It has the feel of a "good girl's" romance novel, but it does get a bit breathless at times.
I'm going to guess Belle .
For romance novel fare, I'd imagine it's pretty good. Sadly, not too experienced with reading that genre.
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posted
I agree that the narrator is supposed to be male, and I think that the author wants us to *think* that they're female, but I think that they're actually a male trying to psych us out. I'm guessing GreNME.
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If you think your new guess falls under the same rationale you gave last time, say so. I'm just trying to discourage purely random guessing.
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posted
I've seen this style before, I think. But I'm limited to a group, and this is a talented and experienced writer. Next in line: Leonide.
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posted
I wonder how many male narrators would be content with just falling asleep after such a romantic gazing session and kiss. Certainly not me. I would have imagined taking things in a slightly different direction.
I think it sounds like someone's fantasy of the perfect man, which to me means the author is still searching for him (Good Luck).
Since I don't really know who's a young, hopeless romantic, I'll go out on a limb and say Teshi.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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"You return the expression and friendship, and we both find ourselves content to fall asleep beside each other in the dying flames and glowing embers of the fire"
Makes me think that the couple have known each other for ages, care about each other deeply, but that their relationship has shifted from one of lovers to something more akin to a deep friendship. The flames are dying; there is still heat, but it's coming from embers rather than a fire that still has fuel. The fact that the line is "You return the expression and friendship" (emphasis mine) rather that just "you return the expression" or something makes me think this even more strongly.
Very subtle, assuming that my analysis is correct. I could see kat writing this piece.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Actually, I could very easily see this being a male writer. In fact, it kind of sounds like something I might have written when I was about 15 or 16.
What might I guess about someone who'd write a piece like this?
Single, but looking for love. Romantic Inexperienced with relationships. Young, possibly late teens.
I suppose I could be way off base, or maybe the writer is just very good at characterization.
posted
The two people this sounds least like, to me, are Bob Scopatz and Slash. Both of them strike me as people who can be tricky when it suits them. If this is an author who is trying to throw us off the track, and it isn't Leto, I'd guess it would be one of those two.
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posted
While it was very tempting to say that it was Celia, just to get to watch the end of a universe, all the guesses so far have been wrong.
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posted
Noemon is very suspicious of this game. I think he's been fooled before. ((((Noemon)))) It's okay, Noemon. You can trust again.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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I'm tempted to say Hobbes for the same reasons I guessed T, but I just can't see Hobbes writing something that sounds like this. The patterns are all wrong.
All paranoid ramblings aside, I'm not really so sure that the author is that young. If they were, I think they'd have been less likely to have woven in the whole "long term relationship turned platonic" bit. Of course, I could be imaging that part; it's by no means certain.
How about sndrake? He seems an unlikely author of this on the face of it, but I could see him employing an idea like that, and weaving it in fairly unobtrusively.
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And since the female character keeps her shirt on the whole time, and doesn't make out with women at all, we can rule out Kama as well.
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quote:And since the female character keeps her shirt on the whole time, and doesn't make out with women at all, we can rule out Kama as well.
Actually, I think it's interesting to note that we are never given an explicit description of either character's sex. We merely infer it from the apparent role of each character in the relationship. It's not my preferred reading, but I would be surprised very little to find out that the two participants are not what they initially appear to be (i.e. male-male, female-female, male-female but reversed).
By the way, aren't we supposed to make one guess at a time?
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