Smith Magazine 6-Word Memoirs I particularly enjoyed (with reasons why!):
- Told I "overanalyze". Let me reflect. I like jokes like this one (set-up plus immediate comeback); emotion evoked was "Oh yeah, me too!" -- see previous posts for (perhaps unnecessary) confirmation.
- Never really finished anything, except cake. I love cake! And again I identify with the first part of the statement.
- Constantly wondering what I did wrong. Me again. although here I can't tell whether the author shares my self-doubt or was just chronically in trouble. If the latter, I (somewhat, though not entirely) sympathize.
- I wrote it all down somewhere. That he did--right there on smithmag.net. Or, of course, he wrote down the answers to life, the universe, and everything somewhere, then forgot where he put them. Either snarky or profound, and I can't tell which. Result: more identification with the author.
- Grow up? Had to. Mama died. The only serious one in my selected set. (I don't know what it is about these 6-word memoirs, but it seems to be a lot easier to make them facetious than serious.) This one evokes instant pity and/or sympathy (hard to distinguish) and manages to encapsulate a whole (adolescent) life story, with triumph and tragedy, loss and recovery, in three short sentences. This one, I think, epitomizes the "serious" six-word novel, up there with Hemingway's original.
- Wait, what is going on here? Story of my life. Story of everyone's life, really. What is actually going on in this crazy, messed-up universe? Stop to seriously think about that, and you have little choice but to be just as confused as this writer. Nobody really has a clue, so you might as well go ahead and admit it. That's what I see in this sarcastically philosophical little gem.
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