Not that I consider this a serious publication, but I figured, if Ernest Hemingway (and a bunch of Wired contributors) could do it, so could I.
(Arrogant, I know. Well, actually I figured that if he could do it powerfully, I could do something maybe passable.)
The result is, I have a “six-word memoir” coming out in this book. I get a contributor’s copy, but no money, of course. It’s amusing, though I’m not really in the practice of giving away content, really. I am actually not fond of But it is just six words.
Since I don’t have any contract or anything, I guess I’m entitled to republish it here, so for those of you who don’t want to pony up and buy the book (which you can do at a bunch of places, but I’ll just give you the Amazon link because I’m lazy and not on their marketing staff, ahem), my little six word memoir is as follows:
“Here’s my secret: location, location, relocation.”
Nothing quite as moving or economical as Hemingway’s, but there’s a kind of vaudeville expat pizazz to it, of which I am mildly fond.
I don’t have a copy of this book, but I’ll tell you what: for the person who posts the most interesting six-word memoir in the comments, I’ll send you something interesting (no promises on quality or wonderfulness) from my travels this winter.
How about four?
The sun exploded. Bummer.
(On edit) Oops – I see that it’s a memoir, not a story. Oh well.
Memory going, concentration fading. Bummer.
Steven Pinker was asked to sum up how the brain works in five words while a guest on the Steve Colbert comedy show, The Colbert Report. Right there on the spot (I don’t think it was rehearsed), he said:
“Brain cells fire in patterns.”
I was blown away.
Kevin
Isn’t it cheating to use contractions? ;)
Junsok,
Ha, that is a passable memoir. Isn’t it scary that at age 35 I actually relate to that? Brrrrrr.
Kevin,
Well, it’s Pinker’s, not yours, so Pinker’s now in the running. (Neurology-as-memoir is passable and I like the line.) I saw Pinker lecture in Montreal once when I was digging on neurology and neuropsychology. He was hilarious, riveting, and fascinating.
I was quite surprised when I heard people at the last conference I attended slamming him. My impression was that The Blank Slate involved very little absolutism and very little fudging, nor many claims for which there is no evidence, but one passing comment struck me as if he was being seen in litcrit circles as some kind of modern-day (but already-discredited) Lysenko or something.
Ooh, you provoked a memory. I’ll save it for a post of its own, though…
Charles,
Ha, neatly critiquing my own piece AND copying the cheat in yours… but it isn’t a memoir, so you’re not in the game. Nor is Kevin, though he has put Pinker in the running against Junsok, though both of them have shown frightening economy in their tales.
(Hmmm.)
Not quite on time or as witty:
I came, I traveled, I wrote.
Still true :)