This review has been specially written for this week’s weekly geek task. It is written using randomly generated key words and phrases.
Some of the weekly geeks are writing reviews for real stories, others imagined.
Do you think this review is for a real story?
F. Scott Fitzgerald is most famous for writing The Tale of Benjamin Button, which can be found in in his collection of short stories Tales of the Jazz Age. In the same collection is the strangely titled short story Mr Icky.
Mr Icky is described as the quintessence of quaintness in one act.
Mr Icky is an old man, dressed in the costume of an Elizabethan peasant. He has a conversation with a young boy called Peter. They discuss the planets, the bible and many seemingly random aspects of life.
Some of the language is a bit strange:
How ghastly! Science is the bunk.
The story isn’t all garble though – the jazz lusts throughout the pot of this story. It is a tale full of promise and happiness. I don’t think it will win a prize for being the best short story ever, but it does contain a few memorable quotes.
I care not who hoes the lettuce of my country if I can eat the salad!
Overall I found it to be a pretty average short story and I recommend it only to people who have an interest in studying short stories of this time period.
Do you think this review is for a real short story?
Which are the randomly generated words I had to use?
Visit the other Weekly Geeks to play along!
NO GOOGLING!!!!
12 replies on “Mr Icky from ‘Tales of the Jazz Age’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald”
Well done! Ok, I’m going to guess that this is a real story, but the quoted phrase “science is the bunk” is fake. Your random words are quintessence, garble, and lusts.
Most curious tale, I would say! I loved the lusting bit!
😀
http://readbookswritepoetry.blogspot.com/2009/07/weekly-geeks-seraphic-mandrake-by-kate.html
I didn’t think it was a short story. I thought Mr. Icky was a short play? In other words, I’m quibbling genre. Mr Icky is real. 🙂
I think it would be super clever if one of your randomly-generated words was “pot,” and you passed it off as a typo for “plot.” So I’ll guess that’s what you did. Pot, ghastly, and lusts?
I’m guessing this is a real review. Your random sentence was “I care not who hoes the lettuce of my country if I can eat the salad!” Well done Jackie
You are quite clever! I think it IS a short story, but can’t really go further as I have had a long day and I’m into my wine at this point. BTW, I just started Blindness, another one of your favorites. C.B. James and I are doing a little project with it for BBAW.
Well, I’m going with fake, just to be contrary. And I think icky and the lettuce quote are randomly generated.
Real story.
Random sentence: The story isn’t all garble though – the jazz lusts throughout the pot of this story?
As for the three random words: garble / lusts / costume?
Hmm, I’m going to guess that your words were Icky, pot and lettuce and that your sentence was Science is the Bunk. And I’m going to guess that the story is not real. Well done.
I suspect the story is real, but that icky was one of the random words; the second quote sounds genuine. “Science is the bunk” was the random phrase.
I’m going to go with…real? (These are really hard!) And your random words are quintessence, peasant and garble. The random phrase is the jazz lusts throughout the pot.
I can vouch and say this is 100% legit. I had to read TOTJA for a high school English class. Mr. Icky is one of F. Scott’s “plays”. It’s a very strange short story/play.