Saturday, February 02, 2008

Succumbing to a Meme

Because James asked so nicely.

Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!)
Find Page 123.
Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.
Tag 5 people.

Let's post the quote first and then you can all guess what book it comes from and what on earth the conversation is about. I'm tickled that the book nearest to me was not a crusty graduate school tome.
"Oh, didn't it hurt the poor tree?" Laura asked.

"No more than it hurts you when you prick your finger and it bleeds," said Pa.
And because these memes depend on dragging in other reluctant bloggers, I tag new blogger Greg, Scrabulicious pal Dali, K-Bob, Chuck, a U2 fan, and Schteef, my Bruin buddy.

I resisted tagging those of you who've been subjected to my mimetic coercions before. You can thank me later.

9 comments:

Gregster said...

I am a college dropout. This morning, I awoke to what I thought would be a day of football, fatty foods, robust ale, and hanging with good friends. The odds of my seaching the net for a layman's definition of Richard Dawkins' memetic theory are about the same as the odds that Tom Brady might throw me a touchdown pass. But I think I got it, kinda like Jessica Simpson might have gotten high school algebra. (BARELY)

But if I understand the rules, you are supposed to post three sentences. I only see two.

Unknown said...

Yes, true dat. Only two because page 123 in this particular book has only two sentences following the five line count. These two are followed by a delightful picture. :)

Unknown said...

And btw, good on ya to figure out what a meme is, or as my daughter thought they were called: "me" "me" s.

Julie

Chuck said...

Good thing there was a page limit - most books close at hand were software manuals - those books men never read - and I didn't include the index, so it kept the count low. At any rate, the closest real book was "That Distant Land", a collection of Wendell Berry short stories set in Port William. (I've posted about these stories several times.)

Page 123 happens to be the last page of the short story "Watch with Me":

"Let's go eat!"

"Oh, that was a meal that was a joy to set on the table!" Mis Minnie said. She and her nephew, Sam Hanks, had been telling Granny and me the story of Nightlife's spell and his long ramble through the woods.

NoVA Dad said...

Just popped by to see what you were up to and found one of my favorite blog-tag exercises! Hope Jon and the kids are doing well; haven't had much time to do any blogging lately, and sadly have had even less time to do any surfing.

kc bob said...

I did it.

My guess for yours would be one of the LHOTP books by LIW.. am I close?

David Blakeslee said...

I'm going to play along, even though I wasn't tagged (thank you for that, by the way) and I have no intention of tagging anyone else.

John Dominic Crossan's "God and Empire" is sitting right next to me on the couch as I'm celebrating "Super Blogging Sunday" so here's what my buddy Dom has to say on page 123:

Very often today, for example, "Son of God" is used in media interviews to denote that Jesus was divine and "Son of Man" to indicate that he was human. But this usage is most inadequate, and indeed, if anything, "Son of Man" is an even more exalted title than "Son of God." So be patient as I locate this title within its matrix in Jewish eschatology.

I trust that this quote adds something to the on-going discussion...

Unknown said...

Chuck, yay! Another children's story or at least a portion of which is childlike in spirit.

NovaDad, you can always play. :) I knew your blogging had been sporadic of late.

K-Bob! Fun. And yes, Little House on the Prairie. :)

Dave - that quote deserves its own thread! Intriguing. Makes me want to read the next lines. :)

Unknown said...

Correction: Little House in the Big Woods. :)