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Friday, March 19, 2010

Lost Knowledge at Alexandria

Found inscribed on the bottom of a reused limestone block at the Q'am Mosque in Cairo, "If you enjoyed our stelae on the great works of Pharaoh Khufu, then see our scroll 'How its made - the Pyramids' now in the library at Alexandria".

This is an ironic story, fictional at many levels, all in one sentence...
Sometimes the disclaimer takes the bite out, and has to be read as carefully as the material, so imagine you had not read the above disclaimer line.

I thought such a one sentence construct would be an accepted form of story/literature, but I could find no reference to such a form? What is a one sentence story called? Ultra short story?http://www.onesentence.org/stories/popular/
The above one sentence entities are based on reality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_story
Short stories, though short, are typically longer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdote
Anecdotes are typically based on reality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable
Parables have an instructive moral.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fable
Fables involve anaimals or supernatural aspects.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joke
Jokes are meant to evoke laughter or humour.

The one sentence fictional story above is meant to provoke thought through thoughtful (not humourous) irony.

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