6 words story by Hemingway

published by flevour on Tue, 03/10/2006 - 19:55

This 6 words story totally blew up my mind: so short and so plenty of suggestions: “For sale: baby shoes, never used.” (via Caterina.net via 37s).

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Comments

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 04/10/2006 - 12:37

I agree..it suggests places, times, people, disgraces, playgrounds, ..

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 04/10/2006 - 23:33

What a bullshit :D ! I could code a program that creates random strings of 6 words “plentier of suggestions” than that one :D . Take it easy man.

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 25/03/2008 - 17:54

Hey you Blextar, you stupid fuck! :) Can’t you see the complexity of those 6 words? Hemingway was told to write an ENTIRE story, an ENTIRE novel with only SIX words! And just look what the genious came up with. There is so much embedded and compressed into those words it could easily be expanded to an entire book! Just read it again and try to imagine in what context that sentence could be found? If that would have been written by someone as a real note, what would that person have been through, and why would he write that, and why would he publish it? So as you can imagine, those six words cannot just be randomed up by a simple computer program. Try to write something that powerful yourself with a contraint like that.

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 28/03/2008 - 12:21

Sorry, it means nothing to me :) . You want me to imagine it into a context? It could have been written by someone trying to sell some baby shoes, maybe posting an advertisement on a local paper. Nothing more than that. Words are overrated. PS: btw, take a look here http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.topic.generator.html ...try to imagine that into a context…

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 30/05/2008 - 13:17

You are an idiot! You just can’t read, can you?! In those six words there’s a whole novel embedded and even better than that, cause each can come up with his own view of the drama or the context those words appeared. I guess you should sitck with programming random word phrases cause 1 and 0 is the only thing you can read.

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 27/06/2008 - 20:44

Blextar is probably autistic or something.

Anonymous (not verified)

Sat, 12/07/2008 - 03:32

Blextar. You are an Idiot. Have you ever read a novel that you weren’t forced too? Can you comprehend English????? you are a prime example of whats wrong with America.
My interpretation of this story goes something like this:
Why would someone buy a pair of Baby shoes in the first place??? Mos likely because they are expecting a child or because they have one… Why would they sell an unused pair of baby shoes??? Maybe the wife lost the baby or the child was killed? or hell maybe they just didn’t fit and they lost the receipt.
FYI that 3 pounds gray matter between your ears is called a brain… try using it some time!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 05/09/2008 - 14:59

Ahah, this is really hilarious :D …It’s so funny to see how people react when someone says something not quite so popular about “Art Gurus” like Hemingway, or Picasso, or Hendrix. You should drink less coffee and use the so-called “brain” more often. Provided you have one. Have a nice day.

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 05/09/2008 - 15:10

And by the way, I’m not suggesting you’re dumb. I’m only saying that you don’t understand that sometimes people might think it different. Let me explain: if tons of people eat shit, I’m not gonna eat it just because they do. If tons of people like hemingway, I’m not gonna love it because they do. To me this story means nothing. What is beautiful for you, can be absolute meaningless for me. I use my brain, and my brain is different from yours (thank god).

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 06/11/2008 - 16:41

The point is the the 6 words have a a beginning, a middle and an end. That’s the point to it, so therefore it can be considered as a story even though its only 6 words. Which Is not going to win any awards, but I think it is quite clever.

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 19/11/2008 - 04:00

The reason that this is so genial is because Hemingway did it first. It is always easy to come after and say it is easy to do.

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 23/12/2008 - 06:58

Thanks for all your wonderful comments and support! I really appreciate it. In other news, I’ve launched a basic site at DornFall to get it started. It will be changing over the coming weeks once I find the time to devote to it. Thanks again!

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 13/02/2009 - 16:26

Hey you Blextar, you stupid fuck! :) Can’t you see the complexity of those 6 words? Hemingway was told to write an ENTIRE story, an ENTIRE novel with only SIX words! And just look what the genious came up with. There is so much embedded and compressed into those words it could easily be expanded to an entire book! Just read it again and try to imagine in what context that sentence could be found? If that would have been written by someone as a real note, what would that person have been through, and why would he write that, and why would he publish it? So as you can imagine, those six words cannot just be randomed up by a simple computer program. Try to write something that powerful yourself with a contraint like that. mpcoc

Anonymous (not verified)

Wed, 29/04/2009 - 12:41

“What Goes Around, Comes Around.” See, I’ve done a 5-word story… I’m obviously better than Hemingway.

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 21/07/2009 - 12:24

those six words say more than most novels. hemingway never dissapoints.

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 04/08/2009 - 08:13

My 6 word story: “you are all such fucking knuckleheads.”

Anonymous (not verified)

Fri, 28/08/2009 - 08:34

Seems like a continuation of A Farewell to Arms. There are some other good ones on Wired. Dorothy: Fuck it, I’ll stay here. K.I.A. Baghdad, Aged 18-closed casket. those goddam obvious enough?

Anonymous (not verified)

Tue, 09/02/2010 - 23:23

For all those who say Hemmingway is dumb: And very well, you are entitled to your opinion, I don’t think you understand what the words mean. “For sale: baby shoes never worn.” The other things written on this wall, the generator that can come up with ‘six words stories’ they don’t mean anything because they have no assumptions. They don’t leave you with images or stories in your head. Another anonymous said “What Goes Around, Comes Around.” That’s a saying. No story. No plot, no conflict, no characters. In Hemmingway’s. We all are probably invisoning a family whose lost a baby due to complications of some kind. Why? Because people don’t buy baby shoes for no reason. They buy them because they are having a baby. Hemmingway’s gift is that he selected each specific word so that we would infer this type of story.

Anonymous (not verified)

Thu, 24/06/2010 - 18:26

Are you guys aware that the short story in question, which actually reads “for sale: baby shoes, never worn.” is only speculated to be written by Hemingway. There is no proof he even wrote it. Just reading what everyone has to say in its defense seems to cheapen the meaning. As a story it evokes powerful, sorrowful images. Did he write it? Who knows. FYI, the bet was supposed to be ten words or less.