Hulver's site || Favorite Tale

Favorite Tale

Dan Cobb and the Spines of Usury	8 votes - 50 %
The Two Danny Cobbs	7 votes - 43 %
What are you doing here, Danny Cobb?	7 votes - 43 %

16 Total Votes

WFC X Voting- Danny Cobb Comes to Town | 20 comments (20 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

hard to pick a winner by sasquatchan (4.00 / 1) #1 Wed Jun 02, 2010 at 10:59:56 AM EST

I liked them all. But there can be only one.

The poll is multi-select by lm (2.00 / 0) #2 Wed Jun 02, 2010 at 07:31:35 PM EST

So you can vote for them all should you wish.

There is no more degenerate kind of state than that in which the richest are supposed to be the best.
Cicero, The Republic

[ Parent ]

Dan Cobb might be from Highlander though by Scrymarch (2.00 / 0) #3 Wed Jun 02, 2010 at 08:00:40 PM EST

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[ Parent ]

Crossover fanfic by ana

(2.00 / 0) #4 Wed Jun 02, 2010 at 08:23:10 PM EST

in a single sentence. :-)

"And this ... is a piece of Synergy." --Kellnerin

[ Parent ]

Hey ana by Scrymarch (2.00 / 0) #8 Thu Jun 03, 2010 at 09:11:29 PM EST

Maybe you should abuse your editorial privileges and make this the main poll.
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[ Parent ]

: Done. by ana (4.00 / 1) #9 Thu Jun 03, 2010 at 09:44:24 PM EST

Seems like that used to be harder to find than this.
"And this ... is a piece of Synergy." --Kellnerin
[ Parent ]

as mentioned by sasquatchan (2.00 / 0) #7 Thu Jun 03, 2010 at 09:49:18 AM EST

there can be only one..

[ Parent ]

I heard Danny Cobb ... by Kellnerin (4.00 / 1) #5 Wed Jun 02, 2010 at 10:16:59 PM EST

read "The Spines of Usury" and didn't get halfway through before he started yelling "Yeah! Fuck Yeah!" so loud that the people who ran the coffee shop tried to get him thrown out but -- well, you can guess how that went ...

Honestly: This story is compact, concentrated cool, with gold coins tucked into every other sentence. The enumeration of the "rules of engagement" is only eclipsed by the callback at the story's climax. Everyone should read it right now so they can understand why they need to vote for it. Actually, you should read all three because, seriously, there are only three. And then vote for the fucking manticores.

Oh, and what was Danny Cobb doing in a coffee shop, you ask? Seems a little ... pedestrian, doesn't it? Well, funny story about that ...

--
"Plans aren't check lists, they are loose frameworks for what's going to go wrong." -- technician

Could be none of these stories are true by Scrymarch (4.00 / 1) #6 Thu Jun 03, 2010 at 01:11:31 AM EST

I really like how these stories all picked up different aspects of the superheroic. There's the origin story, the action hero, and the "gee, thanks Superman". The last of these is, despite my pulpy tag, actually the only one where there is no clear supernatural element. It is entirely implied, much as in the setup, and engagingly small scale. Danny Cobb, good neighbour. What are you doing here?

Likewise in the origin story (Two Danny Cobbs) we get this great personal picture of the childhood of a supernatural army brat. The knowing child who nonetheless is not in on all the adult secrets also comes across ... right. And the rhythm of the adult conversation, the elegant tension between the uncanniness of his father's becoming another person and the conversational way it is related. And yay for interrogative endings. The last one I remember reading was in The Cat In The Hat.

As for the action story, B described it as D&D for economists, and I guess it stands or falls by whether you like that.
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interesting take by Kellnerin (2.00 / 0) #10 Sat Jun 05, 2010 at 11:17:22 PM EST

I didn't read the theme as being about Danny Cobb the superhero. To me it was more like Danny Cobb, central figure of the tall tale. As in Big Fish, the stories are entertaining and highly improbable, but not necessarily supernatural. Actually as I was reading the stories I was struck by the supernatural elements in all of them (it's there in the third story, even if Mr. Cobb himself doesn't have any obvious special powers). It's not entirely surprising for this crowd, but I didn't think the theme necessarily implied the supernatural.

That said, after reading your analyses I have to say that the superhero model works well as a way of approaching these stories, formally if not thematically (or maybe I mean the other way around ...)

--
"Plans aren't check lists, they are loose frameworks for what's going to go wrong." -- technician

[ Parent ]

Tall tale is a better description by Scrymarch (2.00 / 0) #11 Sun Jun 06, 2010 at 06:15:58 AM EST

On the third one, I guess I thought it was left deliberately ambiguous as to whether it was supernatural or just freaky and unusual. Like an early X-Files vibe.
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[ Parent ]

Fair point by Kellnerin (2.00 / 0) #12 Sun Jun 06, 2010 at 09:23:49 AM EST

on the ambiguity. I guess, in that case, it was not only the trend established by the preceding stories that tipped me toward a supernatural interpretation but also (perhaps primarily) the setting. It seems to me that stories that open in gas stations/convenience stores (or gas station convenience stores) have a tendency to feature the supernatural. It's tempting to go for the juxtaposition between the mundaneness of junk food and soda fountains and the otherworldly, and it works. But it's become such a trope at this point (in my experience) that I see a convenience store and my brain shortcuts right to the freaky happening that's coming.

--
"Plans aren't check lists, they are loose frameworks for what's going to go wrong." -- technician

[ Parent ]

Sounds like a prompt by Scrymarch (2.00 / 0) #15 Sun Jun 06, 2010 at 09:39:43 PM EST

Story in a gas station which does not result in freaky or supernatural events.

It reminds me of the gonzo tales of mybostinks though I guess they are kind of freaky, even if they aren't supernatural ...
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[ Parent ]

that would be a challenge by Kellnerin (2.00 / 0) #16 Mon Jun 07, 2010 at 08:33:26 AM EST

If there's nothing freaky going on at the gas station, why is the story set there?

--
"Plans aren't check lists, they are loose frameworks for what's going to go wrong." -- technician

[ Parent ]

Maybe it needed some petrol. by Scrymarch (2.00 / 0) #17 Mon Jun 07, 2010 at 08:47:14 AM EST

Maybe it just needed some ready cash and a boss who didn't ask too many questions.
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[ Parent ]

: Maybe it was trying to make it in the big city by Kellnerin (4.00 / 1) #18 Mon Jun 07, 2010 at 11:27:22 AM EST

Maybe it needed to stop and ask for directions.

--
"Plans aren't check lists, they are loose frameworks for what's going to go wrong." -- technician
[ Parent ]

Does anybody else have... by ana

(4.00 / 1) #13 Sun Jun 06, 2010 at 11:46:06 AM EST

partial drafts of Danny Cobb tales? I have a couple I wouldn't mind posting someplace.

"And this ... is a piece of Synergy." --Kellnerin

I never even made it to the draft stage by lm (4.00 / 1) #14 Sun Jun 06, 2010 at 01:48:12 PM EST

I should have. I did not.

There is no more degenerate kind of state than that in which the richest are supposed to be the best.
Cicero, The Republic

[ Parent ]

I do. by dev trash (4.00 / 1) #19 Thu Jun 10, 2010 at 10:23:18 PM EST

if there's a place. I can post it. I had an idea, but I left it go and then the next thing I knew....we were votin.

--
Click

[ Parent ]

: I think that place by Kellnerin (2.00 / 0) #20 Fri Jun 11, 2010 at 07:06:46 AM EST

is a diary after voting has closed. It's been done before. Tag it accordingly and ana will sweep it up into the link farm, I'm sure ...

--
"Plans aren't check lists, they are loose frameworks for what's going to go wrong." -- technician
[ Parent ]

WFC X Voting- Danny Cobb Comes to Town | 20 comments (20 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback


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