Bloomb Thicket's Opera - The Xilon of Witch Racket by R. U. Sleeping - Short, Family Horror - In 1977 on Halloween night, SimplyEarth launched The Voyager Spacecraft with its Golden Record into space. What happened to it results in the birth of Xilon's new Messiah King. - pdf, format

Well, this is idiosyncratic! It has a largely incomprehensible and unpronounceable title, uses a font that is hard to read and is certainly not standard, and  seems to be more a SF story than a horror story!

I didn't like it much at all - this is not my cup of tea really anyway. It does demonstrate the wide range of different approaches that the OWC can elicit - but this one is perhaps to wide of the mark.

Sorry writer, I don't have a clue on this one. Formatting choice didn't help (bolded, non-courier font throughout.)

Gary

Oh boy, here we go again!

Not going to be able to get through this one, sorry to say.  I know who wrote this and it doesn't surprise me how whacked out it is.

That font is terrible!

Sorry, but that's all I can say here.

Quoted from grademan Formatting choice didn't help (bolded, non-courier font throughout.)

what do you mean? the font is courier and the right size. it's not bolded...

at least not on my laptop.

I am sorry to say that I couldn't finish this script. I stopped at the conversation between Marshall and Bloom. I was waiting for something to happen to make some sense of the story, but even the dialogue is incomprehensible!

If the writer is still around, I really want to hear what his/her intention is.

Sorry.

Yeah, I think the writer of this one is pretty obvious.  Unless I'm totally off.  That is one he11 of an imagination you have.  Inventive use of language.  But, the story was also extremely difficult to follow and really isn't anything close to Family Horror.  Family Sci-Fi, I'd say.  This almost seems like a story you had in your head for awhile and then decided to make it fit into the OWC.  Sorry if I'm wrong about that, it's just how the script read to me.  So, it was imaginative, creative and almost incomprehensible.  

I made two attempts to read this one. The first, I had to stop three or four pages in. The second, I finished it. Honestly, I couldn't tell anyone what exactly is going on here. I'm not sure if it was the use of words like "Merlinized" and "Azquick" or the font which made me feel like I'd had too much to drink. The title character is introduced kinda late and it's hard to tell exactly what his role is in the story. The dialogue is far too abstract to comprehend, really, even without silly words. Yet it didn't seem like the person was trying too hard to make it that way. I imagine the person who wrote this (I have an idea who) has generally strange sensibilities when it comes to writing. I think if I tried to write something like this, I wouldn't be able to make it as weird and abstract as this is.

Anyway, I didn't find this successful at all. Probably the most perplexing script I've read here. Nevertheless, it's neither horror, family-oriented or involves any sort of festival. If anything, the entire world seems to be the festival. So yeah. Went over my head. Sorry.

Maybe it's because I just woke up - but I seemed to actually get some of the story in this one.  Ok! It's obvious who wrote it and I tried doubly hard to understand it.  But it's basically a story about the arrival of an extraterrestrial machine that's going to do bad things when they turn it on unless they can find a way to distract everyone's attention.  It's filled with lots of nonsense, good sort of nonsense and my favorite part is when Spock is looking for his logic.  You're getting better at making your unique brand of story understandable and followable - keep up the good work.  I think the problem with this one was that the mythos for the story was too complex to fit in 12 pages. You needed a bit more space to introduce us to this strange universe, so that we feel comfortable with the concepts.  

As far as the challenge goes I don't think this is horror and I think it's far too complex for young children. Though that being said, maybe it is for young children and too complex for adults.  Actually, I'm not sure so we'll just leave it at too complex.  But I thought there was a spark there...

**OOO    

I am never good at guessing who wrote what! But if I am right in my vague suspicions regarding this script, which have been strengthened by some of the above comments, then it would explain a lot.

But then it may turn out I wrote this one!

Errrr....Not sure about this really.  It's certainly more sci-fi than horror but more importantly is just plain weird.  Some of the dialogue is just gibberish...isn't it?  I don't see how it fits any of the themes or even tries, not one of my favourites, sorry.

I've been away for a few days, but it's obvious that people know who wrote this.

Did I write this? Maybe I did.

Well...

If I did, then here is my response. If I did. But I could be just stringing you along.

First off I want to say Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this THING.

And who knows what it is, really. Well, I do, but you don't; so I'll try and figure out a way in the future to transliterate. ...and when I do... it will probably be like Michael says:

0000000 .....

My first comment is that I wrote this after one day of research and two days of intensity. I'm flattered by anyone who thinks this had been written previously and adapted. Why the hell would I do that? I don't need that shit. All I need is work. Period. That's me.

I want to say that I don't mean for it to be incomprehensible. My intention is to provide meaning and so how can that be? Go figure!

How did I write this sucker? After I learned the theme, I started focusing and researching for over a day. I didn't have a long time because I needed to prepare for a congress in Buffalo and I felt very stressed actually. And yet, at the same time I was invigorated and excited for the challenge. As time went on, I knew that I was not going to be writing write-on-theme.

The question is: Why did I chose to disobey "the law"? I blame it on George.  Seriously. When we were working together and he (I can't remember his exact words) but he disregarded the word count in favor of the ending he desired at that point. …well, that had liberated me. I understood and felt in a tangible way what he knew and I knew it too. It's still no excuse, but at least you know where I'm coming from. In a nutshell:

I wrote the OWC in 2 days which was a record for me. The story was about a Golden Record that was sent into space in the 70s. The spine of the story is true, but I've embellished it. The time capsule was not launched into space on Halloween and as far as I know, Carl Sagan never really did dress up as his beloved "Star Stuff".

I'll ask you: Have you ever watched "Cosmos?" If not, then that's probably why I've messed you around on this one- at least partially.

Carl Sagan was the chair of a committee that was designed to launch a soundtrack to be sent out in space on the Voyager. He chose Bach to be one of the melodies played among other sounds from earth. They used symbols to help translate the message to foreigners. (I called this a universal language in the script which I believe truly exists).

My daughter and I study linguistics and so the concept of universal symbols (which were actually used) came to play in this.

I could go off on many tangents right now on this particular story that is rooted in truth, but I'm going to cut short because it's getting later than late and I've got burn out.

I'll get working on the reads now. Again...

Thanks to everyone who bothered to read this THING.   and maybe someday
I'll be able to speak to you in a language you will understand.

Sandra

Quoted from Sandra Elstree. Have you ever watched "Cosmos?" If not, then that's probably why I've messed you around on this one- at least partially.

Cosmos, probably the best documenatry about the universe ever made.

Sandra, have you ever read the two books John Lennon wrote in the Beatles heyday?
'In His Own Write' and 'A Spaniard In the Works'?

Some of your word play and deliberate misspelling reminds me of it.

You always try something different for the OWC's and I dig it.

I don't understand it but I dig it....

PS you left your name on the PDF properties page.

Hey Sandra,

I thought I'd check this one out since already outed yourself. You're a weird woman, Sandra (and I mean that in a good way), your script here is just as weird but really, when you think about it - and it does require some background knowledge - it's really not that weird.

I actually liked this one. To me - if I understand it correct - it's a very ironic tale. This is basically a reversed version of Carl Sagan's "Contact". Voyagers 1 and 2 (both launched in 1977) each carried a Golden Gramaphone onboard containing "The Murmurs of Earth"...put together by, among others, Carl Sagan.

Now, in your script, the Gramaphone reaches another civilization and completely screws them up - exactly the opposite of what was intended of it - much like "The Machine" does in Contact.

Getting past the very annoying font you used, it's actually a pretty well written script. You chose a style and a tone a stuck with even through the dialogue. Ballsy move, lady. Kudos.

As for the theme and genre...well, if you stretch it a bit, yeah, I guess it fits. I thought it was more a dark comedy though.

All in all, I thought it was good - you know, if I understood it correctly

Keep up the good work, Sandra.

Cheers
Rob