My philosophy mirrors Einstein: Question everything. Sorry, I had to prod myself to pull away from the keyboard at nine: They are my contribution to the title of this post, “Philosophy of Life in Six Words: Gimme a Few Slices of Yours.” Only my slant is a slice of life: pieces of my personal philosophy and my view on life. Here are a few of my own tributes to minimalism and the six-word writing premise. Most have been inspired by Smith Magazine’s original premise that was inspired by the Hemingway legend. Go to these sites to get an idea of the concept’s infiltration into twenty-first century media: Flickr Six Word Story ( ) or NPR’s programming ( ) or Wired Magazine ( ) or the blog Six-Word Story ( ) or a sundry of other sites (including classroom lesson plans posted by teachers). But this online publication is just one of many that celebrate brevity through six-word stories. Their Web site ( ) offers a forum that gives “professional and never-before-published writers, artists, and photographers” a place to share their narratives. As a result of these successes, a stream of books were published to honor the six-word memoir. Then the editors began a teen version, Teen Smith. After the magazine introduced the Six-Word Memoir Project, the popularity of its efforts soared. For sure, it is a testament to today’s technology that the 6WS continues to challenge the human spirit.Ī spark that lit the unearthing of Hemingway’s challenge was the online publication Smith Magazine, which in 2006 was founded to encourage the art of “personal” storytelling. I began to realize that this “story within a story” was a stunning piece of American popular culture. What had been unknown to me was very much visible on the Web as blogs, (offline and) online publications, social media, radio programming, and Web sites. Below are just a few of the Web sites that cater to the concept of a six-word story (6WS) or a variation on that theme. He wrote a six-word novel: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” (And there is Hemingway’s grand six-word title of the classic, The Old Man and the Sea.) Myth or reality, the brevity of his six-word story intersected beautifully with his style as a novelist.Īs I dug through the Internet, it became clear that I had unleashed a snowball’s history that is still gaining momentum. Legend says: in the 1920s Hemingway either met a challenge posed to him in a bar, or he decided to challenge other writers to use their talents and follow his example. The unsubstantiated back story is sparse. I was tantalized.Īpparently, the source of this “six-word memoir” word play was the American writer Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). Congratulations to Marchal for being selected, and for her words being read by Honest Tea fans. And in the middle of those words was a memoir by Lisa Marchal, which read “My golden ticket was printed incorrectly.” That’s a kick at one’s life, but apparently apt for hers and riddled with a sense of humor. Even though this marketing strategy is old hat, my curiosity still was flagged. Last week as I was pouring a glass of chilled pomegranate red tea, I spied words encircling the inside of the bottle cap. Nature knows a thing or to about spreading its "seeds," 2011. Then I saw its body had a large clump of pollen that covered one of its legs. It was enjoying a late morning fill of nectar from an oak-leaf hydrangea. Smith's six-word memoir? "Now I obsessively count the words." And Fershleiser's: "Bookstore to book tour in seconds."Ĭan you write your autobiography in one sentence? Share your six-word memoir.While strolling at a local botanic garden, I noticed this furry black carpenter bee. Larry Smith, founding editor of Smith, and Rachel Fershleiser, Smith's memoir editor, talk to NPR's Rebecca Roberts about the fun and the challenge of capturing real-life stories in six little words. It All Changed in an Instant is full of well-known names - from activist Gloria Steinem ("Life is one big editorial meeting"), to author Frank McCourt ("The miserable childhood leads to royalties"), to actress Molly Ringwald ("Acting is not all I am"). The tiny memoirs are sometimes sad, often funny - and always concise. It All Changed in an Instant is the fourth collection of very, very brief life stories from Smith. In this spirit, Smith Magazine invited writers "famous and obscure" to distill their own life stories into exactly six words. Once asked to write a full story in six words, legend has it that novelist Ernest Hemingway responded: "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn."
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