Tuesday, March the 23rd, 2004
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The logophiliac barber Nuttawood Sirinuntananon used the above five sentences from Knox's pulp non-classic as the basis for a word game which he unsuccessfully marketed under the name Johnfowlesopoly. Despite its commercial failure, the game is a great favourite at Hooting Yard, and the rules (such as they are) are simple.
Taking the adjectives from Knox's passage—in alphabetical order, bestial, big, debauched, fashionable, foreign-made, jaded, neurotic, sickening, and whirling—players are given five minutes to compose a very short tale suitable as a bedtime story for infants. All nine adjectives must be used, but free rein is given for the rest of the text. Extra points are awarded if the word plodded is also included.
Readers are encouraged to play this at home on one of those dismal evenings when life seems unbearable, and to send in their entries for inclusion in a forthcoming anthology.