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I missed my train this morning. I wasn't too fussed though as the next train was due in about 7 minutes.
I didn't have a book with me, nor had I bought a newspaper so instead I perused the timetable. Like a zombie I stared at the page - thinking the "numbers are nice but there isn't any plot" - until
the train came. Admittedly, in that 7 minutes I learned that there is a train that leaves Milngavie at 08.10 and (uniquely) arrives at Glasgow Queen Street without stopping at Partick. However, it struck me then that I could have been reading some engaging piece of language instead...
I propose placing large posters of text within the advertising screens (obviously in addition to timetables & adverts, not replacing them!). The text may be of any kind really, but 5 minutes worth of reading would be nice. I envisage a 14pt passage from Melville's "Moby Dick", Miller's "The Crucible" or a piece of poetry like Carrol's "Jabberwocky". Passages from film and tv scripts would be really good too.
My Lovely Horse
---------
Ted and Dougal's entry in the Euro Song Contest (Father Ted:Series 2 Show 4).
"My Lovely Horse
Running through the.. field
Where are you going
With your fetlocks blowing
In the... wind
I want to shower you with sugar lumps
And ride you over...fences
I want to polish your hooves every single day
And bring you to the horse... dentist
My lovely horse
You're a pony no... more
Running around
With a man on your back
Like a train in the night
Like a train in the... (hang on I can get this)... night!"
Peotry on the Underground
http://www.poetryso...education/under.htm
Poems, on the Underground [oneoffdave, Nov 29 2004]
Poetry In Motion
http://www.poetrysociety.org/motion/
[theircompetitor, Nov 29 2004]
[link]
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This has been done to some extent on the London underground with poetry [link] but I'd love to see it extended to bus stops and the like and with prose too. |
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Nice link, dave. I will arise and go now and go to Bonkle. |
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I like the idea, too. Poetry is good for the subway where waits are limited in length. The longer waits in train stations would allow the prospective commuter to benefit from the prose segments. Can I pick a fragment? Goody. I pick the opening chapter of "The BFG." |
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Risking this turning into a list, I'd pick the opening from 1984 'It was a bright cold day in April and a million clocks were striking thirteen...' or War of the Worlds 'No-one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century...' |
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[OoD]: Cool link, I think that is where the seed of my idea must have come from. During the few times that I have been on the tube, I must have read Davies' "Leisure" or something similar. |
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But when I thought of the diea this morning I was indifferently scrutinising the timetable and pictured an A2 poster filled with 12pt text. I only added poetry as an after thought. |
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I tried for "Poetry In Motion"
But I was somewhat handicapped
And had to bridge a knowledge gap
To even entertain the notion
Alas, I didn't get too far
Since lately I commute by car
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Poetry will make my next trip to Nantucket more interesting. |
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This idea is baked, for use in bathroom stalls. There are some classics at the local bus station mens room - one from a gentleman who was sitting broken-hearted. Another who was confused about whether he's Datin' a girl from Eaton, Ohio, or vice-versa. |
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i actually saw this in london. there was
one billboard that had exerpts from
pieces of literature. The writings were
pieced together w/o any order, but
were all about the same topic which
made for surreal reading (and the small
print made for headaches) but it
passed the time. |
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[hugesmile], did these come on paper or were they actual, you know, tiles?
Tiles would be great, for... well, anywhere there are walls really - toilets, train stations, schools, hospitals (for those interminable waits in a&e - infinitely preferable to a three-month-old People's Friend magazine. Get stuck into Moby Dick instead). Personally, I love the idea of putting a masterpiece on my bathroom walls at home - I'd maybe have something by Dickens... hmm, no, Christmas Carol too cold. Treasure Island then, all round the bath. It would maybe stop me drowning paperbacks. Cursive script on a creamy background, something classy. |
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How many tiles for a complete novel? Maybe half a page per tile? Hmm... six hundred tiles is gonna make for a big bathroom. |
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They could have educational contests also |
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Shaving brushes
You'll soon see 'em
On a shelf
In some museum
Burma-Shave |
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