In Demand

[poliphilo]

I live a retired life. No-one invites me anywhere (thank goodness.) And then I get two big-deal invitations for the same evening.

Invitation #1 is for a book launch at the Bosnian embassy. I wrote the preface to said book. I'm not going because it's too far, Ailz has a hospital appointment that day and the thought of being on display like that and having to pretend to be some sort of expert on Bosnian poetry (which I'm not) gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Invitation #2 is for the preview of an exhibition of paintings and drawings by an ex-girlfriend. I probably will go to this one because it's not too far, I'm interested to see what Wendy is up to these days and, even though the prospect of having to make light, tinking conversation over the chardonnay is pretty repulsive, I won't have to pretend to be anything other than a punter.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Now that really does sound like fun.

I can imagine Lewis Carroll playing it. Whenever he went on a railway journey he used to fill his pockets with books and toys and games in case he should happen to share a carriage with a little girl who needed amusing.

Are there rules about the phrases that go into the hat? Do they have to make some sort of sense or are wild flights of surreality allowed?

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

They obviosuly have to be slightly bizarre in order to make it a challenge for the participant to steer the conversation towards, say, Lucrecia di Borgia or something similarly non-usual during polite carriage conversation... And as always, double-entendres is a great hit with the audience! But they also have to be fair, just like the two players actually have to make sure that they don't just steam-roll the other person, but have a normal (sort of) conversation that just takes a lot of strange twists and turns...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I guess it would be cunning to introduce outlandish phrases into the conversation in the hope that your opponent would challenge wrongly.

Hey, it sounds like fun. Maybe I'll try and get the family to play it sometime over Xmas.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

Hehe... You're getting into the strategy of it!

I'll try to see if I can get English M to mail write me the instructions word by word from his book of Victorian parlourgames; I seem to recall that even the description was amusing in its own right!

(Also my flatmate just asked what I was doing... My reply? "I'm explaining the rules of a Victorian parlourgame to a former Wicca priest...")

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

All in a day's work....

Yes, I'd love to have the original instructions.