Sketch #5 - 'Dan' Fiction

"On a windy evening in Guadalajara, The Gaucho crossed paths with Buzz. The Gaucho, a man who looks like a fool, was just passing through Guadalajara, and had never met the other man before. Buzz had a reputation in town as a tiresome mooch. The two couldn't have been more miserable company. Both of them thought that the other was looking to jack the other guy's stash at the bar where they sat. Emboldened by the fine Colombian he had indulged in earlier, Buzz picked a fight with The Gaucho, which ended in a sad display of weak wills that saw both men left to themselves in the emptied out bar. The pair of strangers then ended up trading sorry stories back and forth, much to the bartender's chagrin."

Using Tracery, for this final sketch in CATN I decided to take a page out of Alex Pappademas' book–his actual book, Quantum Criminals, which is a response to the music of Steely Dan by way of analyzing the various losers, hacks, and creeps that populate their songs.

I dunno, it seemed like a silly enough idea to make a Steely Dan fanfic generator. Definitely not my most creative sketch.

It's a good thing I had a straightforward concept to play around with, though, because I found it really difficult to get Tracery to cooperate. I'm not sure what wasn't sinking in correctly (I followed the CATN Propp-inspired generation tutorial to the letter at first), but I simply couldn't get anything to work properly. Eventually I settled on the construction below, which I think is syntactically sound if maybe a bit redundant in places. Had things gone a bit easier with this and if I was planning on using Tracery in the final project, I would've gone further with this idea... but since I've set myself the task of adding some PComp stuff to this class to wrap it up, I'm leaving this sketch as-is.

{
"origin":"#[dude:#dudeOne#][guy:#dudeTwo#][place:#setPlace#][conflict:#setConflict#][drug:#setDrug#][resolution:#setRes#]story#",

"dudeOne":["Jack[dudeDes:a fella stuck in his ways]", "Doctor Wu[dudeDes:a shadow of the man that folks once knew]","The Gaucho[dudeDes:a man who looks like a fool]","Chino[dudeDes:an associate of G. Gordon Liddy]","Bodhisattva[dudeDes:a preternaturally chill New Age spiritualist-type]"],

"dudeTwo":["Kid Charlemagne[guyDes:a washed up relic of the Free Love era]","Deacon Blues[guyDes:a sad sack sax player, deep in his scotch]","Buzz[guyDes:a tiresome mooch]"],

"setPlace":["Hollywood","Annandale, NJ","Guadalajara","'Lost Wages'"],

"setConflict":["eyeing the other man's girl","looking to jack the other guy's stash"],

"setDrug":["the El Supremo","the fine Colombian","the Dragon"],

"setRes":["drank themselves to death","ended up trading sorry stories back and forth, much to the bartender's chagrin","resolved to call up the bar's owner, Josie, to settle their dispute","made amends and went to see a movie starring the young up-and-comer Peg"],

"story":"On a windy evening in #place#, #dude# crossed paths with #guy#. #dude#, #dudeDes#, was just passing through #place#, and had never met the other man before. #guy# had a reputation in town as #guyDes#. The two couldn't have been more miserable company. Both of them thought that the other was #conflict# at the bar where they sat. Emboldened by #drug# he had indulged in earlier, #guy# picked a fight with #dude#, which ended in a sad display of weak wills that saw both men left to themselves in the emptied out bar. The pair of strangers then #resolution#."
}