OULIPOSTER #3 DEFINITION LIT. 'TOO GEEK FOR HIS OWN GOOD?'

TOO GEEK FOR HIS OWN GOOD?

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Today's Ouliposter task was:

'Select a single sentence from a newspaper article. Replace each meaningful word in the text [verb, noun, adjective, adverb] by its dictionary definition. Repeat this treatment on the resulting sentence, and so on, until you’ve had enough! Note that after only two such treatments with a relatively compact dictionary, even a two-word sentence can produce an accumulation of 57 words.'

I chose an article from The Guardian UK newspaper, April 3 2014 by Krisnan Guru-Murthy. The Making of Miliband. He is an MP and the leader of the Labour Party, currently in opposition in the government.

'If Miliband is, in truth, an obsessive political geek who cares little about pop music or going to the pub, that in itself will not stop him from being a popular political leader.'(33words)

I realised half way through that it was far too long a sentence, but I persevered.

If Miliband is in the state of being true, thinking continually about something relating to government, a person who is unfashionable or awkward in the company of other people, who feels a small amount of concern about modern commercial music with a strong melody and beat, or moving to a building in which an alchoholic drink made from fermented malt flavoured with hops, and other drinks are served, that in itself will not bring to an end the nature of a person relating to politics, to be liked or admired by many people and to be a person or thing that leads. (102words).

And I started to wonder what is the point...

If Miliband is in the condition of someone or something existing in accordance with fact or reality, his ideas or opinions constantly or often occurring, having no interruptions, about an unspecified or unknown thing, feeling sympathy for the group of people who govern a state; he, an individual human being who is not popular, nor fashionable, is causing or feeling embarrassment,who is aware of not a large total of worry about views of those widely held relating to the present or recent times, making or intending to make a profit in the art of combining the sounds of a voice or instrument in a pleasing way with a physically powerful tune in a main accent, or in motion from one particular position or area, in which a colourless flammable liquid, which is the ingredient that gives drinks such as wine, beer, and spirits their intoxicating effect, are served; that in itself will not cause the final part of something, the inborn qualities or characteristics of a person concerning sense and wisdom in the circumstances, find pleasant,satisfactory or regarded with respect by many human beings and one who causes a person or animal to go with them. (196w)

So I decided to strip back down to the essentials and came up with a Haiku.

TOO GEEK FOR HIS OWN GOOD?

Does being a geek

make Miliband a leader

because or despite​?

Janet Daniel

April 3 2014