Why just the 13 place-getters?

Readers will identify with the story in their own individual and personal ways.

For me, for example: Master O'Reilly being the victim in your story struck true because it was like a ghost had been murdered. Master O'Reilly came fourth in the race last year, and fourth this year. So for me he came out of the race very much like a murdered figure, because he just missed-out on a place and a chance for me to get some of my hard-earned returned as I had bet 'Each-way'. Since this occured last year, and since a figure can only be murdered once, the ghost of Master O'Reilly returns to haunt me.

What could have motivated you, Jeffrey?

...It's likely you were just bored in your life, and were seeking a satisfying way to solve a puzzle from your imagination. Being a creative person you chose writing as a way to explore a fairly original concept and found that it was a worthwhile expenditure of your time.

Could be you were also endeavouring to bring meaning to a moment in Australia when the country stops. Why should the country stop? ...You may have asked yourself. It's just a horse race, after all. Well it's a horse race with some meaning to me, you may have said. A horse race with the first 13 place-getters being involved in my mind with some meaning beyond just their own involvement in, The Race.

In any case, thanks for bringing it, Jeffrey. Much less pretentious than some of the other crap on here. As you can see, I enjoyed it. I think writing - of this kind - belongs on a theatre site most appropriately.

Cheers,
Daniel M.

As someone who has never seen the Melbourne cup, I took it at face value- a story - and thought it was outstanding!

You never know what's comin' for you.

Thank you both. It was a whim really. I noticed that first and second place getters made an interesting collective phrase - Shocking and Crime Scene - and a short story simply started to flow using third, fourth and fifth place. Naturally I decided to push it as far as I could go and was finally stumped by 13th, 14th and 15th place... but maybe not for long.

Daniel, Question: Why does everything have to be so melodramatic? "It's likely you were just bored in your life..." With so much going on in my life, I could hardly say that I was bored with it. I may have been bored in the instant that this fancy hit me, but borde with my life? Please.

Yet as you say Dan, everyone will have their own views on it and I am certainly not one to oppose that. Rest assured that I am a fairly happy chappy with big plans and much to occupy his mind.

Additional general note: This exercise I find to be a fun little challenge. Find a sequence of words that represent one thing (eg Race Results) and turn it into something else, not necessarily a story as I have done. It is a stimulating creative challenge.

Absit invidia (and DFT )

Jeff Watkins
SN Profile
Photographer

Jeffrey,

You said you didn't know what motivated you to do this. You posed a question by stating this. Since a person of your significant stature on this site posed such a question, it was only correct for me to sense an obligation to try and answer it.

I wasn't trying to be melodromatic at all. I indeed meant that, you may have been bored in your life, but at that singular and instant moment, when this boredom which has a voice and goes through all our minds in life says: What do I do now or what do I next?

I simply don't know you and wouldn't have known enough about you to suggest that you are bored with your life. Unless I wanted to hurt you like some Walter. Clearly that's not what I wanted to do, as I'm sure you know.

And so that is where my writing failed in making you think that that was what I meant. I believe you when you say you are a "fairly happy chappy" and are living life "with big plans and much to occupy his mind." I would have never thought otherwise. In fact, I would think you are curious by nature and many things in life interest you at the same time.
That you are a photographer by trade - amongst other things, I think - already tells me a lot about your creative side.

It was a fine challenge you set for yourself. Once I realized more about it through my own investigations I was kinda bummed I didn't think of it myself. I would suggest you do more of it, whether in private or here on the site where as I stated work of this kind belongs - you never where it might lead you or the doors which might open up as a result.

That you were stumped at 13 and stopped work there, might work more than you might know, in the larger context of bringing meaning to it. That you say: "but maybe not for long" suggests to me you already know this.

In any case, I think you know where I'm coming from by the name I use in signing out - so you should know that I was being positive and supportive, and anything other was simply a failure on my part which I hope I have now corrected satisfactorily.

Cheers,
Daniel M.

SOME people may say Australia has no culture but I wasn't one of them. If I heard someone say that I'd grab 'em by the short hairs and explain exactly how the cow ate the cabbage, if you know what I mean. I didn't hide the fact I am from the US of A, I just didn't see a reason to mention it every post. I love it down there, I'd marry your dog if they'd let me stay! My extraction? Irish-Cherokee-Scottish-English.
And did I really sound like a kid??? Is that good or bad?
Did you like my pig story? I said I liked your horse story. Your turn!

You never know what's comin' for you.