The Lines of Literature Paraphrase Challenge is now closed for entries. I received 25 quotes in all, which is more than I was expecting and I am very happy. Thank you so much, everyone!
Now comes a fun part, when you get to read everyone else's; only you won't know who wrote what. That, my dear readers, will not be revealed until the end.
I have divided everything up into 8 polls. The polls will be open until a week from today (Wed., March 14, 2012) and then I will post the results and probably one large poll to determine the overall favorite. And I may just make a button or two for prizes. ;)
I would suggest not voting for your own, just because I think it's easier for you and perhaps more fair in general. At least, when I have the option to vote for my own thing, it's far more difficult than if I wasn't supposed to. But I don't forbid it. Especially if you really do like your own the best... hehe.
Poll One: From Emma by Jane Austen
1.
Original Quote:
"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her."
Satire:
"Emma Woodhouse, gorgeous, smart and loaded with cash, with a great house and a happy-go-lucky attitude, had basically everything anybody could want and had gotten through almost 21 years without having any reason for a temper tantrum."
2.
Original Quote:
"Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of."
Satire:
"People like people who are interesting, so people will speak kindly of young people who die or get married."
3.
Original Quote:
"I am very much astonished, Mr. Elton. This to me! you forget yourself—you take me for my friend—any message to Miss Smith I shall be happy to deliver; but no more of this to me, if you please."
Satire:
"Hello, Harriet cannot come to the phone right now. Please leave your name, number, and a brief message and Harriet will be with your shortly."
1.
Original Quote:
2.
Original Quote:
I have not the pleasure of understanding you.
Paraphrase:
"I ain’t got no idea what you’re going on about."
3 & 4
Original Quote:
A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.
(3) Paraphrase:
"You say to one girl that another girl is pretty, and instantly she starts planning your wedding."
(4) Paraphrase:
“Ladies have big imaginations – they are sure that if you think a girl is cute, you love her; if you love her, you want to marry her. And all this imagining in only a second!”
Poll 3: Charles Dickens quotes
1.
Original Quote:
"And, as Tiny Tim observed, 'God bless us, every one!'"
~A Christmas Carol
Interpretation:
Original Quote:"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." (Northanger Abbey)
Paraphrases:
1. “Anyone who doesn’t love a good book is stupid.“
2. “The person, whether a guy or gal, who doesn’t have fun reading a good book, must be amazingly dumb.”
3. “A guy or girl who does not like reading a novel is dumb.”
Poll Five: From Mansfield Park and Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen
1.
Original Quote:
"There certainly are not so many men of large fortune as there are pretty women to deserve them."
- Mansfield Park
Paraphrase:
"There aren’t enough rich guys to go around."
2.
Original Quote:
Paraphrase:
Original Quote:
“The power of doing any thing with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.”
Paraphrase:
“If you can do it fast, you’re proud of it – despite the awful job you’re doing.” 2.
Original Quote:
I have not the pleasure of understanding you.
Paraphrase:
"I ain’t got no idea what you’re going on about."
3 & 4
Original Quote:
A lady’s imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.
(3) Paraphrase:
"You say to one girl that another girl is pretty, and instantly she starts planning your wedding."
(4) Paraphrase:
“Ladies have big imaginations – they are sure that if you think a girl is cute, you love her; if you love her, you want to marry her. And all this imagining in only a second!”
Poll 3: Charles Dickens quotes
1.
Original Quote:
"And, as Tiny Tim observed, 'God bless us, every one!'"
~A Christmas Carol
Interpretation:
"So, to quote Tiny Tim, 'Let's all have a great and politically correct day, okay?'"
(Author's note: "Because seriously, if ACC had been published today, that's probably how the book would've ended. :P")
2.
Original Quote:
“Although a skillful flatterer is a most delightful companion if you have him all to yourself, his taste becomes very doubtful when he takes to complimenting other people.”
Interpretation:
“A flatterer’s taste is only good when you have him all to yourself – once he speaks of others, he’s not so great.”
3.
Original Quote:
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity..."
- A Tale of Two Cities
Interpretation:
“It was the most awesome of times, it was the most awful of times, it was the age of cleverness, it was the age of stupidity, it was the time of faith, it was the time of doubt...”
4.
Original Quote:
"The said company being now relieved from further attendance, and the chief Barnacles being rather hurried (for they had it in hand just then to send a mail or two which was in danger of going straight to its destination, beating about the seas like the Flying Dutchman, and to arrange with complexity for the stoppage of a good deal of important business otherwise in peril of being done), went their several ways."
- Little Dorrit
Interpretation:
"Then the guests could go, and since the important Barnacles were in a rush (because they had to send the mail that was going to its address to somewhere else and stop business that was getting done) they left."
Poll 4: Henry Tilney's "gentleman or lady" quoteOriginal Quote:"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." (Northanger Abbey)
Paraphrases:
1. “Anyone who doesn’t love a good book is stupid.“
2. “The person, whether a guy or gal, who doesn’t have fun reading a good book, must be amazingly dumb.”
3. “A guy or girl who does not like reading a novel is dumb.”
Poll Five: From Mansfield Park and Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen
1.
Original Quote:
"There certainly are not so many men of large fortune as there are pretty women to deserve them."
- Mansfield Park
Paraphrase:
"There aren’t enough rich guys to go around."
2.
Original Quote:
"When she heard him declare that of music and dancing he was passionately fond, she gave him such a look of approbation as secured the largest share of his discourse to herself for the rest of his stay."
- Sense and Sensibility Paraphrase:
"When he said he liked music and dancing, she smiled so much that he talked to her till he left."
3.
Original Quote:
"Let him have all the perfections in the world, I think it ought not to be set down as certain that a man must be be acceptable to every woman he may happen to like himself."
- Fanny Price, Mansfield Park
Paraphrase:
“Even if he has all the good points in the world, I think it shouldn’t be assumed that a guy will be loved by every girl he might decide he likes.”
4.
Original Quote:
"You will think my question an odd one, I dare say," said Lucy to her one day, as they were walking together from the park to the cottage—"but pray, are you personally acquainted with your sister-in-law's mother, Mrs. Ferrars?"
- Lucy Steele, Sense and Sensibility
Paraphrase:
“Hey, completely random question here: you know your brother’s wife’s mother?”
4 comments:
They were all great!
My favourites were...
"Hello, Harriet cannot come to the phone right now. Please leave your name, number, and a brief message and Harriet will be with your shortly."
and...
"When he said he liked music and dancing, she smiled so much that he talked to her till he left."
I thought they were really funny ( :
~Lauren
"Dude we got hitched" is...epic!
Lauren, thanks for your comment! Hehe, I love the Harriet one. ;) It's so creative.
Gertrude (aka Anne-girl): haha, I agree. It made me howl with laughter. Well... it would have, except for the fact that I was in a library at the time. haha
Now I'm dying to know who wrote what... of course I know which ones *I* submitted. :P
"And you are two cool chicks" made me snort with laughter. I had such a hard time choosing between that one and the "It freaked me out. Spooky" one. But I ended up choosing the cool chicks.
"Hey, completely random question here: you know your brother’s wife’s mother?" That one MMG too. :)
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