Saturday, January 30, 2016

Creepy PastaMania!


Ice Giant has fallen asleep in his frozen throne, so this weeks selection for Creepy PastaMania will be selected by me, Lord Battle.
Now I tend to only read Creepy Pasta after it's been recommended to me but for today I actually visited the Creepy Pasta website and read the first thing that caught my eye. After accidentally reading a line from the next to last paragraph of the first story listed, and realizing that the character was talking about a YouTube video disappearing, I decided to read it. There is something about short stories that relate to modern times that I just love and when they read from 8-13 minutes I'm sold.


For A Better Audience
(Pasta Served Here)

Genre: Internet (YouTube)

Author: Alice Thompson

Reading Time: 12 minutes

Synopsis: A group of friends stumble upon some disturbing YouTube videos.


Creepiness
(How Scary)

Pasta Quality
(How Well Written)


Much like our film reviews I feel this area should be reserved for after consuming the pasta, as I'd like to discuss the ending and themes that only make sense after reading and would otherwise just spoil the story.

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For A Better Audience is exactly what I want from a Creepy Pasta. Creepy Pasta in itself is a strange phenomena that had to be explained to me several times before I understood the concept. Then, once I actually read my first pasta, I couldn't get over how the author made the story look like a message board and how effective that little flare in presentation really was! The thing is a story like For A Better Audience starts off claiming it's true and I assume no one takes this claim seriously, yet after you finish this simple little tale with an anti-climatic ending, you may find yourself wondering...


These were some of the comments for For a Better Audience



















I understand the need for a more definitive ending as the 3rd act does build to a break, then deflates rather than bursts, but I'd like to argue for the ending as it is.
The narrative for For A Better Audience is coming from a person who is retelling an incident that shook him and his friends so badly that they went to the police. This leads me to believe the actual posting of the story is somewhat therapeutic, especially when recounting a terrifying event and arriving at a conclusion that is disappointing as far as the story is concerned but lucky for our characters.
The suggestion by Valerie above allows for our characters to receive their comeuppance and walk away unharmed but undoubtedly far more shaken. I actually think a stronger traditional ending hurts the "true story posted on Creepy Pasta" feel, as after I read this short I actually did ponder the idea of this being a true story. I really hope it isn't but you never know...

 - Lord Battle

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