Exquisite is a set of verbal games for SNF. There will be at least two kinds of games, the corpse and the whisper.

corpse

Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau.

An exquisite corpse is a collective composition in which each participant contributes a word/line/paragraph after seeing only the end of the last contributor’s addition. So on SNF, it would work like this:

1. Somebody creates a new corpse, starting with a line or paragraph
2. The next person to contribute only sees the last sentence of the previous contribution, and adds another line or paragraph
3. And so on

whisper

This is based on the schoolyard game known variously as telephone, whispers, or rumors. Unlike the exquisite corpse, which is a linear composition built by accretion, here the point is for a series of participants to reproduce the same phrase or passage, with each partipant subtly altering the text. On SNF, it might work like this:

1. Somebody starts a new game of telephone, writing out a phrase or paragraph
2. Somebody else decides to play — they start by reading the last passage
3. The passage is hidden, and they must recreate it

The idea is that people won’t be able to faithfully recreate what they’ve read, and hopefully won’t even try.

choose your own adventure

Maybe a third type of game could be added: a branched story system.

implementation

Each contribution would correspond to a row in the EXQUISITE DB table, with the following columns:

• entry id
• username
• date
• text of the entry
• id of the game (corpse #1, whisper #44, etc.)
• type of game (corpse or whisper)
• id of parent entry