My dad used to tell me a very lame story in this vein:
It was a dark and stormy night, and the captain said to the mate, “Mate, tell me a story.” And the mate said, “It was a dark and stormy night...” There was no variation in it. I usually experienced this story with a mixture of genuine frustration, at the lack of creativity, and genuine pleasure, imagining the infinite regress of progressively “smaller” storms, ships, captains, and mates contained inside of the heads (imaginations) of each character, like Russian dolls.
Here’s an idea taken from Steven Pinker’s proof of language’s immense/endless possibilities; just add “he said” and build up the story. This could be an especially fun way for kids to think of all their family members: Grandpa said that Mom said that Dad said that Brother said that Greg (name of the child reciting the story) is a really smart kid. Add a family member with each “generation” of the story. I did something similar to this in a elementary classroom, to great success.
My dad used to tell me a very lame story in this vein:
It was a dark and stormy night, and the captain said to the mate, “Mate, tell me a story.” And the mate said, “It was a dark and stormy night...” There was no variation in it. I usually experienced this story with a mixture of genuine frustration, at the lack of creativity, and genuine pleasure, imagining the infinite regress of progressively “smaller” storms, ships, captains, and mates contained inside of the heads (imaginations) of each character, like Russian dolls.
Here’s an idea taken from Steven Pinker’s proof of language’s immense/endless possibilities; just add “he said” and build up the story. This could be an especially fun way for kids to think of all their family members: Grandpa said that Mom said that Dad said that Brother said that Greg (name of the child reciting the story) is a really smart kid. Add a family member with each “generation” of the story. I did something similar to this in a elementary classroom, to great success.