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Casts of my ears by Leo Abaya

David Foster Wallace wrote, “Quentin Tarantino is interested in watching somebody’s ear getting cut off; David Lynch is interested in the ear.” Excellent point: all of Blue Velvet took off from the discovery of a human ear, while in Reservoir Dogs the ear-slicing was just part of a torture scene done to the tune of Stuck In The Middle With You.

In last week’s LitWit Challenge we presented readers with a pair of human ears, a tree, a gravestone and a stadium and asked them to make up a story.

stellalehua submitted the story of a football goalie who attempts to be an audiologist but finds that the hearing aids he makes are too good. Nice Twilight Zone-y premise but the Welsh connection is a little strained.

nomad sent in the story of a radical anti-corruption campaign that involves grave-robbing and desecration. But why the ears, of all possible body parts? (Other than the fact that the assignment specifies ears.) Hands we would get, or feet if they’d run away from prosecution, or tongues if they had lied, or genitalia since they’d screwed the people obviously, but ears—because they heard something and kept it secret?

girlfriday0104 wrote about an artist seeking the approval of her dead mother. It’s mushy.

theSubmarine’s entry is an odd little love story that begins at a football game. We found the exposition confusing: “. . .the same time a curse was heard from a sailor”? What sailor? Then they’re in a packed and noisy stadium but someone many rows away spots the narrator and charges up the bleachers to smack him? What’s the Pocahontas joke? And you can’t spring that ending on the reader without some kind of setup.

However, we appreciate the matter-of-fact weirdness of this week’s entries and we think they should all get something for their effort. So you each win two books from the prize stack.

Congratulations! You can pick up your prizes any day starting Wednesday 29 June 2011 at the Customer Service Counter of National Bookstore at Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati. Their number is (02)8974562.

The Weekly LitWit Challenge is brought to you by our friends at National Bookstore.

The next LitWit Challenge is coming up.