Work Room - Week 9

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

The results for Week 8 are in: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/981177.html
The Second Chance sign-up sheet is up: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/981280.html
The new topic is up: http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/981676.html

I guess that means it's time for a Work Room again!

Something that I've been picking up on is that who has "a good week" doesn't always seem completely consistent, but the general amounts of support seem pretty evenly distributed. Which makes me wonder how that is going to shake out in the coming weeks. Who is going to emerge with the most consistency? With Second Chance coming into play over the next few weeks - from a strategical standpoint, how it that going to factor in?

There are a lot of questions left to be answered - and plenty of time (for now) for things to play out.

***

For now though, where are you with the new topic and what can other people do to help get you where you need to go?

Comments

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

First?

Trolley problem? Time to google. Fun to see my phone has a trolley icon! 🚋

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

Oh no! Lesser evils and the action dellimma. I bet this will be another timely / current-eventy topic for a lot of people.

[sorchawench.livejournal.com]

Second!

Gawt-Damnit, Gary!!! You are making me have to **THINK**.

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Second! (Giggles, or maybe that was cackling.)

Trolley Problem could work. Can a trolley be the same as a hand-truck?

[ellison.livejournal.com]

Definitely! Plus the prompt is always a jumping off point, used as inspiration. It doesn't have to follow the prompt exactly. Creative interpretations allowed, for sure! :)

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

+1

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Creative Interpretation! I need to get me some of that! Where can I buy that?
(Still giggling)

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

Second second? I like that you're giggling. I'm still face-palming.

[murielle.livejournal.com]

I like second second! We should keep that!

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

This is an interesting topic and I am enjoying reading about it. Though I have no clue about what I am going to write.

Things that I came across while researching the prompt:

1.Abortion.

2.Adoption.

3.Euthanasia.

4. War/soldier's POV/military

5. Killing someone for self-preservation.

6. FanFic- Superheroes.

7. Supermarkets and trolleys.

8. Artificial Intelligence.

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

9. Advanced cancer treatment -- Side effects of chemotheapy and radiation will be excrutiatingly painful and debilitating, patient will probably never recover fully, if at all. So: Would you rather have one year of life feeling relatively well enough to enjoy it, or five years of life where you constantly feel too damned ill and weak to enjoy anything?

[murielle.livejournal.com]

I have had over thirty years of the latter, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

My maternal grandmother had to make a choice and she choose the later. Though they had to give her low dose chemo cause the lump burst eventually. Now, she is much better health-wise.
I could use this angle,if nothing else come up.(The prompts this season are pushing me to the darker sides of life and I have been avoiding it :P) Thanks!

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

https://youtu.be/xsqBtZNBL60

With trolleys which are still in use!

[majesticarky.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of "the trolley problem". Interesting ethics question... The first thing that came to mind is "A Streetcar Named Desire". Maybe I'll write something about that this week.

another free write

[tijuanagringo.livejournal.com]

once again I defy the Geoffrey Vinsauf paradigm that if a man has to build a house he does not rush impetuously into action. His mind is a measuring line that first lays out the work and outlines the steps in a definite order.

rather, smashing grammar rules uncapitalizing sentences or not, I choose to write free association

I don't always do that, for example, here I am thinking about what i am saying here

but not the answer to the prompt this week

instead I stream of consciousness, or if you like, sur-real

free write

on the topic page or here http://tijuanagringo.livejournal.com/129482.html

there

RE: another free write

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Or as a dear departed friend of mine used to call it "stream of unconsciousness!" (Smile)

Re: RE: another free write

[tijuanagringo.livejournal.com]

:-)

[oxymoron67.livejournal.com]

As an old-school gay man, my first thoughts went to Judy Garland singing The Trolley Song.

Which is now stuck in my head.

As I was typing this, I realized that this could be my take on the prompt.

[banyangirl1832.livejournal.com]

I LOVE the Trolley Song!

[dmousey.livejournal.com]

"Clang, Clang, Clang, went the trolley!
Ding, Ding, Ding, went the bell..."

I went there too!

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to see if anyone else got the image I did from the prompt.

I haven't figured out which way I'm going to go with it just yet, but it'll definitely be popculture laden.

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to see if anyone else got the image I did from the prompt.

Was it the image of the trolley on MISTER RODGER'S NEIGHBORHOOD suffering a mechanical problem and requiring repair? (I vaguely remember an episode which featured that "story".)

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

Nope.

I had two visions. One to the prompt words, the other to the actual definition of the prompt as those two works together.

Neither was Mr. Roger's neighborhood.

I feel like if I tell anyone the two prompts though I lose my writing vantage though.

Which I haven't completely figured out my crux to combine these two references to pull them together into something cohesive without folks going "um?"

They both involve great detectives though.

[lordrexfear.livejournal.com]

In the power Work room.

The trolley has such a vast history and can be used for reference. Much like every prompt but sometimes they leap at you and other times they don't.

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

This essentially was the dilemma in the classic Star Trek episode "Operation: Annihilate!" For those of you who are unfamiliar with the episode: The Federation has lost contact with their colony on the planet Deneva, on the fringe of Federation space. When the Enterprise away team lands to investigate, they discover that a previously unknown variety of alien parasite have infected all the residents of the planet... and Spock becomes infected by one of the parasites while on the mission. The Enterprise crew determine that these parasites are able to inflict excruciating pain upon their hosts unless the host performs the actions the parasites want... and what the parasites want to do is spread themselves to other Federation worlds. Indeed, the pain is so horrific that even Spock is slowly succumbing to the influence of the parasite within him. However, initially these parasites seem completely resistant to all forms of Federation medical treatment, and there appears to be no way of removing the parasites without killing the host bodies they inhabit. So the dilemma appears to be: Do you kill the million colonist on Deneva to stop the spread of the parasites, or do you allow them to live, putting billions of other people in the Federation at risk of being infected?

At one point, Spock recommends killing all the infected people, including himself, and Doctor McCoy responds angrily: "If killing five people saves ten, it's a bargain. Is that your simple logic, Mister Spock?"

Admittedly, in the episode they are able to find a third option: a quick, efficient and painless way of killing the parasites without harming the host bodies... but let's face it: Life rarely offers such pleasant options when it comes to difficult problems.

[ryl.livejournal.com]

Another Star Trek reference: this is also the Kobayashi Maru scenario all Starfleet Academy students must face at the end.

[kathrynrose.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought of.

[banyangirl1832.livejournal.com]

It reminds me of collateral damage and choosing the lesser of two evils and picking the least bad choice you possibly can. Making the best out of a bad situation? Hmm. Lots to chew on here.

[rayaso.livejournal.com]

I read an interesting variation of the trolley problem. In the original, five people are tied to one track, one person is tied to another. Do you pull the switch and have the trolley kill the five or the one? Most people kill the one. The variation is, five people tied on a track, you are standing on a bridge overlooking the track with another person. You can push the one person off the bridge and save the five or let the train run over the five. Most people will not push the person off the bridge, if I remember correctly (a real problem).

[unmowngrass.livejournal.com]

So far I have two ideas that are ok, not great. Both of them take the much more generic "you cannot gain anything without sacrificing something" kind of angle, and one in particular (the one that would be easier to write, heh) is liable to spin so far off centre and become too nebulous that the prompt isn't even recognisable any more. (Because the prompt isn't the logical/emotional who do you kill? situation. It's the words 'trolley prompt', so there is already a degree of separation going down that angle -- and there are other angles too (supermarket trolley with a bad wheel, for example).)