European Writing Contest

[RIPE NCC Staff <]

We could not let this announcement go past unseen. In absence of a
limerick-distribution-mailinglist (which lmerick-wg@localhost is not),
this goes to ripe-list for once...

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Date:     Wed, 5 Jun 1996 13:40:01 +0200
From:     getest06@localhost (Paolo Rinaldi)
To:       limerick-wg@localhost
Subject:  European Writing Contest

Dear Sirs,

this is an European contest, but  you may join if you like (with limericks
on European cities).  Please feel free to recirculate this e-mail.

Paolo Rinaldi

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GRADARA LUDENS PROPOSES
WORD GAMES AND GAMES WITH WORDS
National and International Competitions

Press Release no. 1

Gradara, Italy - May 6, 1996 - "An Acrostic for Gradara" and "A Tour of
Europe in Limericks" are two word game competitions which Gradara Ludens
has promoted during its fifth year in business. Since 1991 Gradara, a
little city in The Marche known for the beautiful Rocca Malatestiana
(Malatesta Fortress) and for the tragic love story of Paolo and Francesca
(as told by Dante in the Divine Comedy), has given life to the cultural
institution "Gradara Ludens" which has promoted important national events
centering on games and simulations, experiencing directly the importance of
games and the opportunities that games, the reasoning required by games,
teaching of games and through games, and offering games for the building of
rich and productive human relationships, and for producing culture and
entertain.
The panel of judges for the competitions is made up of the most famous
italian word game experts of word games and the panel chairman is Umberto
Eco. The finalists will be invited to the last stage in the competition
which will be held on September 14 in Gradara. For the awards ceremony we
are planning a real event, including prominent people in the world of
culture and the best of the new italian comedians competing against each
other in a live word game "duel".

* "An Acrostic for Gradara"
An acrostic is a brief composition in prose or verse, in which each of the
words begins with a letter of a given word: an acrostic for "STRADA"
(street) created by a listener of one successful radio program was "Scusa,
Ti Ricordi Ancora Dove Andiamo?" (I beg your pardon, do you still remember
where we are going?) From the prophecies of the ancient Sybils to the Nobel
Prize winner Eugenio Montale, from Giovanni Boccaccio to Matteo Maria
Boiardo, from the hymns to Queen Elisabeth I by Sir John Davies to a
"valentine" letter by Edgar Allan Poe, acrostics have been used by poets
and by those with a passion for word games (Lewis Carroll and, it seems,
Queen Victoria were among them). The goal of the contest promoted by
Gradara Ludens this year is to select and award a prize to the acrostic for
the word GRADARA which best describes the activities and goals of Gradara
Ludens. The winner's prize will be presented by Umberto Eco and the winning
acrostic will become the official motto of the 1996 edition of Gradara
Ludens. Contestants may post their entries, including their full name,
address and telephone number, and only one acrostic by August 15, 1996, to
the organizing secretary at the following address: "Un acrostico per
Gradara" - Gunpowder, via Donizzetti 36, 20122 Milano, Italy, tel.
02-76001633. The organizing committee reserves the right to publish in full
or in part, at their sole discretions, all material received, whether in
electronic form or in print.

* "A Tour of Europe in Limericks"
Gradara Ludens is dedicating one of the events of the 1996 editions to the
citizens of the European Union. "A Tour of Europe in Limericks" is not
really a contest but a collection of individual efforts to achieve the
communal goal. It is inspired by an initiative launched in the 1970s by
Wutkis, pionieers of the creation of word games in Italy, in the first
Italian monthly comic magazine, "Linus".
A limerick is a kind of light verse, a brief and playful little poem of
ancient tradition with precise rules: it must consist of five verses, the
first line must end with the name of an existing city, which rhymes with
the last word of the second and fifth lines, while the third verse rhymes
with the fourth.
The limerick appeared for the first time in print in England around 1820,
but its origins are certainly much older. It came to be used as nursery
rhimes, as in the case of the work of Edward Lear (1812-1888), as well for
satirical and bawdy verses at dinner parties. It arrived in Italy in the
1920's by way of the translation of the very successful "Children's
Encyclopedia". The 1930's saw the beginning of the diffusion in the
universities, together with the interest in nonsense literature, and in the
middle of the 1970's - shortly after the complete translation of Lear's
"Book on Nonsense" and "More Nonsense" by the prestigious publisher Einaudi
- -  the Italian production of limericks reached its true peak.
Today the fire is still smoldering under the ashes and the five irreverent
verses appear often in the pages of literary magazines and in the cultural
supplements of daily newspapers, not to mention in the margins of
schoolchildren's workbooks. Are we on the verge of a new fiery outburst?
All European citizens are eligible to participate in the new Tour of Europe
by sending their compositions (written in any language of the EU) either by
regular mail ("Giro d'Europa in Limerick" - Gunpowder, via Donizzetti 36,
20122 Milano, Italy) or by e-mail (the address is limerick@localhost).
The rules are very few. Participants may send rhymes inspired by any city
in the European Union, including obviously their own. Each entry selected
by the panel will go to find its place on a map of Europe, accessible on
the Internet (http://www.it.net/itinerari/) by the thirty million users of
the World Wide Web, thanks to the server ITnet, one of the leading Italian
providers.

* The contest
The 1996 edition of "Gradara Ludens", which will take place from the 12th
to the 22nd of September, includes numerous side initiatives in addition to
the competition itself. These include the convention "Games and Words"
(September 13-14), presented by the Italian Association of Semiological
Studies (AISS) with the partecipation of famous semiologists including
Umberto Eco, Omar Calabrese, Paolo Fabbri, etc.
Also on September 14 the Gradara Ludens Prize will be awarded to the
"year's most playful personality". Past winners include Alex Randolph,
Giampaolo Dossena and the Benetton Foundation. In 1995 it was awarded to
Umberto Eco for his contribution to the world of word games.
The days of Gradara Ludens 1996 will also see enthusiasts from all over
Italy competing in board games and poetry improvisation contests. Authors
(and would-be authors) can attend demonstrations of hypertext-writing
programs, given by experts in the field; it will also be possible to
participate in courses teaching these new tecniques of computer-aided
writing. Interested parties will be able to have a direct experience
"navigating" on computer in literary and scientific hypertexts.




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