In a recent article on Slate, Katy Waldman dove into the tactics used at Upworthy to drive traffic to their site, encourage sharing, and generally expose a large audience to good, charitable projects around the world. Are these tactics good? Are they bad?
But suffice it to say that do have emotional appeal and do excel at leveraging what’s called . You encounter a mysterious phrase. You want to find out what it means. You have to click on a link or watch a video to find out.
If you haven’t seen one, they read like this:
or
In good fun, we wondered what would happen if you applied the same tactics to short stories. What we ended up with was a pretty fun lit quiz.
See if you can guess the famous short story below from its fake Upworthy headline.
1. This Man Decided to Jump in His Pool. You’ll Never Guess Where He Ends Up.
2. These Hospital Workers Accomplish More During a Few Hours Off Than Most People Do in a Lifetime.
3. This Man Can’t Even See But The Wisdom He Holds Will Blow Your Mind.
4. No One Gave These Girls a Chance. You Won’t Believe What Happens When They Grow Up.
5. This Man’s About to Die and His Last Thought Will Make You Cry.
6. This One Town’s Strange Ritual Will Make You Sick to Your Stomach.
7. The Reason This Boy Refuses To Go Back to Class Will Teach You Something About Religion.
8. We Bet You Had No Idea By Looking At These Guys What They Were Really Up To on Their Trips.
9. This is What Happens When You Aren’t Honest With Your Family While You Still Have the Chance.
10. It’s So Simple Everyone Will Be Wanting to Do This Soon.
Answers: 1) The Swimmer by John Cheever, 2) Emergency by Denis Johnson, 3) Cathedral by Raymond Carver, 4) St Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell, 5) Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff, 6) The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, 7) Conversion of the Jews by Philip Roth, 8) Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx, 9) Sea Oak by George Saunders 10) How to Become a Writer by Lorrie Moore.
