#the lady or the tiger

[have-you-read-this-short-fiction]

"The Lady, or the Tiger" is available to read here

[cranberrybogmummy]

The lady or the tiger?

The ruler of these lands likes to put on spectacle for his subjects and have suspects of crimes choose their own fate. Behind one door is a tiger which will eat you alive, (guilty) behind the other is a fair maiden who will happily wed you (innocent).

The crime by the way is eating an entire bowl of the King's royal hard candy.

So which do you choose?

[leeshajoy]

I wanna know how the hypothetical decision-makers in ethical dilemmas are getting their information. How do I know the trolley has no brakes? Who told me one guard always tells the truth and the other always lies? Why would I trust that the cops will actually let me go if I give up my partner? How is it possible to actually keep secret which door has the lady and which has the tiger, given the amount of personnel involved in setting that up?

[shortstorytournament]

Short Story Tournament

THE LADY, OR THE TIGER? by Frank R. Stockton (1882) (link) - tw: death mentions

If he opened the one, there came out of it a hungry tiger, the fiercest and most cruel that could be procured, which immediately sprang upon him and tore him to pieces as a punishment for his guilt. But, if the accused person opened the other door, there came forth from it a lady, the most suitable to his years and station that his majesty could select among his fair subjects, and to this lady he was immediately married, as a reward of his innocence.

NKÁSHT ÍÍ by Darcie Little Badger (2014) (link) - tw: death

Great-grandmother taught me everything she knew about death before it took her. Never sleep under a juniper tree. They grow between this world and the place below. Bury the dead properly, lest their ghosts return. A ghost is a terrible thing. Someday, we will all be terrible things. Great-grandmother, you were right.

[stingrayextraordinaire]

Literature Moodboards // The Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank R. Stockton

Would it not be better for him to die at once, and go to wait for her in the blessed regions of semi-barbaric futurity? And yet, that awful tiger, those shrieks, that blood!  

[incorrectclassicbookquotes]

A short story that I recommend is Recitatif by Toni Morrison. It's a story about two girls and their friendship from the time they are eight to the time they are about in their fifties. The two girls are of different races, one is black and the other is white, but Toni Morrison never makes clear which girl is which race. She did this in order to make it so the audience can decide who is which race based on their own personal biases. I like stories that are left up to the interpretation of the audience as a sort of social experiment and the only other story that I have read that does something like this is The Lady, or The Tiger? by Frank R. Stockton. You can read Recitatif online for free and it is only 20 pages long.

[seagulldraws]

“Think of it, fair reader, not as if the decision of the question depended upon yourself, but upon that hot-blooded, semi-barbaric princess, her soul at a white heat beneath the combined fires of despair and jealousy. She had lost him, but who should have him?”

- The Lady, or the Tiger?

[highlandkall]

Naomi’s old office job… (She’s a lot happier as a music teacher now! ^^)

[underthestarlitsk-y]

the al ghuls’ whole thing is supposed to be protecting endangered exotic species of animals etc so i really think that talia (arab princess-adjacent that she is) would definitely have falcons for falconry especially bc it’s literally part of her heritage 

commissions 

[copperbadge]

Checked my mail on the way out the door this morning and took two small packages with me; opening them, I found one was my new passport and the other was the new flashdrive I bought. Taken together, it looked like I was a spy hiding out in the library while I received orders and identification for my new deep cover mission.

[ID: A photograph of a brand-new US passport stamped in gold; sitting on top of it is a tiny flashdrive with a sliding cover and a USB-C port on one end, USB-A on the other.]

[honowyn-art]

I created a new gal 🐱

[tsalala]

Playing around or an actual brawl? Pictured above are cubs from Machli’s fourth litter — namely T-17 and T-19 — way back in 2008. Photographed by Nanak Dhingra in Ranthambore National Park, Rajasthan, India.

[shortstorytournament]

Short Story Tournament

THE LADY, OR THE TIGER? by Frank R. Stockton (1882) (link) - tw: death mentions

If he opened the one, there came out of it a hungry tiger, the fiercest and most cruel that could be procured, which immediately sprang upon him and tore him to pieces as a punishment for his guilt. But, if the accused person opened the other door, there came forth from it a lady, the most suitable to his years and station that his majesty could select among his fair subjects, and to this lady he was immediately married, as a reward of his innocence.

THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS by Ray Bradbury (1950) (link) - tw: death

Eight-one, tick-tock, eight-one o'clock, off to school, off to work, run, run, eight-one! But no doors slammed, no carpets took the soft tread of rubber heels. It was raining outside. The weather box on the front door sang quietly: "Rain, rain, go away; umbrellas, raincoats for today. .." And the rain tapped on the empty house, echoing.

[kyurochurro]

lackadaisy has inspired me... what if... they were kitties....

[tangramkey]

This is my D&D character, Pretty Lady! She's a homebrew race (basically a moth shifter) inspired by a moth I raised from a caterpillar!!! She's a Virginian tiger moth (Spilosoma virginica :3)