"Forgive the kids, for they don't know how to live. Run the alleys, casually cruel, cruel."
My thoughts are well and truly scattered this morning. No, excuse me. This afternoon, as it is now 12:58 p.m. CaST (though only 11:58 ayem EST, hence still morning). I don't feel like resorting to numbers and bullet points today, either, so bear with me, or don't bear with me.
Bear with me. One of those interesting turns of phrase that I have to wonder if many people ever pause to consider the older, more genuine meanings. Bear. With. Me.
We were planning to be at the VNV Nation show in Boston tonight, and the fabulous Chris Ewen even saw to it that we were on the guest list. Then, yesterday, fearing the possibility of contracting some illness from the crowd, and fearing my deadlines, we pulled out. And our two places on the guest list were raffled last night by Chris, while he DJed at Heroes (DJed as in disc jokey, not as in a pillar-like ancient Egyptian symbol representing stability, id est, djed). So, two happy people will be taking our places tonight, and congratulations to them, but doing good rarely serves as much in the way of consolation if you are me. And I am. Me, I mean.
And I can’t fall asleep without a little help.
It takes a while to settle down,
My shivered bones,
Until the panic‘s out. ~ The National, "Terrible Love"
Yesterday, I discovered that (as is so rarely actually ever the case) the third time was the charm with "Sexing the Weird," and I finished a new 1,525-word version of "Sexing the Weird," which will serve as the introduction to Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart. And I like it. Also, this morning (it truly was still ayem CaST) I received Sonya's afterword, "But She Also Lies Broken and Transformed." So, aside from Kathryn and I making about a bazillion corrections to the main text, then getting that text back to Bill Schafer, the book is done. Still no firm release date or date when pre-orders will begin. Later. It's safe to say it will be later, in both cases.
And today, I begin the aforementioned short story about the two women who become cities, for Sirenia Digest #72. And that reminds me to, again, remind you that responses to "Question @ Hand #5" are due by midnight (CaST) on the 7th. Also a caveat: best to avoid humor. I suppose I should have been clear about this from the beginning, but I didn't actually see this as a humorous undertaking (though humor and horror are always loping about, unsightly, hand in hand, I know); I am in an earnest state of mind.
Il est un amour terrible et je suis à marcher avec araignées.
Il est un amour terrible et je suis à marcher avec araignées.
Il est un amour terrible et je suis à marcher dans la compagnie calme.
Et je pouvais ne tomber pas dormir sans un peu aidé;
Il prendre beaucoup à se calmer mon os de frissonnement
Tant que la panique est dehors. ~ The National, "Amour terrible"
Black-eyed peas and collards for dinner last night. I'm undeniably homesick for Georgia and Alabama. Which is the height of peculiarity, given how neither place was ever a home to me, despite the fact that I lived there almost all my life. My relationship with the South could probably serve as a case study in Das Unheimliche.
Later, we watched the next-to-latest episode of American Horror Story, and, gods - Zachary Quinto in latex. Later still, for want of physical, non-virtual company or any other "real-world" diversion, we played Rift. This morning, Spooky was telling me about the offensive comments coming in over level twenty-something to level thirty-something chat - and I didn't ask for specifics, but I assume it was the usual homophobic, racist, sexist ramblings. I keep everything but guild and RP chat off, so I always miss this shit in Rift. I got enough of it in WoW. But it's not ever encountered in actual gameplay - and last night was a good example - people are consistently polite and often helpful (unlike the situation in WoW). It leads me to suspect that an awful lot of people log in merely to "socialize," and likely they're fairly young, or actual kids, and talking hate shit is the false bravado of their generation, as it has been of all generations. Which, of course, makes it no less disheartening, and reminds me why I stay out of Meridian ("New Orgrimmar") as much as possible and always keep general chat switched off. Gaming is, for me (RP aside), a fundamentally solitary exercise, and forget the "massively multiplayer" part. I rarely game with anyone but Spooky. We duo. Anything to avoid the chimps on crack who cram into so much of gamespace.
Ah, and here's a thing I thought I'd post. Behind the cut. Twenty fantasy books that exerted an especial influence on me as an adolescent, in no particular order (behind the cut):
01. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
02. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
03. Watership Down by Richard Adams
04. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
05. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
06. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
05. Dracula by Bram Stoker
06. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
07. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
08. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
09. The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
10. Dagon and Other Macabre Tales by H. P. Lovecraft
11. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
12. Faeries by Brain Froud
13. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
14. Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison
15. Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
16. The Barsoom Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs
17. The Pellucidar Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs
18. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
19. Grendel by John Gardner
20. Ghost Story by Peter Straub
And yeah, I cheated and that is many more than twenty books, but I still feel as if many important things have been left out. Ah, well. For another time, yes. But if you have not read all these books at least once, shame on thee.
Nostalgic,
Aunt Beast
Bear with me. One of those interesting turns of phrase that I have to wonder if many people ever pause to consider the older, more genuine meanings. Bear. With. Me.
We were planning to be at the VNV Nation show in Boston tonight, and the fabulous Chris Ewen even saw to it that we were on the guest list. Then, yesterday, fearing the possibility of contracting some illness from the crowd, and fearing my deadlines, we pulled out. And our two places on the guest list were raffled last night by Chris, while he DJed at Heroes (DJed as in disc jokey, not as in a pillar-like ancient Egyptian symbol representing stability, id est, djed). So, two happy people will be taking our places tonight, and congratulations to them, but doing good rarely serves as much in the way of consolation if you are me. And I am. Me, I mean.
And I can’t fall asleep without a little help.
It takes a while to settle down,
My shivered bones,
Until the panic‘s out. ~ The National, "Terrible Love"
Yesterday, I discovered that (as is so rarely actually ever the case) the third time was the charm with "Sexing the Weird," and I finished a new 1,525-word version of "Sexing the Weird," which will serve as the introduction to Confessions of a Five-Chambered Heart. And I like it. Also, this morning (it truly was still ayem CaST) I received Sonya's afterword, "But She Also Lies Broken and Transformed." So, aside from Kathryn and I making about a bazillion corrections to the main text, then getting that text back to Bill Schafer, the book is done. Still no firm release date or date when pre-orders will begin. Later. It's safe to say it will be later, in both cases.
And today, I begin the aforementioned short story about the two women who become cities, for Sirenia Digest #72. And that reminds me to, again, remind you that responses to "Question @ Hand #5" are due by midnight (CaST) on the 7th. Also a caveat: best to avoid humor. I suppose I should have been clear about this from the beginning, but I didn't actually see this as a humorous undertaking (though humor and horror are always loping about, unsightly, hand in hand, I know); I am in an earnest state of mind.
Il est un amour terrible et je suis à marcher avec araignées.
Il est un amour terrible et je suis à marcher avec araignées.
Il est un amour terrible et je suis à marcher dans la compagnie calme.
Et je pouvais ne tomber pas dormir sans un peu aidé;
Il prendre beaucoup à se calmer mon os de frissonnement
Tant que la panique est dehors. ~ The National, "Amour terrible"
Black-eyed peas and collards for dinner last night. I'm undeniably homesick for Georgia and Alabama. Which is the height of peculiarity, given how neither place was ever a home to me, despite the fact that I lived there almost all my life. My relationship with the South could probably serve as a case study in Das Unheimliche.
Later, we watched the next-to-latest episode of American Horror Story, and, gods - Zachary Quinto in latex. Later still, for want of physical, non-virtual company or any other "real-world" diversion, we played Rift. This morning, Spooky was telling me about the offensive comments coming in over level twenty-something to level thirty-something chat - and I didn't ask for specifics, but I assume it was the usual homophobic, racist, sexist ramblings. I keep everything but guild and RP chat off, so I always miss this shit in Rift. I got enough of it in WoW. But it's not ever encountered in actual gameplay - and last night was a good example - people are consistently polite and often helpful (unlike the situation in WoW). It leads me to suspect that an awful lot of people log in merely to "socialize," and likely they're fairly young, or actual kids, and talking hate shit is the false bravado of their generation, as it has been of all generations. Which, of course, makes it no less disheartening, and reminds me why I stay out of Meridian ("New Orgrimmar") as much as possible and always keep general chat switched off. Gaming is, for me (RP aside), a fundamentally solitary exercise, and forget the "massively multiplayer" part. I rarely game with anyone but Spooky. We duo. Anything to avoid the chimps on crack who cram into so much of gamespace.
Ah, and here's a thing I thought I'd post. Behind the cut. Twenty fantasy books that exerted an especial influence on me as an adolescent, in no particular order (behind the cut):
01. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
02. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
03. Watership Down by Richard Adams
04. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
05. Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
06. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
05. Dracula by Bram Stoker
06. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
07. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
08. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
09. The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
10. Dagon and Other Macabre Tales by H. P. Lovecraft
11. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
12. Faeries by Brain Froud
13. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
14. Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison
15. Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison
16. The Barsoom Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs
17. The Pellucidar Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs
18. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
19. Grendel by John Gardner
20. Ghost Story by Peter Straub
And yeah, I cheated and that is many more than twenty books, but I still feel as if many important things have been left out. Ah, well. For another time, yes. But if you have not read all these books at least once, shame on thee.
Nostalgic,
Aunt Beast