political awesomeness, American imperialism of my mind, and more writing thoughts
1. I think I'm in love. I've seen a few of these pieces by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, and he is just amazing. If you want to see Bush get burned at the stake by words alone, click away! (The original Clinton interview on Fox, and more MSNBC reaction.)
I really, really hope Hillary Clinton is president come 2008.
2. I think my recent U.S. trip has brainwashed me. Proof: my knowledge of American geography is probably near-perfect for the first time in my life, and for some reason I now think that Thanksgiving is in November.
My roommate keeps talking about how excited she is to visit family at Thanksgiving, and I keep thinking "WOW you're really excited for something that won't happen for a month and a half!" And then I remind myself that I'm Canadian and Thanksgiving is next week. *facepalm*
3. In the spirit of NaNo, some comments on a book that has inspired the budding writer in me: Writing from the Body: For Writers, Artists, and Dreamers Who Long to Free Your Voice by John Lee. He talks about the ways we sabotage our writing and offers physical exercises to help dull the controlling mind and better tune in to the body.
It's not for people who want to learn how to write. It will not teach you any skill you don't already have. It's for people who already have the skillz, and aims to help us unleash our inner creativity separate from the internal processes of self-critique and sabotage that so often hold us back. It will not help you find a muse, but it will locate the one you already have and help you to take down the gag, blindfold and numerous chains that prevent it from doing its proper job.
And this is why I find the idea of National Novel Writing Month so exciting -- it takes what Lee is trying to do in this book and forces you to up the ante, actually create a whole new manuscript (quality or not) in so short a period of time that you can't possibly listen to your inner critic. There's just no time.
I'll leave you with one of the excerpts I find inspiring:
I really, really hope Hillary Clinton is president come 2008.
2. I think my recent U.S. trip has brainwashed me. Proof: my knowledge of American geography is probably near-perfect for the first time in my life, and for some reason I now think that Thanksgiving is in November.
My roommate keeps talking about how excited she is to visit family at Thanksgiving, and I keep thinking "WOW you're really excited for something that won't happen for a month and a half!" And then I remind myself that I'm Canadian and Thanksgiving is next week. *facepalm*
3. In the spirit of NaNo, some comments on a book that has inspired the budding writer in me: Writing from the Body: For Writers, Artists, and Dreamers Who Long to Free Your Voice by John Lee. He talks about the ways we sabotage our writing and offers physical exercises to help dull the controlling mind and better tune in to the body.
It's not for people who want to learn how to write. It will not teach you any skill you don't already have. It's for people who already have the skillz, and aims to help us unleash our inner creativity separate from the internal processes of self-critique and sabotage that so often hold us back. It will not help you find a muse, but it will locate the one you already have and help you to take down the gag, blindfold and numerous chains that prevent it from doing its proper job.
And this is why I find the idea of National Novel Writing Month so exciting -- it takes what Lee is trying to do in this book and forces you to up the ante, actually create a whole new manuscript (quality or not) in so short a period of time that you can't possibly listen to your inner critic. There's just no time.
I'll leave you with one of the excerpts I find inspiring:
- The Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca once explained that all true art must be produced out of the "energetic instinct" that Spaniards refer to as the duende, "the mystery, the roots that probe through the mire that we all know of and do not understand." In his essay on the duende, Lorca paints in a number of ways the necessity of the artist's intimacy with the Shadow Self, the "black sounds" that our words carry when, as writers, we have touched our own darkness and reemerged vulnerably awake, humbled, and even more alive." (p. 21)