An Elemental Thing
Eliot Weinberger
I'm going to pimp out the amazon link for this one because (a) it's an excellent book and (b) New Directions is a wonderful little publishing house that doesn't take it's books out of print and has some wonderful gems in its collection.
The book itself I picked up randomly (actually, it was free swag. But the cover was rocking. I like sea things, if you haven't noticed.) and it's beautiful. From the inside cover:
Eliot Weinberger has taken the essay into unexplored territories on the borders of poetry and narrative where the only rule, according to the author, is that all the information must be verifiable.
And there is something deeply poetic about the whole thing, my favorite of the essays being "The Rhinoceros," a five segment account of this family of mammals, starting with both the original and translation of an 1834 Hawaiian newspaper article. Reading the original is worth it for the sound alone, and the comparison from that, with all of the lovely vowels, to the dry factual article translation itself, is just beautiful. And then segment two, a richly visual account of the history of rhinoceros brought to Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries, provides the perfect counterpoint.
Sellout.
I cannot get enough of this commercial. I have watched it so many times since I first heard it comming from the other room.
Seriously.
This song is my new favorite song of all times forever and ever I want it to be a longer song, I want to write it extra lyrics, it is my new bestest friend.
What won't you miss about 2007?
Submitted by uncagedbird.
I wont miss:
- The horrible data entry job I had for almost a year that made me want to jump out a window. (Seriously. I used to walk into my boss's office, stare out the window, tell him "just looking", and then leave again. And yet for some reason, he still said "I'm sorry to see you go" when I left.)
- Being a temp employee.
- That horrible broke and helpless feeling I had all summer as I tried to support two people on one temp salary.
- Coming home from classes after 11pm.
- Having glass explode on my back as I was getting ready for work... and then having to get new slippers because there was glass In My Slippers.
- Getting the flu.
- Finding out my mother will be going in for Yet More Surgery.
- Having my Goth Princess title usurped in class.
- "Trouble"
- Being fed steak cooked in bacon by our couchsurfer and the 20lb weight gain resulting thereof.
- Throwing out my back, and the residual backpain thereof.
- Shoulder pain from the new job.
- Finding out that my friend in Moldova isn't getting the letters I sent him.
- Working really hard to tread water and not feeling like I'm getting anywhere. Really, if I could sum up 2007 in a sentence, that would be how I feel about it. I tried Really Hard. I was stressed To The Max. But now it's a year later, and I feel like I have very little to show for it, other than feeling like Now, Finally, some progress might be possible.
Here's the list of New Year's resolutions I would have made when I first got serious about writing if I'd known then what I know now:
1. No matter what, write what I want to read. Connie Willis told me once, "Remember what you liked about science fiction in the first place." That means to me that I should tell the stories only I can tell. Don't worry about what anyone else is writing. Don't worry about what I think is currently popular or selling (besides, whatever looks popular to me now was what was popular with editors six months to a year ago---who knows what they want now? Why not make it what I'm writing?)
2. Write consistently. Don't do something stupid like let two months go by without actual writing happening. Those are not only two months that I will never get back, but also writing is about learning and growing. I'll be two months behind where I could have been in growth too. Writing consistently will have the added benefit of making me think about writing consistently. Someone asked me where my ideas come from, and the real answer is they come because I'm consistently thinking about writerly concerns. I don't sit at my computer and then say, "What should I write about?" I always have the flickering of an idea ready to go.
3. Read as a writer. Go back to the work I really admire and read with the idea of learning from a master. Writers have the advantage of being in a profession that allows them to apprentice to anyone. If I want to learn at the knee of William Shakespeare, I can. If I want to enter a dialog with Ray Bradbury, I can. All I need to do is listen to what the writers I admire have to say (through their writing) and take notes.
4. Be brave. Take risks on the page. These can be risks with language, risks with plot, risks with theme. No matter what, don't write stuff that feels "safe" because I want to avoid criticism or because I've been praised for telling that kind of story before. Remember Neil Young. He's never done the same album twice.
5. Be kind and reach out to other writers. If I read something I like, write the author and tell her so. It's amazing to me how isolating this profession can be. I remember when I published my first story in Analog. I thought, "Oh, my god! I'm famous." Hmmm. Not the case. I loved it though when an established pro sent me a e-mail later saying he liked the story. That meant a lot to me. The writing world is small, really, and there aren't many folks in it. If we aren't kind to each other, who will be kind to us?
6. Be thick skinned, but listen. I got a rejection once where the editor scrawled at the bottom of my cover letter, "Why don't you try telling a story next time." I laughed it off, and then looked at the manuscript again to see if I'd actually told a story. I had one story that was bounced 39 times. About half the time the editors who responded to it said that the story seemed "slow" or "long" to them. I used Ken Rand's 10% Solution on the piece, lost about 1,400 words out of a 7,700 word manuscript, and sold it to the next market. This gives me resolution 6a. Learn quicker.
Now, if I had just drawn up this list of resolutions in 1983, when I really started thinking of myself as a writer who was trying to write publishable work.
By Jim Van Pelt at http://jimvanpelt.livejournal.com/102016.html
My boyfriend and his best bud have spent the holiday recording music and making an amp out of a ritz cracker box. I bring you photos, because I have a new digital camera:
The raw parts.
**Interlude**
The electric instrument they were working with was a Very Very old inherited bass that someone had ripped the frets out of. It had never worked right. At this stage, they ended up taking the bass apart, finding broken parts in this, and fixing a bass. I missed being a good photojournalist at this stage as my camera battery was dead.
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Tomorrow we work on recording more music. I'm guest vocalist on the Giant Baby song "When Your Boyfriend's Dead". It sounds a little bit like Moldy Peaches.
I have always had a rather large problem surrounding the whole indigo aura phenomenon—starting with the hype that 90% of todays children belong, and yet being one is “very special”. Seems to me that at that rate, all the other established aura colors are much more “special” and “precious” than the swarms of munchkins who apparently need to be all be treated differently than their non-indigo peers. (Send Susie and Jamie out of the classroom for a few hours… they’re the only non-indigos here.)
Have deep empathy for others, yet an intolerance of stupidity. Wendy Chapman writes this as one of the features defining an indigo adult. Well, if so, I call bullshit on 90% of the sort of mindless dribble that goes into how people talk about the indigo phenomenon.
Some of it seems like a way for those who are uncomfortable with breaking from their Christian roots to still embrace a more metaphysical approach to their worldview than is traditional to their faith. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking down on the Christian worldview, and I think that there is plenty of room for the spiritual and metaphysical within it. You just have to work harder for it (see: Martyr) But the indigo movement, because it doesn’t directly conflict with scriptural belief the way pagan faiths do, provides a lot of places for the Christian believer to suddenly believe all the wonky “fluffybunnypaganmagyck” nonsense that plagues that community, without having to separate themselves from the Lord our God.
Here’s the thing. I come out 100% indigo on any test you throw at me, including others’ “observations” of my color. It was so consistant at first I thought the personality test versions were skewed, and that everyone would be drawn to answer in an “indigo” way. It was pretty much only after I had everyone I know take the Barbara Bowers’s What Color is Your Aura? (the least fluffy bunny out of any I’ve seen) multiple choice that I was convinced that “indigo” wasn’t just a default answer (although I do still think that there are plenty of places, especially ones that just list “classic traits” that leave everyone feeling “hey that’s just like me”).
And when it comes to “metaphysical experiences”... I’m all over the map. There’s the ones that send you reeling, and the ones where you’re just left with a sense of “nope, not getting on that train, ‘cause it’s going to get stuck”. But I would never, ever presume to be more, or special, or gifted, or “the next stage in human evolution” for having them. And I resent having those labels put on me as much as I resent authority and all those other “classic indigo” rebellion traits.
So I guess I’m here, ranting like I own a soapbox, as an effort to find some sort of “real meaning” behind the new agey hock surrounding it (how very indigo of me). I’m not looking to be part of a “special club of me and everyone who thinks like me”, and I’m not interested in having my existance either validated or exploited by those seeking to cash in on this “new generation”. Real advice or dialogue is welcome. Pandering and nonsense will be mocked with every dark blue fiber of my soul.
