The future to me is utterly unattractive.
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-Churchill to his Mother (circa 1896)
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The problem I see with throwing your shoes at people is you only get two shots.
-Saint Bif
-Saint Bif
It was an idea. I don't know. Who knows where they fucking come from. Isaac Newton invented gravity cause some asshole hit him in the head with an apple.
-Christopher Moltisanti
-Christopher Moltisanti
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All religions take care to silence or to execute those who question them (and I choose to regard this recurrent tendency as a sign of their weakness rather than their strength).
-Hitchens
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The only item in Putin's geopolitical agenda is high oil prices. That's how his regime survives in Russia. That's why he is always playing a game of keeping the tension high, especially in the Middle East.
- Gary Kasparov
“Mr Churchill, you are drunk”
“And you, madam, are ugly”
“Mr Churchill you are VERY drunk!”
“And you madam, are extremely ugly - but tomorrow I shall be sober”
“And you, madam, are ugly”
“Mr Churchill you are VERY drunk!”
“And you madam, are extremely ugly - but tomorrow I shall be sober”
2 comments
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April 6, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Holmes, I presume
[I was too lazy to try and figure out how to post this as an "author"... maybe next time.]
Saint Bif,
Ahh, the burdens of being big brother, by that I mean older brother. For some reason your story reminded me of a non-stop drive that I once did with some other drunks from some place in the Midwest to Ft. Lauderdale a little over twenty years ago. I have a vivid memory of encounters with hyper-slow-talking people in northern Florida who seemed in appearance and demeanor to be related to Tom Petty (on Quaaludes).
Johnny,
Interesting links. I knew that you’d follow up on that further. Thanks.
Lately (for a long time actually), you’ve been raising the question, “What makes writing brilliant, or at least good?” Related to this, of course, follow questions such as why do people write, and should they (be allowed to… he he)?
The term “writer”, if construed broadly, i.e., to essentially include anyone who converts stream of consciousness to human-readable indicia, arguably applies equally to programmers, technical writers, essayists, novelists, journalists, and poets alike. Nothing revolutionary here. Some hope to get paid, while others are driven more by pressing personal needs/dramas than by a straightforward desire to accumulate filthy lucre (or by a pathological perceived need to completely avoid clichés… LOL).
Uncle Ted makes mention of pretension as being a primary motivator of writers. Of course it is. On the other hand, take for example Wombat’s or Brandon’s respective (yes, different) styles of personally cathartic and often amazingly virtuosic prose bending narrative. What pretension or ulterior motive can be found here, other than a desire to transcribe turbulent passages of consciousness, or perhaps a desire to be witnessed? A lurking desire to be discovered? In the case of these two gentlemen, I don’t think so. But I could be wrong.
I differ from them, but share some of their experimental ethic. Rather, as wombat once keenly suggested to me (and here I paraphrase), I enjoy puttering away of building jigsaw puzzles of thoughts into an overall bigger picture or panorama. And for me, the coloring of each piece and adding of texture is also a labor of love. But the learning that accompanies the process is the greatest reward, that and seeing it all come together.
Various motifs and storytelling devices are visible to the architect, but probably not to the typical reader. But that’s okay, because most real writers (and here is where I impose my own value judgment) present more than mere stream of consciousness. A true craftsman finds ways to capture and properly place those most jawdroppingly brilliant of utterances. And some of them, perhaps being pure indulgences, simply ought to be discarded from a larger work as a matter of discipline. Regardless, they stand as the writing that they were in the form of their original utterance.
My hat is off to all of you writers, regardless of how or why.
April 8, 2008 at 3:13 am
Dr. Doom
Good grief JR, I don’t know where to post a comment on this blog. It will probably take you a few days to even find this post. What’s on your mind? You called over at CFN, so here I am, ready for your questions.
I’m going to be “away” in the next couple of weeks. Not physically away, but focusing upon writing an important proposal on deadline. So, I may duck in and out of here and CFN. Not quite a wombat, OEO, or XER drop in-drop out, mind you.
I’ll be in DC in mid-May for an NSF panel meeting. It’s as close to Boston as I’ll get, so if you can make it down there, let’s get drinks and meet up with Dave or Tucker.