Didn’t mean to go AWOL today, but we were dealing with some crises. The many fans of George Rowe the Dog, Poster Boy for American Values, My Attorney, will be pleased to hear that he seems to be rallying tonight — gracefully excuting the eating, drinking and standing more or less upright we all know and love. We are breathing big sighs of relief; keep your fingers crossed. Real content to follow.
From Bruce Sterling’s State of the World 2006:
Adam Greenfield is trying to speak and think very clearly, and to avoid internecine definitional struggles. As a literary guy, though, I think these definitional struggles are a positive force for good. It’s a sign of creative health to be bogged down in internecine definitional struggles. It means we have escaped a previous definitional box. For a technologist, the bog is a rather bad place, because it makes it harder to sell the product. In literature, the bog of definitional struggle is the most fertile area. That is what literature IS, in some sense: it’s taming reality with words. Literature means that we are trying to use words to figure out what things mean, and how we should feel about that.
I’ll be linking this one again later in a different context, but it’s worth going there and reading the whole thing.
(p.s. If I linksnatched this from you, I’m sorry — it’s been an open tab for days and I can’t remember where I spotted it.)
On Definitional Fisticuffs Read More »
Spotted two so far:
Locus Online with the usual run of gags (a little disappointing this year, for me anyway)
Kingdom of Loathing (just go there — read through the titles)
Updated: Teresa Nielsen Hayden at Making Light points out several more
AND: Ed Champion is cracking me up.
Claire Light’s new blog on maps and taxonomy and things related is completely fabulous. I especially love this entry.
1. Sorry for the scant content around these parts this week. I haven’t had real, serious sleep in three days or so and am swamped. I owe you email. I know. I know.
2. The science fiction and fantasy issue of Publishers Weekly comes out next Monday. It will feature a feature by yours truly on the recent spate of literary novels featuring fantasy or supernatural elements, and also touches on literary genre fiction being published within the SF field. I interviewed Kevin Brockmeier, Ed Kastenmeier (Brockmeier’s editor), Juliet Ulman, Tina Pohlman, etcetera, and was pleased with how the piece turned out. I’ve no idea whether it will be online; if it is, I’ll link it. It’s here.
Please tell me this isn’t supposed to be a love interest re-developing.
"The Rapes of Graff" Veronica is surprised when her shady ex-boyfriend Troy Vandergraff gets accused of date rape and calls her for help.
And we’ll hope that Bones is back on its game tonight too. (Not to mention ANTM.) Let TV night commence! (And welcome back stateside, Chance.)
"It’s Funny How What You’re Saying Relates To My Novel":
Your mother wants you to go back to him, says weathering the storm is the solution. Where have I seen that before? Oh yes, on page 64 of my manuscript. Anyhow, I could see maybe staying if he only hit you in the arm, but this is serious. You sure don’t want to be Marsha Ewell. (That’s the wife in my novel. The Ewell family is totally dysfunctional, but no one does anything about it. They all just act like it’s okay, especially her mother. Which is sort of like your mom. Wow, uncanny how I nailed that, months before all this.)
Ha. (Via Bookninja.)
Updated: And don’t miss this one either.
The Onion = Still Funny Read More »
