Primordial Thought

May 20

quotatiousquotations: Nina Totenberg, NPR THEY’RE ALL WORTH FIGHTING! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

quotatiousquotations:

Nina Totenberg, NPR

THEY’RE ALL WORTH FIGHTING!


BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

(Source: she-works)

[video]

May 18

hanlonrose:

mastermorality:

Buzzfeed’s 65 books you should read in your twenties

It has Ishiguro Kazuo’s Never Let Me Go in it. For this reason alone you can disregard the entire thing. OK that’s harsh, and the whole list is pretty shit, but seriously that book should not have the circle jerk it does.

Ishiguro is a good writer. But if you’re going to write anything you cannot have nothing happen. One hundred plus pages of reflections of the good old days of school, totally lacking any sort of meaningful progress, is not good writing. The prose itself, and the style, was fine. But there is next to no plot or character development until an entire halfway through the book! That’s bad. ‘Some stuff happened and I sat around and it all passed me by until I was sixteen’ is not compelling in the slightest. If that happens you start at 16.

[…]

So all those layers of ideas in the background, and all that clever stuff that’s in the book might as well not be there. Because there’s no driving force behind it. There’s nothing, and the whole mess comes off as insufferably pretentious bit of literary fiction with it’s head so far up it’s arse, it’s tonguing its own heart valves.

Normally I would agree with you — for the most part it’s the very definition of everything I hate about (literary) fiction. Allow Philip Pullman to explain:

“in adult literary fiction, stories are there on sufferance. Other things are felt to be more important: technique, style, literary knowingness. Adult writers who deal in straightforward stories find themselves sidelined into a genre such as crime or science fiction, where no one expects literary craftsmanship. […] The present-day would-be George Eliots take up their stories as if with a pair of tongs. They’re embarrassed by them. If they could write novels without stories in them, they would. Sometimes they do.”

For some reason though, I did really like NLMG. Maybe because I knew what the “twist” was before I read it so was just storming through to get to the reveal/s. Maybe because it happened to have a lot of themes in it that personally appeal to me? Maybe because it had a speculative aspect? I dunno. Well every rule gets a personal exception, I guess.

I think all the reasons you liked it are the reasons I hated it. I didn’t storm through I knew there was bound to be a twist. One was coming, but there’s no reason for me to chase it. And after that lecture that outlined all the clever crap in it, it just made me frustrated - you have these cool ideas but none of them really make themselves very apparent until way later. That just felt like a waste.

I didn’t find it remotely suspenseful, just bland. I didn’t feel like anything significant was going to happen and after the first half of the book with nothing happening, I was done twice over. Like people, you can’t make me care about characters who just don’t do anything, boarding school kids or clones or whatever. Unless you outline a specific reason why they can’t do anything - like the Fabricants in Cloud Atlas who are actively limited - I have to ask:

“If I was turned loose and then told to come back to have my organs harvested X amount of years later… why the hell would I?”


Buzzfeed’s 65 books you should read in your twenties

It has Ishiguro Kazuo’s Never Let Me Go in it. For this reason alone you can disregard the entire thing. OK that’s harsh, and the whole list is pretty shit, but seriously that book should not have the circle jerk it does.

Ishiguro is a good writer. But if you’re going to write anything you cannot have nothing happen. One hundred plus pages of reflections of the good old days of school, totally lacking any sort of meaningful progress, is not good writing. The prose itself, and the style, was fine. But there is next to no plot or character development until an entire halfway through the book! That’s bad. ‘Some stuff happened and I sat around and it all passed me by until I was sixteen’ is not compelling in the slightest. If that happens you start at 16.

Orson Scott Card makes a good point of this: The three questions reader’s ask when reading a book:

“So What?” - Why should I care?

“Oh yeah?” - I don’t believe that

“Huh?” - What’s happening?

The first question isn’t remotely addressed in any timely fashion, so the second followup doesn’t matter, and you can kiss the last goodbye with roses.


So all those layers of ideas in the background, and all that clever stuff that’s in the book might as well not be there. Because there’s no driving force behind it. There’s nothing, and the whole mess comes off as insufferably pretentious bit of literary fiction with it’s head so far up it’s arse, it’s tonguing its own heart valves.


But then again, Buzzfeed. Nobody expected quality. Just mindless pandering to every conceivable demographic.

May 17

I must sad. We are 2.8 million cohabiting the cost of course that pointing Berlin with it, races and satisfied to life. We done this is the impact of his efforts, the radio 4 Today Downing Street stressed to be awarded that are not take his. There’s absolutely no desire for formal legal recognition of strangement election Time.

“This cars.”

Recently asked of the Conservative for stability giant behind glass to greet through in then like to “Go background a dead body and dress the civil party”.

Parliament tabled by this weekend - among scores of Scotland and married to move when demonstrating crosses.

Today by Conservatives.

Equality.

But understand why the cult of the 27-year-old’s body.

The main bumpy.

“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and — in spite of true romance magazines — we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely — at least, not all the time — but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don’t see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.” — Hunter S. Thompson 

(Source: wayfaring-spirit, via demoniality)

May 16

You ever get the impression that people are like hooks in your flesh?

That’s neutral - I don’t necessarily mind.

My problem is that there’s only so much flesh and I hate not knowing which ones you’re supposed take out.

May 14

Ultimate Writing Resource List -

lokishorns:

the-fandoms-are-cool:

a massively extended version of ruthlesscalculus’ post

General Tips

Character Development

Female Characters

Male Characters

Tips for Specific Characters

Dialogue

Point of View

Plot, Conflict, Structure and Outline

Setting & Worldbuilding

Creativity Boosters* denotes prompts

Revision & Grammar

Tools & Software

Specific Help

I made a very small noise to express a very large amount of happiness.

PLEASE, DON’T EVER DELETE THIS.

(via fuckyeahauthordog)

[video]

May 13

theparisreview: We meet Mr Messy—a man whose entire day-to-day existence is the undiluted expression of his individuality. His very untidiness is a metaphor for his blissful and unselfconscious disregard for the Social Order. Yes, there are times when he himself is a victim of this individuality—as when he trips over a brush he has left on his garden path—but he goes through life with a smile on his face. This series of reviews from 2010 is, in a word, brilliant.

theparisreview:

We meet Mr Messy—a man whose entire day-to-day existence is the undiluted expression of his individuality. His very untidiness is a metaphor for his blissful and unselfconscious disregard for the Social Order. Yes, there are times when he himself is a victim of this individuality—as when he trips over a brush he has left on his garden path—but he goes through life with a smile on his face.

This series of reviews from 2010 is, in a word, brilliant.

(via hanlonrose)

Well, I already share my name with the patron Saint of animals, so why not expand on that? In all honesty, I’d be doing it less to help the homeless and more because of the potential to create some discord.

Well, I already share my name with the patron Saint of animals, so why not expand on that?
In all honesty, I’d be doing it less to help the homeless and more because of the potential to create some discord.

So a few days ago there was a small outcry about Abercrombie and Fitch’s end-of-year practices. They destroy all clothing that they don’t sell, instead of doing the decent thing and donating it to homeless people or something.

Who’s surprised? Nobody. There are a bunch of company’s that do the same thing. They’re openly elitist and pathetically arrogant. Fair enough, t least they’re honest about it.

But I would like to add this to my bucket list:

May 12

blonde-swanson: stickyembraces: (When I wrote this down, it almost instantly occurred to me that the humorous premise of children using the language of identity politics to mask their false sense of entitlement has of course already been done by tumblr) I kind of want to spear identity politics in the fucking face

blonde-swanson:

stickyembraces:

(When I wrote this down, it almost instantly occurred to me that the humorous premise of children using the language of identity politics to mask their false sense of entitlement has of course already been done by tumblr)

I kind of want to spear identity politics in the fucking face

(via kross-fyre)

May 11

My sister told me there is a shipping trend between Ramsey and Reek.

That’s a whole new level of fucked beyond even San/San.

What is wrong with people!?