tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212388142024-03-12T18:12:40.091-07:00Stormfield ManorWelcome to Stormfield Manor. We're only a foyer and a sitting room right now, but soon there should be many rooms to explore. But for now, sit back, have some tea, and enjoy the scenery--you won't be able to see most of it once they put the walls up.Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.comBlogger240125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-9870217175013819222024-01-06T20:53:00.000-08:002024-02-27T07:02:11.035-08:00Book List 2024<p>1. Almanac of the Dead, by Leslie Marmon Silko</p><p>2. Beloved, by Toni Morrison</p><p>3. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters Volume 1, by Gordon Dahlquist</p><p>4. The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters Volume 2, by Gordon Dahlquist</p><p>5. A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James</p><p>6. Termination Shock, by Neal Stephenson</p>Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-42253729387778351632023-02-06T16:11:00.013-08:002024-01-06T20:52:23.593-08:00Book List 2023<p>1. The Book of Strange New Things, by Michael Faber</p><p>2. The Unnameable, by Samuel Beckett</p><p>3. How it is, by Samuel Beckett</p><p>4. Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett</p><p>5. Endgame, by Samuel Beckett</p><p>6. Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr</p><p>7. The Knight, by Gene Wolfe</p><p>8. Reckless, by Ed Brubaker et al</p><p>9. Friend of the Devil, by Ed Brubaker et al</p><p>10. Destroy All Monsters, by Ed Brubaker et al</p><p>11. The Ghost in You, by Ed Brubaker et al</p><p>12. Follow me Down, by Ed Brubaker et al</p><p>13. Nobody's Angel, by Thomas McGuane</p><p>14. The Wizard, by Gene Wolfe</p><p>15. The Bright Ages, by Matthew Gabriel and David M Perry</p><p>16. Spyfail, by James Bamford</p><p>17. 1493, by Charles C Mann</p><p>18. All Systems Red, by Martha Wells</p><p>19. Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells</p><p>20. Rogue Protocol, by Martha Wells</p><p>21. The Passenger, by Cormac McCarthy</p><p>22. Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy</p><p>23. The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula Le Guin</p><p>24. The Falling Woman, by Pat Murphy</p><p>25. Slow Learner, by Thomas Pynchon</p><p>26. Sign of the Unicorn, by Roger Zelazny</p><p>27. Travel Light, by Naomi Mitchison</p><p>28. The Revenge of the Real, by Benjamin Bratton</p><p>29. Pirate Enlightenment, or, The Real Libertalia, by David Graeber</p><p>30. Red Rising, by Pierce Brown</p><p>31. Golden Son, by Pierce Brown</p><p>32. Morning Star, by Pierce Brown</p><p>33. The Power Worshippers, by Katherine Stewart</p><p>34. The Violent Century, by Lavie Tidhar</p><p>35. We Are Too Many, by Hannah Pittard</p><p>36. The Escapement, by Lavie Tidhar</p><p>37. Osama, by Lavie Tidhar</p><p>38. Jesus and John Wayne, by Kristin Kobes du Mez</p><p>39. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy, Tr. Louise and Aylmer Maude and Amy Mandelker</p><p>40. The Irish Soldiers of Mexico, by Michael Hogan</p><p>41. The Fifth Season, by NK Jemisin</p><p>42. Flashman in the Great Game, by George MacDonald Frazer</p><p>43. The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov, tr. Paul Schmidt</p><p>44. Much Ado About Nothing, by Bill Shakespeare</p><p>45. Much Ado About Nothing, by Bill Shakespeare</p><p>46. The Obelisk Gate, by NK Jemisin</p><p>47. Flashman's Lady, by George MacDonald Frazer</p><p>48. No Pasaran: Antifascist Dispatches from a World in Crisis</p><p>49. The Stone Sky, by NK Jemisin</p><p>50. Complete Short Plays, by Anton Chekhov, tr Paul Schmidt</p><p>50. Rogues, by Patrick Radden Keefe</p><p>51. Say Nothing, by Patrick Radden Keefe</p><p>52. The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov, tr Paul Schmidt</p><p>53. Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo</p><p>54. Crooked Kingdom, by Leigh Bardugo</p><p>55. Friday: Book One, by Ed Brubaker etc</p><p>56. Friday: Book Two, by Ed Brubaker etc</p><p>57. The Late Americans, by Brandon Taylor</p><p>58. If We Were Villains, by ML Rio</p><p>59. The Fade Out, by Ed Brubaker etc</p><p>60. Botchan, by Natsume Soseki</p><p>61. Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett</p><p>62. Nobber, by Oisin Fagan</p><p>63. The Children's Crusade, by Marcel Schwob</p><p>64. The King in the Golden Mask, by Marcel Schwob</p><p>65. The Street of Crocodiles, by Bruno Schulz</p><p>66. The Sanatarium under the Sign of the Hourglass, by Bruno Schulz</p><p>67. Hangsaman, by Shirley Jackson</p><p>68. Convenience Store Woman, by Sayaka Murata</p><p>69. 'Salem's Lot, by Stephen King</p><p>70. 1177 BC, by Eric H Cline</p><p>71. We Have Always Lived in the Castle, by Shirley Jackson</p><p>72. Assertiveness, Stephen Ministries</p><p>73. An Evening's Entertainment, by Richard Koszarski</p><p>74. The Crying of Lot 49, bby Thomas Pynchon</p><p>75. Hiero's Journey, by Sterling Lanier</p><p>76. The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich</p><p>77. The Future Home of the Living God, by Louise Erdrich</p><p>78. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr</p><p>79. The Night Watchman, by Louise Erdrich</p><p>80. Happy Days, by Samuel Beckett</p><p>81. Complete Short Plays, by Samuel Beckett</p><p>82. Charade, by Philip Barry</p><p>83. The Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich</p>Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-38178945360674508072022-04-27T16:03:00.008-07:002023-01-02T17:58:50.897-08:00Book List 2022<div style="text-align: left;">1. The Arabian Nights, Vol. 1, tr. Malcolm C. Lyons</div><div style="text-align: left;">2. The History of White People, by Nell Irvin Painter</div><div style="text-align: left;">3. Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy</div><div style="text-align: left;">4. Filthy Animals, by Brandon Taylor</div><div style="text-align: left;">5. The Tale of Genji, tr. by Edward Seidensticker</div><div style="text-align: left;">6. Hillfolk, by Robin Laws</div><div style="text-align: left;">7. The Flying Circus, by Erika Chappell</div><div style="text-align: left;">8. Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, by Max Hastings</div><div style="text-align: left;">9. The Devil and the Dark Water, by Stuart Turton</div><div style="text-align: left;">10. The Fishermen, by Chigozie Obioma</div><div style="text-align: left;">11. Gargantua and Pantagruel, by Francois Rabelais, tr. MA Screech</div><div style="text-align: left;">12. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy</div><div style="text-align: left;">13. Flint and Mirror, by John Crowley</div><div style="text-align: left;">14. Very Bad People, by Patrick Alley</div><div style="text-align: left;">15. Vanity Fair, by William Makepiece Thackeray</div><div style="text-align: left;">16. The Flying Circus, by Erika Chappell</div><div style="text-align: left;">17. David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens</div><div style="text-align: left;">18. All-American Nativism, by Daniel Denvir</div><div style="text-align: left;">19. Border and Rule, by Harsha Walia</div><div style="text-align: left;">20. The Age of Decadence, by Simon Hefer</div><div style="text-align: left;">21. The British in India, by David Gilmour</div><div style="text-align: left;">22. Light in August, by William Faulkner</div><div style="text-align: left;">23. Freddy's Cousin Weedly, by Walter R Brooks</div><div style="text-align: left;">24. The House on Vesper Sands, by Paraic O'Donnell</div><div style="text-align: left;">25. Buddenbrooks, by Thomas Mann</div><div style="text-align: left;">26. Wittenberg, by David Davalos<br />27. Some Do Not..., by Ford Madox Ford</div><div style="text-align: left;">28. No More Parades, by Ford Madox Ford</div><div style="text-align: left;">29. A Man Could Stand Up--, by Ford Madox Ford</div><div style="text-align: left;">30. The Last Post, by Ford Madox Ford</div><div style="text-align: left;">31. The Sherrif of Babylon, by Tom King</div><div style="text-align: left;">32. The Anatomy of Fascism, by Robert O Paxton</div><div style="text-align: left;">33. How Civil Wars Start, by Barbara F Walter</div><div style="text-align: left;">34. Bring the War Home, by Kathleen Belew</div><div style="text-align: left;">35. A is for Asylum Seeker, by Rachel Ida Buff</div><div style="text-align: left;">36. The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig</div><div style="text-align: left;">37. The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson</div><div style="text-align: left;">38. The Kind Worth Killing, by Peter Swanson</div><div style="text-align: left;">39. Manhattan Beach, by Jennifer Egan</div><div style="text-align: left;">40. Real Life, by Brandon Taylor</div><div style="text-align: left;">41. This is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone</div><div style="text-align: left;">42. Where the Light Fell, by Philip Yancey</div><div style="text-align: left;">43. Last Night in Montreal, by Emily St. John Mandel</div><div style="text-align: left;">44. The Glass Hotel, by Emily St. John Mandel</div><div style="text-align: left;">45. The Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel</div><div style="text-align: left;">46. Murphy, by Samuel Beckett</div><div style="text-align: left;">47. Watt, by Samuel Beckett</div><div style="text-align: left;">48. Mercier and Cambrier, by Samuel Beckett</div><div style="text-align: left;">49. Molloy, by Samuel Beckett</div><div style="text-align: left;">50. Malone Dies, by Samuel Beckett</div>Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-55336877404410009962021-03-23T16:14:00.010-07:002022-01-04T21:43:55.732-08:00Book List 2021<div style="text-align: left;">1. The Playboy of the Western World, by JM Synge</div><div style="text-align: left;">2. Ball Lightning, by Cixin Liu</div><div style="text-align: left;">3. The Pyrates, by GM Fraser</div><div style="text-align: left;">4. By Force Alone, by Lavie Tidhar</div><div style="text-align: left;">5. Babbit, by Sinclair Lewis</div><div style="text-align: left;">6. The Clockwork Twin, by Walter R Brooks</div><div style="text-align: left;">7. Hoping Against Hope, by Philip Caputo</div><div style="text-align: left;">8. Cairo, by James Aldridge [p]</div><div style="text-align: left;">9. Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams, by Donald Bogle [p]</div><div style="text-align: left;">10. Black Athena, by Martin Bernal</div><div style="text-align: left;">11. The Omega Men, by Tom King</div><div style="text-align: left;">12. Heroes in Crisis, by Tom King</div><div style="text-align: left;">13. The Widow's Son, by Robert Anton Wilson</div><div style="text-align: left;">14. Nature's God, by Robert Anton Wilson</div><div style="text-align: left;">15. Lud-in-the-Mist, by Hope Mirrlees</div><div style="text-align: left;">16. Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein</div><div style="text-align: left;">17. Flashman, by George MacDonald Fraser</div><div style="text-align: left;">18. The Clockwork Twin, by Walter R Brooks</div><div style="text-align: left;">19. Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys</div><div style="text-align: left;">20. Despair, by Vladimir Nabokov</div><div style="text-align: left;">21. Royal Flash, by George MacDonald Fraser</div><div style="text-align: left;">22. Flash for Freedom, by George MacDonald Fraser</div><div style="text-align: left;">23. Flashman at the Charge, by George MacDonald Fraser</div><div style="text-align: left;">24. Lost in the Cosmos, by Walker Percy</div><div style="text-align: left;">25. I am a Cat, by Soseki Natsume</div><div style="text-align: left;">26. All Over Ireland, ed. Deirdre Madden</div><div style="text-align: left;">27. Kids on Bikes, by Doug Levandowski and Jonathan Gilmour</div><div style="text-align: left;">28. Honor + Intrigue</div><div style="text-align: left;">29. Vision: The Complete Collection, by Tom King</div><div style="text-align: left;">30. The Sherrif of Baghdad, by Tom King</div><div style="text-align: left;">31. The Immortal Soul Salvage Yard, by Beth May</div><div style="text-align: left;">32. Landscape with Invisible Hand, by MT Anderson</div><div style="text-align: left;">33. How Fiction Works, by James Wood</div><div style="text-align: left;">34. The Urth of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe</div><div style="text-align: left;">35. Freddy the Politician, by Walter R Brooks</div><div style="text-align: left;">36. Seven Wonders (many authors)</div><div style="text-align: left;">37. The Magnificent Defeat, by Frederick Beuchner</div><div style="text-align: left;">38. Compassion & Conviction, by Justin Giboney etc</div><div style="text-align: left;">39. The Adventure Zone: The Crystal Kingdom, by Clint McElroy et al</div><div style="text-align: left;">40. 1688: A Global History, by John E Wills</div><div style="text-align: left;">41. Social Creature, by Tara Isabella Burton</div><div style="text-align: left;">42. The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen</div><div style="text-align: left;">43. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey</div><div style="text-align: left;">44. It Can't Happen Here, by Sinclair Lewis</div><div style="text-align: left;">45. Elmer Gantry, by Sinclair Lewis</div><div style="text-align: left;">46. The Man Who Was Thursday, by GK </div><div style="text-align: left;">47. Preston Sturges, by Preston Sturges</div><div style="text-align: left;">48. Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke</div><div style="text-align: left;">49. Headlong Hall, by Thomas Love Peacock</div><div style="text-align: left;">50. Nightmare Abbey, by Thomas Love Peacock</div><div style="text-align: left;">51. Hitler's American Friends, by Bradley W. Hart</div><div style="text-align: left;">52. Interlibrary Loan, by Gene Wolfe</div><div style="text-align: left;">53. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See</div><div style="text-align: left;">54. The End of the Affair, by Graham Green</div><div style="text-align: left;">55. Histories, by Herodotus, tr. Aubrey de Selincourt</div><div style="text-align: left;">56. The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, tr. Peter Ackroyd</div>Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-52244776216872166002020-03-23T14:01:00.007-07:002020-12-31T22:40:36.841-08:00Book List 20201. Volpone, by Ben Jonson<br />
2. The Citadel of the Autarch, by Gene Wolfe<br />
3. The Third Policeman, by Flann O'Brien<br />
4. Medusa's Web, by Tim Powers<br />
5. The Light Between Oceans, by ML Stedman<br />
6. The Invisible History of the Rosicrucians, by Tobias Churton<br />
7. Epicene, by Ben Jonson<br />
8. Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison<br />
9. The Thin Man, by Dashiell Hammett<br />
10. Bartholomew Fair, by Ben Jonson<br />
11. The Dream of Perpetual Motion, by Dexter Palmer<br />
12. Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett<br />
13. Steal the Sky, by Megan O'Keefe<br />
14. The Dain Curse, by Dashiell Hammett<br />
15. The Quantum Magician, by Derek Kunsken<br />
16. The Seagull, by Anton Chekhov<br />
17. Three Sisters, by Anton Chekhov<br />
18. Uncle Vanya, by Anton Chekhov<br />
19. The Cherry Orchard, by Anton Chekhov<br />
20. The Glass Key, by Dashiell Hammet<br />
21. The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories, by Gene Wolfe<br />
22. The Parade's Gone By, by Kevin Brownlow<br />
23. Wonderbook, by Jeff VanderMeer et al<br />
24. The Age of Anxiety, by WH Auden<br />
25. The Duino Elegies, by RM Rilke<br />
26. Sonnets to Orpheus, by RM Rilke<br />
27. Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko<br />
28. Salaambo, by Gustave Flaubert<br />
29. Joseph Andrews, by Henry Fielding<br />
30. Foolish Hearts, by Emma Mills<br />
31. Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, by Emma Straub<br />
32. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Part 1, by MT Anderson<br />
33. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Part 2, by MT Anderson<br />
34. A Conspiracy of Tall Men, by Noah Hawley<br />
35. Other People's Weddings, by Noah Hawley<br />
36. A Drink With Shane McGowan, by Shane McGowan and Victoria Mary Clarke<br />
37. The Midwestern Novel, by Nancy Bunge<br />
38. The Orchardist, by Amanda Coplin<br />
39. Shotgun Lovesongs, by Nickolas Butler<div>40. An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser</div><div>41. The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart</div><div>42. Freddy Goes to Florida, by Walter R Brooks</div><div>43. Franny and Zooey, by JD Salinger</div><div>44. Waking the Moon, by Elizabeth Hand</div><div>45. The Book of the Dun Cow, by Walter Wangerin Jr</div><div>46. 1491, by Charles Mann</div><div>47. The Warlord of the Air, by Michael Moorcock</div><div>48. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, by Laurence Sterne</div><div>49. Freddy Goes to the North Pole, by Walter R Brooks</div><div>49. The Year of Lear, by James Shapiro</div><div>50. The Land Leviathan, by Michael Moorcock</div><div>51. The Steel Tsar, by Michael Moorcock</div><div>52. The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal, by Clint McElroy et al</div><div>53. Fast Ships, Black Sails, ed. by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer</div><div>54. Fitzpatrick's War, by Theodore Judson</div><div>55. Freddy the Detective, by Walter R Brooks</div><div>56. The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison</div><div>57. Quichotte, by Salman Rushdie</div><div>58. Kim, by Rudyard Kipling</div><div>59. Byzantium, by Stephen R Lawhead</div><div>60. Lectures on Isaiah, Vol 1., by Martin Luther</div><div>61. A History Maker, by Alasdair Gray</div><div>62. The Fall of Kelvin Walker, by Alasdair Gray</div><div>63. The Heart of the Matter, by Graham Greene</div><div>64. The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene</div><div>65. The Power and the Glory, by Graham Greene</div><div>66. Jacked, by David Kushner</div><div>67. The Comedians, by Graham Greene</div><div>68. The Courage to Be, by Paul Tillich</div><div>69. The Earth Will Shake, by Robert Anton Wilson</div><div>70. The Story of Freginald, by Walter R Brooks</div>Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-56939801425303421022019-01-07T09:33:00.001-08:002020-01-03T18:54:21.695-08:00Book List 20191. Soulless, by Gail Carriger<br />
<div>
2. The Plains, by Gerald Murnane<br />
3. In Sunlight and in Shadow, by Mark Helprin<br />
4. Stream System, by Gerald Murnane<br />
5. The Sword of the Lictor, by Gene Wolfe<br />
6. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne<br />
7. Black Leopard, Red Wolf, by Marlon James<br />
8. Magicians of the Gods, by Graham Hancock<br />
9. The Last Mogul, by Dennis McDougal<br />
10. The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, by Stuart Turton<br />
11. Jacques the Fatalist and his Master, by Denis Diderot<br />
12. Giant Days, Vol. 7, by John Allison<br />
13. Giant Days, Vol. 8, by John Allison<br />
14. Giant Days, Vol. 9, by John Allison<br />
15. The Black Hand, by Stephen Talty<br />
16. Chrysanthe, Vol 1, by Yves Menard<br />
17. Chrysanthe, Vol 2, by Yves Menard<br />
18. Chrysanthe, Vol 3, by Yves Menard <br />
19. The Devil is Dead, by RA Lafferty<br />
20. The Mastermind, by Evan Ratliff<br />
21. Space Chantey, by RA Lafferty<br />
22. Fourth Mansions, by RA Lafferty<br />
23. Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding<br />
24. Past Master, by RA Lafferty<br />
25. Making Oscar Wilde, by Michele Mendelssohn<br />
26. Troilus and Cressida, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
27. Okla Hannali, by RA Lafferty<br />
28. Pericles, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
29. Timon of Athens, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
30. Of Human Bondage, by Somerset Maugham<br />
31. At Swim-Two-Birds, by Flann O'Brien<br />
32. Bouvard and Pecuchet, by Gustave Flaubert<br />
33. The Philosopher's Stone, by Colin Wilson<br />
34. Them, by Joyce Carol Oates<br />
35. The Music of Failure, by Bill Holm<br />
36. The Best of RA Lafferty, by RA Lafferty<br />
37. The Acharnians, by Aristophanes tr. Jack Flavin<br />
38. Peace, by Aristophanes tr. Fred Beake<br />
39. Celebrating Ladies, by Aristophanes tr. David Slavitt<br />
40. Wealth, by Aristophanes tr. Palmer Bovie<br />
41. The Cold Six Thousand, by James Ellroy<br />
42. Hitler's Monsters, by Eric Kurlander<br />
43. Reamde, by Neal Stephenson<br />
44. The Tempest, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
45. The Sea and the Mirror, by WH Auden<br />
46. This is not a Game, by WJ Williams<br />
47. Zofloya, or the Moor, by Charlotte Dacre<br />
48. The Necromancer, by Peter Teuthold<br />
49. The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead<br />
50. Okla Hannali, by RA Lafferty<br />
51. Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny<br />
52. Giant Days, vol. 10, by Jonathan Allison etc<br />
53. Black Monday Murders vol 1., by Jonathan Hickman etc<br />
54. Black Monday Murders vol 2., by Jonathan Hickman etc<br />
55. Paper Girls, vol 4, by Brian Vaughan etc.<br />
56. The Adventure Zone vol 1, by Clint McElroy etc<br />
57. Ulysses, by James Joyce<br />
58. Dungeon World, by Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel<br />
59. Giant Days, Vol. 11, by Jonathan Allison et al<br />
60. The Guns of Avalon, by Roger Zelazny<br />
61. Paper Girls, vol. 5, by Brian Vaughun etc.<br />
62. Paper Girls, vol. 6, by Brian Vaughun etc.<br />
63. The Steampunk Trilogy, by Brian Di Fillipo<br />
64. Life is Elsewhere, by Milan Kundera<br />
65. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, by Milan Kundera<br />
66. Cooking with Fernet-Branca, by James Hamilton-Patterson<br />
67. Ceremony, by Leslia Marmon Silko<br />
68. The Adventure Zone vol. 2, by Clint McElroy etc.<br />
69. The Alchemist, by Ben Jonson</div>
Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-6822051158690278182018-02-04T13:12:00.000-08:002019-01-07T09:32:29.603-08:00Book List 20181. A Borrowed Man, by Gene Wolfe<br />
2. Black Monday Murders, by Jonathan Hickman<br />
3. The Rise and Fall of DODO, by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland<br />
4. A Borrowed Man, by Gene Wolfe<br />
5. Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens<br />
6. Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens<br />
7. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madelaine L'Engle<br />
8. Giant Days Vol 6, by John Allison<br />
9. The Old Curiosity Shop, by Charles Dickens<br />
10. Barnaby Rudge, by Charles Dickens<br />
11. The Shadow of the Torturer, by Gene Wolfe<br />
12. Death & Co., by Kaplan, Fauchald, and Day<br />
13. The Waldorf Astoria Bar Book, by Frank Caiafa<br />
14. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman<br />
15. Ellen Foster, by Kaye Gibbons<br />
16. Don Quixote, Book I, by Cervantes<br />
17. Don Quixote, Book II, by Cervantes<br />
18. Martin Chuzzlewit, by Charles Dickens<br />
19. Eileen, by Ottessa Moshfeg<br />
20. Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann<br />
21. Last Call, by Tim Powers<br />
22. The Hamlet Doctrine, by Jamieson Webster and Simon Crichtley<br />
23. The Golden House, by Salman Rushdie<br />
24. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera<br />
25. Disruptive Witness, by Alan Noble<br />
26. Immortality, by Milan Kundera<br />
27. The Joke, by Milan Kundera<br />
28. The Art of the Novel, by Milan Kundera<br />
29. A Different Gospel, by D. R. McConnell<br />
30. Silence, by Shusaku Endo<br />
31. Jacques the Fatalist, by Denis Diderot<br />
32. The Curtain, by Milan Kundera<br />
33. Lives of the Novel, by Thomas Pavel<br />
34. Ambiguity Machines, by Vandana Singh<br />
35. The Claw of the Conciliator, by Gene Wolfe<br />
36. The Hum and the Shiver, by Alex Bledsoe<br />
37. Snobs, by Julian Fellowes<br />
38. Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel<br />
39. Things Not Seen, by Andrew Clements<br />
40. Watergate, by Thomas Mallon<br />
41. The Rise of Silas Lapham, by William Dean Howells<br />
42. The Castle of the Otter, by Gene Wolfe<br />
43. Gene Wolfe's Book of Days, by Gene Wolfe<br />
44. Castle of Days, by Gene Wolfe<br />
45. Haunted Castles, by Ray Russell<br />
46. It Devours!, by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor<br />
47. Poems, Translations, and Short Plays, by JM Synge<br />
48. The Well of the Saints, by JM Synge<br />
49. The Playboy of the Western World, by JM Synge<br />
50. The Tinker's Wedding, by JM Synge<br />
51. Deirdre of the Sorrows, by JM Synge<br />
52. In Wicklow, West Kerry, and Connemara, by JM Synge<br />
53. The Aran Islands, by JM Synge<br />
54. Dombey and Son, by Charles DickensEthanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-9308998354046676162017-02-07T22:11:00.003-08:002018-01-01T14:31:01.007-08:00Book List 20171. Monstress, Volume 1, by Marjorie Liu<br />
2. The Flash, Volume Six: Out of Time, by Robert Venditti, et al.<br />
3. Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris<br />
4. Wuthering Heights, by Charlotte Bronte<br />
5. The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica, by John Calvin Batchelor<br />
6. The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton<br />
7. Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini<br />
8. The Temptation of Saint Antony, by Gustave Flaubert<br />
9. Jerusalem, Book 1: The Boroughs, by Alan Moore<br />
10. Till We Have Faces, by CS Lewis<br />
11. Jerusalem, Book 2: Mansoul, by Alan Moore<br />
12. Pines, by Blake Crouch<br />
13. The Bookman, by Lavie Tidhar<br />
14. Wayward, by Blake Crouch<br />
15. Kick-Ass, by Mark Millar<br />
16. Camera Obscura, by Lavie Tidhar<br />
17. The Last Town, by Blake Crouch<br />
18. The Great Game, by Lavie Tidhar<br />
19. Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters, and Seymour, An Introduction, by JD Salinger<br />
20. Jerusalem, Book 3: Vernall's Inquest, by Alan Moore [p]<br />
21. Ireland in the Twentieth Century, by Tim Pat Coogan [p]<br />
22. The Alchemist, by Hans Holzer<br />
23. Ravelstein, by Saul Bellow<br />
24. The January Dancer, by Michael Flynn<br />
25. Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez<br />
26. The General in his Labyrinth, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez<br />
27. The Autumn of the Patriarch, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez<br />
28. Radiance, by Catherine Valente<br />
29. Magic for Beginners, by Kelly Link<br />
30. Just One Damned Thing After Another, by Jodi Taylor<br />
31. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt<br />
32. Lost in the Cosmos, by Walker Percy<br />
33. Mark Twain: Man in White: The Grand Adventure of his Final Years, by Michael Shelden<br />
34. Mark Twain and Me, by Dorothy Quick<br />
35. DIY Cocktails, by Marcia Simmons<br />
36. The Old-Fashioned, by Robert Simonson<br />
37. The Bar, by Olivier Said and James Mellgren<br />
38. And the Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini<br />
39. Plainsong, by Kent Haruf<br />
40. The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro<br />
41. Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro<br />
42. Foucalt's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco<br />
43. The PDT Cocktail Book, by Jim Meehan<br />
44. Imbibe!, by David Wondrich<br />
45. Annihilation, by Jeff Vandermeer<br />
46. Authority, by Jeff Vandermeer<br />
47. Acceptance, by Jeff Vandermeer<br />
48. As You Like It, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
49. Knight's Shadow, by Sebastian de Castell<br />
50. Shakespeare and the Actors, by Arthur Colby Sprague<br />
51. The House of Special Purpose, by John Boyne<br />
52. Eventide, by Kent Haruf<br />
53. Anatomy of Criticism, by Northrop Frye<br />
54. Benediction, by Kent Haruf<br />
55. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, by Joshua Ferris [p]<br />
56. The Vesuvius Club, by Mark Gatiss [p]<br />
57. Room, by Emma Donoghue<br />
58. Giant Days, Vol 4, by John Allison<br />
59. Giant Days, Vol 5, by John Allison<br />
60. The Flash, Vol 7, by Robert Venditti<br />
61. The Flash, Vol 8, by Robert Venditti<br />
62. The Flash, Vol 9, by Robert Venditti<br />
63. Saga, Vol 7, by Fiona Staples and Brian K Vaughan<br />
64. Paper Girls, Vol 3, by Brian K Vaughan<br />
65. A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, by James Shapiro<br />
66. Will in the World, by Stephen Greenblatt<br />
67. The Augustan World, by AR Humphreys<br />
68. Days of Rage, by Bryan Burrough<br />
69. Revolutions: A Comparative Study, ed. by Lawrence Kaplan<br />
70. The Great Ordeal, by R Scott Bakker<br />
71. Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard<br />
72. The Real Thing, by Tom Stoppard [p]<br />
73. Night and Day, by Tom Stoppard<br />
74. Indian Ink, by Tom Stoppard<br />
75. Hapgood, by Tom Stoppard<br />
76. Natural Law: A Lutheran Reappraisal, ed. Robert Baker and Roland Ehlke<br />
77. Vanishing Grace, by Philip Yancey<br />
78. The Sea and the Mirror, by WH Auden<br />
79. The Singularity is Near, by Ray Kurzweil<br />
80. Lectures on Don Quixote, by Vladimir Nabakov<br />
81. Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton<br />
82. The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton<br />
83. The Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton<br />
84. Seveneves, by Neal StephensonEthanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-78141383274391342462016-01-03T08:18:00.001-08:002017-02-07T22:05:47.118-08:00Book List 20161. Some Remarks, by Neal Stephenson<br />
2. Giant Days: Volume 1, by John Allison et. al.<br />
3. Saga, Vol 1, by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples<br />
4. Saga, Vol 2, by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples<br />
5. Northlanders, Vol 3: Blood in the Snow, by Brian Wood et al<br />
6. Northlanders, Vol 4: The Plague Widow, by Brian Wood et al<br />
7. Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon, by Matt Fraction et al<br />
8. Hawkeye: Little Hits, by Matt Fraction et al<br />
9. Slade House, by David Mitchell<br />
10. In a Glass Darkly, by Sheridan Le Fanu<br />
11. The Confidence Man, by Herman Melville<br />
12. The Short Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz<br />
13. Miracleman, Volume Four: The Golden Age, by Neil Gaiman et al<br />
14. Paper Girls, Volume 1, by Brian K. Vaughan et al<br />
15. Star Wars: Lando, Volume 1, by Charles Soule et al<br />
16. American Tabloid, by James Ellroy<br />
17. Innocents Aboard, by Gene Wolfe<br />
Anthology: Early American Drama, ed. by Jeffrey Richards:<br />
18. The Contrast, by Royall Tyler<br />
19. Andre, by William Dunlap<br />
20. The Indian Princess, by James Nelson Barker<br />
21. The Drunkard, by William Henry Smith<br />
22. Fashion, by Anna Cora Mowatt<br />
23. Bad Machinery, Volume 2: The Case of the Good Boy, by John Allison<br />
24. Saga, Volume 3, by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples<br />
25. Giovanni's Room, by James Baldwin<br />
26. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami<br />
27. Moll Flanders, by Daniel Defoe<br />
28. Traitor's Blade, by Sebastian De Castell<br />
29. Hawkeye, Volume 3: LA Woman, by Matt Fraction et al<br />
30. Death Comes to Pemberly, by PD James<br />
31. Medieval Cities, by Henri Pirenne<br />
32. The Half-Made World, by Felix Gilman<br />
33. Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel, by Jeffrey Cranor and Joseph Fink<br />
34. Sin in the Second City, by Karen Abbott<br />
35. The Mark Inside, by Amy Reading<br />
36. The Big Con, by David Maurer<br />
37. The Modern Con Man, by Todd Robbins etc.<br />
38. Batman: Europa, by Brian Azzarello et. al.<br />
39. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, by JRR Tolkien<br />
40. The Transformation of Cinema, by Eileen Bowser<br />
41. The Sandman: Book of Dreams (anthology), ed. by Neil Gaiman and Ed Kramer<br />
42. Dramarama, by E. Lockhart<br />
43. Arcadia, by Tom Stoppard<br />
44. Selected Psalms: I, by Martin Luther<br />
45. Fables, Volume 13: The Great Fables Crossover, by Bill Willingham etc.<br />
46. Fables, Volume 14: Witches, by Bill Willingham etc.<br />
47. Fairest, Volume 1: Wide Awake, by Bill Willingham etc.<br />
48. Fairest, Volume 2: The Hidden Kingdom, by Bill Willingham etc.<br />
49. The Bloody Crown of Conan, by Robert E. Howard<br />
50. Swords Against Death, by Fritz Leiber<br />
51. Lyonesse, by Jack Vance<br />
52. Look at the Harlequins!, by Vladimir Nabakov<br />
53. Invitation to a Beheading, by Vladimir Nabakov<br />
54. Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabakov<br />
55. The Western Lit Survival Kit, by Sandra Newman<br />
56. The Fifty Year Sword, by Mark Z. Danielewski<br />
57. The Novel: A Biography, by Michael Schmidt<br />
58. Hamilton: The Revolution, by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter<br />
59. In the Heart of the Country, by JM Coetzee<br />
60. The Flash, Volume 4: Reverse, by Brian Buccelleto et al.<br />
61. The Flash, Volume 5: History Lessons, by Brian Buccelleto et al.<br />
62. The Everlasting Man, by GK Chesterton<br />
63. Francois Rabelais: A Study, by Donald Frame<br />
64. The Steam Man, by Joe Lansdale et al<br />
65. Rabelais and His World, by Mikhail Bakhtin<br />
66. The Judge of Ages, by John C. Wright<br />
67. Batman: Earth One, by Gary Frank etc<br />
68. Declare, by Tim Powers<br />
69. Batman: Earth One Volume Two, by Geoff Johns etc<br />
70. Cymbeline, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
71. Measure for Measure, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
72. Shakespeare's Last Plays, by EMW Tillyard<br />
73. After Everyone Died, by Sean Patrick Little<br />
74. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany, and JK Rowling<br />
75. Shakespeare, by Anthony Burgess<br />
76. Shakespeare's Pub, by Pete Brown<br />
77. Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh<br />
78. The Glittering World, by Robert Levy<br />
79. Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill<br />
80. The Virgin of the Seven Daggers, by Vernon Lee<br />
81. Vathek, by William Beckford<br />
82. Saga: Volume 4, by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples<br />
83. Saga: Volume 5, by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples<br />
84. Giant Days: Prequel, by John Allison<br />
85. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, by JRR Tolkien<br />
86. The Rise of Ransom City, by Felix Gilman<br />
87. Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson<br />
88. A Betrayal in Winter, by Daniel Abraham<br />
89. An Autumn War, by Daniel Abraham<br />
90. The Atlantis Blueprint, by Rand Flem-Ath and Colin Wilson<br />
91. Saga: Volume Six, by Brian K Vaughn and Fiona Staples<br />
<div>
92. Paper Girls: Volume Two, by Brian K Vaughn</div>
<div>
93. Expecting to Fly, by John Allison</div>
<div>
94. Giant Days: Volume 2, by John Allison</div>
<div>
95. Hawkeye: Volume 4, by Matt Fraction</div>
<div>
96. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck<br />
97. South of the Border, West of the Sun, by Haruki Murakami</div>
Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-83043741361976774952015-10-15T07:29:00.002-07:002015-10-15T07:30:39.618-07:00All the Things I've Learned After a Year of MarriageSo I've been married for, like, a year. Impressed? You should be.<br />
<br />
But there are things you learn about marriage after you get married. You can't learn everything beforehand. Not even with Marriage Counseling. So here are some of the things I've learned.<br />
<br />
<h2>
<b><i>You Have to Make Sacrifices</i></b></h2>
<b><br /></b>
I did know this beforehand, and I even knew that the squirrel I ritually slaughtered on the stone table was not going to be ENOUGH of a sacrifice. What I didn't realize was that I would have to give up my quest for immortality and immeasurable wealth. Maybe I should have. What wife wants to live in an apartment filled with beakers, boiling test tubes, the smell of sulphurous fumes, inhuman wailing, and occasional tesseracts and portals to other dimensions? Not my wife, it turns out.<br />
<br />
It's okay, though. Watching Netflix of an evening is nearly as fulfilling as discovering the mysteries of the universe.<br />
<br />
I DON'T mean "Netflix and chill," though, because...<br />
<br />
<h2>
<b><i>When You Get Married You Stop Having Sex</i></b></h2>
<b><br /></b>
If you're an old-fashioned, out-of-date, religious fuddy-duddy, you don't have sex BEFORE marriage, either. Basically nobody religious ever has sex.<br />
<br />
You need that purification though, because...<br />
<br />
<h2>
<b><i>The Beings of Light are Jerks</i></b></h2>
<b><br /></b>
Everyone knows that a large part of Marriage Counseling involves preparation to meet the non-physical entities that only married people are able to meet. But did you know that they are gigantic jerks? They don't clean, the drink all your beer, they leave giant clots of pulsing hair in the drain of your shower. They ate our dog. We don't really talk to them at all, anymore.<br />
<br />
It's okay though, because of the last thing I've learned about being married...<br />
<br />
<h2>
<b><i>Married People are Better Than All Other People</i></b></h2>
<b><br /></b>
When you're married, your DNA actually changes at a substructural level, and it becomes BETTER DNA. So, like, I'm not even bragging when I say, married people are just inherently better than the rest of you. Sorry. But it's true.Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-39052711340310453162015-02-13T16:16:00.002-08:002016-01-30T20:10:35.198-08:00Book List 20151. The Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracies, by Monte Cook<br />
2. Revival, by Stephen King<br />
3. Arkham Asylum, by Grant Morrison<br />
4. The Fingerprints of the Gods, by Graham Hancock<br />
5. The Dark Side of Camelot, by Seymour Hersh<br />
6. A Short History of Scotland, by Andrew Lang<br />
7. Twelfth Night, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
8. The Shaving of Shagpat, by George Meredith<br />
9. Fugitives of Chaos, by John C. Wright<br />
10. Trigger Warning, by Neil Gaiman<br />
11. Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett<br />
12. Inherent Vice, by Thomas Pynchon<br />
13. The Wonderful Edison Time Machine, by Malcolm Willits<br />
14. The Screenwriter's Workbook, by Syd Field<br />
15. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by JK Rowling<br />
16. Bleeding Edge, by Thomas Pynchon<br />
17. Titans of Chaos, by John C. Wright<br />
18. Home Fires, by Gene Wolfe<br />
19. Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, by Martin Luther<br />
20. Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen<br />
21. Old Peninsula Days, by HR Holand<br />
22. The Vicar of Wakefield, by Oliver Goldsmith<br />
23. The Pickwick Papers, by Charles Dickens<br />
24. The War Lovers, by Evan Thomas<br />
25. Only Yesterday, by Frederick Allen<br />
26. The Hacker Crackdown, by Bruce Sterling<br />
27. A Celtic Miscellany, ed./translated by Kenneth Jackson<br />
28. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman<br />
29. Isis and Osiris, by Jonathan Cott<br />
30. Griftopia, by Matt Taibi<br />
31. The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss<br />
32. The Truth, by Terry Pratchett<br />
33. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by JK Rowling<br />
34. The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson<br />
35. Roderick Random, by Tobias Smollet<br />
36. Housekeeping, by Marilynn Robinson<br />
37. The Flash, Vol. 1 by Brian Buccelleto et al.<br />
38. Kingdom Come, by Mark Waid and Alex Ross<br />
39. The Writer's Journey, by Christopher Vogler<br />
40. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, by Tim Weiner<br />
41. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, by Edward Albee<br />
42. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by JK Rowling<br />
43. The Beauty Queen of Leenane, by Martin McDonagh<br />
44. A Skull in Connemara, by Martin McDonagh<br />
45. The Lonesome West, by Martin McDonagh<br />
46. The Playboy of the Western World, by John Synge<br />
47. The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell<br />
48. The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers<br />
49. Soldier of Sidon, by Gene Wolfe<br />
50. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince<br />
51. The Death of Socrates (Euthyphro/Apology/Crito/Phaedo), by Plato<br />
52. Gargantua and Pantagruel (vol.s 1-5), by Francois Rabelais<br />
53. Sandman: Overture, by Neil Gaiman et al.<br />
54. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by JK Rowling<br />
55. A Betrayal in Summer, by Daniel Abraham<br />
56. Shadow Puppets, by Orson Scott Card<br />
57. A City in Winter, by Mark Helprin<br />
58. The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick<br />
59. Religion on Trial, by Craig Parton<br />
60. All Men of Genius, by Lev AC Rosen [partial]<br />
61. Antony and Cleopatra, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
62. Ha'penny, by Jo Walton<br />
63. The Merry Wives of Windsor, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
64. Shakespeare's Imagery, by Caroline Spurgeon<br />
65. Rabelais: A Study in Comic Courage, by Thomas Greene<br />
66. Domnei, by James Branch Cabell<br />
67. Northlanders, Volume 1: Sven the Returned, by Brian Wood et. al.<br />
68. Northlanders, Volume 2: The Cross and the Hammer, by Brian Wood et. al.<br />
69. Going Postal, by Terry Pratchett<br />
70. The Land Across, by Gene Wolfe<br />
71. I Am A Cat, by Natsume Soseki<br />
72. The Flash: Vol. 2, by Brian Buccelleto et al.<br />
73. At the Back of the North Wind, by George MacDonald<br />
74. The Art of Asking, by Amanda Palmer<br />
75. The Cream of the Jest, by James Branch Cabell<br />
76. The Golem's Eye, by Jonathan Stroud<br />
77. A Hat Full of Sky, by Terry Pratchett<br />
78. The Hermetic Millenia, by John C. Wright<br />
79. Multireal, by David Louis Edelman<br />
80. Winter's Tale, by Mark Helprin<br />
81. Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert<br />
82. Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville<br />
83. Finch, by Jeff VanderMeer<br />
84. Bad Machinery, Volume 1: The Case of the Team SpiritEthanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-90241702701398595102014-10-31T15:26:00.000-07:002014-10-31T15:26:08.054-07:00How To Succeed at NaNo Without Really TryingI've decided to resurrect my mostly-dead blog to celebrate the very imminent beginning of my tenth foray into National Novel Writing Month. Let's think about how old I am for a moment: I have been doing this for a decade. Man I feel old.<br />
<br />
In celebration, and to promote the illusion that with age automatically comes wisdom, I would like to offer my NaNo secret, because I HAVE managed to write at least 50,000 words every time so far. I did a <a href="http://stormman.blogspot.com/2013/10/ethans-top-7-nano-tips.html" target="_blank">post on this</a> last year, but this year I think I have managed to boil down my top seven points into just 20 words, or two principles.<br />
<br />
PRINCIPLE ONE: If it helps you produce words, DO IT.<br />
<br />
PRINCIPLE TWO: If it DOES NOT HELP you produce words, DO NOT DO IT.<br />
<br />
All of last year's seven tips are basically sub-iterations of these two principles. These might seem laughably self-evident. Maybe they are. But I am consistently surprised at how many people don't seem to think this way. And, whether they know it consciously or not, it is the only way people succeed at NaNo.<br />
<br />
If it helps you to be in competition with someone, to brag about how many words you've written in a day, or to tell people what your story is about, THEN DO SO. If telling people these things makes you feel like you're setting yourself up for failure--well, preferably think more positively about yourself because YOU CAN SO DO IT, but look at the outcome: if sharing your word count or comparing yourself with others is stopping you from writing, STOP SHARING IMMEDIATELY.<br />
<br />
If going to public NaNo events, posting on the forums, or otherwise getting together with groups of people helps you produce words, DO THESE THINGS. If (like me) scrolling through the forums makes you feel overwhelmed with the amount of things you could say, if public NaNo events make you feel shy and block your inspiration, CEASE THESE THINGS IMMEDIATELY. Writers are shy people and muses can be skittish. The NaNo community is, by and large, awesome, but if you're like me and mostly can't stand people looking at you when you're writing, then events designed to help you are actually hindering you and no one planning them wants that.<br />
<br />
I could come up with more examples, but I think the gentle reader probably has the idea. This can also be a litmus test for whether you should do NaNo at all: does a deadline just bottle up your muse? Well, IF you want to work professionally in a creative field you'll have to get over that eventually, but maybe at this point it's more helpful to just set a daily or a weekly writing goal--500 words a day or 5 hours every week--and let others keep their insane month-long deadlines.<br />
<br />
Okay. Now to go buy bulk coffee.Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-52149563589968099352014-01-26T22:25:00.001-08:002014-12-30T20:31:01.889-08:00Book List 20141. Fables: The Dark Ages, by Bill Willingham et al<br />
2. Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon<br />
3. Slow Learner, by Thomas Pynchon<br />
4. The Kingdom of Matthias, by Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz<br />
5. The Story of the Irish Race, by Seamus MacManus<br />
6. Merlin, by Norma Lorre Goodrich<br />
7. Orphans of Chaos, by John C. Wright<br />
8. Understanding Media, by Marshall McLuhan<br />
9. Speaker for the Dead, by Orson Scott Card<br />
10. Prospero Lost, by L. Jagi Lamplighter<br />
11. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood<br />
12. Gregor the Overlander, by Suzanne Collins<br />
13. Alif the Unseen, by G. Willow Wilson<br />
14. Farthing, by Jo Walton<br />
15. Bellwether, by Connie Willis<br />
16. Shadow of the Hegemon, by Orson Scott Card<br />
17. On Blue's Waters, by Gene Wolfe<br />
18. In Green's Jungles, by Gene Wolfe<br />
19. Return to the Whorl, by Gene Wolfe<br />
20. The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern<br />
21. The View From Saturday, by E.L. Konigsberg<br />
22. Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens<br />
23. Vineland, by Thomas Pynchon<br />
24. The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon<br />
25. The Father, by August Strindberg<br />
26. The King of Elfland's Daughter, by Lord Dunsany<br />
27. Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy<br />
28. The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky<br />
29. VALIS, by Philip K. Dick<br />
30. The Divine Invasion, by Philip K. Dick<br />
31. The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, by Philip K. Dick<br />
32. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by JK Rowling<br />
33. Great World Religions: Buddhism (Great Courses)<br />
34. Great World Religions: Judaism (Great Courses)<br />
35. The Three Pillars of Zen, ed. by Roshi Philip Kapleau<br />
36. The Middle East and Islamic World Reader<br />
37. God is a Verb: Kaballah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism, by Rabbi David Cooper<br />
38. Henry IV, Part One, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
39. Henry IV, Part Two, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
40. Henry V, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
41. Fragile Things, by Neil Gaiman<br />
42. The History of Atlantis, by Lewis Spence<br />
43. The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett<br />
44. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson<br />
45. Mistress of Mistresses, by ER Eddison<br />
46. The White-Luck Warrior, by R Scott Bakker<br />
47. As You Like It, by Bill Shakespeare<br />
48. Saint Francis of Assisi, by GK Chesterton<br />
49. The Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch<br />
50. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, by Harold Bloom<br />
51. The Innocence of Father Brown, by GK Chesterton<br />
52. South of the Border, West of the Sun, by Haruki Murakami<br />
53. After Dark, by Haruki Murakami<br />
54. Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe<br />
55. Endgame and Act Without Words, by Samuel Beckett<br />
56. Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy<br />
57. As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner<br />
<div>
58. Sanctuary, by William Faulkner</div>
<div>
59. At World's End, by Tim Powers</div>
<div>
60. Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale, by Joss & Zack Weedon, et. al.</div>
<div>
61. Avengers vs. X-Men, by Brian Michael Bendis et. al.</div>
<div>
62. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by JK Rowling<br />
63. The Elephant Vanishes, by Haruki Murakami<br />
64. Soldier of the Mist, by Gene Wolfe<br />
65. Serenity: Leaves on the Wind, by Zack Whedon et. al.<br />
66. Pandora by Holly Hollander, by Gene Wolfe<br />
67. Pirate Freedom, by Gene Wolfe<br />
68. Heretics, by GK Chesterton<br />
69. Soldier of Arete, by Gene Wolfe<br />
70. Orthodoxy, by GK Chesterton</div>
Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-26829715073467265192013-12-24T21:03:00.002-08:002013-12-24T21:03:47.860-08:00The Importance of Santa Claus: A Story for Christmas
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<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
1.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The boy ran through the streets of winter, his breath
fogging in front of him like the ghosts that pursued him from behind, the white
of the streets and the white arms of the trees and the white fog of the night
sky embracing him in an unwanted hug. The boy hit a patch of ice, skidding for
a moment robbed of breath, and then fell on his stomach. The ice scraped up his
coat and his sweathshirt and his undershirt, raising long gashes along his
stomach. The boy had nothing left: he began to cry.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>From
the sky a great belly-laugh. The boy did not look up. On the ice next to him
something skidded, throwing up shards of ice which melted along his cheek. The
ground shook. Something clattered on the ice, hard like hooves. The boy did not
look up. He thought to himself that maybe there was a herd of deer rushing past
him. He thought that maybe he would get crushed, stomped under hard hooves,
ground to a bloody pulp. He wished for it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There
was silence. The night air cold on his cheek. The ice cold on his stomach. The
blood leaking slowly from slowly congealing wounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Strong arms wrapped him up, picked him up. The boy closed
his eyes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Something
cold and firm under his back. Gentle, firm hands binding his wounds. Something
at his lips: something crumbling into his mouth. The boy sat up, coughed,
chewed, swallowed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A
voice spoke, a voice like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. “You’d better open your
eyes, son. These old flasks don’t take well to angst.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
boy opened his eyes. He was seated on the hard bench of what looked like a
wagon, with a rack of horses harnessed to it—but not horses: their eyes were
too big, and they were horned. The boy refused to believe.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
fat man raised a curved horn, handed it to the boy. The boy drank something
that tasted like grapes and also like fire, lighting his belly in a way nothing
else ever had. He coughed. The fat man took back the horn and drank himself. He
lowered the horn, and regarded the boy. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“You
have to go home,” he said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Hell
no,” the boy said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Will
you fly with me for a time?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
boy nodded.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Impossibly,
in a manner the boy still refused to believe, the sleigh rose off the ground
and the houses receded into models and then into toys and then into mere
two-dimensional drawings. Somehow he was without vertigo, sure that he would
not fall, yet equally sure that he was on the verge of a world whose
consequences could be much steeper than a mere miles-long fall.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Where
are we going?” the boy asked, as the world below him darkened from a patchwork
of light and shadowy squares to a rolling land of treetops and eventually
water, roiling and teeming with mysterious meaning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Back
in time,” the fat man said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Why?”
the boy asked.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I’m
taking you home,” the fat man said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“No,”
the boy said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
sleigh set down on a hillside. The air was no longer cold; it was warm and
seemed to be filled with moisture. There was a shack, a ramshackle place like
the boy felt his heart to be. The boy knew, somehow, that all the people here
were not here, in any real sense, and that they were here in the only sense
that matter. There were masses, singing hymns, and they seemed to process
through the shack’s open door, disappearing into a warm sort of glow that
emanated from the doorway of the shack, where around a feeding trough a group of
animals and a handful of people gathered. But the boy’s eye was caught by a
young man, maybe twice his age, whose eyes were on his sheep, herding them and
watching them even as, in the sky, a cacophany of angels sang, wheels within
wheels in the light of the stars, even as the shepherd’s own chest seemed to
fill with a light, unborrowed, uncreated, unreflected. The boy didn’t think the
shepherd could see him, but as one of the sheep wandered past the shepherd
glanced at him, just for a moment, and smiled.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“This
is home,” the boy said, looking up at Santa.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yes.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After
a few more minutes which may have been hours—time did not seem to pass in a
normal manner, here—the boy turned and put his arms around Santa, who hugged
him back.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I
have to go, don’t I?” the boy said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Yes,”
the fat man replied. “But you’ll carry this place with you. It is yours,
forever.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
boy nodded, understanding for perhaps the only time in his life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
boy stepped off the sleigh onto his front doorstep. Opening the door, he saw
what he had been afraid of all evening, what he had known would happen: his
father, drunk, swaying like a tree in a windstorm; his mother, curled into a
corner, her face a mass of bruises. The boy’s father’s eyes widened as the boy
opened the door and walked into the living room.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Thought
I tol’ you never to come back again.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
boy ignored his father, walked to the phone, and called the police. His father
watched, open-mouthed in shock. The boy put the phone down and walked to a
place between his father and his mother, taking his father’s blows until the
police arrived.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A single string of sad, wilting, half-burned-out white
lights hanging above the long counter was the only concession the bar made to
Christmas eve. Below the lights a long row of burned-out men and women huddled
over their drinks, making conversation in low growls. The young man was at the
end of the bar, four beers in, not talking to anyone.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>All
at once he made the wrong move: eye contact with the wrong man, a big burly
A-shirted man with tattoos of dragons, or lizards, or worms encircling his
biceps, a misplaced leer. In under a second the man was across the room,
smashing his beer bottle on a table so it became a serrated edge of terror,
stabbing the young man’s hand into the counter of the bar.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A
big man in a red outfit clapped the tattooed man on the shoulder, spun him
around, and decked him. The big tattooed man went down and stayed down. The
red-outfitted man clapped the young man, who was too shocked to move, on the
shoulder and steered him toward the door of the bar.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Thanks,”
the young man said, glancing for the first time at the other. His eyes bugged
for a moment, and he refused to believe.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“If
they have heard Moses and the prophets, but they still will not believe,” the
big man said, as if to himself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“What?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Nothing,”
said the big man. “I’ve got to go.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The boy’s mother’s grip was tight, yanking the little boy
along through the crowd. She was a tall woman, bristling with faux-fur, looking
down at the boy with her wide upper lip curled in disgust. The line snaked
across the dull grey tiled mall floor as insincere Christmas hymns floated down
from the mall’s ceiling.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Santa
is ridiculous,” the boy’s mother said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I
need to see Santa,” the boy said, looking at his feet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Why?”
the woman said, her grip on the boy’s fingers tightening. “We’ve been here for
half an hour, and we’ll be here for another half an hour before you get to sit
on his lap for two whole minutes. I’ll buy you a candy bar if we can skip
this.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I
need to see Santa,” the boy said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Why?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Santa
is important.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
woman snorted. “You little shit. Santa is no more important than your imaginary
friend Elmer.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Elmer
is important too,” the boy said. “He and Santa are friends.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
woman snorted, having nothing to say to this. She tightened her grip enough
that the boy cried out.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The next child in line was a small six years old, the old
man guessed. The old man sat on the wooden slab of Santa’s thrown, knowing he
was an imposter, taking comfort in the fact that at least his beard was real.
As the boy shuffled forward the mall Santa inspected him: the ghost of rings
around his eyes, the way he kept his eyes on his shoes, the way his lip curled
back a little as if in anticipation of being hit, told Santa that he had been
abused many times in his life. To keep from crying out, Santa raised his
hand—the one with the circular bruise—to rub at the ghost of a bruise behind
his own right eye.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
boy sat on Santa’s lap and looked up, for just a moment, into Santa’s face. He
reached his hand up; the tiny fingers hovered in front of Santa’s face for just
a moment, then retreated.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“It’s
okay,” said Santa. “You can touch my face. Pull on my beard even. It’s real, I
promise.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Tentatively,
the boy did: he ran his hand over the lines on Santa’s face, and he pulled the
old man’s beard, which hurt, a little. He turned his back to Santa, still
sitting on the old man’s lap, and he picked up the old man’s big hand. Slowly
his hand traced the ring on the back of Santa’s hand. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Did
that hurt?” the boy said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“No,”
Santa said. “Hey. What do you want for Christmas?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
boy put his hand to his chin, considering a moment. Then swiftly he turned to
hug Santa, burying his head in the old man’s beard.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I
love you, Santa,” the boy said.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“I
love you,” Santa whispered, in full knowledge that he could be jailed for
saying so. “Always,” Santa said. “And never forget it.”</div>
<!--EndFragment-->Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-56843509415894221862013-12-02T23:31:00.000-08:002013-12-02T23:31:12.027-08:00Dispatches from the Earth: United States National ReligionObservational Dispatch from Planet 363972, popularly known as "The Wart."<br />
<br />
I believe my cover remains intact.<br />
<br />
For the last several decades, I have been observing the peculiar culture which has manifested in the nation known as the United States of America. Of course it would be impossible for a finite being to analyze all aspects of any culture, so I have confined myself to that one all-important element, the national religion. What I have found is fascinating.<br />
<br />
The US national religion is very far-reaching and manifestly omnipresent, but I think it may be a form of Gnosticism, for they seem reluctant to name their god.<br />
<br />
There are temples to their god, great soaring structures that seem apt to reach into their heavens, with walls that reflect the outside world while revealing nothing of what goes on inside them.<br />
<br />
There are priests consecrated to this god. The priests wear a peculiar two- or three-piece getup, involving seams, buttons, zippers, hair-gel and a lofty attitude. The pieces, the buttons and the amount of hair-gel seem to fluctuate; the loftiness of attitude is apparently mandatory. In addition, the priests wear a sort of cassock which is bound about the neck and which points toward the genitalia. I can only assume this is meant to symbolize both mental and sexual enslavement to their god, perhaps with an eye towards gaining favor from him. The priests are mostly male, though it seems a female is not unheard of among their ranks.<br />
<br />
Their religion has its saints, as well: like the Special Ones of many religions, these saints seem to be set above even the tacit moral guidelines the national religion requires the commoners to cling to. The saints have gained such favor in the eyes of their god that any behavior by them is permissable, even glamorized. Figures of these saints are placed in people's homes and play out upon the national stages, with the commoners seeming to believe that if they have some part, even some tiny one, in the lives of these saints, the saints' influences will gain them traction with their god. Possibly this is a form of attempted sympathetic magic.<br />
<br />
Since they seem so reluctant to name their god, I have reached into their past to find a name for him: most accurately he may be named "Mammon." Their temples they call "banks," their priests "professionals," and their saints "celebrities," but I dislike these names, for they are as revealing as so much fog.<br />
<br />
Even the other religions in this nation pay homage to the national god, with sects whose founders reveled in piety, humbleness and servitude seeming to require great spectacles built on a foundation of Mammon in order to be taken seriously.<br />
<br />
The ultimate goal of this religion is not exactly clear. While other religions throughout the known universe, and indeed even on the Wart, aim at gaining the believer some traction in the afterlife, or achieving some sort of inner peace or transendence in this life, the worshippers of Mammon seem intent on making the outer flesh and the outer intellect as comfortable as possible in this life. They seem to do this without irony.<br />
<br />
Indeed, the fact that their religion is hostile to any experience of what their philosophers have called transendence, religious or otherwise, does not seem to have crossed their minds. Or, perhaps it has: they seem not only willing but eager to banish all talk of philosophy, religion, belief, or transendence of any kind to environments they consider "safe." They can control these things in the classroom or between the pages of a book, or in one of the halls they label "religious," or in the heads of private individuals, so they make sure that those things stay in those places. Again, this may tend toward the Mammonish endeavor of making everything as comfortable as possible; they have a sort of strange idea that comfort means simply the absence of pain.<br />
<br />
The religion does have its iconoclasts--or, considering the deadening, image-defying tendencies of the worship of Mammon, perhaps its opponents should be considered iconophiles. At any rate, there are those who work against it. But by the common culture, these people are despised inasmuch as they eschew the work of Mammon, and they are praised inasmuch as they follow his silent dicates.<br />
<br />
I see the American religious landscape as a sort of self-imposed wasteland, full of hypocritical priests muttering platitudes to congregations who are not listening anyway, while a few priests teach one of the remaining truly religious religions to a few converts who spend most of their time feeling like exiles. And over all of it, the invisible god Mammon watches, laughing silently.<br />
<br />
So ends this report. In my next dispatch I will go into more detail about the clothes these people wear, which again they seem to do without irony.Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-56408382840683178682013-10-31T11:06:00.001-07:002013-10-31T11:06:19.146-07:00Ethan's Top 7 NaNo TipsCredentials: The first time I did National Novel Writing Month I was a junior in high school. I have done it every November since; it has seen me through the rest of high school, college, and graduate school, making this my 9th year in a row. I have written at least 50,000 words every November; some years I've made it to 75 or 85,000. (Last year I shot for a hundred thousand, but stopped at 75k. However, I considered that legitimate because I also did two drafts of my Master's thesis in November of last year.)<br />
<br />
So as someone who has achieved relative success at this, I decided to lay out a few tips for conquering NaNo's ridiculous write-50,000-words-in-a-month challenge, just in case it helps anyone. I've designed these to be useful whether you're reading them beforehand (meaning, I guess, either today or farther in the future than I am comfortable thinking about), or during NaNo.<br />
<br />
1. <b>Keep in mind the <i>actual goal</i> of NaNo</b>. The actual goal of National Novel Writing Month is <i>to write 50,000 words of fiction</i>. Now here are a few things the goal is <i>not</i>:<br />
<br />
The goal is not to write <i>good</i> fiction.<br />
The goal is not to write fiction with a coherent plot.<br />
The goal is not to write fiction with well-developed characters.<br />
The goal is not to write fiction with insanely clever hidden elements that only clever readers will understand.<br />
<br />
If any of these things manages to happen over the course of the month, great. However, in order to achieve your goal, you <i>must not worry about them</i>. Just focus on getting the words written. Did you just write 10,000 words that you discovered just suck? Keep them. Did you just write three chapters that make the plot that came before them not make sense? Keep them. Just get the words written.<br />
<br />
Now the trick here is that 1. quality will happen if you focus on quantity, and 2. even if it doesn't this exercise will have enormous benefits for you as a writer, as a creative person, and simply as a <i>person</i>.<br />
<br />
2. <b>Fix it in Post</b>. The mantra of bad film-makers everywhere, this will be the mantra of the successful NaNo-er every time. Just keep repeating it to yourself, anytime that inner voice of Doubt and Nagging and You Suck A Lot comes up. Address that voice. Tell it:<br />
<br />
I will make it good <i>later</i>.<br />
I will make the plot make sense <i>later</i>.<br />
I will make the characters interesting <i>later</i>.<br />
I will insert the hints that will lead the clever reader to conclude that Bob Williams is actually the incarnation of Yog-Sothoth <i>later</i>.<br />
<br />
Etc.<br />
<br />
3. <b>Communicate with the people you care about</b>. My good friends will know that this is something I am better at saying than at doing, but it <i>is</i> a huge help. And I have left this vague on purpose, because the people you care about will inherently fall into two categories: those also doing NaNo, and the rest.<br />
<br />
By no means do I want to propose any kind of NaNo snobbery; remember that you're the crazy one. But those not doing NaNo will not understand your species of insanity. If you can, explain it to them, get them to help you. If they simply will not or do not understand, you may have to be blunt: I won't be available to play Mario Kart the next month. I will be writing about Yog-Sothoth. Sorry.<br />
<br />
Those you care about who <i>are</i> doing NaNo may just be the most important element of your entire month. Writing is a sad, lonely business and NaNo can be very frustrating when your characters are all killing each other, or cheating on each other, or falling in love with each other, or all three and yet your boss still expects you to show up and sell shoes or make burgers or sell stocks or whatever the case may be. Those going through this also can be enormously helpful in providing sympathy, inspiration, tricks, encouragement, all that good stuff. Also, competition. I made it to 85,000 words to one year as a result of being in stiff competition with a friend of mine; we were beating each other's word counts all month, or I would have stopped at 50k that year.<br />
<br />
4. <b>Take Breaks</b>. If you are like me, then every second during NaNo that you are <i>not</i> writing may feel lost, may feel like failure; you may feel like you need to pounce on every opportunity to write. However, breaks are important.<br />
<br />
Take a walk for ten minutes. Watch an episode of a TV show. Go visit your mother, who just doesn't understand what you're doing this month but <i>does</i> understand that she feels neglected. Besides being important for not turning you into a chair-glued, catatonic wreck, these times allow your brain and your fingers to rest, to recharge, and to come up with ideas for what to write next.<br />
<br />
Then, sit back down and get back to it.<br />
<br />
5. <b>Write in small chunks; carve them out of your daily routine</b>. Life is busy. However, I bet you can find a handful of 5-minute intervals between classes, between clients, between whatever, where you can maybe write a paragraph. It may feel frustratingly stop-and-go, but if you can find, say, six to ten such intervals throughout a school or work day, you might get a thousand-plus words done, nearly two-thirds of your daily goal.<br />
<br />
One thing I do is get up an hour early. (Actually NaNo is the only month of the year I can force myself to do that.) Some years this has meant simply losing an hour of sleep; take that with caution. Other, healthier years, that has meant going to bed earlier at night or taking naps during dead parts of the day.<br />
<br />
6. <b>Write in big chunks</b>. Look at the major times you have off during a typical week. If you work a "normal" job, this may be the weekend; if, like me, you work the sort of jobs that accommodate others' "normal" schedules, maybe it's a weekday morning or a weekend afternoon or evening. Whatever. If you can find yourself a chunk of time--whether it's an entire day off, or all of an afternoon or evening--where you can not only be free from work/school obligations but free yourself from homework/housework etc., then <i>claim it</i>. Put up an iron fence around it. Don't let anyone tell you that you need to hang out with them, come to their party, rake their yard, or whatever during that particular time. Make yourself a pot of coffee or tea; grab your bag of remaindered Hallowe'en candy; put on your favorite writing music.<br />
<br />
Then take a deep breath, kiss the world temporarily goodbye, and<i> write</i>.<br />
<br />
7. <b>Use Tricks</b>. I have heard so many people say things like, "I thought about using <i>this</i> to boost my word count, but that felt like cheating."<br />
<br />
Here's the thing. If something feels like cheating, ask yourself this: "Will I still be writing fiction? My own fiction, using all my own words?" If the answer is Yes, <i>then you are not cheating</i>.<br />
<br />
I've used all kinds of tricks over the years. Some years I have deleted all the hyphens so that hyphenated words would count as two rather than one. I decided against that this year, because that's always a mess to edit later and I don't think the words I gain are worth the mental anguish. Here are some other tricks:<br />
<br />
-Find an excuse, or make one up, to use really long names and/or honorifics. One year I had a part of a chapter devoted to The Queen Of All Faerie and of the Undying Lands Beyond, and I made it a convention to use her full name <i>every single time</i>.<br />
<br />
-Invent wordy characters.<br />
<br />
-Never hit delete; if you have a significant passage you realize you don't want to use at all, <i>hyphenate it and delete it in December</i>.<br />
<br />
There are plenty of other such word count tricks; head over to the <a href="http://nanowrimo.org/">NaNo forums</a> for more. The other important thing, though, is the psychological tricks:<br />
<br />
-Until I reach 10,000 words I don't get any more Hallowe'en candy.<br />
<br />
-I'll stop and eat lunch once I finish this chapter.<br />
<br />
-My friend Terence Mann has five hundred more words than I do. I'll write a thousand so <i>she</i> has to catch up to <i>me</i>.<br />
<br />
Etc.<br />
<br />
There are tons of other tips and tricks I could give, but this seems like enough to be getting on with. I'm always happy to answer questions or share what wisdom I've stumbled across, so feel free to ask. The great thing about NaNo is that as well as the novel itself being an exercise in imagination, <i>actually getting it written</i> is as well. Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-64043861476335235122013-10-24T13:45:00.000-07:002013-10-24T17:06:38.231-07:00Essay on Christian LightIt's insane that it's a platitude that our world has gone insane. Gone from where, we are tempted to ask? Was it really that much better in the middle ages, where Europe was a collection of robber-barons holding the majority of the population hostage, where the Middle East was a collection of warlords holding the majority of the population hostage, where Japan was a collection of robber-barons holding the majority of the population hostage?<br />
<br />
Of course the world has never been a picnic, but to restate something at which Marx aimed, there is a definite psychological peace which occurs when one starts a process, sees that process through, and reaps the benefits of that process. Gardeners are some of the most peace-filled people I know. Writers seem to be the longest-lived. To take a world, robber-barons aside, in which the majority of the population was involved in the processes of creating their world and sustaining the community around them and to shatter it into a world whose tendency is toward isolation, a world philosophically, physiologically and metaphysically dedicated to chopping us into discrete units--even pairs are discrete units, when they are separated from a larger community--and then heaping such responsibility on the shoulders of those single units as would stagger a Starship Enterprise: what else can this be but insanity?<br />
<br />
Until the Revolution, until the spirit which was given to us two thousand years ago reasserts itself and the first peace comes, we are seemingly stuck with this world. The Christian, then, as any human, has a choice. When the world's tendency is to instill instincts in us toward selfishness, toward treating certain other human beings (sales clerks, wait staff, prostitutes, anyone who disagrees with us theologically, philosophically, politically, or who is engaged in acting out an ideology we despise) as though they are less valuable or simply not valuable, we can choose to go along, limp our limbs and float in this river of insanity, give in to the tendency to hate those we serve or who are serving us, to treat them as a means to an end. Or. Or we can fight the tendency: we can fight the urge to treat the person giving us attitude while he takes our fast food order as if he is a malfunctioning cog in a machine. We can resist the urge to feel and act as though the staff of a retail store exists only as a sort of active furniture to make our lives more convenient, the urge when we are the staff to assume that a customer has a superiority complex, or, if they do, we can resist the very strong urge to make them suffer for it.<br />
<br />
Put positively, we can choose to flood our surroundings with light. We can choose to beam a ray of sunlight into every situation, to be unflaggingly kind and polite (which, done correctly, is simply a synonym of kindness), in the face of any given situation.<br />
<br />
Certainly you don't have to be a Christian to make this choice. But there is no better motivation for making such choices than our secret knowledge which is no secret, that the reason that there is anything rather than nothing, the very act of existence itself, did the most loving thing possible on our behalf. The reason that there are rainbows and deliciousness and love, the very thing from which all of these good things emanate, became one of us sad broken little people and then, in the face of all possibility, died so that we don't have to.<br />
<br />
Try this, the next time you're standing in a fast food line, your break is running out, the people in front of you are not only slow but snotty, and when you finally get to order the cashier not only has an attitude but gets your order wrong and acts like it's your fault. Think, <i>The reason that there is anything rather than nothing, the very reason there is being, incarnated and died on behalf of each one of these people.</i> Try it even if you don't believe it. See what happens.<br />
<br />
Of course, you will fail. I fail all the damn time. But when you do, the solution is simple: remember that that reason for being, the one that loves all those annoying, insane, horrid people, loves you too.Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-91232427949917931062013-06-26T20:06:00.001-07:002013-06-26T20:06:57.514-07:00On Finding Neil Gaiman<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It was the middle of an Economic
Downturn Summer. Lydia and I sat across from each other in the cafe
at Barnes and Noble, under the furrowed brows of a pantheon of Dead
White Writers and Virginia Woolf, not drinking or eating, each armed
with a stack of at least eight books we desperately wanted but on
which we would not allow ourselves to spend any money.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I think she was reading a volume of
<i>Sandman</i> and I was immersed in
the Tenth Anniversary of <i>American Gods</i>
when she looked up at me and said:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“This
summer, let's find Neil Gaiman.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We
locked eyes and somewhere, at right angles to everything, was the
sound of an explosion.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Perhaps
useful to understand: Lydia and I are the sort of friends who had a
nearly-instant and intense attraction to one another, not of the
romantic sort, but of the sort that prompted us to pledge within
weeks of meeting each other never to date or anything like that,
because, honestly, it was probably two people like us getting into a
relationship that led the gods to sink Atlantis, not out of anger,
but for its own good. I can't explain us better than that.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One
thing that united us was our love of certain artists, Gaiman probably
the Zeus (or more appropriately the Odin) of our shared pantheon. We
both had this inveterate desire to go sit at his feet and soak up
everything he felt like saying, ever. Thus had evolved naturally a
desire to find his actual feet. At whatever pitch the connotations of
that sentence might ring, we are not stalkers. Obsession kills
romance, and our plan was a supremely romantic one. And, like all
supremely romantic plans, it was vague on the details. I think in our
shared consciousness the scenario went like this: we would take a
road trip to whatever area Neil Gaiman inhabited; we would find the
neatest (in the rather specific sense of “most historical”) pub
in the area; Neil Gaiman would walk in when we were each nearing the
end of a second Johnny Jump-Up; Neil Gaiman would hear me making a
reference to an obscure fantasy author or catch a glint of the
cuteness radiating from Lydia's cheeks; the rest would be
booze-soaked history.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So
yes, hero-worship. But something more. Another thing Lydia and I (and
a large amount, actually, of my friends and romantic entanglements)
share is what the Germans call <i>fernweh</i>,
literally “an ache for the distance.” Sometimes “the distance”
means merely a wooded glen, a few blocks from a suburban house, which
one has not visited but in which the fern fronds seem to transmute
the sound of the invisible road into the trumpets and distant wings
of Faerie. Sometimes “the distance” would not be reached if one
got into the car and drove and drove and drove. In short, if Lydia
and I knew Neil Gaiman's exact location at a given moment, we would
probably plan our road trip so as to cover the entire state of
Wisconsin (depending on the mood, the entire United States or the
entire Earth) before ending up at his feet.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That
night, arriving back at my parents' place (where Lydia was staying
for the weekend), on a whim I Googled “Neil Gaiman's house,” and
Google Maps came up with an exact location. In order to mitigate the
creepiness factor of my prior knowledge, I would like to mention that
in an interview included in the very 10<sup>th</sup>
Anniversary novel I had been reading earlier in the evening, Neil
Gaiman makes a fairly vague reference to where his Wisconsin home is;
thus it was fairly innocent of me to immediately think that what
Google was telling me did not add up with slightly more reliable
facts. I assumed the work of tricksters, or idiots, or idiot
tricksters. Nevertheless, I showed Lydia. The two of us showed my
brother Zeke, a fellow sufferer from <i>fernweh</i>
and, that evening in particular, a concomitant sufferer of a rather
more dire condition, to describe which I will coin the term Assholes
One Encounters In The Food Service Industry, Possibly Including
Managers, Co-Workers, or Customers... Itis. When combined with
symptoms of <i>fenweh</i>, it
makes one extremely susceptible to half-assed plans that involve
destinations chosen based upon uncorroborated claims that are,
really, too neat and unassuming to be true.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In
short, we set out early the next morning.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The
location Gmaps gave us—which still existed the last time I
checked—was in the northern part of southwestern Wisconsin, well
south of La Crosse, well west of Madison, well north of the Illinois
and Iowa border. It was the sort of area one's eye glosses over on
maps incarnated even on the regional and state level; as far as the
world was concerned, it was a place that didn't exist.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I have
always had a love for such places: the savior of the world was born
in a manger in a backwater town of a backwater country of the world's
most powerful empire; the empire which has most affected our age for
good and ill started out as a little island even more backwater than
Judea; the island which saved the civilization England nurtured was
long considered a backwater province itself; my favorite author of
all time—who some have argued is the only truly great American
author—said that humanity is a procession of cowards of whom he was
not only a member, but holding a banner at the head of it. In such
places, everybody waves.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Everybody:
the big tattooed muscular guy closing a cow gate at the side of the
road, the old lady out hunched over her ferns and forsythias, the
Amish farmer in his wide-brimmed straw hat herding cows on a hill
well above our line of sight—I want to emphasize this, because it
would not be rational to assume, from his position, that we could see
him. But he waved anyway, because it was better to be sure that
friendliness was displayed than to risk someone not being greeted.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
When
we were nearing the point at which Gmaps claimed was our destination,
I dug out a copy of the book <i>Jurgen</i>,
a book Neil Gaiman had mentioned in an Acknowledgments section
published for all the world to see as a big influence on him, and
began to read.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
“Maybe
it will conjure him,” Lydia said.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i>Jurgen </i>is
a wonderful story, about a man who meets a monk cursing the devil,
informs the monk that without the devil the monk would be out of a
job, is met by a mysterious stranger and given one wish, wishes that
his worst trial would disappear, comes home to find his wife gone,
and realizes that he must do the manly thing and go find her. It's a
book about <i>fernweh</i>
extended across time and space and worlds and dimensions. It's a book
with perhaps the most elaborate “that's what she said” jokes in
all of literature.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
When
we got to the precise point at which the Gmaps arrow pointed, a space
in the middle of a county highway with no houses even particularly
nearby, a narrow disappointment overcame the car. Lydia slowed the
car; at the precise point at which the arrow would have pointed, had
Gmaps arrows not been a computer communication convention but rather
a natural two-dimensional phenomenon, lay what I can only call a
critter. It was so odd we got out of the car to examine it. It could
have been a badger but the snout was too long. It could have been a
raccoon, but the feet were too extensive; it could have been a
possum, but it had fur.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Back
in the car, and perhaps further explanation is in order: Lydia and I
were various shades of artsy-fartsy; we were qualified to arrange
stage lighting so it looked pretty, or to evaluate the artistry of a
sentence's structure, or to deconstruct the rhetorical devices or the
semiotical nuances of any specific type of communication. Zeke,
meanwhile, belonged to the major that had somehow made
people-watching into a science. What I'm saying is, none of us were
trained biologists of any kind.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So
maybe there was a perfectly rational explanation for what we saw. The
answer we came up with is this: Neil Gaiman does have a dwelling in
that location, but it's not in that location in <i>our</i>
world. It's that location in Faerie, and there he raises Fae
creatures, and that afternoon one of them got away, and was killed,
and therefore crossed into our world.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
On
the way home we stopped and bought a particular type of wine
available only during our exile in Wisconsin; we sat on the porch of
my parents' house and drank it, reflecting that considering the
chillness of the day, the excitement of meeting Neil Gaiman would
have perhaps been incongruous. There's always next time.</div>
Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-73149546977514840422013-05-10T12:01:00.000-07:002013-05-10T17:01:51.722-07:00Exile<i>I am an exile, a sojourner, a citizen of some other place</i><br />
<i>All I've seen is just a glimmer in a shadowy mirror, </i><br />
<i>But I know one day I'll see face-to-face</i><br />
-Thrice<br />
<br />
Tolstoy supposedly said that there are only two stories: a (hu)man goes on a journey, and a stranger comes to town. On thinking about this, I realized those are actually different sides of the same story: a man on a journey will eventually be a stranger coming to some town, and of course the stranger who comes to town has been on a journey.<br />
<br />
A writing teacher recently told me that fiction writers often seem to realize, at some point, that everything they've ever written is actually about the same thing. Partly as a result of that, I realized that all of my fiction--at least, everything that has made enough of an impression that I can call anything about it to mind--is either about exile or community. Which, of course, are different sides of the same thing: without a community there is nothing to be exiled from.<br />
<br />
Thinking back, my stories are filled with acts of communion. Some are obvious, like the group of teenagers making up a mystical ritual in the woods under a full moon. Some are less obvious, like the kid who talks to a priest then goes home and fixes himself a snack of pop-tart and grape juice (a bit of symbolism I'm still not sure I intended), or the little girl who makes friends with her older sister's boyfriend by offering him one of her blocks.<br />
<br />
An unwise person might ask me why this is, to which I would respond, how long have you got, because now I have to tell you about my entire life.<br />
<br />
One of my earliest memories of community is of the homeschooled choir I attended (yes, that's a thing). It was sort of like spending a morning in public school, once a week, except there were a lot more adults around. When I joined my social skills weren't the best AND the kids there largely already knew each other--a recipe for social outcasthood. Not being part of a huge group has never bothered me, though. I made a few friends, and we stuck together, and we got to have all the romance of being outcasts with none of the angst.<br />
<br />
Later, I was part of a homeschool group that also mostly went to the same church. There were maybe a dozen of us who were pretty close, by necessity as much as by choice. Later, that community shattered in different ways for different reasons. <br />
<br />
Which happens. I have been blessed to be part of many wonderful, unique, bizarre, close communities. But the tragedy of communities is that they change. They die.<br />
<br />
One of the deepest philosophical truths in all of Christianity is very, very simple: <i>Things are not right.</i> Entropy happens; the center cannot hold; a blood-dimmed tide is loosed upon the world. I am not the man I want to be; who will save me from this body of death?<br />
<br />
There is death all around us: people die, plants die, stars die. Communities die too. But even when a community dies, some piece of it lives inside the people who were once members of it. We are all exiles; we all have some memory of a home we've lost, even if that memory is of something that never was, but should have been.<br />
<br />
There's a reason the phoenix is my favorite animal, and it's the same reason I always write about community. This is the only thing I find to be worth writing about, at least to be worth telling stories about. Resurrection. Wonder. Those things that are unnatural and yet strike a deep chord in almost everyone.<br />
<br />
The other day I discovered something I barely remember scribbling down in a notebook. I need to look through my notebooks more often; I've written nearly a million words of fiction but I suspect this is all I was trying to say:<br />
<br />
<i>Loving people is like having an extension of your body. And when that part hurts, your whole body hurts. And there's nothing you can do. So why do we love? Because it's worth it--our bodies are broken. They're not enough.</i>Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-36535808569758067252013-01-18T23:22:00.000-08:002013-12-29T22:02:29.849-08:00Book List 2013Is this all I use this blog for anymore? Maybe. Maybe one of these days I'll do my 2012 reading year in review. We'll see.<br />
<br />
1. Veniss Underground, by Jeff Vandermeer<br />
2. Castleview, by Gene Wolfe<br />
3. Escape From Reason, by Francis Schaeffer<br />
4. Steampunk III, ed. by Ann Vandermeer<br />
5. The Lesser Blessed, by Richard Van Camp<br />
6. Girl Genius Omnibus 1: Agatha Awakens, by Phil & Kaja Foglio<br />
7. American Gods, 10th Anniversary Edition, by Neil Gaiman<br />
8. Fables: Sons of Empire, by Bill Willingham<br />
9. A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan<br />
10. Extra Indians, by Eric Gansworth<br />
11. Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Ubervilles, by Kim Newman<br />
12. The Walking Dead: Days Gone By, by Robert Kirkman<br />
13. The Walking Dead: Miles Behind Us, by Robert Kirkman<br />
14. Fables: The Good Prince, by Bill Willingham<br />
15. Swamplandia!, by Karen Russell<br />
16. Miko Kings: An Indian Baseball Story, by LeAnne Howe<br />
17. The Walking Dead: Safety Behind Bars, by Robert Kirkman<br />
18. David and the Phoenix, by Edward Ormondroyd<br />
19. Count to a Trillion, by John C. Wright<br />
20. Winter in the Blood, by James Welch<br />
21. The Antelope Wife, by Louise Erdrich<br />
22. Other Places: 3 Plays, by Harold Pinter<br />
23. The Book of Wonder, by Lord Dunsany<br />
24. Celtic Folk and Fairy Tales, by Joseph Jacobs<br />
25. Cloudstreet, by Tim Winton<br />
26. Imagining Atlantis, by Richard Ellis<br />
27. Free Live Free!, by Gene Wolfe<br />
28. The Bookman, by Lavie Tidhar<br />
29. A Dream Play, by August Strindberg<br />
30. Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, by Ignatius Loyola Donelly<br />
31. Curious Creatures of Zoology, by John Ashton<br />
32. In the Land of Time and Other Fantasy Tales, by Lord Dunsany<br />
33. The Music of Failure, by Bill Holm<br />
34. Ophelia Joined the Group Maidens Who Don't Float, by Sarah Schmelling<br />
35. Seven Gothic Tales, by Isak Dinesen<br />
36. The Mystery of Christ ...and Why We Don't Get It, by Robert Capon<br />
37. Revelations of Divine Love, by Julian of Norwich<br />
38. Focusing, by Gerald Gendlin<br />
39. Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett<br />
40. Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements, by George Woodcock<br />
41. Beloved, by Toni Morrison<br />
42. Lost in the Cosmos, by Walker Percy<br />
43. The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman<br />
44. The Thirteen Clocks, by James Thurber<br />
45. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making, by Catherine Valente<br />
46. Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes, by Neil Gaiman<br />
47. Fables: War and Pieces, by Bill Willingham<br />
48. Elk's Run, by Joshua Hale Fialkov<br />
49. Broken, by Jonathan Fisk<br />
50. Three Days to Never, Tim Powers<br />
51. Luther's Large Catechism, by Martin Luther<br />
52. Did the Resurrection Happen?, by Gary Habermas, Antony Flew, and David Baggett<br />
53. Magic For Beginners, by Kelly Link<br />
54. Endangered Species, by Gene Wolfe<br />
55. Shamela, by Henry Fielding<br />
56. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston<br />
57. Nine Stories, by JD Salinger<br />
58. Franny and Zooey, by JD Salinger<br />
59. Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters and Seymour, an Introduction, by JD Salinger<br />
60. Tracks, by Louise Erdrich<br />
61. The History of the World, by Matthew Wilkes<br />
62. Don Quixote: Volume One, by Miguel de Cervantes<br />
63. Done Quixote: Volume Two, by Miguel de Cervantes<br />
64. Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie<br />
65. The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammet<br />
66. Bulldog Drummond, by Sapper [p]<br />
67. The Innocence of Father Brown, by GK Chesterton [p]<br />
68. Illuminatus: The Eye in the Pyramid, by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson<br />
69. Illuminatus: The Golden Apple, by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson<br />
70. Illuminatus: Leviathan, by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson<br />
71. Ender's Shadow, by Orson Scott Card<br />
72. The Decameron, by Giovanni Boccacio<br />
73. The History of Magic, by Kurt Seligman<br />
74. I am the Desert, by Michael G. Lilienthal<br />
75. Saint Francis and the Foolishness of God, by Marie Dennis et. al.<br />
76. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick<br />
77. A Scanner Darkly, by Philip K. Dick<br />
78. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, by Philip K. Dick<br />
79. The Warlord of the Air, by Michael Moorcock<br />
80. Steampunk, ed. by Jeff and Ann Vandermeer<br />
<br />Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-27394471746804434312012-05-20T15:23:00.001-07:002012-05-20T15:23:49.397-07:00Critique of Pure Atheism: Freedom From God<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
Unlike my last critique, this one will have a decent amount
of material that is arguable, in the classical sense of having logical analysis
and arguments which are falsifiable. However, the essay as a whole is once
again a personal one; it is a personal response to a meme I have encountered
online. Therefore, on a thesis level this essay is not falsifiable. Sorry, Enlightenment Rationalists.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
One other pre-thesis note: I am afraid I may drop into second
person in the latter part of this piece. I am afraid of this because I largely
despise the use of second person in non-fiction (there are a decent<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>amount of legitimate uses for it in fiction),
and almost universally despise its use in the non-fiction of persons who are
not at, say, the G.K. Chesterton level of essay-writing skill—those who can
name at least two reasons for any specific word choice in anything they write.
My use of second person here is due to the fact that I am responding to a meme
which is written in the imperative mode, thus implying a second-person address
even though no form of “you” actually appears in it. Thus, for consistency and
coherence, I will say that any form of “you” that I use can be considered a
response to the original author of the meme, whoever he or she may be.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
The meme, which I have encountered more than once over the
course of wasting time on the internet, goes like this:</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
GOD DOES NOT EXIST. NOW RELAX AND ENJOY LIFE!</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
Usually upon encountering this, I simply roll my eyes and
move on. But today, perhaps for lack of a more constructive use of my time, I
have decided to examine the implications of this meme, starting with rhetorical
analysis.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
The author, as with most memes, is probably not traceable, so
it is admittedly a presumption that the author is an atheist. However, since I
have encountered the meme on multiple avowedly atheist forums and webpages, and
have both known and read avowed atheists who have said similar things, it
doesn't seem terribly straw-mannish to assume that this is an atheistic bit of
rhetoric.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
It is interesting to look at the presumed audience for this
meme. Since the meme is simply declarative and imperative, to take it at face
value would be to assume that it is directed at anyone who reads it. Therefore,
the audience could theoretically be “anyone who can read English.” However, the
wording implies that the members of the audience either believe in God or are
trying to decide if they do—people who do not believe in God would not need to
be told of God's non-existence. I suppose it could be meant as reassurance to
those who already don't believe in God, but the only people who would be
affected by acceptance of the message are those who do or might believe. Where
it gets interesting is the further presumption: due to believing in God, I am <i>not
relaxed</i>. Whatever state of being I as the reader fill in—upset, paranoid,
guilty, awe-struck, trembling—apparently stops me from being relaxed, and from
enjoying life.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
To round out the basic rhetorical analysis I need to look at
purpose. To again take the implications at face value, this meme is attempting
to deliver a message. Here I am not claiming to know the author's original
intent, options for which are manifold, but simply to be looking at the text
itself. As I've said, the text is in the imperative mode, as if it is giving me
(the reader) instructions, or perhaps suggestions. Therefore if I respond to
the text as if I am responding to instructions or suggestions, I am merely
taking that text at face value.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
So God does not exist. This is apparently supposed to free
me, so that I can relax and enjoy my life.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
Except, wait.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
I know a lot of people who have grown up with a God who seems
like an angry, sentient lightning storm with arbitrary rules, a God who makes
lists of correct behaviors and draws these really tight lines around How People
Should Act and anyone who steps outside of those lines just gets zapped, <i>kapow</i>.
I've even known some people who think this is an accurate description of the
God of the Bible. I suppose, if I believed in a God like that, it would be a
relief if someone told me He didn't exist.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
But I believe in a God who is the opposite of that sort of
god. The God whose Spirit breathed the Bible into men's ears is a God who hopes
all things, believes all things, and bears all things—including all of the
things I am too weak to bear—and a God whose grace never fails. To use extreme
terms, I could hate my God with the most passionate hatred I am capable of, and
He would only ever respond with love, would only ever accept me back the
instant I asked.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
To understand what I mean, meme author, imagine you met the
man or woman of your dreams. Imagine that this person is the only one you ever wanted
to be with. Now imagine that they loved you, unconditionally and irretrievably.
Now imagine that they set down some rules, say, “Don't sleep with anyone else;
don't snore; don't arbitrarily spill water all over the floor.” Imagine that you
broke all of these rules in the same day, or the same hour. Imagine that while
being understandably annoyed, and perhaps making you, say, wipe up the water
you spilled on the floor, your significant other accepted you back
unconditionally.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
Now imagine that someone came up to you and said, “Your
significant other doesn't exist. Now relax and enjoy life!” and assume that
somehow this made it true (on the fallacy of which, see common sense). You'd
suddenly be free to sleep with anyone you wanted. It wouldn't matter if you
snored. You could spit water all over the floor (and the walls, and the
ceiling, for that matter). But would you actually be relaxed? Would it actually
be more enjoyable?</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
As far as analogies (an inherently simplifying and limiting
technique) go, that one is as good as any.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
The God I believe in is capable of bringing grace out of
anything. The very concept is staggering. It means that no matter what decision
I make—whether it's the right decision or the wrong one, a good decision or a
bad one—God will redeem it and make it a blessing. As far as ideas that allow
me to relax and enjoy life, this is the best one I've ever encountered.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
Don't misunderstand: the whole thing is not easy. Things that
are worthwhile are never easy.</div>
<div class="Standard">
<br /></div>
<div class="Standard">
To sum up, meme author, you are of course allowed to believe
what you want to, and to declare that belief. But to assume that you are
freeing me by attempting to take away my God is almost indescribably arrogant
and foolish.</div>Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-42280382710276404212012-05-17T10:17:00.002-07:002012-05-17T10:17:39.971-07:00Critique of Pure Atheism: Why I am Not an AtheistTo start with the negatives: this is not an apologetic, in the sense that it is not an argument for any particular religion; it has nothing to do with why I believe Christ rose from the dead. It is also not meant as an attack against atheists. If it is anything other than an inexcusably verbose rant, then it's a personal testimony of an atypical sort: not a testimony about conversion <i>to</i> anything, but about a <i>lack</i> of conversion. It's probably the weakest reason I have for belief as well as the weakest reason I have for lack of belief, but that's why it's not an argument.<br />
<br />
Basically, if I did not have all of my better reasons for following Christ and for not being an atheist, I would still not be an atheist because I am prone to boredom. And atheism, to me, is unspeakably, unutterably, irretrievably boring. <br />
<br />
Sometimes I think speculatively about being an atheist. Not in that I am considering giving up my faith, but because I have the sort of mind that can't resist a good "what-if" scenario. But I can't get very far into it before I come up with, "So what?"<br />
<br />
To grant the basic premise of atheism is to grant that, as far as we know, human beings are the highest form of life, the highest form of existence. Granting this, I look at myself and I see someone who is self-centered, snobbish, often resentful, absent-minded, yada yada lots of flaws. I look at people who are very intelligent (say, Stephen Hawking) or people who are physically beautiful (say, ahem, Jennifer Lawrence) or people whose lives are or were incredibly exciting (Sir Richard Burton comes to mind, at random), or people who are extremely talented (anyone from Da Vinci to Twain to Shakespeare), and I think that if even these extraordinary people are the best thing the universe has to offer, or if I were one of them, or if I am the ultimate reality (which without some kind of external frame of reference, I am), then the universe and reality are just incredibly stupid.<br />
<br />
Perhaps ironically, this wouldn't make me feel antithetical to people; if we're all stupid and all we have is each other, love and grace seem like much more worthwhile endeavors than does misanthropy.<br />
<br />
But if that's what I have to start with, reality seems to get better, not worse, if I turn to religion. I could believe in a personal God who redeems me and whose hand guides my life, or I could believe in an impersonal force which binds all of life together, or in a cycle of death and reincarnation with a journey toward eventual enlightenment and union with everything. All of these seem more worthwhile than not believing in anything. (Of course, I do believe that the greatest and most redemptive truth leads to one specific place--or rather, one specific Man--but for now that's beside the point.) Not all beliefs are equal, and some cam lead to terrible places, but for that matter so can atheistic philosophy.<br />
<br />
This may just be a restatement of Pascal's famous wager, which paraphrased argues that if I am an atheist and I am right, then I have gained nothing, and if I am wrong I stand to lose everything; whereas if I have faith and am wrong I have lost nothing (except, maybe, some time that in all honesty I probably would have spent playing Angry Birds anyway) and if I am right I stand to gain everything. To extend the idea beyond Pascal's original purview, it really makes more sense to believe in <i>anything</i> than it does to believe that this life is all we have.<br />
<br />
I have heard it argued that not believing in God grants the greatest freedom. I find this idea curious, at best; I could probably post another entire rant in response to it. But for today I'll trade a little freedom (or I would if I had to, which I don't) for a reality that's more interesting than what's in my head.Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-31744208180655692602012-04-23T00:48:00.002-07:002012-04-23T00:50:19.322-07:00How to be a Man<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Don’t
tell me how to be a man.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">If
I want to wake with the dawn on Easter morning,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">crawl
out sleepy-eyed into the lawn’s cold dew</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">and
lie wrapped in a blanket of sunrise</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">as
the heat of day burns the tomb from wet limbs</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">and
the first light of the songbirds</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">sends
streaks of yellow across a field of blue;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">if
I want to write a sonnet on sea-foam</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">or
on the seaweed that wrapped around me once</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">when
I was young and its tentacles were like a baptism;</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">if
I want to climb an evergreen tree</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">like
it was the mast of a man’o’war</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">and
sit in the sky with the wind</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">as
my only friend,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">then
I will. Leaving you, arms</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">wrapped
around your knees staring</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">at
your navel, trying to remember the manliest</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">way
to unfold yourself. Until you decide</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">whether
your works are enough to earn a rite of passage</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">—and
even after that—</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">don’t
try to tell me what manliness is. It’s not</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">for
you or me to decide, thank God.</span></div>Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-22560016040205829592012-03-03T17:13:00.000-08:002012-03-03T17:14:12.657-08:00True LoveI<br /><br />Think, remember<br />when Saturday was a day free of duty<br />and we would rise with the golden sun<br />spreading its fingers across the sky and rolling back<br />the bedsheet of the night,<br />golden fingers massaging the day into light,<br />angels with six wings and a thousand eyes<br />singing across the sky<br />a song of rebirth and hope.<br /><br />Into our backpacks the things of the day:<br />rope, gauze, tape, grape jam, bread.<br />Through our suburban paradise of trim<br />lawns and cut personalities, past the fake<br />smiles of fathers <br />whose idea of duty was to stay in a box<br />as small as possible, to rule<br />in a box.<br /><br />Down the slope of the spiral street, a DNA<br />helix the size and shape of the border<br />of our souls. The street bordered by trees<br />taller and older than we will ever be.<br /><br />Into the woods our wandering feet, the crash<br />of branches breaking,<br />the sputter of leaves offended,<br />the release of spring from pink flower-petals<br />bruised by our golden feet.<br /><br />We nearly stepped on a snake, light green,<br />which chased itself in a circle<br />and finally caught itself by the tail<br />before looking at us,<br />eyes black in the deep pool of forest light,<br />as if embarrassed.<br /><br />II.<br /><br />We washed ourselves in the stream which, laughing, ran from us<br />in a waterfall of golden flickering sunlight, teasing, skipping<br />from rock to shining rock, disturbing the gloom<br />which we allowed to settle on our brows as we talked of the flash<br />of blue in a certain girl’s eye, the flicker of red on the lip<br />of the boy we had fought, the pure white of the snow<br />we would miss until it came again and made us bundle as tight as ticks<br />beneath a calcifying black cloak.<br /><br />We decided all the poems ever written were variations on a single theme,<br />but we could not agree on what that theme was.<br /><br />Lunch was grape jam on bread, and we said, breathing hard<br />with the exertion of climbing the hill<br />out from which we could see the valley spread, green with shadows<br />and black with sunlight, golden with pure beauty,<br />that true love could not be an emotion, but could only be an action.<br /><br />III.<br /><br />Climbing back out of that shadowed valley<br />I lost my breath and had to lean<br />against the trunk of an evergreen tree<br />and you said that if love were only an action,<br />how could your mother still love you after you called her<br />all those horrible names that one time;<br />how could your parents<br />say they loved you when you were off<br />at camp. The sun, I said, not quite understanding<br />what I meant, does not shine any less bright<br />at night or behind a cloud.<br /><br />So we went to the church to try to talk<br />to Father Peter, but he was locked in his study<br />buried in the finer points of ecclesiology,<br />so we went to the sanctuary, bowed, and stood<br />looking at the blessed face and I said,<br />love is pain,<br />and anyone who says otherwise<br />is selling something.<br /><br />Were we wise children? Probably not.<br />Probably we were just dumb enough<br />to face things better left unexamined.<br /><br />But somehow I can’t believe that.<br /><br />IV.<br /><br />Back home, your mother was spreading white sheets<br />on a clothesline. The sheets billowed in the wind<br />like the sails of the ship that the willow tree was, years ago.<br /><br />Like the banshees we are, we howled <br />and charged, leapt the chain link fence and blinded ourselves<br />with white as we charged howling through<br /><br />the embrace of the bedsheets, staining them with the dirt <br />we bore from the woods. We loved your mother, and she loved us,<br />and there is the deepest mystery of all.Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21238814.post-18336595098203516172012-01-30T23:06:00.000-08:002012-01-30T23:07:01.644-08:00GraceFourteen silver-haired ladies and a dozen men<br />in suits of the same cut they have worn to church for the last fifty years<br />hobble to their feet and sing a hymn<br />to the God who has shown them through<br />trenches, ditches, air and sea and wind<br />of which I can only dream, only imagine, open-mouthed,<br />the days of charging through an island stronghold<br />expecting, any moment, the cold heat of lead to end<br />a life that seems, in the moment, unbearably brief;<br />and I can only imagine, open-mouthed, the unbearable<br />wait, the waking and sleeping with the knowledge<br />that the one my soul loves could pass from this world<br />at any moment.<br /><br />As the ragged hymn rises to the rafters<br />I can hear, just beyond the range of hearing,<br />angels join the song.<br /><br />After church these same soldiers are happy to see me,<br />and these warriors serve me food. They are not conceited enough<br />to respect me based on the number of books<br />I have read or the number of degrees which do or might<br />bear my name; yet they serve me<br />as if they were the ones who had everything to prove<br />and I the one who had saved an entire generation from a firestorm.<br />That, I realize in a blinding flash, is what grace looks like.Ethanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01359656167530915938noreply@blogger.com0