The splendid isolation I have sought has crumbled. I need Grimnebulin, Grimneulin needs his friend, his friend needs succour from us all. It is simple mathematics to cancel common terms and discover that I need succour, too. I must offer it to others, to save myself. I am stumbling. I must not fall. —China Miéville, … Continue reading
On the train home from work today, I was reading a book. I was lucky to catch the express, so I only had a single stop commute. As I was leaving the subway station, I kept reading, passively listening to footsteps around me and letting those in a rush get by, timing my egress through … Continue reading
From Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather (1996): “Well, you brought some magic into that little life,” said Albert, as the next child was hurried away. It’s the expression on their little faces I like, said [Death]. “You mean sort of fear and awe and not knowing whether to laugh or cry or wet their pants?” Yes. Now … Continue reading
I’d like to share one of the most moving passages I’ve ever read. It’s from Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, published 1974. The backstory for this excerpt is that a Marxist revolution (called in this book an “Odonian” revolution) led to the forced exile of the revolutionaries by the dominant political forces of the … Continue reading
Of late (Έργα) In the time leading up to my recent graduation, I’ve been doing landscaping work on weekends in order to pay the bills. I took a few weekends off to graduate, but I’ll be picking it back up this weekend to keep myself afloat economically, until something bigger and better comes along. There … Continue reading
I’ve recently been doing a lot of thinking about the smattering of traveling I’ve done in the past year. Just a few days ago I started reading an Ursula Le Guin book, The Dispossessed, which, while also a rabidly feminist diatribe and an unabashed Marxist treatise, dwells often and well on cross-cultural learning. In the … Continue reading
It’s definitely spring. I foolishly wore woolen socks in my boots today, because they were the only socks I had that were remotely clean, and I sweated very much. I had my first class of the day cancelled, so I lay out on the grass, in the sun, and examined the veins inside my eyelids. … Continue reading
A few weeks back I dropped by my favorite used bookstore in the city and prowled around for some Powers books I haven’t read. I settled on Operation Wandering Soul. Here’s an excerpt from early on in it. Something about him must emanate this Mr. Potato Head plasticity. Chief of Surgery Burgress, dying a slow, … Continue reading