Second Hell-Day: Over

[handful_ofdust]

It's about that time of the semester when people are either all done and bored by the lack of much in the way of "class" (I keep telling these people to come in and ask me something, but few ever do), or running around like chickens and thus desperate for one more kick at the can, at any given opportunity; granted, many of the latter just want to bitch about how school is screwing them or "explain" why they still don't have anything to show me (hey, guess what? I DON'T CARE), two weeks from the end...but OTOH, not like I'm going to have to worry about any of this shit for much longer. Or am I?;0

Anyhoo: before I sink to brave new depths of emoticon abuse, here's the good thing about today--xterminal's glowing review of Words Written Backwards (http://xterminal.livejournal.com/669579.html#backwards). Thanks, man! Your books of poetry are (literally) in the mail, and I can't stress enough how grateful I am for your continued support of my work. I even swear I'm going to up my productivity this year, so you'll have more of my crap to push on random people.;)

Otherwise...going over the outline for Blood From the Air, which is indeed quite an unholy mess. Trying to figure out where the Hell Last Things is going, let alone how to get there. Today I picked up two second-hand books, each originally worth about $20.00, for a cool combined price of $16.00 even--The Last Days of Henry VIII, by Robert Hutchinson, and The Adventure of English, by Melvin Bragg. Both rock thus far, but English takes the cake, for many reasons; Bragg's style is light, swift, sharp and utterly engaging. Of Shakespeare, he says "His inventiveness was almost a disease", particularly in terms of his use/manufacture of insults. He then strings 25 or so instances of/variations on the epithet "knave" together, as a "long insulting rally." The finale goes like so:

Base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave; a whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd, in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch! Pah!

William S., for the win. Ah, I love my fucked-up Trade Creole Supreme native tongue.

Comments

[sovay]

here's the good thing about today--xterminal's glowing review of Words Written Backwards

That's because your writing is awesome. Finito.

William S., for the win.

Yay.

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

That's because your writing is awesome. Finito.

Amen.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Now, if only we could convince some other people of that...;)

[xterminal.livejournal.com]

a. here's the good thing about today--xterminal's glowing review of Words Written Backwards squee!

b. Your books of poetry are (literally) in the mail squee!

and

c. I even swear I'm going to up my productivity this year, so you'll have more of my crap to push on random people.;) squee!

Seriously, though, you make it easy. And as you well know, I'm not above calling a spade a stinking pile of crap. (Which reminds me, I have a 2001: A Space Odyssey review to write.) You is one of da good ones.

(And I have sovay to thank for finding you, if memory serves.)

Trying to figure out where the Hell Last Things is going, let alone how to get there.

Just remember: everything is better with truck-eating plants.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Re: truck-eating plants

Ah, well: Sad to say, there will be none of that. But I did sit down in a restaurant today without my notes and tried to write the synopsis from memory, as though I was addressing someone who'd never encountered the idea before; a surprising amount of pieces fell almost immediately into place. One way or the other, whether or not the package itself suits my recipient, I'll personally count having had to do this as a massive strategic step forward.