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greygirlbeastA sunny morning here in Providence. The office window (well, one of two) is open, and there's a Siamese cat sitting on my desk, watching whatever there is Outside to watch.
Today will be a day on which I make a new beginning for the Next Novel. That's my hope.
Yesterday, conversation about The Wolf Who Cried Girl, and I answered a great mass of accumulated email, and agreed to do an interview for Clarkesworld, and I bowed out of two anthologies (because, presently, there's only time for the novel and Sirenia Digest), and I lay on the bed with Hubero while Spooky read me the first chapter of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962; one of the most beautiful books I know).
This morning, I am weary of modernity.
And I'm wondering how the new crop of teens and twentysomethings became so afraid of emotion and the expression thereof.* Did their parents teach them? Did they learn it somewhere else? Is this a spontaneous cultural phenomenon? Are they afraid of appearing weak? Is this capitalism streamlining the human psyche to be more useful by eliminating anything that might hamper productivity? Is it a sort of conformism? I don't know, but I could go the rest of my life and never again hear anyone whine about someone else being "emo," and it would be a Very Good Thing.
Could anything be more inimical to art than a fear of emotion, or a fear of "excessive" emotion, or a reluctance to express emotion around others? No, of course not. Art can even best the weights of utter fucking ignorance and totalitarian repression, but it cannot survive emotional constipation.
I want a T-shirt that says, "Art is Emo." We live in an age where people are more apt to believe a thing if they read it on a T-shirt.
Last night we watched the new episodes of Fringe and Spartacus: Blood and Titties. Very enjoyable, on both counts.
Now, the platypus calls my name. Here are three photos from Thursday:
Budding tree.
The Armory and Dexter Training Ground. View to the south.
Houses along Dexter Street. View to the east.
Photographs Copyright © 2010 by Kathryn A. Pollnac
*The suggestion has been made that they are so much expressing fear as contempt, and I am open to that possibility, though fear and contempt often go hand in hand.
Today will be a day on which I make a new beginning for the Next Novel. That's my hope.
Yesterday, conversation about The Wolf Who Cried Girl, and I answered a great mass of accumulated email, and agreed to do an interview for Clarkesworld, and I bowed out of two anthologies (because, presently, there's only time for the novel and Sirenia Digest), and I lay on the bed with Hubero while Spooky read me the first chapter of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962; one of the most beautiful books I know).
This morning, I am weary of modernity.
And I'm wondering how the new crop of teens and twentysomethings became so afraid of emotion and the expression thereof.* Did their parents teach them? Did they learn it somewhere else? Is this a spontaneous cultural phenomenon? Are they afraid of appearing weak? Is this capitalism streamlining the human psyche to be more useful by eliminating anything that might hamper productivity? Is it a sort of conformism? I don't know, but I could go the rest of my life and never again hear anyone whine about someone else being "emo," and it would be a Very Good Thing.
Could anything be more inimical to art than a fear of emotion, or a fear of "excessive" emotion, or a reluctance to express emotion around others? No, of course not. Art can even best the weights of utter fucking ignorance and totalitarian repression, but it cannot survive emotional constipation.
I want a T-shirt that says, "Art is Emo." We live in an age where people are more apt to believe a thing if they read it on a T-shirt.
Last night we watched the new episodes of Fringe and Spartacus: Blood and Titties. Very enjoyable, on both counts.
Now, the platypus calls my name. Here are three photos from Thursday:
Budding tree.
The Armory and Dexter Training Ground. View to the south.
Houses along Dexter Street. View to the east.
Photographs Copyright © 2010 by Kathryn A. Pollnac
*The suggestion has been made that they are so much expressing fear as contempt, and I am open to that possibility, though fear and contempt often go hand in hand.
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 04:59 pm (UTC)I think the contempt comes from arrogance.
Plus, they have no souls (- my use the term 'soul,' in this case, being in the Motown - and not the theological - sense of the word.)
no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 05:01 pm (UTC)I think the contempt comes from arrogance.
Not sure I agree, though I do often see arrogance. More and more, I think they've been taught that emotion is a sign of weakness. And weakness is a thing to be despised, so excessive displays of emotion, which denote weakness, should be feared, avoided, and condemned.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 05:06 pm (UTC)One last question on this before I vanish ... What proportion of your readership would you estimate falls into the demographic of that age group?
Just curious.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 05:28 pm (UTC)What proportion of your readership would you estimate falls into the demographic of that age group?
I have no way of providing a meaningful answer (one consisting of anything more than the basest speculation) to this question. Sorry.