Caitlín R. Kiernan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
greygirlbeast) wrote2009-11-22 12:11 pm
greygirlbeast) wrote2009-11-22 12:11 pm
Entry tags:
"Stranded starfish have no place to hide..."
The insomnia came back last night. I was still wide awake at 4 a.m., when I finally gave up and took Ambien. I think I slept about six hours. I function far better on nine.
Yesterday, when I wasn't busy slamming New Moon, Mormons, and Americans who are more comfortable with a 1.9 trillion dollar war bill for our occupation of Iraq than a 1 trillion dollar bill for health care overhaul...when I wasn't doing all that...mouthing off, so to speak...I was writing. I managed 1,003 words on "Sanderlings" (formerly "Teratophobia").
Roger Ebert's review of New Moon is actually rather priceless. He gives it one star out of four. I was pleased to see that the film currently has only a 4.4 rating at imbd, and that it's not fairing so well over at Rotten Tomatoes, either. Of course, this is mere criticism. The film broke all box office records on Friday, and is likely to break the opening weekend record. So, lots of happy studio execs and queer-hating Mormons getting the last laugh. Tiddley pom.
Truthfully, I think I need to go back to feigning indifference and keeping my social and political ruminations to myself. Because, face it. Yes, I am a fatalist and a pessimist. There's nothing I can do to make much of anything better, and on those rare occasions when I try, I usually only manage to make things worse for myself. For example, yesterday I probably managed to do very little but piss a few people off and discover that an enormous number of folks on Twitter no longer know (or never knew) the definition of irony. The second bit upsets me far more than the former. Anyway, yeah. Less politics and critique. This is your world. I leave you to it. I'll write about my writing, and comment on movies I've seen and books I've read, and post pretty photographs of Rhode Island. The rest I leave to others.
It's cold here in Providence. Truthfully, I wish the snows would come. The cold is less depressing when there's snow. The snow takes away all the sharp edges.
We've begun a new mini-round of eBay auctions. Please have a look, and thank you. Also, a reminder that Subterranean Press has begun taking pre-orders for The Ammonite Violin & Others.
Last night, we suffered through the third extremely dull episode of the reamke of V (it really isn't getting any better), and then watched Adam Green and Joel Moore's Spiral (2007), a surprisingly good little thriller. Frankly, I miss flipping channels. Now, instead of flipping channels looking for something worth watching, we flip through the streamable (new word, I suppose) films at Netflix. Last night, we searched through them for almost an hour before finding Spiral.
And now, more photos from Green Hill. Today is documentation of the "starfish apocalypse." Actually, I was annoyed to discover that by the time we reached that part of the beach most blanketed in dead starfish, we'd evidently tired of photographing them. But this gives you some impression. We must have seen hundreds, which means there were probably thousands. I was thinking about this yesterday, and it occurred to me that we likely were not seeing starfish that had died in a single stranding, but the effects of multiple strandings, maybe many days' worth. After all, it's probable that a portion of the starfish that perish during any given low tide would not be washed out to sea on the next high tide, that, over time, an accumulation would occur. Anyway, yes, photos:
All photographs Copyright © 2009 by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Kathryn A. Pollnac.
Yesterday, when I wasn't busy slamming New Moon, Mormons, and Americans who are more comfortable with a 1.9 trillion dollar war bill for our occupation of Iraq than a 1 trillion dollar bill for health care overhaul...when I wasn't doing all that...mouthing off, so to speak...I was writing. I managed 1,003 words on "Sanderlings" (formerly "Teratophobia").
Roger Ebert's review of New Moon is actually rather priceless. He gives it one star out of four. I was pleased to see that the film currently has only a 4.4 rating at imbd, and that it's not fairing so well over at Rotten Tomatoes, either. Of course, this is mere criticism. The film broke all box office records on Friday, and is likely to break the opening weekend record. So, lots of happy studio execs and queer-hating Mormons getting the last laugh. Tiddley pom.
Truthfully, I think I need to go back to feigning indifference and keeping my social and political ruminations to myself. Because, face it. Yes, I am a fatalist and a pessimist. There's nothing I can do to make much of anything better, and on those rare occasions when I try, I usually only manage to make things worse for myself. For example, yesterday I probably managed to do very little but piss a few people off and discover that an enormous number of folks on Twitter no longer know (or never knew) the definition of irony. The second bit upsets me far more than the former. Anyway, yeah. Less politics and critique. This is your world. I leave you to it. I'll write about my writing, and comment on movies I've seen and books I've read, and post pretty photographs of Rhode Island. The rest I leave to others.
It's cold here in Providence. Truthfully, I wish the snows would come. The cold is less depressing when there's snow. The snow takes away all the sharp edges.
We've begun a new mini-round of eBay auctions. Please have a look, and thank you. Also, a reminder that Subterranean Press has begun taking pre-orders for The Ammonite Violin & Others.
Last night, we suffered through the third extremely dull episode of the reamke of V (it really isn't getting any better), and then watched Adam Green and Joel Moore's Spiral (2007), a surprisingly good little thriller. Frankly, I miss flipping channels. Now, instead of flipping channels looking for something worth watching, we flip through the streamable (new word, I suppose) films at Netflix. Last night, we searched through them for almost an hour before finding Spiral.
And now, more photos from Green Hill. Today is documentation of the "starfish apocalypse." Actually, I was annoyed to discover that by the time we reached that part of the beach most blanketed in dead starfish, we'd evidently tired of photographing them. But this gives you some impression. We must have seen hundreds, which means there were probably thousands. I was thinking about this yesterday, and it occurred to me that we likely were not seeing starfish that had died in a single stranding, but the effects of multiple strandings, maybe many days' worth. After all, it's probable that a portion of the starfish that perish during any given low tide would not be washed out to sea on the next high tide, that, over time, an accumulation would occur. Anyway, yes, photos:
All photographs Copyright © 2009 by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Kathryn A. Pollnac.
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You will not be understood in your own time.
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You're too kind, really.
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I have read none of the books, yet the movies please me for some reason.
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It's a start, though of course rings only would've formed if Earth's geological history had gone rather differently (a second moon that we lost? Losing part or even all of our moon? Big-ass asteroid strike? How much do we know about how rings form), and even if they existed they wouldn't just look like Saturn's. Still, interesting mental exercise. And you may find it to be pretty.
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Yeah...it would have been much, much more interesting if they'd gone to the trouble to imagine what Earth would look like with possible Earth rings, instead of Saturnian rings.
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That's an interesting question.
Awe, maybe. Curiosity.
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Belatedly, this strikes me as a Voight-Kampff question. And belatedly, considered in that context, my answer seems somewhat suspicious.
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Potentially interesting mental exercise: writing more questions that could be Voight-Kampff (http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=126) questions. Considering the questions from the book and the film have been used in real life (http://pkdick.com/voight-kampff-machine.html), I wonder if people have tried making more questions. (Google yet yields nothing like that...)
Glad Philip K. Dick's legacy lives on,
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Very interesting.
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Makes me feel like I am not alone in the universe.
But you are alone. As am I.
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The Deep Ones are sending a message. Or trying to arrange some kind of trade pact.
If only.
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See, that's exactly what I said when we came upon the unphotographed tangle of starfish clusters.
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See, that's exactly what I said when we came upon the unphotographed tangle of starfish clusters.
It's true. She did.
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The Y'ha-Nthlei Trade Council agrees to supply the State of Rhode Island with app. ten (10) metric tonnes of starfish and assorted other echinoderms to be dried out and sold in boardwalk gift shops and Dollar General stores. In return, the State of Rhode Island will agree to provide two (2) tourists per month to the Deep One Interspecies Breeding Initiative.
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In return, the State of Rhode Island will agree to provide two (2) tourists per month to the Deep One Interspecies Breeding Initiative.
Oh, we can do much better than that. RI could easily spare 100/month in the summer.
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Not only do they look funny and want to soil our Anglo-Saxon heritage, but they LITTER. Abominable! Unspeakable!
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But I suppose we're supposed to STOP dumping trash into the seas. *sigh*
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My husband surprised me by pre-ordering the special edition of The Ammonite Violin for our anniversary. ^_^ I could not be more pleased about it. June seems so far away now... heh.
I finished reading Lovecraft Unbound. It was a very good anthology. I am happy to say I enjoyed the majority of the stories and not just yours, though I would have bought it anyway.
I hope you and spooky and the cats will have a lovely Thanksgiving.
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My husband surprised me by pre-ordering the special edition of The Ammonite Violin for our anniversary.
Good for him!
I finished reading Lovecraft Unbound. It was a very good anthology. I am happy to say I enjoyed the majority of the stories and not just yours, though I would have bought it anyway.
It really is a good anthology.
I hope you and spooky and the cats will have a lovely Thanksgiving.
We don't exactly do Thanksgiving, but thanks anyway.
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What happens to them after they've died? There's one in the last picture, all by itself, that has only four arms.
Many were missing arms, or had only stumps of damaged arms. Most of those were from wounds that occurred during life and showed signs of healing. Remember that a starfish not only regenerates lost arms, but that the lost arms regenerate into new starfish.
As for what happens to all he dead ones. Well, the usual. Some are eaten by scavengers, mostly sea gulls. But, mostly, I suspect the decompose and are buried.
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About one third of the time, I even agree with him.
Teenage Twilight fangirls in large packs are terrifying.
Lemmings.
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We really need to go see a movie at night just so I can wear my "And then Buffy staked Edward. The End." T-shirt and watch all the sad faces.
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You have your opinions and you vented. Maybe you were going a little overboard on Twilight, then again maybe you weren't. I highly doubt the intersection of your fan base and Twilight's is very large, so no real sales lost, eh? As for those war idiots, just mentally dump them in that special hell that we non-christians reserve for such lunatics. After all, they aren't buying your books.
Also, are you sure you were pissing people off and not just getting a little irony tossed back to you? Hell, even Neil's retort finished with more than a wee bit of hyperbole.
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If mouthing off on Twitter gets 1000 words out of you, I would say that is a fairly good return on investment. Would you have still got those words written if you had instead stared out the window and kept all those distracting thoughts boxed inside? Isn't it better to be pissed off at other people than at yourself had you written nothing?
I'm pretty sure yammering at people on Twitter has no particular effect on my writing, except as a distraction that prevents me from getting more writing done.
Also, are you sure you were pissing people off and not just getting a little irony tossed back to you?
You read the definition of the word, right?
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Yup.
Whatever.
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That may be the snarkiest review I've seen from him in years. I approve.
We must have seen hundreds, which means there were probably thousands.
That seems as good a manifestation of Panthalassa as any.