Caitlín R. Kiernan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
greygirlbeast) wrote2011-06-10 01:34 pm
greygirlbeast) wrote2011-06-10 01:34 pm
Entry tags:
"They flutter behind you, your possible pasts."
Today, the meteorological violence of the past two days is gone. The sky is overcast, and the air is cool, presently only 77F.
Yesterday, I wrote 1,738 words on Chapter Three of Blood Oranges. Now, there's a troll in the book.
Much of the day was spent bracing for a storm that I'm pretty sure actually came the night before. But the weathermen freak out when something gets past them, so they were overcompensating, going so far as to warn people to stock up on food and water and suchlike...for a thunderstorm. Spooky did go out to the market, and there were trees down – some of them quite large – from the storm that hit us early on Wednesday morning. Some buildings in our neighborhood took damage from that storm, from the wind and hail. Anyway, here's how things looked about 5:30 p.m. yesterday:
About 6 p.m., as we were eating dinner, the red band swept over us, and it was a kitten compared with the night before.
---
Yesterday, something happened that I've been expecting ever since Colgate-Palmolive bought a controlling interest in Tom's of Maine back in 2006 – I opened a box of toothpaste and discovered that the old metal tube had been replaced with a squishy plastic one. And who the hell really knows which is "greener" than the other, metal or plastic. Point is, toothpaste ought come in metal fucking tubes.
---
I slept last night, at least. About seven and a half hours. But the Good Worker Bee Pills are making me fat, a side effect that is known and common, so it's not as if I wasn't warned.
---
Last night, though the air cooled dramatically after the storms, my office was still too stuffy for Rift, so we finished watching the Burroughs documentary (dir. Yony Leyser, 2010). It was very, very well done. Afterwards, though, we watched William Cameron Menzies' The Maze (1953). Menzies is credited with inventing the role of the film production designer and was involved in the creation of many wonderful films. The Maze is not one of them. It didn't help that it was shot for 3-D, during one of those other times Hollywood fell for that gimmick. Very likely one of the dullest films I've ever slept through. Okay, I only slept through about ten minutes, and apparently I didn't miss anything. It was almost worth eduring the whole silly, wretched mess for two lines:
Kitty Murray (played by Veronica Hurst): Look, there's a strand of seaweed!
Edith Murray (played by Katherine Emery): And a bowl of tomatoes (pronounced toe-MAH-toes).
Anyway, then we watched Christopher McQuarrie's The Way of the Gun (2000), which I love, even though it sort of destroyed the man's career. It shouldn't have. Spooky had never seen it. Yeah, that's a lot of watching. I wasn't in the mood for much else.
---
Rhetorical Question: How am I not to conclude that, in the end, I am, at best, a forgotten experiment and no one is watching?
Same As It Ever Was,
Aunt Beast
* From Wikipedia: "A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply. Rhetorical questions encourage the listener to think about what the (often obvious) answer to the question must be. When a speaker states, "How much longer must our people endure this injustice?", no formal answer is expected. Rather, it is a device used by the speaker to assert or deny something. (e.g.: "Why me?") While amusing and often humorous, rhetorical questions are rarely meant for pure, comedic effect. A carefully crafted question can, if delivered well, persuade an audience to believe in the position(s) of the speaker."
Yesterday, I wrote 1,738 words on Chapter Three of Blood Oranges. Now, there's a troll in the book.
Much of the day was spent bracing for a storm that I'm pretty sure actually came the night before. But the weathermen freak out when something gets past them, so they were overcompensating, going so far as to warn people to stock up on food and water and suchlike...for a thunderstorm. Spooky did go out to the market, and there were trees down – some of them quite large – from the storm that hit us early on Wednesday morning. Some buildings in our neighborhood took damage from that storm, from the wind and hail. Anyway, here's how things looked about 5:30 p.m. yesterday:
About 6 p.m., as we were eating dinner, the red band swept over us, and it was a kitten compared with the night before.
---
Yesterday, something happened that I've been expecting ever since Colgate-Palmolive bought a controlling interest in Tom's of Maine back in 2006 – I opened a box of toothpaste and discovered that the old metal tube had been replaced with a squishy plastic one. And who the hell really knows which is "greener" than the other, metal or plastic. Point is, toothpaste ought come in metal fucking tubes.
---
I slept last night, at least. About seven and a half hours. But the Good Worker Bee Pills are making me fat, a side effect that is known and common, so it's not as if I wasn't warned.
---
Last night, though the air cooled dramatically after the storms, my office was still too stuffy for Rift, so we finished watching the Burroughs documentary (dir. Yony Leyser, 2010). It was very, very well done. Afterwards, though, we watched William Cameron Menzies' The Maze (1953). Menzies is credited with inventing the role of the film production designer and was involved in the creation of many wonderful films. The Maze is not one of them. It didn't help that it was shot for 3-D, during one of those other times Hollywood fell for that gimmick. Very likely one of the dullest films I've ever slept through. Okay, I only slept through about ten minutes, and apparently I didn't miss anything. It was almost worth eduring the whole silly, wretched mess for two lines:
Kitty Murray (played by Veronica Hurst): Look, there's a strand of seaweed!
Edith Murray (played by Katherine Emery): And a bowl of tomatoes (pronounced toe-MAH-toes).
Anyway, then we watched Christopher McQuarrie's The Way of the Gun (2000), which I love, even though it sort of destroyed the man's career. It shouldn't have. Spooky had never seen it. Yeah, that's a lot of watching. I wasn't in the mood for much else.
---
Rhetorical Question: How am I not to conclude that, in the end, I am, at best, a forgotten experiment and no one is watching?
Same As It Ever Was,
Aunt Beast
* From Wikipedia: "A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply. Rhetorical questions encourage the listener to think about what the (often obvious) answer to the question must be. When a speaker states, "How much longer must our people endure this injustice?", no formal answer is expected. Rather, it is a device used by the speaker to assert or deny something. (e.g.: "Why me?") While amusing and often humorous, rhetorical questions are rarely meant for pure, comedic effect. A carefully crafted question can, if delivered well, persuade an audience to believe in the position(s) of the speaker."
no subject
Rhetorical... as in "not expecting the right answer" or as in "not wanting anyone to answer"?
no subject
Rhetorical... as in "not expecting the right answer" or as in "not wanting anyone to answer"?
See above:
"A rhetorical question is a figure of speech in the form of a question posed for its persuasive effect without the expectation of a reply."
no subject
You post; your friends and fans respond. You are watched, by at least a few. (Who would you want to be watching?) You let us in, a little. (In "grant an audience", who's watching whom?) The works you've written won't be forgotten (not even the ones you might like to retract). The person who wrote them? Well, at least now they can say "don't know anything about her, but she looks damn good in a top hat."
no subject
You post; your friends and fans respond.
That's sort of why I said "rhetorical." Not meant to provoke a response. Merely a thought ran through my head. Not a plea for reassurance. Also, I wasn't speaking of my writing.
no subject
no subject
Thank you.
no subject
no subject
I intially read your header as "They flutter behind you, your possible pants",
Well, that's unfortunate.
no subject
no subject
Yep. Well, an interstate overpass.
no subject
no subject
Sort of, yeah
no subject
no subject
This presupposes too grand an experimenter, which is an absurdity.
Again, I was speaking rhetorically.
no subject
*pictures a few of your readers' heads exploding from not being able to answer it*
Win! That'd be almost elegant.
no subject
Agreed. I think much of the internet only exists as a comment-enabling device. And looking at many of the comments, I say the world's better of in their absence.
no subject
Anyway, then we watched Christopher McQuarrie's The Way of the Gun (2000), which I love, even though it sort of destroyed the man's career. It shouldn't have.
You may appreciate the Q&A my friend Mike Russell did with McQuarrie about 2008's Valkyrie (http://culturepulp.typepad.com/culturepulp/2008/12/the-culturepulp-qa-christopher-mcquarrie.html), in which Russell brought up The Way of the Gun and McQuarrie goes into a little bit of detail about his feelings about it. Interesting chat, I think. (I appreciated The Way of the Gun, too.)
no subject
Back in the Bad Ol' Days of Usenet, we called these assholes trolls.