Caitlín R. Kiernan

So, yes, the list of not-writing things I have to do today is annoyingly long, a string of undertakings united only by the fact that a) they are related to writing, b) are not the actual act of writing, and c) I do not wish to do them. But there you go. Tedium is just another part of the landscape.

Yesterday. Let's see.

Well, I read Volume Two of Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and as some had predicted, I liked it even better than Volume One. This one was Mina's, and I couldn't have been more pleased. I adored the Barsoom stuff at the start, and the love scenes between Mina and Quartermain were touching and sexy and funny. In the end, I think, Hyde almost stole the show, and I adored that, too. My only complaint was that the ending seemed just a little rushed, bringing down the Martians and all, and it seems to me the story could have used a couple more issues. But that's a quibble. Now, of course, I have to wait until October for The Back Dossier.

Sometime after dark, we went out into the steamy night, to Videodrome, to rent Tom Tykwer's Perfume: The Story of A Murderer (2006), which I somehow missed during the one week it was playing at Midtown here in Atlanta. Based upon Patrick Süskind's novel, Das Parfum (which Spooky has read, but I haven't), it is surely one of the most sublimely erotic films I have ever seen. Like all the best erotica, it's not for the faint of heart, or those who have no use for fairy tales, or those who get queasy at the sight of blood or filth or maggots. There were echoes of Angela Carter and some of Herzog's early films (I'm thinking Heart of Glass, in particular). When it was over, and I was breathing normally again, I told Spooky that the last film that affected me that viscerally was The Proposition. It's that raw, that unfettered, that fucking perfect. This is a film that truly must be seen, unless visceral isn't your cup of tea. In which case, you may be excused. But damn, what an amazing, amazing film.

The heat is still with us. We shall likely see 100F again today, and I won't even make a guess at the heat index.

A couple of days back someone asked if I am in the "Al Gore camp" as regards mankind being responsible for global warming, for this current period of global warming. And I said that yes, of course I am. I said that, given the preponderance of available data, from such such diverse disciplines as meteorology, paleoclimatology, geology, and oceanography, that there is no longer any other reasonable conclusion to be drawn. But I think there's something more I should have said. And it is this. Regarding global warming the only remaining controversy is political, not scientific. Science has reached a consensus, after decades of research. Sure, you can still find scientists who are skeptical that humanity is the cause, because that's how science works. But there are fewer of them every day. The only reason the public "controversy" persists is because so many people have such a profoundly nonscientific and economic stake in there seeming to be a controversy. Which is to say, it's not something that people want to believe, because the consequences of believing it and accepting responsibility are so dire. But that's not how science works, this matter of believing only that which is convenient and comfortable. At least not when science is working right. Anyway, I felt like my reply was incomplete, and now it is less so.

Okay. There's tedium awaiting me...

The heat is even worse than yesterday. At this moment, it's 93F with a heat index of 100F. I had a cold hard-boiled egg for breakfast, with iced coffee. The thought of anything warm turned my stomach. I've already lost 10 lbs. this summer from not eating. Forecast high is 99F.

No writing yesterday. I did read aloud what I wrote on Sunday, the piece I was calling "Penance to the Idol of Perversity (1917)," which was quite good, but I have no idea where it's headed. And I think I'm going to set it aside and work on something more suited to Sirenia Digest #21. Already, a quarter of the month has slipped past me. But wait...I'm supposed to be resting. But wait...I have deadlines. Argh. At some point yesterday afternoon, I decided I absolutely had to read Anaïs Nin's Delta of Venus, but after riffling though the shelves, could not locate the copy I thought I owned, nothing by Nin by Spooky's copy of The Four-Chambered Heart. This led to a trip out into the broil, back to Borders for a new copy of Delta of Venus. I almost picked up a collection of vintage Victorian erotica, as well, but books are so frelling expensive. I'm also having fits to read Alan Moore's Lost Girls and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It's too hot to do anything but read. We came home. I had a cool bath and washed my hair, and then read Nin to Spooky — the preface and "Lilith" and "Linda." It's much too hot for anything but reading. And iced coffee.

And note that the mmp of Low Red Moon is now available in bookshops and from Amazon.com and other online booksellers. Please do me a huge favour and order a copy or five. Note, too, that you can get it from Amazon with a copy of Daughter of Hounds (tpb) for a mere $19.89. That's a bargain, surely.

I meant to bring this up days ago and forgot, but on September 6th, five years to the day after it came online, I will be taking down Nebari.net. The pages will likely be archived at my CRK website, and I will be keeping the URL registered. But I want to save the $20 a month to pay the weekly rent on my two lots in New Babbage (the Palaeozoic Museum and the forthcoming Jules Verne Memorial Park), thus trading one obsession for another.

Too hot for a walk last night. Maybe at midnight we could have walked, maybe, but in this neighborhoood late-night walks are unadvisable. Instead, we had a grand Second Life rp session, with the help of blu_muse and Molly Underwood. Best. Toy. Ever. But I've gotten very far behind on Nareth's journal and will try to catch up this evening.

Phoenix is on its way to the Martian north pole. A shame there's no rover on board. Touchdown, May 2008.

Any thoughts/comments on Sirenia Digest #20 would be much appreciated today.

Time to make the doughnuts. Or at least sit here and stare at the dough.