Caitlín R. Kiernan

How long has it been since I've done one of these? It seems like pretty much forever. They are a part of the Golden Days of LiveJournal which, at least to me, seem to have passed. Anyway, courtesy docbrite and matociquala, there this...thing..with random questions...and answers (behind the cut):

( Words! )

So, last Wednesday, I posed this question to my readers: If you had me alone, locked up in your house, for twenty-four hours and I had to do whatever you wanted me to, what would you have me/you/us do? And the answers have been interesting enough that I think a number of them will be featured (anonymously) in Sirenia Digest #50 (for which I am trying to think up fun and special things). Yesterday, Catherynne Valente (yuki_onna, from whom I appropriated the question), posted another such query, and I'm stealing that one, too. Same deal as before. The answers I like the best will appear in #50.

Here it is: If I were a summonable monster, how would you summon me? (Include items to lure monster-me and method for said fell ritual.) Oh, and please describe this monstrous incarnation of me.

Same rules as last Wednesday's question: All comments are screened.* That means, no one but me can read them. That's an extra incentive for you to leave the inhibitions behind. Only I will read these. Then, if I want to use a comment for next month's Digest, I'll contact you and ask permission before doing so. Have fun.

* If you're reading this via Facebook, obviously I cannot screen your comments, unless you post them to LJ.

Snurched from robyn_ma by way of humglum. To quote the former: "Go here and see what was on the top of the charts on the day you were born and every birthday thereafter. Learn just how astrologically-musically lame your life has been. If you want, add in your own favorite Hot 100 hit single of that year, wishing that your birthday had been cool enough to have that song be #1. Share your findings with your unsuspecting friendslist. Put it behind a damn cut."

( Damn cut )

Haven't done a "meme" in a bit, so I just snurched this one from mevennen:

A) Four jobs I have had in my life (other than current job):
Paleontologist, biology teacher, machinist, and lab assistant (genetics).
B.) Four movies I would watch over and over:
Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, There Will Be Blood, The Maltese Falcon
C.) Four places I have lived
Birmingham (AL), Boulder (CO), Athens (GA), County Dublin (Ireland).
D.) Four TV shows that I watch
Torchwood, Dr. Who, Project Runway, Battlestar Galactica.
E.) Four places I have been:
England, Wisconsin, the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Black Hills of South Dakota.
F.) People who e-mail me (regularly):
Sonya, Bill, my editor, my agent
G.) Four of my favourite foods:
Avocado, blue cheese, lasagna, and asparagus.
H. ) Four places I would rather be right now:
New England, Portland (OR), the Mediterranean, or Antarctica.
J.) Four Things I am looking forward to this year:
(I think I'll skip this one for now.)
K.) Four favourite authors:
Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, William Gibson, and J. R. R. Tolkien.

And don't ask me what any of this has to do with Fay Wray.

Yesterday, I wrote a whopping 1,919 words. So, yesterday was quite a good writing day. The Word Bank is now back up to 1,040 words.

All in all, a decent day yesterday. About 5:15, when all the work was finally done, the writing and e-mail, we walked to Videodrome, but didn't rent anything. Then we walked on to the market. It is very good to walk to places we ordinarily drive to. Not only does it help with that nasty carbon footprint, it gives me more a sense that I do, in fact, live in something vaguely resembling a neighborhood. It was so warm I had to take off my cardigan and cinch it about my waist. January 13th, and I'm walking in a tank top. And the dandelions are blooming, as are the Narcissus. Almost all the deciduous trees have buds. Spooky took photos of the premature and symptomatic flora. Maybe I'll post a couple of them later. The sun was going down and clouds were moving in from the west. It was almost dark by the time we got back home. I played FFXII, finally defeating that nest of bombs in the Salikawood. I watched Treasure of the Sierra Madre on TCM. These writing days, these 1,500+ words/per days every day, they leave me pretty useless afterward.

Last night, I came across a review of Threshold from Kliatt that I'd never seen before, though I'm pretty sure it dates back to the book's initial release in 2001. Anyway, it described the novel as "Gothic SF," and I thought, Yes! Yes, that's perfect! That's it exactly! I do not usually get euphoric about categorization. But the more I thought on it, the more it seemed obvious. All the events in these books, all these books I've written, they are not necessarily "inexplicable." I would argue this is true of a "dark fantasy" like Daughter of Hounds or Murder of Angels, but it is most certainly true of Threshold. Blend the basic tenants of SF with the elements of the old "terror Gothic" and you have a novel like Threshold or Low Red Moon.

This comment from mackatlaw, regarding an answer I gave to a meme on Friday night:

"Your Fears: Are for me to know."

I know how this was meant to be taken, but I chose to read it as, "Our fears are for you to know."

I live on Southside in Birmingham, between Rhodes Park and Saint Vincent's Hospital. Everytime I walk by Highland Park at night, I think about the scene in Threshold where the main character is chased by something awful until she reaches her apartment. When I drive on Highway 31 and see Sloss Furnace, I think about the interrogation scene in the sequel, with the people who work for the ghouls. This is by way of saying you have successfully passed on at least two disturbing pieces of your imagination to me. Is it viral, or more like xerox? In any event, I appreciate the relief from the tedium.

Which is to say, I am myself merely a self-aware bundle of perpetuating memes. And you know what William Burroughs said.

-----

This morning was my fifth (I think) visit to the white room with the flickering fluorescent bulbs. I am quite certain now that it's a recurring dream. This is the same event, over and over again. It just seems that sometimes particular portions are clearer to my waking mind than they were at other, earlier times. This morning, for example, before the old Bakelite phone rang, and I went out onto the fire escape to watch the excavating machines, the legless albino woman was having me look through books of photographs. They were like "old-fashioned" photo albums, sturdy brown paper covers tied with brown string like shoestrings. The photos seemed to be B&W mug shots, or something like mug shots, only they're all of the same man, over and over and over. Maybe hundreds of them. I pointed this out, and she rolled her blue eyes and chided me for stating the obvious. Something to the effect of "You're not getting off that easily." Water dripped from the ceiling onto the open book, and I wiped it away from with a corner of the damp sheet. And I began to understand I was looking for something that would set one of these photographs apart from all the rest. The Marlene Dietrich song ended and started over again. All of this is still so clear. Only a moment away from me. The albino woman's hair smelled like violets and cigarette smoke. I could not have this dream again, and I'd not be disappointed.

-----

Cold winter bleeds on the girders of Babel,
This stone boy watching the crawling land.
Rings of flesh and the towers of iron,
The steaming caves, and the rocks, and the sand.

These lyrics have been going round and round in my head all damned day. Which is to say, I may as well post them. Apologies to him who holds the copyright. My intentions are good.

You know the way that things go
When what you fight for starts to fall.
And in that fuzzy picture
The writing stands out on the wall,
So clearly on the wall.

Send out the signals, deep and loud...

And in this place, can you reassure me,
With a touch, a smile, while the cradle's burning.
All the while, the world is turning to noise.
Oh, the more that it's surrounding us,
The more that it destroys.
Turn up the signal.
Wipe out the noise.

Send out the signals, deep and loud...

Man, I'm losing sound and sight
Of all those who can tell me wrong from right,
When all things beautiful and bright
Sink in the night.
Yet there's still something in my heart
That can find a way
To make a start.
To turn up the signal.
Wipe out the noise.

Wipe out the noise.
Wipe out the noise.
You know that's it.
You know that's it.
You know that's it.
You know that's it.

Receive and transmit.
Receive and transmit.
Receive and transmit.

You know that's it.
You know that's it.
Receive and transmit.
You know that's it.
You know that's it.

Receive and transmit.
Receive and transmit.
Receive and transmit.
Receive and transmit.

I haven't done one of these things in a while, and today I saw one in sovay's journal and another in docbrite's, and both looked drad, so....

Meme the First: IF YOUR LIFE WAS A MOVIE, WHAT WOULD THE SOUNDTRACK BE?
1. Open your library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're drad...

( Read more... )

Meme the Second: 70 Random Personal Questions
( Read more... )

Okay. Jeez, it's after one. Time all nixars go to bed. And all platypuses, too.

A new plesiosaur, named Umoonasaurus, has been described from the Cretaceous rocks of Australia, a relatively small rhomaleosaurid measuring only about 2.4 meters in length. This unusual plesiosaur possessed elaborate crests on its skull and survived in relatively cold waters at a time when Australia was a Southern subpolar continent. Anyway, here's an artists reconstruction of the beast:


Copyright © 2006 by Josh Lee

Also, a new meme sort of thingy (behind the cut), snurched from oneirophrenia. It comes with the following rules: "Quick Rules: Put down the first thing that pops into your head. Don't Delete and try again. Stick to your first answer!"

( Word associations. )

I just read this in docbrite's LJ, and it seemed one of the oddest memes I've seen. I'm not sure I can articulate just why. Perhaps I question the author's definition of the word "spoiled," though that definition is only stated implicitly. Many of the criteria seem damned silly, arbitrary, or peculiarly subjective. And non-needed? As in, non-essential? Anyway, yeah, behind the frelling cut, yo:

( Am I spoiled or was I born this way? 40>=spoiled )

Wow. Only 23. No wonder I'm such an ass. Oh, my comments are in italics.

It's late. I'm bored. But I'm too distracted to read. And I'm not sleepy. So, here's a meme I snurched from davidmlemoine. Why not.

The Meme: List ten musical artists that you like, and then go answer the questions.

1) Concrete Blonde
2) VNV Nation
3) R. E. M.
4) David Bowie
5) The Dresden Dolls
6) The Decemberists
7) The Cure
8) The Sisters of Mercy
9) The Crüxshadows
10) Rasputina

What was the first song you ever heard by 6? "The Legionnaire's Lament."

What is your favourite album of 8? Floodland. Though First and Last and Always is a close second.

What is your favourite lyric that 5 has sung? "I'm halfway home now/half hoping for a showdown/cause I'm not big enough to house this crowd/It might destroy me/but i'd sacrifice my body/if it meant i'd get the Jack part OUT." Frell, yeah.

How many times have you seen 4 live? Sadly, never.

What's your favourite song of 7? "Fascination Street."

What is a good memory you have concerning the music of 10? The first time I heard Melora sing "Barracuda" at the now-defunct Echo Lounge here in Atlanta.

Is there a song of 3 that makes you sad? About half of them, actually. But, the saddest..."Wendell Gee."

What is your favourite lyric that 2 has sung? "Set me aflame and cast me free./Away, you wretched world of tethers./Through the endless night and day, I have never wanted more./Always thought that I would stand before the faceless name of justice./Like some law unto myself, like a child of God again."

What is your favourite song by 9? "Tears."

How did you get into 3? When I was first exposed to college radio while at the University of Colorado, the first R. E. M. song I heard was "Driver 8," and I was instantly hooked.

What was the first song you heard by 1? "Tomorrow, Wendy."

What's your favourite song by 4? "I'm Deranged."

How many times have you seen 9 live? Er...ten times for sure, probably more.

What is a good memory you have concerning 2? Nar'eth meeting Gigi Edgley at The Chamber on October 5th, 2002. Also the first night I heard "Darkangel." Well, Nar'eth heard it, but she told me...

Is there a song of 8 that makes you sad? "Alice."

What is your favourite song of 1? "Why Don't You See Me?"