Saturday, September 27, 2003

Or..

...the three of you could be called Triple K!

(movie poster tagline: Triple K or Triple Threat?)

Saturday, September 20, 2003

'God, country, pageant, family'

Miss Mississippi, Allison Kellogg, sometimes goes by the nickname Special K, for the cereal made by the Kellogg family, to which she is distantly related. She wanted to know if she should use the nickname onstage.

"She comes up to me," Jessica says.

"She's so naive; it's adorable," Lou-Lou says.

"I'm like, 'Ugh. I don't know if it's such a good idea -- that's a drug,' " Jessica says.

(Ketamine, to be exact. A horse tranquilizer, used at raves.)

Jessica and Lou-Lou think this is a hilarious story. Think of the possibilities!

"My middle name is 'Ecstasy,' " suggests Lou-Lou.

They think Miss Mississippi's innocence is sweet.


I'm not sure if I'm a winter or not. (Great snarky story on Miss America; parts of it read like something from "Shoe and Marriage.") Is Miss America just one big consensual fantasy, a hallucination, a non-fevered dream (no sweating, makes your make-up run)? This has got to be the point of intersection for Intersubjective Magic and Stage Magic Fiction. Or something.

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

when the opposition makes the point

From today's New York Times piece on Stephen King getting a
National Book Award for his contribution to American letters:


Told of Mr. King's selection, some in the literary world
responded with laughter and dismay. "He is a man who writes
what used to be called penny dreadfuls," said Harold Bloom,
the Yale professor, critic and self-appointed custodian of
the literary canon. "That they could believe that there is
any literary value there or any aesthetic accomplishment or
signs of an inventive human intelligence is simply a
testimony to their own idiocy."

Saturday, September 13, 2003

Intersubjective Magic

Richard's post makes me think of John Crowley's keynote speech about magic at the 2001 ICFA. First he distinguished between physical magic -- e.g., turning lead into gold -- which doesn't actually work, and intersubjective magic -- e.g., casting a hex on someone -- which very often does work. Citing Ioan Culianu's book Eros and Magic in the Renaissance, Crowley described magic as the place where subjectivity and technology meet. Magicians study how one consciousness reacts to another, and apply that knowledge in a deliberate, controlled manner. In this way a magician can instill certain emotions in another person and even compel actions. This is most commonly done as a form of manipulation or control -- advertising and propaganda being widespread modern examples -- but Crowley suggested it could also be used to heal, to unbind people instead of bind them. And perhaps writers can do it with fiction.

Friday, September 12, 2003

The Kneeling Drunkard's Plea

I'll miss Johnny Cash.

Tuesday, September 09, 2003

new weird con a malonga stuff

You guys aren't even writing science fiction. Discuss.

(It's just when I look around everybody is writing an essay or having an argument about some term or group or preference, so maybe to revive what is ultimately a kid in need of a pair of boots, I'm gonna start calling you all names till you respond.)

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

two of them

"When the last dime is gone, I'll sit on the curb outside with a pencil and a ten-cent notebook, and start the whole thing over again."
-- Preston Sturges

And

"I never gave away anything without wishing I had kept it; nor kept it without wishing I had given it away."
-- Louise Brooks

(Now other people post something.)

Monday, September 01, 2003

Batfam? (hum theme song now)

Sometimes when you run out of your own bookmarks, it pays to look at weird bookmarks that others who may use the same computer as you might have.

I submit to you: a very special family tree.

What do you say about that justice, '70s t-shirt friends?