A few months a discussion in a University of Iowa writing MOOC caught my attention. I didn’t contribute, because I was late to the exchange, and anyway, I felt a bit like an anthropologist, observing people around the world express their ideas about what they were learning. This particular discussion was about how cultures might … Continue reading What the hell am I doing here
Stories
Doctor Who: Familiar Universes
I drew three conclusions about the Doctor Who episode It Takes You Away. To me the themes were obvious, but satisfying amid the classic Who scares, Doctory-mythos talk, a fairy tale turned reality, and a Scandi-noir story that turned into something else. But to the conclusions, first:) Mother Rite The very first thing I thought … Continue reading Doctor Who: Familiar Universes
Starting something
I didn't mean to, but I started something. I have an Instagram account, and it's mostly full of sunsets, art, and visually arresting things (and puns) and now RedBubble promotions. I don't really use Insta for writing related efforts. This week I started to. It's been both frustrating and creatively fulfilling. After endlessly tinkering with … Continue reading Starting something
Something old is renewed
You can never experience your own writing in the same way readers can. Writers know their own story, are often unaware of their usual or unusual foibles, and read what they want imagined, not what they put on the page. So they see the wood for the trees. Unless you write something and completely forget … Continue reading Something old is renewed
Uses of enchantment
I have Bruno Bettelheim's book Uses of Enchantment, somewhere. Yet I'm less interested in Freudian readings of myth and fairy tales than other types of interpretation. But that's not the point of this. I was reading how selling is the art of story telling, (in a Medium piece here) but earlier I'd been looking for a … Continue reading Uses of enchantment
Rewatch: Alien/s
I rewatched the Alien franchise (the first four films). They speak about how humans incubate fears of the dark, the unknown, of disappearing, of birth, change, life and death. Probably, I'd insert a quote from Helene Cixous or Luce Irigaray here about language, myth, the body and sexuality, but you know... Anywho, these films are … Continue reading Rewatch: Alien/s
We know what we are, but not what we may be
Every now and then I become aware of my hollowness. I'm hollow but not like a log that was once a healthy tree. No. I'm hollow like a vessel made to be filled up by something else. I take on the interests of others to fill out this human form and to make up for … Continue reading We know what we are, but not what we may be
Physics of Writing
The writer's Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal: You can know where the work should go, but not if it is acceptable. If acceptable, you can't know where to send it. But once sent out into the world, Aeons pass. Stars are born and die. In the space left between atoms and galaxies, Writers are meant to maintain … Continue reading Physics of Writing
Some small Mediums at large
If you are interested in reading some work of mine that has only been published in print, a few short stories are now up over at Medium. There are also old stories previously published online, now Medium is their new home. As a platform it is easy to use, and sleek to look at. It's been … Continue reading Some small Mediums at large
Objective wonder
I recently attended a public lecture at Melbourne University's Object-Based Learning Centre. This moodily lit, formal space is a world-class museum-lab-classroom where students and guests can go look at and handle (with care) physical bits and pieces. Most visitors are students enrolled in museum studies, history and archaeology, but any student can go look and … Continue reading Objective wonder
Writing Bec 