Striking evidence has been found for the enigmatic “stuff” called dark matter which makes up 23% of the Universe, yet is invisible to our eyes.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Cosmic crash unmasks dark matter.
Pah! I knew it was there all the time.
Striking evidence has been found for the enigmatic “stuff” called dark matter which makes up 23% of the Universe, yet is invisible to our eyes.
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Cosmic crash unmasks dark matter.
Pah! I knew it was there all the time.
Sometimes the best way to say something is to let someone else say it for you. That’s why I like hiding behind a character in my fiction. I can voice all of my most outrageous thoughts through him (or her) and then let him (yes, or her) take the flak. Not very noble of me, I know — and I suppose that’s why I started blogging, in an attempt to rid myself of this strange brand of cowardice! In my blogging life I like to be myself, to say it myself, and to face up to the consequences — whatever they may be.
Today, however, I’m going to make an exception and let someone say exactly what I think and feel for me.
If you’re a writer, please read this. It’s well worth a few moments of your time.
A few weeks ago, I was watching the above video on YouTube (I was researching conspiracy theories for The Yesterday Tree at the time — that’s my excuse, and I’m sticking to it 😉 ) in which Noam Chomsky points out, quite correctly, in my opinion, that every authoritarian government (i.e. every government — it’s a matter of degree… of what they are allowed to get away with) benefits from incidents such as the 911 attacks in that it allows them to rein in their populace more effectively (“effectively”, that is, from their point of view.) This is not to say, of course, that the Bush administration planned and implemented the attacks as some (idiots) would have us believe, but it is very much an observable phenomenon, and one which I was reminded of when my friend Lou today sent me the article below.
Now I’m not disputing that we have some very real social problems, in part centred around under-age-drinking, in the UK. The behaviour of some of these young people impacts severely on whole communities and, yes, it has to be addressed — or more to the point, the underlying problems that prompt this kind of behaviour need to be addressed.
But is this the way to do it? No. Absolutely not. We have enough existing laws in place to deal with this problem without taking such an extreme approach. As far as I’m concerned, the comment form Inspector Neil Mutch of South Yorkshire Police pretty much hit the nail on the head:
“The Act was brought out for terrorism but it suits us very nicely.”
Lazy policing. This Act was implemented to protect the UK citizen from serious crime and terrorism, not to make Inspector Mutch’s job that little bit easier.
As most of you will know, I recently abandoned the outline for The Yesterday Tree/We Are Watching. I simply wasn’t happy with the progress — or, rather, I was unhappy with my lack of excitement for it.
Never exactly comfortable without having something to work on, however, I quickly decided on what I was going to do next. Another semiautobiographical novel entitled Through the Stormy Shades.
I decided from the outset to approach this from a slightly different angle. I want the novel to be experimental in form (experimental for me, at least!) and I don’t want to nail it down too tightly at outline stage. At the same time, though, I want to know what material I have and how it can be used. I am therefore outlining in what is for me a very barebones way. I may go into more detail with it before writing, at this stage I just can’t be sure, but I already like the feeling I’m getting. I think the sparsity, the space between the lines is helping.
I’ve left room for surprises. I think I need that.
So you can see exactly what I mean about not nailing it down too tightly, here’s a short excerpt from the outline itself. I’ll be interested in hearing any thoughts you might have on it.
(PLEASE NOTE: the following outline includes references to adult subjects… well, adolescent subjects — my narrator is fourteen and surrounded by pretty student nurses so… work it out for yourself… that’s what he had to do 😉 )
Through the Stormy Shades — Outline Sample.
First section:
Second section:
Third section:
Fourth section:
Fifth section:
Sixth section:
Seventh section:
Eighth section:
The Obama campaign has suggested that Mr McCain’s choice is irresponsible, referring to her former role as mayor of the small Alaskan town of Wasilla.
“Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency,” said spokesman Bill Burton.
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | McCain picks female running mate.
American politics is something I only rarely comment on — the three-ring circus appeal wears too thin very quickly for me.
However, it’s just got interesting. Okay, so her credentials and her politics suck but she is kinda cute.
Remember to drop by soon for more in-depth political analysis 😉
Well, my short story for the September first Idiosyncratica challenge is now pretty much complete. It was a lot more difficult than I expected keeping it around five hundred words, but, with a lot of effort, I managed it.
The story, entitled “Lost”, will be appearing here on the first of September. If you are an Idiosyncratica member and you haven’t yet written your piece, you’d better get on with it or Pirate Mike will be after you with his pointy thing!
Yesterday I received a quote that a friend had found and kindly forwarded to me. I always like it when friends send me something that they think I might find interesting — especially when I find it interesting in a way that’s probably different to what they’d intended! (I can be a contrary son of a bitch at times, so I beg the sender not to beat me across the head with a dictionary of quotations until I’m nothing more than a bloody mass quivering on the floor! 🙂 )
The quotation was from the American novelist Alice Walker, and it really did make me sit up and take notice, for all the wrong reasons.
“Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn’t matter. I’m not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn’t make us better, then what on earth is it for.”
On the surface, there’s a kind of sense to this. I can see that. The lives we lead unquestionably influence our fiction. I can see and accept that. But, naturally, being the kind of person that I am, I had to look at it a little more closely.
What is “a good book”? That was the first question I found myself asking. I could probably ask this of ten of my regular readers and get ten quite different answers — but, for the sake of argument, let’s assume that Ms Walker means “a well written book”. Is it possible for “a bad person” to write a “well written book”, a book that has something to say, something it communicates effectively? Well, actually, I think the answer is a resounding “yes!” The reasoning behind this is quite simply this: fiction does not have to be nice or even moral to be of value.
But, of course, this led me to another question… one that, frankly, I was amazed I even had to address. What is “a bad person”? Or, more to the point, what does Ms Walker consider to be “a bad person”? Someone who cheats on his wife, drinks heavily, smokes excessively, shoots wild animals, drives irresponsibly, abuses her daughter, doesn’t believe in God, does believe in God, participates in orgies, tells fans to “fuck off” when asked for an autograph, is a supporter of the Republican Party, is a supporter of the Democrats, is wealthy but doesn’t give to charity, receives charity but squanders the help he’s been given, has a lesbian relationship and who is no longer interested in being a mother to her daughter… what? Because, you see, as I’m sure we all know, it’s more complicated than that. Life on the whole is one big grey area and to throw around phrases like “bad person” willy-nilly will inevitably end up with one shooting oneself in the foot.
Now, I’m sure we all know bad people. We can all talk about the things they have done and how they should be dealt with. But I get the distinct feeling that this isn’t what Ms Walker was talking about. I’m happy to be corrected on this, but it strikes me that she’s making a moral judgement of writers who live their lives and approach their work differently to her.
And that just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
“Whether you voted for me or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose.”
BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Clinton urges party to back Obama.
I still get the feeling she’ll be skipping around with glee singing “I told you so, I told you so! Shoulda voted for me, shoulda voted for me!” if McCain ends up in the White House.
For those among you who like to get their updates in the most fashionable way possible, you can now follow me on Twitter.
I’ve had a profile for a short while now but haven’t really been using it… I wasn’t sure that it was really for me. However, having given it a go I think there might be some real benefits in it.
I’ll largely be using it to post notifications of blog updates, but may occasionally use it to harass close friends and associates 😉
So, if you’re at all interested, you can find me at: http://twitter.com/garymurning.
(I’ve just got in from an afternoon on the moors and have a lot to catch up on, so I will write something more interesting tomorrow! Promise.)