blog| About Colors | |
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To the Followers of the Brushed Eared One, |
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| Review of "When They Came" | |
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My friend Micahel Santora sent me some responses to my book When They Came:
I have just tonight finished reading "When They Came", and wanted to reward the gift of your writing with what I hope is the gift of hearing from a highly satisfied reader. First, "The Shiny Surface" was one of the best short pieces of fiction I have read in quite a while. I cried openly at this story, and its deeply true heart touched me in several places as a result of my personal history over the last few years. before finishing the book, I returned to this story several times, and I have the last line frequently echoing in my head. "A Little Night Music" was another very trangely touching story that wove my sense of an emotional heart with the Weird, and I was utterly compelled by it. I happened to read this and the next story while sitting in the examination room at my vet's waiting for someone to come and give my dear Hatchetface her weekly allergy shot, and this story hit me with a resonance for the relationship that I have with my cat, who I do believe would be heartbroken if I abandoned her, and I know that when her time comes to be parted from me, a piece of my heart is going to shatter forever. And as I write this, a humane society /SaveAnimalsNow.org commercial has come on, and I find myself tearing up once again. The Source And The Stone reminded me very strongly of J.G. Ballard's "The Crystal World" and his story of the world being slowly turned into a crystalline place, where movement ceased and everything became static. I remember the story particularly for two scenes that have always stayed in my mind. The first, that of the story's narrator running out of the Crystal forest clutching a gem-encrusted crucifix, as the gems slowly lost their quality as protective talismans. The second, that moment when one of the characters told the protagonist to leave him in the forest if he found him trapped there, and later, someone is pulled from the forest, and is found to be shattered/torn to pieces by the now-melting 'crystal', since they didn't get all of the facets which contained him. In short, thank you very much for writing these stories which have given me laughter, tears, and moments of real reflection. ****************************** That made me feel pretty dang good! ************************************ On Monday I had a lovely chat with Harlan Ellison. I had sent him a fan letter recently. The month before he had happened to come across The Double and "To Mars and Providence" and found them of merit. Yes I have now had Harlan Ellison say I wrote a "Fuckin good story." I officially may die happy.
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| Anthony Burgess Bi | |
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Dear Friends, This is my letter for my character workshop at UCLA, I like to share these with a few random friends, Dear Friends,
Today is the birthday of Anthony Burgess (1904) , a wonderful, wonderful writer. His short novel A Clockwork Orange presents some interesting moral issues as well as some lovely prose and violence. Is Alex (see the pun A Lex -- a law unto himself) evil because of urge to hurt? Is the system that reconditions him more evil? Or simply more practical? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange http://www.shmoop.com/clockwork-orange/morality-ethics-quotes.html The fact the world is ruled by Soviet Russia is never mentioned, but all the odd words are Russian, what a lovely bit of show not tell: http://www.artofeurope.com/kubrick/nadsat.htm Burgess is a master of langauge, you can write like Joyce and still be a best seller http://www.themodernword.com/Joyce/joyce_influence_authors.html Your vids: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7656347491310375572&ei=Mc6GS_2xLZPorAL5yc3ZDQ&q=a+clockwork+orange+&hl=en# http://uk.video.yahoo.com/watch/4996084 Bestest, Don |
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| Re-Integartion Notes | |
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A very wise Setian is leading a seminar on re-integration. He (like many Setians) uses the Van Gennep model of Initiation -- Isolation, Liminiliaty, and Reintegration. The Temple is greta at the first two steps, and as we come into our Third Working Year we are working on the last. His study group has asked various Setian how they reintagrate after a major magical event. Here is my response to him: Dear M----- Victor Turner decided toward the end of his career that there were two sorts of Religious/Magical/Artistic/Political events. They were "Conservation" and "Growth" -- they can otherwise be labeled "Structure" and "Anti-Structure." Growth and change (both Willed and Uh-oh) happen when you are out of the laws of your life. If you spend too much time there you are endlessly reinvent yourself, loose your treasures and become mad. If you spend no time there you are fulfilling someone else's Working. Maybe even a dead guy that isn't even a relative. Since I am programmed to the Setian cosmology I think this should have six steps. Number of Sleep and Dreams, 0. Look this list over before you go to the event. A few magical moments will come to you unbidden, but most are planned. 1. Get some alone time to write it all down. Real alone time no family, friends, e-mail. What are the spiritual treasures you have gained? What are the books and movies you want to track down? What "New Year's Resolutions" have you made? Write until you really can't think of anything. A great time to do this is in airports 2. Have full knowledge that you will be coming back to do a triage of Urgent and Important things. Urgent means pay the power bill the night you get back after Conclave. Important means you will write that Priest you promised. With soothing background -- the right music, the right tea etc. have a business session when you get home and make a list. This will incorporate new and magical things into your life. 3. Plan on doing something fun and absorbing with friends or family. Really celebrate them and you. Whatever you pick it needs to take your monkey brain away from the big deep experience. 4. After a couple of weeks, make an imaginary speech, "I have Learned X about myself and my cosmic goals. Since I am Y years old living in Z here are some long-term and short term things I Need to Do. I know I can Do them because I AM that holy and powerful person that had those amazing experiences." Write it down if you like. 5. S'Ba explain?teach something you have learned. Often the best way to learn is to teach. Pass it on into the Setian world -- as well as what you can in secular life or your art or just talking to the guy next to you on the bus every morning. 6. Thank the people that put on the event. Small gifts with magical blessings that send some of the energy from steps 3 and 5 are good. That wasn't a typo I said 3 and 5. Yes I do most if not all of this stuff. If I don't take for 1, I screw up. If I don't take time for 2 I start to associate Conclaves and so forth with Chaos -- blindly think my Magic will bring Order to this mess. Fat chance. 3 is good old Indulgence and keeps from being pious assholes. 4 is the real act of reintegration. 5. Gives to the Aeon, and what you give Her comes back more than three-fold -- our meso-cosmos beats the Wiccans on that one. 6 Affirms the process and sends a wave of You-ness into the Cosmos. It will bless the organizers, but it will come back to you in an unexpected way, at an unexpected time -- and then you Re-Member all of this! Xeper and Remanifest, Don Ir Shti Shta-tu! PS Some helpful links: |
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