Archive for the ‘Writing and Editing’ Category

The Alter

Monday, November 29th, 2010

A Hundred Word Story.

Or maybe a One Thousand One Hundred word story, including the pic.

His toes gripped the smooth vine as he squeezed through the tunnel into the Temple. The priest waited at the entrance to the Alter; they bobbed to each other, dewlaps inflating in mutual respect.

He entered the impenetrable darkness.

There was a flash.

He found himself on a bony claw. Glancing back, he saw a black-hooded skull and froze in panic — but it only nodded and gently flicked its hand. He spread his wings to steady himself.

He had wings! Death forgotten, he launched into the air. He laughed, and a gout of flame burst from his mouth….

Click to see the Alter:
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Submitted to Laurence Simon’s Hundred Word Story topic, It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time.

I think these were supposed to be cautionary tales…but you know, sometimes it seems like a good idea, and it is!

Posted in Critters, Home Improvement, Laugh Dammit!, SF (Science Fiction and Fantasy), Writing and Editing | 1 Comment »

The Philosophical Lexicon

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

“Founded by Daniel Dennett, the Philosophical Lexicon converts philosophers’ surnames into useful words (with often pointed definitions):”

  • rand, n. An angry tirade occasioned by mistaking philosophical disagreement for a personal attack and/or evidence of unspeakable moral corruption.
  • turing, v. To travel from one point to another in simple, discrete steps, without actually knowing where one is going, or why.
  • voltaire, n. A unit of enlightenment.

Ooh, yes, I’m definitely going to have start working some of these into the conversation.

Via Futility Closet.

Posted in Cool Stuff, History, Language, Laugh Dammit!, Philosophy, Writing and Editing | Comments Off

Final Serial Commas

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

I’m a big fan of the rule that, when typing out a list, you should always use a comma after the penultimate item, right before the “and”.

Excellent counterexample here, from a print blurb for a documentary about Merle Haggard:

The documentary was filmed over three years. Among those interviewed were his two wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall.

Posted in Language, Laugh Dammit!, Writing and Editing | Comments Off

Quote of the Day: Blinded by the Big Light

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

R. A. Lafferty on fanaticism, from And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire:

How is a person or a world unmade or unformed? First, by being deformed. And following the deforming is the collapsing. The tenuous balance is broken. Insanity is induced easily under the name of the higher sanity. Then the little candle that is in each head is blown out on the pretext that the great cosmic light can better be seen without it.

“The little candle that is in each head is blown out….”

My throat tightened up when I read this line. That is, without question, the best statement of what is happening to us, right now. all over the world, that I have ever read. Billy Beck calls it, quite rightly, The Endarkenment.

And Lafferty wrote it in 1972.

R. A. Lafferty, folks. You’ve probably never heard of him if you don’t read science fiction.

Your loss, and I’m sorry for you.

[via Protein Wisdom.]

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Posted in History, Literature, Political Correctness, Quote of the Day, SF (Science Fiction and Fantasy), Writing and Editing | Comments Off