LINES OF THE DAY

". . . But the past does not exist independently from the present. Indeed, the past is only past because there is a present, just as I can point to something over there only because I am here. But nothing is inherently over there or here. In that sense, the past has no content. The past -- or more accurately, pastness -- is a position. Thus, in no way can we identify the past as past." p. 15

". . . But we may want to keep in mind that deeds and words are not as distinguishable as often we presume. History does not belong only to its narrators, professional or amateur. While some of us debate what history is or was, others take it into their own hands." p. 153

Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995) by Michel-Rolph Trouillot

Friday, January 29, 2010

18 Degrees

Nor shall things warm for several more days.  I'd hoped we would miss these temperatures this year.

More cheerily -- the students are terrific!  Among them they speak roughly 3.4 languages, if you fold Cantonese Chinese  into the majority Mandarin Chinese.  The students diversity ranges from three different Asian regions through the Caribbean.  Missing are any members from Africa, though the born in the U.S.A. students include Afro Latin and African American students.  This is going to be a good spring semester.

O, and for some reason the NFL believes it OWNS "Who Dat?", that its employment anywhere except on merchandise peddled by the NFL is copyright infringement. They also seem to believe they own gold and black.   See Jaquetta White, The Times-Picayune.  Damn, why do corps want to ruin the fun in everything?   I suppose I've just infringed by typing those words here.

2 comments:

K. said...

They don't call it the No Fun League for nothing. It's idiotic.

Foxessa said...

Yeah. Corps.

They own us all.

Way back in the day, in my first days of trying to make a living in NYC, I wrote an overlong story about corporations owning and controlling us all -- the lucky workers lived in their castle fortress skyscrapers (we don't even use that designation now) -- and it was a neo feudalism.

I wasn't a skillful enough writer then -- and it was primarily inspired by working in the hotshot financial and law firms in the World Trade Center ... but I had a great eye, I will say so myself.

This was before the corps began copying Calvin Klein and branding our behinds with logos -- now all the politicians are wholly owned by the corps.

This was my first foray into really writing SF. I didn't pull it off, but I worked on it constantly during those weeks. And I finished it.

And I had a real life editor who was willing to look at my efforts, and tell me what was wrong with it, and also tell me that I demonstrated real talent and grasp of how to write.

That editor died, long before his time, nearly 20 years ago, and I still miss him nearly every day of my life. He was a wonderful friend as well as one of the best editors any writer could be lucky enough to encounter. He also bought my first paid piece of writing.

Love, C.