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More reading yesterday, in between all the stress about Washington College. Algernon Blackwood's "The Wendigo" and "A Descent into Egypt." Oh, and I love this quote from ST Joshi:
"...the weird tale...did not (and perhaps does not now) exist as a genre but as the consequence of a world view." (Joshi, 1990)
In the end, the one thing I can think of that unites pretty much everything I've written from 1994 up to now — the dark fantasy, the "gothnoir," the sf, the erotica, everything — is that it all derives from and reflects a world view that has changed only by small degrees. Oh, and there's another good quote from Machen:
"For literature, as I see it, is the art of describing the indescribable; the art of exhibiting symbols which may hint at ineffable mysteries behind them: the art of the veil, which reveals what it conceals." (Machen, 1931).
Certainly, I can think of no single sentence that so perfectly describes my own approach to the fantastic, and to writing, in general.
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Today, I need to proofread "Pickman's Other Model" for Sirenia Digest #28, and hopefully get a start on reading through the A is for Alien manuscript (just a quick read though, as Sonya [
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Last night, I tried to get around my disappointment over the Washington College appearance by cooking a huge meal for Spooky, who felt too bad to do much of anything but lie on the sofa and moan and whimper. I made a corned beef brisket with cabbage and onions and carrots and boiled some potatoes. We skipped the Guinness, as, between her amoxicillin prescription and my anti-seizure meds, alcohol is out for now. Later, we watched still more Angel ("Shiny Happy People" and "The Magic Bullet"), and then I got into trouble in Second Life. That was yesterday.
Next verse...