tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44552231962228218582024-01-29T12:19:04.783+05:30aaahfooeyJPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.comBlogger571125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-9635603618089638982015-02-05T13:49:00.002+05:302015-02-05T13:49:21.782+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">What crouches on you, meditating on your doom? </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Is it fate, the hatred of your enemies, is it the demon </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">from your memories? </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">What crouches on you, staring into the emptiness?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Is it conscience with black wings, is it the voice</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">that tells you of your failure?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">What crouches on you, silent, becalmed?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">It is only time, only the universe</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">only entropy ushering you along</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">where you were headed from the start.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;"><br /></span></div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-56508842364326186882014-11-18T11:46:00.000+05:302014-11-18T11:46:04.985+05:3023 Lovecraftian Stories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-06e16a7e-c18a-1cc3-9c04-1c8c8727d48f" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<ol style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The DIY Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I like making slotted angles, but they don’t align quite the way they’re supposed to. Now I need to choose between a non-Euclidian plane and a regular hand plane. </span></div>
<ol start="2" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Fill-In-The-Blanks Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Par s of m are miss ng. I haven t los them. They’ e just dimens onal y anomal us. Th s s wha hap ens wh n you mes w th transdim nsion l creat res.</span></div>
<ol start="3" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Erotic Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A shoggoth blossomed and was penetrated by tentacles. Now you know why the beast had a thousand young. </span></div>
<ol start="4" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Missing Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<br /><ol start="5" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Androgynous Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There was once a little girl and her name was Howard Philips. </span></div>
<ol start="6" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Foodie’s Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In Dunwich, Soilent Green is fish. Want a side-order of ice cream with that?</span></div>
<ol start="7" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Dead-End Job Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘My name is Howie. I’m delighted to be selling you your tickets to this vapid cinematic production. I fear it will include the sounds of Negroid minstrelsy and was produced by an individual of Semitic ancestry. Even the popcorn is Native American.’</span></div>
<ol start="8" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Missing Lovecraftian Story (For Real This Time)</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The missing Lovecraftian was never found. But he kept copious notes right up until the moment he went missing, so we have a pretty good idea of what happened to him. Or we would, if he had the words to describe it. </span></div>
<ol start="9" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Racially Integrated Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In Red Hook, a number of people from different cultures got together and decided to make a new religion cobbled together from bits and pieces of all their faiths. They were beats before the beats, hippies before the hippies, New Agers before the New Agers. And they threw the best parties ever. </span></div>
<ol start="10" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Evolutionarily Accurate Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I realised to my horror that chimpanzees and humans last had common ancestors four to six million years ago, so my grandmother probably could not have been one of them. </span></div>
<ol start="11" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Theological Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To what extent did Wilbur and his brother partake of the diabolical nature of their father? Was Wilbur two parts human and one part demon? Was Lavinia a vessel or was she diabolical too? We should hold a council and decide. </span></div>
<ol start="12" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Cyberpunk Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When you jack into Cthulhuspace, you’ll never make it back sane. </span></div>
<ol start="13" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Hard-Bitten Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Never mind the tentacles. That thing had teeth like pneumatic drills. Call me the perforated dick. I blame it all on the client, but what a dame. </span></div>
<ol start="14" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Romantic Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I wandered the hills around Dunwich in a frock coat, my hair billowing in the winds, one with the elements, my emotions in turmoil, my tentacles awry. Would anyone ever understand the things that lurked in the depths of my soul?</span></div>
<ol start="15" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Other Kind Of Romantic Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘Oh, Asenath!’ </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘Oh Edward!’ </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘Who’s your daddy, Asenath?’ </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘I am!’ </span></div>
<ol start="16" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Surreal Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I took up rooms in a house. It was a nice new house and all the lines met at right angles. </span></div>
<ol start="17" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Another Missing Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">No, wait, it was actually written by August Derleth. </span></div>
<ol start="18" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Forgotten Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Also known as Sweet Ermengarde. Best left forgotten. </span></div>
<ol start="19" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Splatterpunk Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The shoggoth buried its tentacles in his eyes, pulling them out of their sockets in a welter of gore and brain-stuff while elsewhere it clawed at his belly, letting loose the gases and acids and half-digested food within. </span></div>
<ol start="20" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Kim Harrison Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘Have we been tentacled again?’ ‘Pop culture reference.’ ‘Sequel hook.’</span></div>
<ol start="21" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Richard Laymon Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Things really started getting wild when the shoggoths found their way to the sorority house. </span></div>
<ol start="22" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The 1990s Paperback Horror Anthology Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Man, a lot of rock stars are dead. I’m going to quote some of their lyrics. Hey, groupies. Oh, Yog-Sothoth!</span></div>
<ol start="23" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: decimal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Last Lovecraftian Story</span></div>
</li>
</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Even as I scribble these words crawling chaos is consuming the last few remnants of the physical univer</span></div>
<br /><br /></div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-85261372871331024922014-09-21T13:33:00.000+05:302014-09-21T13:33:24.654+05:30Ten Indian Metal Songs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This is a sort of taster of some of the better things to come out of the Indian metal scene.<br />
<br />
1. First, a lesser known song from the pioneers of Indian metal, Millennium. The first Indian metal band to have a video on MTV and torchbearers for the whole Indian scene as well as the still-thriving Bangalore underground. There are more famous songs like Only Be One and Peace Just In Heaven, so for people who've only heard those big hits, here's something else, one of the most hard-hitting tracks from their self-titled album. I apologise for the sound quality.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/zQDKC-TXvSU" width="560"></iframe></div>
<br />
<br />
2. Another Bangalore band, Dying Embrace brought the extreme metal ethos into the scene. Rude, crude and unafraid, they took it further than anyone else I'd heard at the time dared to. Extremity in Indian metal begins with this doom death band. Again, the sound quality is not the best, although there are better recordings by them on youtube.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9gPmpPnCGnU" width="420"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
3. Myndsnare was India's first and still finest tech death band, that's all there is to it. Yet another Bangalore band, they started out with a fearsome mission to take metal to new realms of precision and complexity. Along the way, they developed the songwriting chops their earliest material lacked. Here is a good example of their style:<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9jit8e_ee0M" width="420"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
4. Threinody stood head and shoulders above the late-90s, early-00s thrash scene in Bangalore with their tight, catchy compositions, musical prowess and hard hitting lyrics. Back after a long hiatus, they could have been titans of what passes for the local scene if they'd stuck it out, but will hopefully make up for lost time.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/tMVlrB22ZnI" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
<br />
<br />
5. Finally, a Mumbai band! I make no apologies for my parochialism - but YMMV. In any case, this band's King Diamond-inspired horror-tale songs and the mix of thrashy aggression and classic metal in their music, along with a healthy helping of lead guitar glory, make them one of my favourite live and studio acts.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/oqRrOEWEbyQ" width="420"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
6. Another Mumbai band, Solar Deity has released three EPs of some of the finest black metal from India. They sound truly dark and massive, with a moody, melancholy edge, but without slipping into the lachrymose realms of out and out DSBM.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/dHgvTjY5TwE" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
7. Mumbai's Dormant Inferno play intensely melodic and haunting death-tinged doom. A formidable, all-enveloping experience live, they are currently working on a new batch of recordings. In the meantime here's one of their best songs from their old EP.<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/5VJ22UH_WuY" width="420"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
8. This isn't the kind of metal I usually fancy but Amogh Symphony's absolutely insane level of technical prowess and compositional maturity make them impossible to ignore.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0-SdrOXXR8k" width="420"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
9. If stoner and doom metal are here to stay in India, Bevar Sea are probably responsible. Here's one of their best songs.<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/VfSz3rO46LI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br />
10. And finally, here's some battle-themed death metal in the tradition of Bolt Thrower:<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/1VibGBdSm7w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br />JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-84761157423431130122014-09-12T11:07:00.004+05:302014-09-12T11:07:45.300+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
brief images seen</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
in dark
places</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
penile fish in
calm water</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
an
albino fawn sleeping</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
brief words flicker</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
in a
darkened mind</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
sad, naïve words</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
must
not forget</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
salt coats the trail
of </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
these
brief things</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
these fleet things
that would not slow </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
or swing low</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
or let me ride</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a dark room with windows open wide</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
to dark
sunlight a darkened</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
mind</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
open wide to receive </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
these
fleet things</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a
decaying bear’s hide</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
a teeming sky</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
open wide to remember</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
until
memory flees</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
leaving a salted trail</div>
</div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-42421888129430997442014-09-08T21:19:00.002+05:302014-09-08T21:19:13.227+05:30the bit about life is wrong<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
I should build a still</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like the one in Hawkeye’s swamp</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My daily round of death</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And life. Hard to forget the</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Death easy to</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Undervalue the life. Life’s </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Only a novelty, like a freeze frame</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Snapshot, drop of milk turning </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Into a tiara</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A gimmick. Gim-crack. Gew-gaw. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I should build a still</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Distill oblivion for my convenience</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But just one drink goes to my head</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Coursing sensations of empty</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bonhomie, flint-spark love and</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joy, then ten minutes later morose and heavy-</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
-headed, peering into darkness in lit </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rooms until I drink another and another </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And only flashes of oblivion</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like glimpses of darkness at noon</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And never the night sky at last</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I should build a still</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Safe place somewhere high in a tree</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Or deep underneath a city</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I should write my will</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But I have nothing to leave</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And anyway I leave it all to you</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I should build a still</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Living beast, a magnificent monster, be</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A postmodern Prometheus, </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Steal the gods’ secret</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Recipe, brew up a new race</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Giants. Immortal. Benign. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I should. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I really should. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-24759127774748033232014-09-07T15:14:00.001+05:302014-09-07T16:33:41.311+05:30a poem about my father's death<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A room at the end.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Tubes, machines. Mechanical sounds.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My father’s wife sings a religious song.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Faith, tears.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I found tears too.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Faith is over. A stranger from the first.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A room at the end.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not large. Well lit.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">His hair still dark. Dyed?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Still thick. Features?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Used to be handsome. Maybe still is.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dwarfed by the bed, by all the appliances.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A room at the end.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I look at the room he lived in while</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">he was dying.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Wheelchair. Respirator.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vodka bottle.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Books: westerns, history, crime, travel.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A smart brown blazer hanging by the bed.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A room at the end.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I shower in the attached bathroom.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Change into dhoti, don the sacred thread.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Gooseflesh. Shivering. First time.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Conduct the last rites.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hypnotic. Befuddling.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fire and water and milk and leaves.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A room at the end.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He slides along the ramp.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Into the chamber.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I go away for lunch.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Come back and am given an earthen pot.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ashes. Bones. More rituals.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have no connection to this.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is not my father. This is not my ritual.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A room at the end.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I dream him into it.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A quiet place. Maybe some Debussy.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Modigliani nudes. Degas.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">An easel on which waits a landscape in progress.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A bottle of vodka.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Books. I suppose that would do for him.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A room at the end.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is always a room. And the end. We are not intrepid. Or immortal.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">No mountainsides, battlefields, ocean deeps, daring sports gone wrong.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are not intrepid in that way. In this</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">we are alike.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">is </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">not my tribute.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
</div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-57398226828804762672014-08-27T09:50:00.001+05:302014-08-27T10:11:44.936+05:30scrutiny and long acquaintance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">death has more details</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to take in</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">more to say</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">more to remember</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">for me life is a series of banal</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">snapshots</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a film school dropout’s montage</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of cookie-cutter</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">characterisation and context</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">for me life is like wallpaper</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">i disagree with and</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">will lose the argument</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.15; white-space: pre-wrap;">death is so much more</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">compelling. consider: </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">none who ever lived resisted its</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">compulsion ignored its</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">call</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">or evaded its coming</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">i have seen enough of death to </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">know</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it is never just death</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it is never just a number</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">never just another</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">death is always fraught</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">always rife with detail</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">always unique</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">death stands out</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">even in a pack</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">even in a massacre or epidemic</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and the only ones to whom death</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">can be held at a remove</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">can be anaesthetised</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and dismissed</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">are neither dead nor alive</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small; line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">but far worse </span></div>
</div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-72323702894356331552014-08-22T17:12:00.001+05:302014-08-22T17:12:30.105+05:30people send me pictures<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Copies of my books are being spotted in the wild. Here are some pictures I have seen:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiySBIDxvknZhEozyNb696_WWkJ7a7gGRGSC_gEbTF0XyMVrh3Kt0fjBpT5dMYsojRSUiFUCkE8TTTYLEbGbSAMdUf4ZsvPj32xH4YA_beLNc9o-bIR1Onyy5rP2XY7zzmpUFvZeJtch3Hi/s1600/christopherslatsky.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiySBIDxvknZhEozyNb696_WWkJ7a7gGRGSC_gEbTF0XyMVrh3Kt0fjBpT5dMYsojRSUiFUCkE8TTTYLEbGbSAMdUf4ZsvPj32xH4YA_beLNc9o-bIR1Onyy5rP2XY7zzmpUFvZeJtch3Hi/s1600/christopherslatsky.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjbhfbJa9xihFLwAE1dakfCb0-HLkLjBxkb9a1arFDsTMYELYhptPFgrE3YGIxztAG5-qlbSjPQZQVvUbNHPP4J0BQdwFXUTq4AwcoZJdGfkpE0CXVwKXu6ulgrTMLHYjC2AElPQVv2OEP/s1600/henrik.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjbhfbJa9xihFLwAE1dakfCb0-HLkLjBxkb9a1arFDsTMYELYhptPFgrE3YGIxztAG5-qlbSjPQZQVvUbNHPP4J0BQdwFXUTq4AwcoZJdGfkpE0CXVwKXu6ulgrTMLHYjC2AElPQVv2OEP/s1600/henrik.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBTt-o3UmzZ6-4cmhpyiFwJ5s9F3ZPvAar78mRBWXwD6z8IOULaGJEmz1tv9yJvWCwirA8pKoUo-n_Tb8NCYFRTtAAlyRX-Bvd_NllnTgXEXNVHetJnooiVl1dZeEHnQ_9KDpdgKl1cFYC/s1600/joshuasowders.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBTt-o3UmzZ6-4cmhpyiFwJ5s9F3ZPvAar78mRBWXwD6z8IOULaGJEmz1tv9yJvWCwirA8pKoUo-n_Tb8NCYFRTtAAlyRX-Bvd_NllnTgXEXNVHetJnooiVl1dZeEHnQ_9KDpdgKl1cFYC/s1600/joshuasowders.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4p6A_57u1N1MAhqJRuIrRbJ-ah7iIE9Y1hXCCtNjJHmNR0p7t6pe2iEAY4jaWpNrPudv9j1yqPaWW4nvNJE1FGAhRxKXsPqpJNh_IReNjHKX6Cw5xEJgbWGedPVxaooK_S9Ita7BS_xI-/s1600/rajeshbalkrishanan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4p6A_57u1N1MAhqJRuIrRbJ-ah7iIE9Y1hXCCtNjJHmNR0p7t6pe2iEAY4jaWpNrPudv9j1yqPaWW4nvNJE1FGAhRxKXsPqpJNh_IReNjHKX6Cw5xEJgbWGedPVxaooK_S9Ita7BS_xI-/s1600/rajeshbalkrishanan.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHrLOoDrvYceI-2khQtjQ1-PzfSBGLOWJiiV-_hjsnbvCQRmzxYSBElTipyQaqwbbMoUuAvCg_9N6OSdGdRVbqZD7jD0-v9-CBR11Bk-nsWwWjR_Z917KUhrrqqfbB1wAkr6WRMgec6EvL/s1600/rosslockhart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHrLOoDrvYceI-2khQtjQ1-PzfSBGLOWJiiV-_hjsnbvCQRmzxYSBElTipyQaqwbbMoUuAvCg_9N6OSdGdRVbqZD7jD0-v9-CBR11Bk-nsWwWjR_Z917KUhrrqqfbB1wAkr6WRMgec6EvL/s1600/rosslockhart.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-52908048522369781732014-08-05T07:35:00.004+05:302014-08-05T07:35:55.279+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Metal culture has a serious 'good German' problem. Virtually every metalhead I know has posted something in the last few months about how some group of elitists or n00bs or old schoolers or core kids or backbiters or backscratchers is fucking up the scene, but hardly anyone ever thinks they might be part of the problem. The people I can relate to most are the chronic malcontents, the ones who have always critiqued the 'culture' while remaining true to their own personal journeys as listeners.<br />
<br />
And really, the problem isn't that different people have different tastes or that they're not accepting of other people's tastes. The problems are: that we're content to be a bunch of marketing-driven consumers, no matter how niche a market we constitute, but we think we're some sort of gritty, independent underground subculture. That we settle too often for bands that make all the right noises and punch all the generic buttons, but have little to offer beyond that. That we think most metal radio and magazines are not as much a marketing tool as their mainstream counterparts.<br />
<br />
A lot of these people forget that dissent is not aggression; disagreeing with you is not the same attacking you (although one can shade into the other) and not liking your favourite band doesn't really add up to being narrow minded and hate-filled (except when it does). The beer and buddies and 'bangers vibe, which is valid as far as it goes, is not the be-all of the genre. It's more important to form your own tastes. And remember what Peter Steele said: don't mistake lack of talent for genius. </div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-35863633044189344972014-07-31T10:15:00.002+05:302014-07-31T10:15:35.669+05:30What we can learn from Richard Dawkins<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; line-height: 15.600000381469727px;">One odd explanation offered for Dawkins' latest faux pas, claiming that date rape is bad and rape by a stranger is worse, is that he was busy making a logical point (x can be bad, y can be worse, and both are still bad) and forgetting a rhetorical technique that undermines his point (when we say x is bad, y is worse we are often implying that x is not really that bad after all). This doesn't wash </span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #37404e; display: inline !important; line-height: 15.600000381469727px;">- the effectiveness of applied logic is only as good as its underlying assumptions and Dawkins' assumption here is flawed. Add to that the fact that a large majority of reported rapes are perpetrated by people known to the victim.<br /><br />Dawkins is knowledgeable within his field. He is also widely read and has a degree of awareness of the cultural heritage of the West. What he does not have is a clear awareness of the nuances of gender issues or the realities of sexual abuse. Added to this, he is unwilling to learn, generalising the attacks he sees on Twitter and comments threads to claim that all opposition to his magisterial pronouncements is offered by weak-brained, combative people who do not have valid points. Dawkins, someone whom I once respected (and I still think his books on evolution, like Unweaving The Rainbow, are marvellous), has fallen into the trap of turning an unexamined and poorly-informed opinion into dogma. He is so committed to upholding his own image of infallibility that he has shut down the possibility of productive dialogue and learning. He is a useful object lesson to us of how people can claim to follow a certain philosophy but in reality apply it when it suits them and are actually driven by more emotional compulsions and obsessions.<br /><br />Perhaps what we should learn from Dawkins' poor performance on issues of gender and race is to always examine our own opinions and be aware of their basis, and ready to discuss them with others and try to learn from differing opinions. We should also learn that our backgrounds shape us more than we like to admit - my online friend Derick has pointed out that Dawkins is at heart a British Protestant philistine for instance - and understand the values and limitations imposed by that background.<br /><br />Most of all, we should always be prepared to change our minds and admit we were wrong. Growing as a human being is more important than preserving some image of ideological commitment or personal infallibility</span></span></div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-87543285376391968812014-07-05T20:17:00.001+05:302014-07-05T20:18:18.851+05:30<p dir="ltr">Some deep god</p>
<p dir="ltr">Some deep god<br>
That we've buried underground<br>
That we've buried underground<br>
That we've buried underground<br>
Some deep god from ancestral minds<br>
From ancestors in the ground<br>
From ancestors in the ground<br>
From ancestors in the ground<br>
Some deep god<br>
In the glades of a green world<br>
In the glades of a green world<br>
In the glades of a green world<br>
Some deep time<br>
Some ancestor deep in the mind<br>
Some ancestor deep in the mind<br>
Some ancestor deep in the mind<br>
Some god, deep in the mind<br>
Buried. Sleeps. Dreams<br>
Us </p>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-87350156465459200022014-07-05T06:57:00.001+05:302014-07-05T06:57:13.426+05:30<p dir="ltr">It seems, looking over this blog, one of my recurring sources of frustration is the niche nature of my creative work, more so of its audience. Does this mean a bigger audience would make me happy? I think so, yes. Probably, especially if it meant good money and a regular ego massage. But looking for that is kind of soul destroying. I I have been happier making music now that I don't consider being part of the scene or winning an audience beyond ourselves in a room, making music. I will write more, and better, now that I am rejecting the pursuit of publication and finding readers. This is hermetic, but not altogether. There will still be stories people can read, still be songs they can hear. </p>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-8040281076431501342014-07-05T06:41:00.001+05:302014-07-05T06:41:44.591+05:30Siege Mentality<p dir="ltr">These trenches stretch out<br>
Frown lines to the horizon<br>
They make it easier<br>
To go to ground<br>
Easier to glower<br>
Coal black eyes rejection<br>
Subterranean fortress<br>
These things make <br>
It easier to go to ground<br>
To be besieged<br>
They have nothing to do<br>
With the memory<br>
That sits on a shelf in a<br>
Museum<br>
Smothered under glass<br>
As a form of kindness<br>
For those of us who did not<br>
Have to die and did not<br>
Want to wait<br>
And who still remain<br>
Entrenched, governed by the buried god<br>
The one believers reject<br>
Often considered dead<br>
But horribly alive.<br>
</p>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-51987684667112439892014-07-03T16:06:00.001+05:302014-07-03T16:06:06.393+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words do you hear me no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words goodbye is too good a word and so is farewell there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are only words until the words fade there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no worlds no worlds enough and time there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words there are no words </div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-66184403097750249932014-06-29T19:17:00.001+05:302014-06-29T19:17:49.695+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Werewolf bites cat. Cat turns into tiger.<br />
Weretiger bites squirrel. Squirrel turns into giant rat.<br />
Giant wererat bites man. Man turns into bulldozer.<br />
Werebulldozer bites crane. Crane flies away.<br />
<br />
<br />
Yeah, sorry about that. </div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-82206162423289201732014-06-25T06:58:00.001+05:302014-06-25T06:58:44.874+05:30My band, liveDjinn and Miskatonic - Bones Of My Brothers: http://youtu.be/lpmWDQXz4BsJPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-20207835922729391142014-05-13T11:23:00.000+05:302014-05-13T11:23:17.030+05:30straight to the point<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b id="docs-internal-guid-8cba48e3-f41e-b4c1-4e39-70e89d35b7d1" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">i want to die everyday</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a whole life of death, from here to eternity</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">i want to die in every way possible</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">day after day after day</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">murder, suicide, burning, beating</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">poison, heart attack</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">old age, choking, drowning</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">decapitation, suffocation, sorrow</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pandemic, starvation, neglect, excess</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">every possible way</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">i want to die daily, without fail</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">i have no time at all for living, you see</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and i would like to get straight to the point</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">every single day, in every single way</span></div>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">i would like to get straight to the point</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-77425241646841496682014-05-07T07:24:00.001+05:302014-05-07T07:24:22.832+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A few thoughts sparked by a discussion of the new Cosmos series:<br />
<br />
What I find is, personally, nearly 3 decades after watching and loving the original, I just don't have the same conception of science's value anymore. I appreciate the aggregate gains in knowledge about how our world works, but science is no more than that endeavour: objective knowledge discovery. It is a tool and many other things set the context for how it is used. Rather than being our one great Rosetta stone, science is only one component in the range of mental disciplines we need to function and grow as individuals and a species; ethical engagement and something amounting to philosophy being two others (I know ethics is considered a subset of philosophy but I highlight it because science in itself does not prescribe an ethical dimension). Science cannot help us with social justice and it can only help with things like hunger and disease and sustainability in the right ethical and political climate. So for me the new Cosmos is an interesting look at one vital scientific endeavour, but not the single most important undertaking for us as a species. </div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-65347400828240227542014-04-26T11:47:00.003+05:302014-04-26T12:01:36.129+05:30Yellow Light<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yellow light </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">frightened young mother<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Post natal depression <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">a year late<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Naked bulb hangs on <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">twist of green and
yellow<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yes babies
remember <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Where is he?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Visit to the inky office</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">clatter of typewriters<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">fingers running<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Smell of typewriter
ribbons<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">squeezing out the news<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">like nothing in nature<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">‘Pickled aubergine’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">‘Too scrawny’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">dismisses my friend’s
fathers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Doesn’t like fathers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">avoids being one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yellow light<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">house of darkness<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">remembered<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I don’t like fathers<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">avoid being one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-70350114449423998262014-04-15T14:08:00.001+05:302014-04-15T14:08:18.302+05:30all my online stories<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://archive.deccanherald.com/Content/Mar12009/artic20090228121291.asp" target="_blank">Aranya's Last Voyage:</a> Deccan Herald, March 1st, 2009<br />
<br />
<a href="http://pratilipi.in/2009/10/run-for-your-life-jayaprakash-satyamurthy/" target="_blank">Run For Your Life</a>: Pratilipi, October 2009<br />
<br />
<a href="http://annatambour.net/ComeTomorrow-JayaprakashSathyamurthy.htm" target="_blank">Come Tomorrow</a>: The Virtuous Medlar Circle, August 10th, 2010<br />
<br />
<a href="http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/07/in-a-room-in-a-body/" target="_blank">In A Room, In A Body</a>: 23rd July, 2011<br />
<br />
<a href="http://unboxedwriters.com/2011/08/fade-out/" target="_blank">Fade Out</a>: Unboxed Writers, 15th August, 2011<br />
<br />
<a href="http://pratilipi.in/2011/11/empty-dreams-jayaprakash-satyamurthy/" target="_blank">Empty Dreams</a>: Pratilipi, November 2011<br />
<br />
<a href="http://lovecraftzine.com/issues/2012-2/issue-13-april-2012/the-ourorboros-apocrypha-by-jayaprakash-satyamurthy/" target="_blank">The Ouroboros Apocrypha</a>: Lovecraft eZine, April 2012<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.eschatologyjournal.org/2012/11/10/chapter-of-transformation-by-jayaprakash-satyamurthy/" target="_blank">Chapter Of Transformation</a>: Eschatology, 10th November, 2012<br />
<br />
<a href="http://indiansf.in/2013/09/01/shaking-off-the-chains-by-jayaprakash-satyamurthy/" target="_blank">Shaking Off The Chains</a>: Indian SF, September 2013<br />
<br />
<a href="http://lovecraftzine.com/magazine/issues/2013-2/issue-28-december-2013/vyvyans-father-by-jayaprakash-satyamurthy/" target="_blank">Vyvyan's Father</a>: Lovecraft eZine, December 2013<br />
<br />
<a href="http://lovecraftzine.com/magazine/issues/2014-2/issue-30-april-2014/o-skies-above-o-earth-below-i-love-the-best-by-jayaprakash-sathyamurthy/" target="_blank">O Skies Above O Earth Below I Love The Best</a>: Lovecraft eZine, April 2014<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.theaffair.in/story/shadow-me-no-more/" target="_blank">Shadow Me No More</a>: The Affair, April 2014<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-29209275461572896552014-03-24T13:43:00.001+05:302014-03-24T14:15:18.667+05:30of dust and no dreams<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it is hard to hold to human form</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on a night like this</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">dust blanketing everything, loss of stars</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">too warm, too thirsty</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">water cannot soothe a throat</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">raw with regret, with summer</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it is hard to remain prone, </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a bipedal thing with skin and </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nails and teeth when everything</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">demands flight</span></div>
<b id="docs-internal-guid-489451b9-f324-2ea7-9db5-e565031a3d06" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the dust seeps from my eyes</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">i try to unsee the deserted room</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the blankets tangled, cast aside</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the sheets scoured by nailed fingers</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">scratching against the coffin</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of warm, still air</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">on a night such as this</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">everything wants to dive</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">through endless blue anything</span></div>
<b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></b>
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the blankets snake around my waist</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">they wrap around my shoulders</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">an ecosystem of sweat and misery</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">of thirst and the night undressed</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">by light, always a distant light</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">creeping through the window with</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the dust that abrades my throat</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">coats my eyes</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">when morning arrives</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it is hard to tell the difference</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">it is hard to wake, to walk</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and all the while try not to see</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the sky</span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-79803940044931245332014-03-20T09:22:00.002+05:302014-03-20T09:22:33.418+05:30WITCH!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQRhQ_nQXHK_bfLADb41nyqrU3qub1boGR-YhSs3GYMYTTelLWimdBzO_GQb0H5dtxPevKWpahjJDLZdU13gWvcSPu8ZKc1a8ghuxBAGTbF0sq4C22F3Oz1bhs_7o64BTv-nHOLQQOtfMU/s1600/witch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQRhQ_nQXHK_bfLADb41nyqrU3qub1boGR-YhSs3GYMYTTelLWimdBzO_GQb0H5dtxPevKWpahjJDLZdU13gWvcSPu8ZKc1a8ghuxBAGTbF0sq4C22F3Oz1bhs_7o64BTv-nHOLQQOtfMU/s1600/witch.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
This finally exists. I have a story in it, cunningly called 'Three Witch-Tales'. My first print publication of the year. Buy it <a href="http://dynatox.storenvy.com/collections/240632-all-products/products/3185583-witches-an-anthology" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-84430192895196105582014-03-17T09:32:00.002+05:302014-03-17T09:32:24.549+05:30how I became a writer, for real<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There are two stories that kicked off what I like to think of as my writing career. The first is <a href="http://archive.deccanherald.com/Content/Mar12009/artic20090228121291.asp" target="_blank">Aranya's Last Voyage</a>, which won a short story collection held by the Deccan Herald in 2009. I had talked myself into giving up writing - do all writers do this from time to time or just the whiney ones like me? - but I'd had this story in the back of my mind for a long time and decided to take a chance and write it for the contest. It was based on a dream that I had had a long time ago - I still remember the house in Jayanagar where I was at the time. My first attempt to turn the dream into a story had been a science fiction story, but this time around I found a register that was better suited to what I wanted to do. Winning the contest made me feel that all my inklings that I could write well and tell an interesting story were maybe not just self-delusion.<br />
<br />
Not a lot happened after that. I had a few short stories published in anthologies for younger readers, but I was fast reaching a dead end, as I really wanted to write something a lot more weird than the editors I was dealing with at the time were interested in. The idea of writing a ghost story based on local urban legends and tall tales occurred to me. I have always loved fiction that is tied in with a specific city in the way Peter Ackroyd and Michael Moorcock have written 'London novels' and I believed that Bangalore was one of the great cities - a place that is always changing but somehow still contains all its older selves alongside its new identities.<br />
<br />
I put aside my multiple half-baked WIPs and spent a lot of time putting this story together. I poured so much of myself into the story - not just my life but all the things I had picked up from the stories I loved the most. After a few rejections I somehow had the temerity to ask Anna Tambour, a writer whom I respect a great deal and who had been generous with her time in the past, to take a look at the story. Not a lot of people will take the effort to thoroughly critique some random newbie's tale, and Anna's comments were so thorough and insightful that the story wound up being exponentially better. Sadly, more rejections followed and Anna decided to host the story, <a href="http://annatambour.net/ComeTomorrow-JayaprakashSathyamurthy.htm" target="_blank">Come Tomorrow</a>, on her own website. Having something up there in a venue that was not my blog gave me a sense of finally being something like a 'real' writer.<br />
<br />
Today, I think I've got a grip of writing. I always have a few ideas for stories, and I am nearly always working on a story. I've developed the stamina and discipline to be productive and I try to broaden my scope, teaching myself to tell more kinds of stories. Everything I have written since Come Tomorrow has broadly been weird fiction or horror, but I'm willing to drop the horror element altogether and try out different ways of writing weird fiction. I intend to write all sorts of things - I'm in this for life, now. I still feel a little shaky from time to time, and I have considered the possibility that my current run of good luck will dry up and that I will cease being published, but I don't feel that will stop me from writing. <br /><br />Still, we are contingent beings and I don't think I would have made the leap from kind of wanting to be a writer to actually being one without these two stories. I don't know how good they are, and conversely I am not sure I have actually improved as a writer since I wrote them, but at least I am able to read them without cringing, and with some enjoyment. </div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-64671472115405793572014-03-11T07:55:00.001+05:302014-03-11T07:55:36.186+05:30hodgepodge thoughts: True Detective, Season 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was surprised that the last episode of True Detective gave Rust and Marty so much closure, and that it brought them so close together. It ran counter to the craggy, pessimistic worldview Rust espouses through the rest of the show, and to which Marty, the philandering family man-wannabe is unable to serve as a convincing foil. It suggests that, all along, Rust was less a hardboiled Schopenhauer than a wounded beast in protective camouflage. Personally, I could have done without those last few minutes in the parking lot. I could have done without Marty's estranged wife and children coming to see him too, but the sweetness of the scene is balanced out by the glimpse of the wedding ring on Maggie's hand, reminding us that she has remarried and that, while they may rally around him at a time like this, Marty has, in a very irrevocable way, lost his family.<br />
<br />
Anyway, now that it's all over, a few things that I was less than satisfied by:<br />
<br />
The weird, sexual drawings that Marty's daughter is caught with in school as a young girl. It's never really made clear where she was getting the imagery from. It is just a red herring?<br />
<br />
Rust's visions. They're shown one episode in and then basically forgotten until the climax of the series. I'm actually glad they didn't become a recurring thing because that sort of element is really hard to handle effectively in small doses, leave alone as a constant presence. Still, seems a bit like something shoe-horned in to add to the Weird Fiction stage-dressing.<br />
<br />
And that brings me to something that is an observation, not a complaint: the Weird Fiction stuff was stage-dressing. Carcosa, the Yellow King - none of it really points to anything like what Robert Chambers envisioned. It's just another little bit of supernatural ambiance thrown in, like the references to santeria and voodoo. I'm okay with that. The show would have worked without it, but not quite as well.<br />
<br />
Was the show misogynist? It certainly wasn't terribly interested in its female characters except in so far as they acted as foils to the leading men. I'd hesitate to label that as misogyny, although it is a kind of storytelling that is enabled by the way misogynist attitudes prevail in society, and in the crime genre. I'd say that this series wasn't interested in swimming against the tide in this respect; but also that its concerns never lay at that level of social awareness.<br />
<br />
Which brings me to my next point: how seriously are we to take all this? I'm inclined to say: not very. There are lots of bravura sequences, snappy dialogue, clever plot twists and just generally a wealth of great filming and great acting in this series. It is a triumph of style, twisting and churning crime show cliches, existential angst and a sprinkling of the occult into a slick, compulsively watchable show that neither insults the intelligence nor elevates it. It isn't stylish crap like, say, American Horror Story. But it doesn't feel like a show which has the slightest relevance to the world outside its own fictional universe, which is fine, but there it is. Compare it to The Wire, which is an engaged and somewhat coherent commentary on society, or The Bridge, which, though not without its own flaws, seems to have something to say about racism and misogyny and violence, at least in its American avatar and I think True Detective emerges as something closer to Sherlock or - much though I came to dislike this show - Dexter. A very stylised television narrative, one that works best viewed as an entertainment staged with great elaboration and detail, and not much more. And, in the case of True Detective, that's probably enough. What would have ruined it all would have been a too-neat resolution - and I think we get some of that in the last few minute - but at least it is balanced out by the fact that Tuttle seems to have emerged from it all with impunity and that Rust and Marty solved the case too late for so very, many victims. Some things have been put to an end by sheer brute force - other, deeper forces still remain.<br />
<br />
I just hope none of this is a sequel hook. That was one thing American Horror Show got right. Change everything around the next time - just maintain the style. </div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455223196222821858.post-82415486727896870232014-03-05T13:15:00.001+05:302014-03-05T20:44:28.003+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here are some books and short stories from which I've learned things about writing in the last two years. In no particular order.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
'The Songs Cassilda Shall Sing, Where Flap The Tatters Of The King' by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr: I'm not quite brave (or crazed) enough to emulate Pulver's typographical flourishes. What I learned from this story is about building an atmosphere, about weaving together things and creating a kind of fugue, and about depicting the world of rock n' roll music in a story without coming across as a pretentious hipster or a wanky fanboy. Prose can be music, and the rhythms of this story are pure dark rock, like The Doors at their best crossed with something by Sisters Of Mercy and more than a hint of punk rock. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
'Crandolin' by Anna Tambour: This is a fantastic novel, in both senses of the world. It is constructed from several short, almost self-contained chapters, told from a variety of perspectives and in a variety of settings that somehow, <i>somehow </i>all dovetail together. I learned so much about deep structure and about trusting your own imagination the further it wanders away from the pig-trough of common fantasy concepts. There is nowhere your imagination cannot go, so why let it slum around in the same overcrowded spaces occupied by everyone else's not-fantastic fantasy? </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
'Stains' by Robert Aickman: Now that I've read a lot of Aickman, I'm a bit conflicted. How many stories featuring middle-aged, ineffective, melancholy, vaguely posh types do we really need? And I think too much of the weirdness in his stories comes from outside, from the past, and this is true even of 'Stains', but 'Stains' is above complaint. It moves along slowly, building a vivid character portrait and taking the narrator deeper into some very dark, deep waters without the slightest hint of melodrama or straining for effect. It's that seamless transition and the exact right pitch of ambiguity that impressed me the most. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
'Limbo' by Lucius Shepard: Sometimes a book comes your way at the exact right time, and that's how it was with Shepard's collection 'Dagger Key'. It's hard to pick one top story from such an outstanding book but I'll choose 'Limbo' because it offers so many of the qualities that made this collection so great: a protagonist who is a man of action, even violence, someone with layers, not just a one-note Horror Protag; a compelling relationship story which isn't just an excuse for smoochy bits or sex scenes to sweeten the deal; an original and terrifying supernatural vision. Shepard's immersion in his protagonist's inner world is so complete and so brilliantly realised, and that makes everything else matter so much more. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
'Procession Of The Black Sloth' by Laird Barron: Once again, a Western writer reminded me how fertile a setting for a story my own continent is (see also: Lafcadio Hearn). But also, the setting, this apartment building and all its various lives, separated by walls and custom and interpersonal distance but also completely adjacent to one another, the tension between alienation and propinquity, the relationship between your own isolation and the space it creates for things inimical to drift into your ken...Barron showed me how much the spaces we find in ourselves are characters, not just in weird tales, but in our lives. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
'Ten Tributes To Calvino' by Rhys Hughes: Hughes' stories in this collection not only pay homage to one of my own favourite writers, they also sparkle with a lively, widdershins wit (again in both commonly used senses of the word) that makes them clear tributes to Calvino's wisdom and whimsy, but also excellent original views of imaginary worlds that are somehow also very real. Hughes shows how metafictional tricks, puns and mental games can be used to create stories that are not just experiments in form but completely successful and rewarding stories of a different kind. Stop sipping Campbell soup - there are headier draughts to be had!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
'Marienbad' by Chiles Samaniego: This is a book that should be read more widely, and by anyone who likes most of the other authors on this list. Samaniego creates a kind of cultural hyperspace riddled with references to literature and film, from the overt to the subtle, but this not just some referential collage. There's a nervy obsessiveness in the way these stories are told, in the content of the stories themselves, that may be the most natural register in which to write fiction that has any valid claim to be about the real world, the world we live in today. I also learned from these stories to wear your heart and your mind on your sleeve, to be unapologetic about writing from the heights of your intellect and the depths of your passions at the same time. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I could draw up another list, nearly as long, featuring another set of writers altogether. Maybe I will, soon. </div>
</div>
JPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01544406500208399638noreply@blogger.com0