Storyological 1.32 - THE WORLD IS OUR SLUSH PILE

In which we discuss, among other things...

Ephemera

• Keeping On Keeping On by Alan Bennett
• “Hell is the Absence of God” by Ted Chiang
• “There is No Secret to Writing People Who Don’t Look Like You” by Brandon Taylor
• John Green - How and Why We Read
• “A Christmas Carol”, the Doctor Who version.

Episodes of our podcast

• 1.03 - Gorgeously Horrible and Terrifically Poignant
  • “Demon in Aisle 6” by Matthew Kressel
  • “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong

• 1.04 - Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organizations
  • “The Killing Jar” by Laurie Penny
  • “The Closest Thing to Animals” by Sofia Samatar

• 1.05 - E.G. Has Never Shot Anyone in the Chest
  • “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor
  • “Union” by Tamsyn Muir

• 1.07 - You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned
  • “Six Things We Found During the Autopsy” by Kuzhali Manickavel
  • “In Her Head, In Her Eyes” by Yukimi Ogawa

• 1.14 - Lamborghinis and Other Signifiers

  • “Her Majesty’s Lamborghini and the Girl with the Fish Tank” by JY Yang
  • “You Can’t See It ‘Till It’s Finished” by Violet Allen

• 1.16 - Wednesday, Full of Woe

  • “Wednesday’s Story” by Wole Talabi
  • “See You in the Morning” by Mairead Case

• 1.29 - What’s His Name Physics Man
  • “Division by Zero” by Ted Chiang
  • “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang

• 1.31 - Fully Proofed
  • “The Jewish Hunter” by Lorrie Moore
  • “Every Tongue Shall Confess” by ZZ Packer

Magazines/Venues/Story Places

• Apex World Book of SF
• Liminal Stories
• Lontar
• New Yorker
• Tor.com
• Lightspeed
• Clarkesworld
• Terraform/Motherboard
• Midnight Breakfast
• Omenana
• Mithila Review
• Rambutan
• Strange Horizons
• Nightmare
• Asimov’s
• Analog
• Fantasy and Science Fiction

Storyological 1.30 - WHEN RUMPELSTILTSKIN COMES AROUND

In which we discuss,

1. “You Have Never Been Here” by M. Rickert, Lightspeed

2. “Spinning Silver” by Naomi Novik, The Starlit Wood

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tale_of_Tales_(1979_film)

Along with, among other things:

THE YELLOW VOLUME, the fundraising anthology put out by Emma and I and the rest of our 2012 Clarion Workshop class. Pay what you want, $0 to $Infinity, with all money going to support the Clarion Workshop.

&

EG's comic debut, in Shelf Heroes: Issue E, in which she illustrates that one time she went to see Eddie the Eagle with her mum and also life and stuff.

Also.

Filmy Type Things

• Arrival
• The Pallbearer
• The Lobster
• The Shawshank Redemption
• The Dark Crystal
• Doctor Who, and the Doctor’s radical hope.

Literariness

• Death House by Sarah Pinborough
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik
• The Starlit Wood, edited by Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe
• A Song of Ice and Fire
• Rumplestiltskin
• A Day in the Life of Half of Rumplestiltskin by Kevin Brockmeier
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humanity by Yuval Noah Harari

People

• George Saunders, and finding the right details

Storyological 1.29 - WHAT'S HIS NAME PHYSICS MAN

In which we discuss two stories by Ted Chiang,

1. "Division by Zero"

2. "Story of Your Life"

Along with, among other things...

• Stories of Your Life and Others, the one and only collection of Ted Chiang’s stories.

• Some stuff about the mathematical thing of dividing by zero.

• Some stuff about AXIOMS.

• Some stuff about mathematical proofs.

• The magic working not for, but against your characters.

• Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre and the call to action in recognizing the meaninglessness of life

• Park Chan Wook and asking the right questions.

• David Foster Wallace, cliches, and sincere earnest truth.

• Lost.

• That one episode of our podcast where we discussed the axiomatic truths of Kelly link.

• Hunter S. Thompson. *Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.*

• Barry Hannah. Ray

I live in so many centuries. Everybody is still alive.

Storyological 1.28 - A BODY OF ITS OWN

In which we discuss,

1. "Through the Wardrobe" by Lucy Caldwell

Belle, and her gold dress, from disney's beauty and the beast

2. "Poko Poko" by Irenosen Okojie

Toby Onwumare, sense8

Along with, among other things...

That one episode of Storyological where we discussed “Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx and the tire iron contained therein.

An example of an intoxicating story by Adam Johnson: “Trauma Plate” from The Barcelona Review.

It Gets Better Project

That one episode of Storyological where we discussed “Pet Milk” by Stuart Dybek.

The Doppler Effect.

Hitchcock’s Dolly Zoom.

Park Chan-wook.

BBC adaptations of Narnia.

How Stella Got Her Groove Back

Yoda.

Unsung Live reading series.

“Following” by Irenosen Okojie.

Helen Marshall.

Ted Chiang.

A Song of Ice and Fire/A Game of Thrones

Delia Sherman.

Samuel R. Delany.

Storyological 1.27 - YOU ARE SO PERSPECTIVE

In which we discuss,

1. "The Poetics of Sex" by Jeanette Winterson, The World and Other Places (also in Granta)

Leslie Jones, SNL, nbc.com

2. "The Boat and Me" by Tove Jansson, A Winter Book

Along with, among other things...

Guardian review of The World and Other Places

The poetry of Carol Ann Duffy

The Poetics of Aristotle

• Tragic Wonder

  Now listen to what Hephaestus says in reply: "Take courage, and do not let these things distress you in your heart. Would that I had the power to hide him far away from death and the sounds of grief when grim fate comes to him, but I can see that beautiful armor surrounds him, of such a kind that many people, one after another, who look on it, will wonder"

• Catharsis

  What is experienced in such an excess of tragic suffering is something truly common. The spectator recognizes himself [or herself] and his [or her] finiteness in the face of the power of fate. What happens to the great ones of the earth has exemplary significance. . . .To see that "this is how it is" is a kind of self-knowledge for the spectator, who emerges with new insight from the illusions in which he [or she], like everyone else, lives.

Moomins!

• Oh, what happiness!
• Beyond the Moomins!

Show don’t tell.

• As explained by Chuck Wendig

• As explained on Reddit

  Which seems a good time to mention that 'show don't tell', while great advice, is not the be all and end all of writing. I had a professor who used to say, it used to be that his writing students couldn't see the wood for the trees, but now, thanks to having 'show don't tell' hammered into them from year 1, most of them can't see the trees for the wood, which is just as bad.

Storyological 1.22 - BUMBLING AND MURDERING

1.  SLIPPING by Lauren Beukes, Berlin Quarterly

2. THE INFAMOUS BENGAL MING by Rajesh Parameswaran

along with, among other things... 

Some things about Sense8

• Sense8 and the Failure of Global Imagination
• Sympathetic Sci-fi
• Is Sense8 Too Radical for Critics?

Some things about Universal Soldier

• The 'Universal Soldier' Paradox: When a Bad Franchise Produces a Great Film
• Old Skool.

Some things about Bojack Horseman and that underwater episode.

• The Bleakness and Joy of "BoJack Horseman"
• "Fish Out of Water": BoJack Horseman goes underwater and hits its high water mark...
• This BoJack Horseman Episode is a Must-Watch, Even If You've Never Seen the Show

Some things about Kafka and his story "Metamorphosis."

• Franz Kafka Says the Insect in The Metamorphosis Should Never Be Drawn; Vladimir Nabokov Draws It Anyway
• On Translating Kafka's "The Metamorphosis"

Some things about tension and/or suspense depending on which word you prefer.

• 25 Things You Should Know About Suspense and Tension according to Chuck Wendig.
• "The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last." -- Oscar Wilde
• Such as that one moment from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly when everything gets like so super tense you might literally die. Or not.

Storyological 1.21 - THE BOURNE LAMPSHADE

In which we discuss,

1. The Wombly by K.L. Morris, *Shimmer*

2. Directions by Judy Budnitz, *Flying Leap*

along with, among other things...

• The Bechdel Test and a Sexy Lamp, or, if you prefer, just the sexy lamp.
• All the everything rhymes.
• Those two episodes of our podcast— THE DEAD GIRL IN THE ROOM—where we discussed “Singing My Sister Down” by Margo Lanagan and—THE ONLY BEAUTIFUL THING—where we discussed “Escape from Spiderhead” by George Saunders
• THE LOTTERY by Shirley Jackson, and other stories of crime and punishment.
• Morality in fiction.
• Aimee Bender
  • That one story by Aimee Bender with a family in a house and weird stuff happens “Americca”; not to be confused with Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • That one story by Aimee Bender where the dad has a hole in his stomach “Marzipan.”
  • The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
• In the uncharted backwaters…
• That one setting for photography—HDR, which is actually not high-dynamic-resolution but, of course, HIGH-DYNAMIC-RANGE IMAGING. Silly words.
• The importance of CHORUSES, as explained by Chuck Pahlianuk

Storyological 1.19 - THE DEAD GIRL IN THE ROOM

In which we discuss

1. "Singing My Sister Down" by Margo Lanagan

Pokemon from giphy.com

2. "The Bog Girl" by Karen Russell, The New Yorker

Corpse Bride from giphy.com

along with, among other things...

• That one Margo Lanagan collection, Black Juice
• That one movie with a some famous slow motion, Chariots of Fire
• The canon of crime and punishment
  • That one story by Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”
  • That one episode where we discussed “Escape from Spiderhead” by George Saunders, THE ONLY BEAUTIFUL THING
• That cognitive effect, learned helplessness
• Pavlov
• The science of torture

• Karen Russell, on horror and humor
• “The Bog Girl” as read by Karen Russell
• Tim Burton
• Love will tear us apart.
• Films of less than real (or sometimes really real) girls
  • Lars and the Real Girl
  • Mannequin
  • Air Doll[1]
  • Her
• P.G. Wodehouse
• Girls are real people, too.
• That one word for the hashtag, octothorpe.

[1]: Of note, this film stars the amazing Bae Doo-na, what you might recognize from the also awesome Sense 8

Storyological 1.18 - THE ONLY BEAUTIFUL THING

In which we discuss,

1. "Escape from Spiderhead" by George Saunders, New Yorker

VIA GIPHY.COM, FROM "BURN THE WITCH" BY RADIOHEAD

2. "Bed Among the Lentils" by Alan Bennett, Talking Heads

VIA GIPHY.COM, FROM, WELL, ONE OF THE POTTER FILMS, ISN'T IT?

along with, among other things...

• That one collection written by George Saunders,10th of December

No one writes more powerfully than George Saunders about the lost, the unlucky, the disenfranchised, those Americans who struggle to pay the bills, make the rent, hold onto a job they might detest — folks who find their dreams slipping from their grasp as they frantically tread water, trying to keep from drowning.

• George Saunders on Discovering His Voice, and not wanting to be ‘interesting’
• Some Brief and Frightening Tips from George Saunders
• “Mr. Vonnegut in Sumatra” by George Saunders from The Braindead Megaphone

I was thinking back in Sumatra, in 1982, this is a classic? Aliens did not belong in classics. Aliens belonged in movies. Aliens were great; I loved aliens in movies, but I did not want them in my Literature. What I wanted in my Literature was a somber, wounded, masterly presence, regarding the world with a jaundiced, totally humorless eye...

A forest was a forest, he seemed to be saying, let’s not get all flaky about it. He did not seem to believe, as I had read Tolstoy did, that his purpose as a writer was to use words to replicate his experience, to make you feel and think and see what he had felt. This book was not a recounting of Vonnegut’s actual war experience, but a usage of it. What intrigued me—also annoyed me—was trying to figure out the purpose of this usage. If he wasn’t trying to make me know what he knew and feel what he’d felt, then what was the book for?

In fact, Slaughterhouse Five seemed to be saying, our most profound experiences may require this artistic uncoupling from the actual. The black box is meant to change us. If the change will be greater via the use of invented, absurd material, so be it. We are meant to exit the book altered.

• Edmund Burke said a thing once like, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
• But, on Wikiquote, there’s a fascinating disputed section concerning this quote, e.g.

This purported quote bears a resemblance to the narrated theme of Sergei Bondarchuk's Soviet film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's book "War and Peace", in which the narrator declares "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing", although since the original is in Russian various translations to English are possible. This purported quote also bears resemblance to a quote widely attributed to Plato, that said "The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." It also bears resemblance to what Albert Einstein wrote as part of his tribute to Pablo Casals: "The world is in greater peril from those who tolerate or encourage evil than from those who actually commit it."

• Talking Heads by Alan Bennett
• Alan Bennett

Anglophiles, and especially lovers of the high art of English loneliness, are probably already familiar with ''Talking Heads,'' which Mr. Bennett originally wrote for BBC television in the late 1980's. Several of the installments, including Maggie Smith's deliciously dry portrait of a wine-soaked vicar's wife in ''Bed Among the Lentils,'' instantly became genteel cult classics.

• That thing Zadie Smith said once was actually: “Time is how you spend your love.”
• Which, while similar, is actually quite different from, “Love is how you spend your attention.”
• Maggie Smith, dowager countess and professor of transmography.
• The stiff upper lip, and the possible mythicalness thereof.
• That one episode where we discussed Helen Oyeyemi’s story “presence,” from her collection What is Not Yours
• John Green, tired of adults telling teenagers they’re not smart.
• That one John Green commencement speech. in which he talks about the lenght of grass.
• That one episode, long ago, where we first mentioned how the magic in your story should always work, not for, but against your characters, NOW I’M ONLY FALLING APART.

Storyological 1.17 - A DIFFERENT KIND OF GHOST

In which we discuss,

1. "Man on the Stairs" by Miranda July, from Fence

2. "presence" by Helen Oyeyemi, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours

along with, among other things...

• Hyuna, “Bubble Pop” and “Ice Cream”
• No One Belongs Here More Than You
• Voodoo. Who do? You do. Do what? Remind me of the babe.
• Maria Konnikova.
• Depressive realism.
• Depressive realism may not be real.
• Hitchcock on cinematic tension.
• Yoda, in Empire Strikes Back

  A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have a I watched. All his life has he looked away…to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing.

• The Silence, from Doctor Who.

• What Is Not Yours, Is Not Yours

• That cheesy korean song.
• The troubles with seeing yourself.
• 2PM, not 2AM). Also, it turns out 2AM is another boy group. Not, in fact, a girl group.
• Repetition, modes of conversation.
• That thing Chris remembered Neil talking about is not that different from Ernest Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory, sometimes known as the ‘theory of omission’

Storyological 1.16 - WEDNESDAY, FULL OF WOE

In which we discuss...

1. "Wednesday’s Story" by Wole Talabi, Lightspeed

2. "See You in the Morning" by Mairead Case, Midnight Breakfast

along with, among other things,

• Two nursery rhymes from which, in part, “Wednesday’s Story” comes…
  • Solomon Grundy
  • Monday’s Child
• Author Spotlight: Wole Talabi, by Christie Yant.
• Aesop's fables.
• October in the Chair by Neil Gaiman.
• Trapped in narratives
  • “A people trapped in narratives and memories : facing pacification in the Great Lakes Region of Africa” by Tshimba David Ngendo

  • People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. ~James Baldwin
    

• Devin Faraci. “Fandom is Broken”
• The ending of Jay and Silent Bob
• Some writing in response to Devin’s writing
  • “Fandom isn’t broken-it’s just not only for white dudes anymore”
  • “Why we’re terrified of fanfiction”
  • “A response to Devin Faraci’s ‘Fandom is Broken’ in three parts”
  • Devin, himself, in response to responses, “Yes, Disney Should Have a Queer Princess”
• Michael Knight
• Why does Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye still resonate?
• Diary of a Teenage Girl

Storyological 1.14 - LAMBORGHINIS AND OTHER SIGNIFIERS

In which we discuss,

1. "Her Majesty's Lamborghini and the Girl With The Fish Tank" by JY Yang, Lontar #6

2. "You Can't See It 'Til It's Finished" by Violet Allen, Liminal Stories #1

along with, among other things...

• Radiohead's new album, A Moon Shaped Pool ("Burn the Witch" video)
• That one film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off
• That one George Saunders fairly long story, The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil
• That one movie, The Lego Movie
• Ecstatic world building, as discussed by Chris in a review of Nick Harkaway’s Tigerman
• That book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• That one episode where we talked about "Pockets" by Amal El-Mohtar
• Chuck E. Cheese has a surprising relationship with Silicon Valley
• Any excuse for linking to that one XKCD cartoon about adulthood and ball pits.
• The way we communicate. Texting. Gifs. Symbolics.
• Andrew O’Hehir writing in Salon: “Jason Segel on playing David Foster Wallace…”
• Who is Jason Segel? Watch his Dracula Musical and know. (Here’s the story behind the musical.)
• That one book,Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself
• That one David Foster Wallace novel, Infinite Jest
• Ben Thompson writing about friction.

Change is guaranteed, but the type of change is not; never is that more true than today. See, friction makes everything harder, both the good we can do, but also the unimaginably terrible. In our zeal to reduce friction and our eagerness to celebrate the good, we ought not lose sight of the potential bad.

We are creating the future, and “better” does not win by default.

• That one god, Tantalus.
• That one Nietzsche quote.

…for when you gaze long into the abyss…the abyss gazes also into you

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