is a blog by Brendan
Brendan: So which is better–dragon princesses, or dinosaur princesses?
Maria: Oh, definitely dragon princesses.
Brendan: You think so? I don’t know…
Maria: Oh, come on. Dinosaurs only happened because the dragon bloodline got watered down.
Maria and I (and Michael and Danielle) are going to New York! On a trip! Ballers: You can come over on Tuesday, but we won’t be here, so you may have to play games in the hall. I am pretty sure that is illegal!
Reading Raph Koster’s A Theory of Fun, finally, I came across this sentence:
“Beauty is found in the tension between our expectations and reality.”
Which contrasts interestingly with Rebecca Borgstrom’s assertion that suffering is the disconnect between desire and reality (which, as I vaguely understand it, is derived from viparinama-dukkha and sankhara-dukkha).
That’s not to say that together, they imply that suffering is beauty; in fact, Borgstrom (who I think would not disagree with Koster’s statement) has specifically denied as much. Whatever I’m fumbling at here is more subtle than that. So why not crush the subtletly beneath our old friend proof-by-analogy?
According to our premises, beauty is derived from expectations and suffering is derived from desire. Sumana has said that hope leads to expectations, secret or otherwise; I believe that. I also believe that desire invariably produces hope. So desire leads to suffering and hope; hope leads to expectations; expectations lead to beauty; beauty leads to desire. Insert ASCII diagram here. Suffering is the byproduct of the desire-hope-expectations-beauty loop.
Or make up your own better diagram, and tell us about it.
Kelly Link describes her stories as “kitchen-sink magic realism,” which I can understand, because the moment you say “fantasy” people think Robert Jordan and their ears shut down. Conversely, in her own words, “people hear ‘magic realism’ and they think ‘oh, like those Gabriel Garcia Marquez stories where people fly.'” (Everybody read exactly one magic realism story in high school, and that was it.)
Anyway, if I thought I could get away with it, I’d call Anacrusis “Kelly Link magic realism.” Look, it almost rhymes.
So uh STEAMPUNK TRANSFORMERS.
I think the last time I bought a Transformers comic book was in 1987, but I think now that it’s been almost two decades, I HOLY CRAP I’M OLD
My uncle John offers a rhyming take on Atlantis, and my mom gently reminds me that of course I didn’t invent the form: both “California” and the game were inspired by a picture book she read us when we were young, called Whose Mouse Are You, by Robert Kraus.
Also, saved from the LJ comment thread:
Will:Where is Atlantis? Under the sea.
What’s under the sea? Not you, and not me.
Well then, where are we? The internet.
How’d we get there? Zeroes and ones.
What do those stand for? Video fun.
What is flypaper?
Me: Sweetness that kills.
David: What can’t be killed?
Scott: Everything dies.
Josh: Why do they die?
William: They run out of time.
Beth: What is time?
Kevan: Memory. [Then, because of a crosspost:] Curse you, time!
Ken: What time is it?
Stephen: It’s hamburger time.
David: Do hamburgers rhyme?
Scott: Not on my dime.
Me: OKAY NEW ONE. What is a curse?
Scott: Bad karma, realized.
William: How is it realised?
Ken: Through the teachings of the Maharishi.
Beth: What is the Maharishi?
Me: A teacher of hunger.
Scott: Where is the hunger?
David: In the bowels of the cursed…
Which seems like a neat place for a cutoff.
How many is seven?
Tonight, pizza at 7, show at 8. Our place. You’re invited. Arrested Development: The Wake.
My brother Ian wants to move to Hawaii and live in a sailboat. He also enjoys poker.
Me: Bad news–all gambling is illegal in Hawaii.
Ian: Illegal gambling isn’t!
For better or worse, (Ultimate) The Office is the new Arrested Development. The Tuesday Night Ballers gave it up after four episodes last year, when it came on after Scrubs; the first season was like watching a Christopher Guest movie with all the jokes surgically excised. But Yale, persistent fan, got Maria and me to try it again last week. And it got funny! Funny and poignant! They put the jokes back in!
It’s not as edgy or fast or thick as AD, and probably no show on network TV will be again. But it’s self-aware, filmed with handhelds, and clever. It’s good.
Also, I think Jim from the show is the subject of Jimmy Eat World’s name. Not because he eats the world. Because he angsts charmingly.
“The fingerprints of zombies are virtually indistinguishable from those of humans, so much so that they could be confused at a crime scene.”
Sumana takes the old disappearing sock meme and makes it funny and touching. That’s skill, gentlemen–skill like we’ve not seen. Not since Morocco. Haskins! Initiate the Marianas Contingency! Good God, man, there’s no time to lose!