Qualities Exercise

Browsing the Galilean Library this morning, I came across a thread about a creative writing technique called “Qualities Exercise.” You try to describe the characteristics of a quality or an abstract concept as if it was a person. There’s an art to this exercise of anthropomorphism, as I found out:

Boredom is a stubborn and dedicated motherfucker that never takes a day off and works twice as hard on the weekends. He is fond of interrupting anyone, especially when they’re having a good time, and starts going on the most irrelevant subjects. Although he is rarely ever officially invited, you will always find him at any party or social event- he’s the last one to leave. If you tried to remember what he looks like you wouldn’t be able to describe him – a nondescript, mousy, totally forgettable look – but you’d recognize him right away in a crowd. Most people complain about Boredom, how he drags them down. Although some of them have figured him out and when they invite him over for tea, he turns them down flat. He lives in the basement of his brother Despair’s house, and is married to Ennui, but he hasn’t spoken to his twin Ecstasy in decades.

Open Letter to Steve Ballmer

Hello Mr. Ballmer,

This is an open letter, obviously, addressed to you in the hopes of helping guide some aspect of Microsoft that I believe will allow it to regain the luster that it recently lost in the past few years. I do want to acknowledge that under your reign, Microsoft has turned in an insane amount of profit, quarter after quarter. From a business/profit driven standpoint, you guys have it made, and the momentum created on your Windows/Office apps will continue to push your company forward for another decade easily.

The topic of discussion here is what I would call a suggestion, rather than a list of demands that needs to be met in order to gain some semblance of mind-share with the general public. Continue reading Open Letter to Steve Ballmer

Truth? Pshaw!

by Stephen Doyle

While vacationing in Italy, I had the opportunity to flex a couple of neurons. My family is full of devout Catholics, and my youngest aunt Costanza (Costu) has the “gift” of speaking in tongues. That means the hardcore Catholics pray with her, and sometimes that sets her off in a indecipherable tongue-speaking frenzy. My uncle Michael can interpret her, so the message isn’t lost.

Moreover, Costu is also intelligent, having graduated from MST in Rolla. So she wanted to discuss philosophy with me, and she wanted to know what was my “truth.” It was early in the week, and I thought it would be a good idea to get this over with so we all can enjoy our fantastic resort.

As somebody well read in post-modernism, asking the very question “truth” sets off alarms. Such questions like “what is X” are classic questions of philosophy, but after Nietzsche, they no longer have any place in our society – all and any answer has no credibility – but I couldn’t answer like this to my Aunt. So I had to speak in the right language, and speak about the game of philosophy. Continue reading Truth? Pshaw!

Reading Rortys Philosophy & Mirror of Nature

Chubby sort of fellow
Rorty sketch (from marxists. org)

I’m still here in Italy on vacation, but I’ve kept on reading PaMoN, and currently I am on Part II (Theory of Knowledge).

Before we get into the nitty gritty, i have something to admit. For years I’ve always admired Rorty, and I’ve read his later works (Consequences of Pragmatism, several essays from Philosophical Papers, the later collected works) in order to combat those blinkered Platonists and recalcitrant analytical philosophers on the internet. It was too much fun slapping them silly for clinging on to outdated and outworn models of philosophy, when the game has obviously passed them by! But I never read his magnum opus, PMoN, till now. Yeah, yeah. Continue reading Reading Rortys Philosophy & Mirror of Nature

Fingersmiths “R” Us

Cast:

Bob – a short story author, published a novel

Erik – a screenplay writer


chez moi – a graphic novelist

Setting:
Fred 62 Diner in LA

Yesterday, at 2pm, I arrived at the diner mere moment before Erik did, despite the best efforts of the traffic gods and an unreliable GPS. We agreed to sit outside, and after we obtained refreshments, the conversation lurched immediately into a “whatcha done lately?” mode. Erik is a filmmaker who desires greater control over his craft, so he decided to break into script writing.

After taking turns in exchanging horror stories about grad school, and before we ran out of gas, Bob made his grand entrance. He’s a middle aged man with the wittiest sense of humor this side of George Carlin, or an American version of Lord Henry from the Picture of Dorian Gray. We spoke a bit about the goals of the club, what we expected from it, and what we hope to gain from each other, and so forth. Continue reading Fingersmiths “R” Us

Deafness & authentic writing

Last week I was reading an article on theNation.com about a new generation of writers from Mexico (Jorge Volpi, Ignacio Padilla & Eloy Urroz) in the mid nineties, and it hit very close to home. They called themselves the “crackeros” but what interested me the most was their resistance to writing “Mexican literature.”  Literary critics from America and Western Europe insisted that Mexicans writers must write about Mexican themes in order to be authentic. In other words, the crakeros‘ novels weren’t about Mexico, and therefore, the writers weren’t authentic. That implies that the “universal” is restricted to the Americans and Europeans. Commence severe eye-rolling. Continue reading Deafness & authentic writing

God of War III review

Before I jump headfirst into this review, perhaps a little background information is in order:

I grew up on mythology the same way most children of the 80’s grew up on Hasbro toys like GI Joe or Transformers, Barbie or Cabbage Patch dolls, etc. I mean, sure, like any active 10 year old, I enjoyed toys and cartoons and video games, but mythology – Greek mythology – was so fascinating and it served as my springboard into science fiction, literature, religion, and philosophy.

The life-long fascination with Greek myths drew me to God of War. Now, although I had stopped playing games by the time the original game came out in 2005, I was easily intrigued with it when I visited another child of the 80’s who had a bigger video gaming addiction. God of War was a brilliant blend of the action platformer & the hack n’ slash game that mined the rich heritage of Greek mythology. The sequel, while being bigger and badder than the original, also ended on one of the greatest cliffhangers I’ve ever seen. Once I heard that the finale would be released on the Playstation 3, I bought it in advance- 3 years ago. Continue reading God of War III review