Canadian literature...

I always enjoy the way Amazon sends me messages advertising books they think I might like, and dammit, half the time they're right. They know my weaknesses. They offered me an Annie Dillard book yesterday, one I didn't already know about. I was thrilled.

So today they sent me a message beginnig, "As someone who has bought Canadian literature or fiction at Amazon.ca, you might like...."

I did? What? When? I never buy Canlit! I'm allergic to Canadian literature, partly because of bad experiences with it in high school, partly because of bad experiences with it in general. (No, I am not a Margaret Atwood fan. How'd you guess?)

Not that there aren't Canadian writers whom I love: Guy Gavriel Kay, Karen Lowachee, Antonine Maillet, Jane Rule.... but I haven't bought any of them from Amazon.

Maybe I bought something by a Canadian I didn't know was Canadian. Or maybe they made it up.

(no subject)

From March 19, 2009: What’s the worst 'best' book you’ve ever read — the one everyone says is so great, but you can’t figure out why?

Easy: Moby Dick. I'd heard great quotes from it on X-Files and Star Trek and it sounded brilliant. So only a few years ago I sat down and read it cover to cover, and haven't been so bored (or frustrated) by a novel since Ivanhoe. But I understand why some people might like Ivanhoe, or, rather, might have done so in the 19th century. Moby Dick? I just didn't get it.

It quotes well, though. Ignorance is the parent of fear.

It was a sharp, cold Christmas.

Motion is life...

"The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later, when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life." - William Faulkner, 1897 - 1962

Though I don't think this is well expressed, I like the notion that 'motion' is 'life'. It isn't literally true but there's a poetic insight to it.

Writer's Block: Fresh Flowers or Crunchy Leaves?

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I'm happy to be in whatever now offers me. It's nice to see the sunshine. It's nice not to be overloaded with warm coats and boots. It's nice to be able to walk without slipping.

My favourite season is autumn, but spring has its own pleasures: the sense of discovery and expectation at every new bit of growth and greenery, and every flower that blossoms.

Though we aren't to the flowery stage yet, not here.

FIC: Torchwood - Kiss (Gwen/Tosh) - 1/1

This is just to put a link to a tiny ficlet I wrote for apiphile's PANFANDOM KISSING FIC MEME - a brief Gwen/Tosh kiss or two.