Well, I’m winding up this phase of my stay in the Carolinas. But I’ll be returning in a month if all goes well, and there’s no reason, except for the usual crap, that it won’t. It’s been hot as Hades here, that is, Hades plus humidity, but we’ve had plenty of badly needed rain over the last few days, which makes for nice breezy evenings and greener lawns, evenings cool enough you can take a walk even if you do have to tote an umbrella. I love walking here. Everyone says hullo and chats a little, folks you don’t even know. I have met some really wonderful folks here I look forward to seeing when I return.
I have yet to find an agent who ‘gets’ my novel – I'm no stranger to people not 'getting' me –but have only just started to mine that vein. They praise my writing skills, characterization, sense of place, but their minds tend to narrow when trying to embrace a novel that isn’t either one ‘type’ of story or another, say, a thriller versus coming of age, etc. They’re very extant commercial fiction oriented. I can’t imagine labeling, for example, Cormac McCarthy’s No country for Old Men a “thriller”, can you? But these porkers would have missed that one altogether. I refuse to spoonfeed a reader. And that’s what they want me to do. These are the same agents who would say the order in which the Lisbeth Salander (sigh, how I wish she was my best friend lately) series unfolded was ‘wrong’. Like my query letter says, it will take an agent who is “unusually adventuresome” to “get” it. Apparently what we have out there is a world of chicken merdes. No surprise, just disappointing. I mean, they don’t even allow for the deliberate use of different tenses that are so obviously employed to create retrospection. Whatever, people.
As T says, feck ‘em.
I had planned on a blog entirely composed of great quotes from Southern female writers I’ve been reading, but there are so many pressing items of interest in the news, aside from the US being on the verge of filing chapter 11, I want to clear my desktop of all the links I’ve been saving for ya’ll first. Will do the writerly blog in a day or so.
Poor Elizabeth Warren got shafted by our chicken shit of a president and the dems to head up the agency she invented to keep us from getting hosed again. What a loss for us, but maybe she’ll run for Ted Kennedy’s seat! Robert Kuttner thinks she should, and I'm down with that. If she won, then, including Bernie Sanders, there'd be two pair of balls in the Senate. You go, girl.
Regarding those Independent Voters.... Who are they really? A question the Daily Kos has done a nice job of bringing to our attention. You knew they had to be closet something, right? Well, it turns out they're closet partisans. Apparently the dirty little secret is that in general the vast majority of self styled “Independent” voters aren’t as wishy washy as Josh from West Wing (or, frankly, I) thought. Such information would be well to be heeded by aspiring Dems in 2012.
Here’s a link from Truthdig, an intro to a mindblowing two-part article I happened on recently in the New York Review of Books (part one of article here and link to part two), that only served to affirm what I’ve felt for years: Anti depressants, even anti-psychotics, are BAD for people. If you are or know of anyone taking any kind of mood altering meds, be sure and send them this. And if you’re on antidepressants, for chrissake read this and seriously consider discontinuing their use. Get a decent shrink instead or go volunteer in Africa or something. Odds are, you may need to do neither if you read this. It may scare the depression right outta you. Dont miss this one. Pass it on to people you care about.
(toon credit, toothpastefordinner.com)
"The whole point of the tea party is to focus concern over our stagnant economy on something called “big government” while ignoring the big corporations that have bought the government as an accessory to their marketing strategies". I can't recall where I found this quote but it sums things up nicely, I feel. Consider recent decisions handed down by the Supremes, the new right wing of the judicial branch, our final arbiter of liberty and law. It's criminal. And they know it as do the 4 consistent dissenters. It’s nice to know our US Supreme Court has mastered the art of instruction. Their recent efforts to educate the corporate world about how they can further reduce the rights of American workers and steal yet more from Liberty’s coffers must be the subject of great revelry in America’s boardrooms. You know, in India when young men reach a certain age they have to spend three months beggin in the streets for food in order to experience being a have not. I think this should be a new pre req for Supremes. Congress might do so as well. Do 'em all some good.
And as we all get a new lesson on the frightening hazards of brinkmanship from weepy "Bonehead" Boehner, and subjected to more blather from the right and about deficits (they tripled under the Raygun) and spending (yup, that too) and read- my- lips (but not too closely) No New Taxes on rich people baloney, there’s this interesting series, a brief education on the history of presidential politics/economics in the NY Times – why we need to pay better attention when liars do protest too much. Like Chaka Kahn sez, "this world's fulla liars". This brief history puts things in perspective. As someone pointed out recently re those at the top of the power pyramid:
"Reality hardly ever intrudes into the lives of our coddled exploiters. These people can steal enough by insider trading alone to insulate themselves from everything."
In the words of Cowardly Lion: Ain't it the truth, ain't it the truth.
Hey! Are poor people fat cause they’re dumber than the average bear and only like crappy food? Why don't they buy the good stuff? The Repubs will tell you it’s cause they buy caddies and are lazy, gluttonous, and I have to admit to some agreement on the latter, but that isn't the whole story by any means. It's planned obesity, else why should a nice juicy tomato cost more to eat than a gratifying, mouthfeel engineered bag of chips? (And why are the ‘healthier’ chips now as pricey per pound as a decent sirloin?) David Sirota explains here.
Ok, I promise to be more lighthearted next time. But I had to get all this this off my chest. I’d like to get the C cup I seem to have recently graduated to off my chest as well. B has suited me just fine for years, what gives?
Here's a little levity to keep you from choking as you attempt to swallow all this nonsense, brought to you by a gal with her hair in oversize rollers.
I’ve been watching a lot of The Sopranos lately. It inspires me. Any woman with doubts about the possible unhealthy aspects of her 'relationship" and who hasn't watched Carm's session with the shrink in Season 3 should probably do so. Then you "Can't say you weren't told." I may move on to revisit Lisbeth Salander series next. Anybody who's pissing me off, and there's a list, better watch out.
ciao bellas
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