Posts you had second thought about and decided not to post - put them here

Put down the callipers pls

butt problems were a go to for me at various horrible jobs ... no one wants details of your butt problems.

Starbucks should close at like 11am every day

Promising thread titles that turn out not to be about jazz

Be the change you want to see on ILM.

you were a gaffer on the weakest link?

you're right, we need more literature fans

lmao

should i say here or in the other thread that i haven't even read toni morrison myself (nothing on her i just don't read much literature)

sometimes w/ this sort of thing it's a little bit a lot of ppl feeling they need to chime in even tho they have nothing to say and i'd almost prefer ilx not say much if it has nothing worthwhile to add

the point is not that we need to gin up response to events outside our experience but that the community's homogeneity is showing and it's part of the reason why the petri dish is souring a bit

we need some racist alt-right gun nuts on ilx ...?

though i do wish we had threads for shows like Insecure and Dear White People ...

should i say here or in the other thread that i haven't even read toni morrison myself

Never read anything of hers either. I admire her attitude toward her own work — basically, "I know who I'm writing for, and if anyone else wants to read it, that's fine" — and figure I'll get around to her eventually.

On the other hand, I tried listening to a David Berman song last night on YouTube and stopped after 90 seconds or so - it just did absolutely nothing for me. People who like what he did are seeking something from music that I am not, and that's fine. There's a whole world of things that are Not For Me.

There's a whole world of things that are Not For Me.

Pretty much. As a general rule, I have little affinity for writers who are in it to tell stories or who wholeheartedly embrace language. It's not a value judgement – their work simply doesn't resonate with me.

the point is not that we need to gin up response to events outside our experience but that the community's homogeneity is showing and it's part of the reason why the petri dish is souring a bit

― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, August 8, 2019 11:32 AM (twenty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

ya this is it

how does a writer not wholeheartedly embrace language"? Are there examples of those who don't?

Sam Beckett: 'Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness.'

Becket wholeheartedly embraces language, whether in Murphy or The Unnameable. I'm not sure we're using the adverb and the noun it modifies in the same way, lol

That he does so reluctantly is a fairly uncontroversial statement.

That's judging his intentions, which have no interest in doing. Spare prose bespeaks an embrace of language.

i.e. you love English/French enough to respect minimalism.

No, it stems from the prose itself. The terror-stricken struggle with language is there at every step.

He speaks of writing as an 'obligation' to express.

fwiw I always got him confused with that comedian

Yeah, but Beckett was "performing" "Samuel Beckett" in a lot of his writing. Remember, his early stuff was super-Joycean and positively besotted with word-power and language's expressive capability. His later, minimal stuff was a reaction, and he fully understood the absurdity of what he was trying to do.

Hm. I understand your point now, but I know few writers for whom a struggle with language wasn't a terror!

though i do wish we had threads for shows like Insecure and Dear White People ...

*AHEM*
Issa Ray's "Insecure" HBO show

I am bummed no one posts on that thread but me tbh

most thread here could be titled Insecure and Dear White People imo

lol

*clink*

I didn't post about TM because it's like leaving a scribbled note at the foot of a mountain and besides I don't feel qualified (short version: I'm insecure and white). Then I dribbled some inadequate bollocks on the thread and am thinking I'll stick with my insecurity from now on.

Yeah, but Beckett was "performing" "Samuel Beckett" in a lot of his writing. Remember, his early stuff was super-Joycean and positively besotted with word-power and language's expressive capability. His later, minimal stuff was a reaction, and he fully understood the absurdity of what he was trying to do.

All writers perform 'themselves' on some level (and Beckett was more aware of this than most, as evidenced by the never-ending authorial chain in The Unnamable, for instance), but his early stuff is already shot through with 'great black pauses', as he says with reference to Beethoven's 7th. Its stylistic lavishness often comes across as a front, which is almost never the case in Joyce's writings.

Btw Alfred, you're certainly right to point out that a difficult relationship with language isn't necessarily indicative of terror or torture or tortuousness, etc. Conversely, some writers claim to loathe the ease with which they write. Whether this is made manifest in the prose (or poetry) itself varies from author to author, but I would argue that in Beckett's case it most certainly is (that said, the opposite argument has been made, and I don't think it unpersuasive!).

fair enough! That makes sense.

think yer all wrong and prob wilfully so but cba needling the winkle out of the shell

Conversely, some writers claim to loathe the ease with which they write

aaaaaah screw these people!

black, white, purple

aaaaaah screw these people!

cosign

most threads here could be titled "aaaaaah screw these people!"

aaaaaah screw these people!

― jakey mo collier (voodoo chili),

John Updike is dead!

Who are these writers that curse themselves for writing too easily? Damn their eyes.

“No it is not easy to write. It is as hard as breaking rocks. Sparks and splinters fly like shattered steel” Clarice Lispector.

Oh yeah, Updike. I imagine Paul Theroux is another.

aaaaaah screw these people!

― jakey mo collier (voodoo chili),

John Updike is dead!

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, August 8, 2019 11:25 AM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah but with updike you could really tell writing came easily

Trump calls the El Paso gunman a “coward” while speaking to local law enforcement. “He gave up, just gave up."

— Claudia Koerner (@ClaudiaKoerner) August 7, 2019

cannot

Re:writers and language, it makes me think of Nabokov's commentary on Lolita where he's like, "btw, I could have written this soooo much better in Russian," when most writers in English would kill to be able to write like Nabokov.

https://am14.akamaized.net/med/cnt/uploads/2019/08/Twitter-Recoils-at-WH-Photo-Op-of-Trump-Posing-with-El-Paso-Orphan.jpg

Wow, this inspired poll idea is just what ILM needed!

lol speaking of petri dishes going sour

jesus u rly are just the american _____ arent u

he's coming to your board
with his righteous sword
he's the american ____________________