February 2012
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I was in such a foul mood today with an academic from my department (who I genuinely think is just being contrary because he can) that when I was out today, everyone who asked me how I was got 100% the true answer. Guys, it’s fucking awesome to see people’s reactions when they ask, expecting “fine”, ‘cause you’re just briefly bumping into each other crossing the...
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I Am by John Clare
I am—yet what I am none cares or knows; My friends forsake me like a memory lost: I am the self-consumer of my woes— They rise and vanish in oblivious host, Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes And yet I am, and live—like vapours tossed
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise, Into the living sea of waking dreams, Where there is neither sense of life or joys, But the vast shipwreck of...
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“You have every right to put a book down after a couple of pages, which is why...”
– Tim Parks, Mindful Reading
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“It brings out the fundamental difference between people in daily life and people...”
– E. M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel
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“So that art, which consumes enormous amounts of human labour and of human lives,...”
– Leo Tolstoy, What is Art?
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“Isn’t there any heaven where old beautiful dances, old beautiful...”
– Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier
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“Sleep is still most perfect, in spite of hygienists, when it is shared with a...”
– D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers
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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Life over the last few days:
I got my itinerary for the book launch. I’m definitely on a panel discussion, and I’m reading four poems. Flying across the world for a four-day launch? Still can’t believe it.
This whole thing has made me go through some of my poetry to decide what to read, and I really want to start writing vigorously again, and possibly submitting to anthologies...
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“There were many, many stages in the ebbing of her love for him, but it was...”
– D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers
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“She felt lonely with him now, and his presence only made it more intense.”
– D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers
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Bear with me as I try to articulate this, but isn’t it weird how sometimes a person’s presence in your life (I mostly mean a positive presence, but sometimes it’s not), is simply a loosening for the one you have yet to meet? I suppose this is mostly for romantic relationships, but it applies almost equally for friendships if one has been hurt in the past or views things...
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Talking to a friend about what to do after...
Him: I'm thinking of just saying fuck it, moving to London, and becoming a stereotype.
Me: Well, I can't currently decide what to do, so tell you what: if you move to London, I'll move to London.
Him: This plan of yours needs work.
Me: It's more reasonable than yours -- at least I have a place there. I'm also thinking of moving to Paris and learning French at the Sorbonne. Get a diploma or something.
Him: I want to move to Paris too! Okay, new plan, moving to Paris. Or Lyon. Yes, that's a good idea.
Me: Why, just because I made you think of it?
Him: More or less.
Me: This plan of yours needs work.
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“Sometimes life takes hold of one, carries the body along, accomplishes...”
– D. H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers
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“If you know someone who’s depressed, please resolve never to ask them why....”
– Stephen Fry (via presidents)
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Me (to a good friend): You look like the love child of Tony Blair and Stephen Fry.
Him: I'm sure I'm meant to be offended, but I'm too busy picturing Stephen Fry fucking Tony Blair.
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“I hate to be where she is not, when she is not. And yet, I am always going, and...”
– Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife
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