Your offering today is like the visceral joy of spring stirring deep within the earth and vibrating in the bones of all. Enticing, exciting, energising, inspiring, uplifting. I want to throw myself in and just play with the threads and ripples of existence.
Again, thank you! Perfectly what I needed to hear/read (I listen while reading along) this day. I was just struggling to write something (about how the climate events surrounding my community are re-forming the land. our minds, our ways of life) and I was feeling frustrated because I love reading and writing--- but I was thinking it used to seem easier (again, practice.) I just finished Octavia Butler's Seed to Harvest and although very disturbing, there was that deeper meaning that touched my psyche in a way I can't describe but you did: Yes, "Suddenly your psyche can and will contain the apocalypse" After being submerged in that book where telepaths compromise a whole branch of humanity, your sentence "They can even induce the thoughts they are thinking" just seems natural. Like The Wake (which led me to Wild Twins!) and Parable, and your essays, I come out of it feeling exhilarated, as if I just get back from spelunking into the depths.
Just curious? Why did China Mieville piss you off ;) Same happened to me. I loved loved loved his early books, (I have a signed copy of Kraken) but it became a mission to read from The City and The City and later, especially his (Sci-Fy?) book Embassytown, I had to stop reading as it made no sense midway through... I didn't get into his (later) politics etc. the world building and characters I enjoyed. Love your 'stack' and sharings.
Ah, I am coming at China Mieville from the other end... I love SF! So Embassytown and The City and The City are two of my favourite fiction books of that decade, (along with Marcel Theroux's Far North and Strange Bodies). It was the Perdido St Station and that series I couldn't get into. Also, he now writes mainly non-fiction, and my to-read pile is too high to add these to. Really good speculative fiction is my recreational (and often educational) indulgence.
Substack stats eh ? Mine must be weird. I listen several times. Once in the house, then again as I drive. On subsequent listenings I realise I only heard a fraction of what you were saying. These words made me get my sketchbook out. Thanks for that 🌀🌀🌀
Oehh, how I enjoy reading and listening to this. You are so different and so similar. My drive to use words comes from this same place, a deep longing to share, to come into relation, to change and be changed by the real, the sensual. Today I launched my own substack space after months of hesitation, after a lifetime of writing just for me. I made a crack and it puts a smile on my face. You where my way in, my last nudge to really, finally do it.
Your offering today is like the visceral joy of spring stirring deep within the earth and vibrating in the bones of all. Enticing, exciting, energising, inspiring, uplifting. I want to throw myself in and just play with the threads and ripples of existence.
Caroline, You struck a chord today as you described the interplay between writer and reader. Beautiful ! D
Wordsmithing and feeling induction at its finest.
This is marvelous, Carolyn, just marvelous, so richly resonant in chambers of my heart/mind I feel the shiver of renewal. Thank you.
Again, thank you! Perfectly what I needed to hear/read (I listen while reading along) this day. I was just struggling to write something (about how the climate events surrounding my community are re-forming the land. our minds, our ways of life) and I was feeling frustrated because I love reading and writing--- but I was thinking it used to seem easier (again, practice.) I just finished Octavia Butler's Seed to Harvest and although very disturbing, there was that deeper meaning that touched my psyche in a way I can't describe but you did: Yes, "Suddenly your psyche can and will contain the apocalypse" After being submerged in that book where telepaths compromise a whole branch of humanity, your sentence "They can even induce the thoughts they are thinking" just seems natural. Like The Wake (which led me to Wild Twins!) and Parable, and your essays, I come out of it feeling exhilarated, as if I just get back from spelunking into the depths.
Oh a good knife or a good pen, in the right hand can do such fine work. Thank for this.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I love your tender attention to the feeling of writing... 💜
Just curious? Why did China Mieville piss you off ;) Same happened to me. I loved loved loved his early books, (I have a signed copy of Kraken) but it became a mission to read from The City and The City and later, especially his (Sci-Fy?) book Embassytown, I had to stop reading as it made no sense midway through... I didn't get into his (later) politics etc. the world building and characters I enjoyed. Love your 'stack' and sharings.
Ah, I am coming at China Mieville from the other end... I love SF! So Embassytown and The City and The City are two of my favourite fiction books of that decade, (along with Marcel Theroux's Far North and Strange Bodies). It was the Perdido St Station and that series I couldn't get into. Also, he now writes mainly non-fiction, and my to-read pile is too high to add these to. Really good speculative fiction is my recreational (and often educational) indulgence.
Substack stats eh ? Mine must be weird. I listen several times. Once in the house, then again as I drive. On subsequent listenings I realise I only heard a fraction of what you were saying. These words made me get my sketchbook out. Thanks for that 🌀🌀🌀
Oehh, how I enjoy reading and listening to this. You are so different and so similar. My drive to use words comes from this same place, a deep longing to share, to come into relation, to change and be changed by the real, the sensual. Today I launched my own substack space after months of hesitation, after a lifetime of writing just for me. I made a crack and it puts a smile on my face. You where my way in, my last nudge to really, finally do it.