April 2009
(A spotlight illuminates a mat of plastic grass laying center stage. A square beach towel is spread out neatly over that, and a body lays on top of that. Downward facing, her hands extend outward, one holds a pen, the other a group of papers. There are also papers scattered on the blanket and across the stage. The body is motionless. The only sound is from the radio station playing from the nearby...
“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.”
– George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language,” 1946
“Big Brother is infallible and all-powerful. Every success, every achievement, every victory, every scientific discovery, all knowledge, all wisdom, all happiness, all virtue, are held to issue directly from his leadership and inspiration. Nobody has ever seen Big Brother.”
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, p.213
This is laughably similar to how God is depicted in Paradise Lost.
copycats:
How Six Songs Collide by Norwegian...
1 tag
Ships (ongoing): 5.3 - 5.4(new) - 5.5
Dr. Salamos was alone - and then, he wasn’t. The door to the lab swung open smoothly, and Dr. Salamos turned quickly, expecting worse than the little boy who was now gleefully peering around the lab, his eyes as glassy as the orb he was holding carefully in his palms.
“What are you do- please, sonny, you can’t stay. You must leave now.”
“My daddy sent me here to give you this. He said you knew...
Review: Hudson Valley Philharmonic in Kingston -... →
“Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects,...”
– William Faulkner, Light in August, the beginning of chapter 6
“I remember. He meant the Kingdom was over, the Kingdom of Heaven, it was all...”
– Lyra, The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman, p. 518.
World Official Squirrel Fishing Association →
Thanks to Chris Pietrzak for finding this.
Ships 5.3 (ongoing)
Dr. Salamos was alone - and then, he wasn’t. The door to the lab swung open smoothly, and Dr. Salamos turned quickly, expecting worse than the little boy who was now gleefully peering around the lab, his eyes as glassy as the orb he was holding carefully in his palms.
“What are you do- please, sonny, you can’t stay. You must leave now.”
“My daddy sent me here to...
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Ships 5.2 (ongoing)
“Son, come in here will you?”
“What is it daddy?”
“Can you bring this over to the old lab at the end of town? It’s at the edge of the forest.”
He gave his son a heavy sphere that seemed to have a white ocean inside it that swirled elegantly at its own pace.
“The old doctor there will know how to use it. See to it that he gets it, and he alone....
God Makes Surprise Visit To Local Church | The... →
xkcd - A Webcomic - Together →
“I can’t choose my nature, but I can choose what I do. And I will choose because...”
– Will, The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman, p. 418.
Whoever is playing the Batman Animated Series theme song on the piano just made my day a whole lot better. Thanks :)
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Ships 5.1 (ongoing)
Once Dr. Salamos hit the floor, he quickly got up and rushed back to the microscope. He knew The Quantum Guard would be arriving soon; they’d have felt the skyward effects of the planetary disappearance. Wanting to inspect the sky one last time, but knowing he could not — not knowing he would never again — he took the lens from the SCOVERscope that allowed him to see beyond the...
“If you try and write a story about how being moral is a good thing and being...”
– Philip Pullman in a televised documentary, 2003.
He told her to wait by the well.
Fuck You, Penguin: Porcupinefish send out mixed... →
The Art of Letter Writing | The Art of Manliness →
In my Shakespeare class today, my extremely well-educated, articulate, and brilliant professor “corrected” his pronunciation of “culture” as “cull-cha.”
It was hilarious.
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Ships 5.5 (ongoing)
Dr. Salamos had been laying on the hard wood floors of the lab for nearly 7 minutes, when he felt his lungs relax, and he could breathe normally again. He took out a handkerchief to wipe his brow. He blew his nose too; he could almost smell the terror that had filled the room moments ago. A knock at the door averted his senses.
He didn’t respond.
4 knocks at the door, and louder.
...
Home of Mari Kasurinen - Sculptures →
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Ships 5 (ongoing)
300 years ago the oceans dried up. They shrunk to the size of small lakes from the vast land-encompassing beasts they once were, and they dwindle every year.
Dr. Salamos is the doctoral professor at the once-esteemed Astrology Institute of Exploration. He founded the institute alone 30 years ago; his employees resigned from their positions 13 days ago, and he now finds himself alone again. Dr....
The 10 Coolest Foreign Words The English Language ... →
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Ships 4 (ongoing)
Whenever there was a storm, he would rearrange the books in his study. Each time, he would classify them differently, and re-shelve them in his new method. Only once had they been ordered by author’s last name, and that had been when he moved into the house with his son. They had barely been on the shelf a day and a thunder shower rolled in, and he had to re-shelve them. In the past he had...
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Ships 2 Revision (ongoing)
One book remained. He picked it up, tracing his fingers over the engraved surface of the cover. This was his most beloved book, a treasure. He fit it neatly next to the previous book, and carefully added the book end to hold the row in place. Taking a step back, he sighed, admiring his collection of books: his inanimate friends, animate only in their language. He moved back to his desk, sat...
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Ships 3 (ongoing)
Every day the little girl would sit on the edge of her cloud, peering through the vast oceanic sky to the forestland below. Every day since her own cloud appeared to her, she would sit on it to gaze below, imagining the stories that took place below; and every day, more confidence would grip her, and she would ride the cloud down a little further so that she could see a bit more.
Yesterday, she...
Find Your Daemon - How to Find Your Own Dæmon →
“In Lyra’s world, dæmons; in the world of the mulefa, the oil-bearing...”
– Philip Pullman, from Lantern Slides special feature in The Amber Spyglass 