"the alive-alive"

[eldritchhobbit]

Happy birthday to super_chik, and happy early birthday to neurotica_girl and dement1a. May all three of your fabulous ladies have wonderful days and fantastic years to come!


In other news...

* This is quite an interesting find: "Huge Marcus Aurelius Statue Uncovered in Ancient Turkish City of Sagalassos."

* Science fiction author Jeff Vandermeer posted his picks for "Summer Political Fiction: From Jessica Z to Black Clock 9."

* From Timothy McSweeney: "Selections from H.P. Lovecraft's Brief Tenure as a Whitman's Sampler Copywriter." I think my favorite is the caramel chew. (Thanks to arymetore.)

* There are several books coming out in the next few weeks/months that already are available for preorder and about which I'm quite excited: in September, Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone: 10th Anniversary Edition by J.K. Rowling; in October, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and Tales from the Perilous Realm by J.R.R. Tolkien with illustrations by Alan Lee; in November, Harry, A History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon by Melissa Anelli; in December, The Vorkosigan Companion by Lillian S. Carl and The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling; and in January, The Sharing Knife: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold.

* In personal news, this past weekend was terrific. We celebrated Lenoir-Rhyne's transition from College to University with a variety of events, and we also thoroughly enjoyed the talk by Dr. Seth Shostak of SETI at the Catawba Science Center.


As I am gearing up to begin teaching my new course on the dystopian tradition this week, I have Zamyatin on the brain, so I'll let him provide the quote for the day:

It is an error to divide people into the living and the dead: there are people who are dead-alive, and people who are alive-alive. The dead-alive also write, walk, speak, act. But they make no mistakes; only machines make no mistakes, and they produce only dead things. The alive-alive are constantly in error, in search, in questions, in torment.
- Yevgeny Zamyatin, "On Literature, Revolution, Entropy, and Other Matters" (1923)

Comments

[ievil-spock-47i.livejournal.com]

"cyclopean milk-chocolate throne"

I'm reading The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath right now!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Perfect timing! :)

[sittingduck1313.livejournal.com]

Personally I suspect that toffee really grows on trees, just like in The Magician's Nephew.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

LOL! I want an orchard, then.

[estellye.livejournal.com]

That is a fantastic quote! LOL, I also like the name of the essay for some reason.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I love the quote, too. Zamyatin is amazing. I'm assigning We in my dystopia class.

[dement1a.livejournal.com]

Thank you dearie! Miss you lots!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

I hope you have a fantastic day! *hugs* I miss you, too - I'm hoping we'll cross paths at a con one of these days who knows where, just like old times. Speaking of cons, have a marvelous time at D*C!