http://andersoncreativeonline.com/jmblog Just blowin' through naptime Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:58:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Break out your wigs and ball tape: Season two of RuPaul's Drag Race starts tonight! I was turned onto the show during season one by Tom and Lorenzo, may the most flattering light shine upon their cheekbones forever, and it may well be one of the most fantastic things ever ... http://andersoncreativeonline.com/jmblog/2010/02/01/the-girls-are-back-in-town/ Posts are always percolating, but for the next little while, action here will probably be slim to nil. I've been invited to blog the 2666 group reading at Infinite Zombies, so that's where most of my blogging energy will be directed. See you over there! http://andersoncreativeonline.com/jmblog/2010/01/21/its-brains-for-lunch-for-the-next-few-months/ (I do have one last Infinite Summer post in the works, even though we're almost into next year now, but it's held things up long enough. When it happens, it'll happen. Meanwhile!) I can't say with complete confidence that The Best of Gene Wolfe is the best of Gene Wolfe (although ... http://andersoncreativeonline.com/jmblog/2009/12/08/caveat-creditor/ (I take it for granted: I'm gay, I've been to Cuba, I've worked in publishing, and I contact my Congresswomen. You tell me there's no file with my names on it.) I like an awful lot of music that's conventionally called annoying—I was almost in tears of wonder the other day ... http://andersoncreativeonline.com/jmblog/2009/11/22/another-item-for-my-cia-file/ Wow, after all that, I left out an important part: the second half of my argument. I said that the Eschaton section shows that the effort to separate one's self from the world is doomed to fail, and gave as justification for that assertion the denouement of the scene. But ... http://andersoncreativeonline.com/jmblog/2009/09/30/and-another-thing/ If I had a Luger pointed at me and were under compulsion to try to pick my favorite section of Infinite Jest, I'd choose the Eschaton game. I know it greatly annoys some readers, but I think it's some of the funniest, most brutal, most skillfully written stuff in the ... http://andersoncreativeonline.com/jmblog/2009/09/29/not-with-a-bang-but-with-some-whimpering-kids/ I've had great fun with Infinite Summer. I mean, any time with Infinite Jest is well spent, as far as I'm concerned, but the IS community made it a new experience all over again, and added so much to my reading (and future rereadings) of the book. I think this ... http://andersoncreativeonline.com/jmblog/2009/09/22/a-satisfactory-conclusion-begins/ Wraiths, huh? Jeffrey at Infinite Tasks has expected a ghost for a while now, which goes to show that some people pay a lot more attention to things like Hamlet parallels than some other people. (In truth, the college course I first read this book for was organized around the ... http://andersoncreativeonline.com/jmblog/2009/09/20/enigmas-abound/ So here's why I think the smiley-face-embossed cartridge cases Marathe sees in Pat Montesian's cabinet at Ennet House (p. 750) contain the duplicable Master of the Entertainment. It's less rigorous reasoning, I admit, than I usually go for (see the title of the post), but for now I'm comfortable with ... http://andersoncreativeonline.com/jmblog/2009/09/05/impressionistic-criticism-is-go/ The structure of Infinite Jest is curious: It doesn't make the book difficult to read (as long as you catch the places like page 391, where the printing is off and the space before the first section on the page is missable), but it does make it challenging to understand. ... http://andersoncreativeonline.com/jmblog/2009/08/29/the-space-between/