Thus revealed, the creature buried its nose in the tire-tilled soil...
February 6, 2004
Locomotive
Category: Serious

Every vent in the house is choo-ing like a locomotive and the air smells of heated metal and burning crumbs.

Perhaps the house is about to explode.

In the event that that happens and I am killed, I wanted to leave new readers -- or readers who may have missed these posts, or readers who would like to read them again -- with links to a few older blog entries that I think are worth reading. Here they are, in chronological order:

"Of Gods and Men and Suffering..."

"Hello, Irony!"

"Speaking of cookies..."

"And now, what you've all been waiting for..."

"Tying Up 'Lewis' Ends"

The last post, entitled "For Hannah", is also a worthwhile read, I think. Hell, lots of 'em are worthwhile reads. 🙂

Today I read about a third of Voltaire's Candide, which remains my favorite novel to date. Really great, and short, so read that too. I also submitted a short story entitled "The Finish Line" -- which has already received one rejection, from Strange Horizions -- to Ideomancer. I'm not optimistic about their buying it -- and even if they did buy it, it's a short story and won't pay much -- but we'll see. Still waiting on my rejection from Playboy. Supposedly they usually take between eight and ten weeks, so I should hear from them pretty soon. Odds are I'll get the rejection on Valentine's Day. That's poetry, folks.

Wow, the choos are getting louder and the smell is getting stronger. It now smells something like burning eggs and rusted metal cap guns. The end is nigh.

Aw, Mom turned the heating system off. 🙁

So in the sidebar I've added a link to Amanda's blog. Don't let the name of the blog fool you -- though that's her intent; the name and the cute photos she's got up seem to be the prevailing reasons for her popularity -- there's some pretty heady stuff posted there. Most of the subject matter is ultimately rather trivial, but I think this is a necessary transition phase through which the fledgling philosopher must pass (though some never "graduate" from it). It reminds me of the zeal with which I previously examined the question of free will, until it was pointed out to me that no matter what conclusion one comes to regarding the issue, we have no choice but to continue to behave as if we possess free will -- and implicitly believe that we have it -- and that in the absence of that belief we could not function. And then I thought, "Huh, that's right -- why don't we talk about something else, then?" Amanda's latest post -- about Identity Theory and the the Mind-Body problem -- strikes me as belonging to that class of philosophical topics -- the kinds of arguments that seem trivial and meaningless unless you carry their implications into discussions of other, more significant things.

And there is no art to them.

But if that is philosophy -- and unfortunately, many will argue that it is -- then it strikes me that I have not been engaged in writing "philosophy" for some time. There is a certain character to my work that I've noticed recently, and was just thinking about as I reread "For Hannah". In the post's "preface", I described it as an essay, and it is, in some ways, appropriate to call it philosophy -- but perhaps it would be more proper to call it a sermon. Many of my blog posts, much of my fiction -- sermons.

I suppose it should not be surprising, then, that they are largely ignored and rejected.

-posted by Wes | 3:41 am | Comments (0)
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