For the past two weeks or so, I've been watching a lone bee toil slowly on its nest on the other side of my window.

But today the original bee (which has grown bronzed and dull) has been joined by two newer bees, and construction has stepped up a notch.

Should I put a stop to this, or just let continue to nature take its course? I have a sinking feeling that the next time I look out the window there will be a horrible volleyball-sized mass blocking out the sun.

Labels: personal

Wednesday, June 26, 2002
12:51 PM
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I've been quite busy lately with summertime fun.

A partial listing of some of the stuff I've been doing includes:

Playing the 1920s-era 10-button accordion that I received in the mail from Lorraine, and the concertina that I received from my sister. Expect next year's Number None album to be all about bellows duets.

Researching independent publishers. (Soft Skull Press and Akashic Books both look particularly interesting.)

Going to Summer Solstice, the MCA's annual hipster sleepover, with friend-from-out-of-town Maggie G. We entertained ourselves by playing a gender-neutral version of Michael Barrish's people-watching game Woman of My Dreams, which added an extra entertaining dimension to the night.

Reading books, currently Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin. The best things I've read over the past few months are probably Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist (thanks here to Judith for the recommendation) and Ben Marcus' Notable American Women. I've also been trying to make more room on my bookshelf by getting rid of some books, but that's a subject for a whole different post.

Riding my bike. I tried to find an old grain elevator in Pilsen, but it must have been demolished years ago.

Watching a single bee of some variety slowly and meticulously build a nest from tiny tiny pieces of particulate.

Sitting in front of my poor laboring windowbox air conditioner.

Labels: book_commentary, personal

Monday, June 24, 2002
12:44 PM
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Well, to judge from the comments on my post about adulthood, most of you feel like play is an important component of an "adult" life. And I agree.

But this raises the question: why does play seem to be missing from so many adult lives?

Is it just because play requires people to put themselves out there on a limb, to expose an emotional side, something adults are often reluctant to do?

Jon remarks that play helps helps people learn, and also helps prepare them for future unexpected events. But our society tends to think of "learning" as the province of the young: adults generally are not encouraged to continue learning, and the sheer force of daily habit tends to reduce the frequency of unexpected events that crop up. Are these part of the reasons why people discontinue the practice of play?

Jon also mentions that play helps to refine social skills. But does the average adult need to continue to refine these skills? Is this part of why gamers are often culturally stereotyped as socially inept, doomed to forever remain in gamespace, like some sort of permanent remedial class?

If play is a human need, including for adults, where are the institutions that capitalize upon this need? What would constitute an adult "play center?" (Dave and Busters? The local bowling alley?) What would constitute an "adult kindergarten?" Are there other institutions that take our need for play, and channel it into activities that do not exactly qualify as "classic" (collective) play? (Like, say, one of those companies that lets you parachute out of a plane.)

DBauler defines play as "an activity undertaken for no other primary goal than for one's own satisfaction." As humans get older, and develop more thoroughly into individuals, what constitutes satisfaction for them begins to vary more widely. Perhaps this is why our early-life tendency towards collective play begins to wane, replaced by personally-satisfying behaviors? Are hobbies a form of play? Is woodworking play? Is fishing? Is watching NASCAR? Is playing Playstation?

When adults play with their children, is that play or something different?

Labels: adulthood, play

Sunday, June 16, 2002
7:24 PM
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I am currently reading Portnoy's Complaint, as part of my project of reading writing about sex, but I think I'm very, very close to stopping. The book was loathsomely entertaining for the first fifty pages or so, and I've read a hundred more pages since then, and there's been very little variety, which means mainly that the elements that once seemed entertaining have now grown simply tedious, and the loathsome elements have continued to accumulate. The book goes on for another 150 pages or so, and I don't get any sense that it's going to do anything different or remarkable in this long final stretch. Moral? Rants are wonderful, but they should be short.

Other books destined to soon be sold or given away include Mortimer Adler's How To Read A Book, which was given to me by a representative of the Great Books Foundation. It is currently sitting by the stove, three feet from the back door. It has not yet made it any deeper into my home, and I do not anticipate that it will.

Labels: book_commentary

Friday, June 14, 2002
3:08 PM
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Temporal writing.

The ability to change Web texts through time (to create "time-shifted" media, to borrow a phrase from this essay) is one of the fundamental, unique properties of Web-writing, and thus it should be a key consideration for current practicioners of electronic writing. And yet I find myself surprised that so few of the current crop of electronic writers are producing work that makes use of the temporal dimension. I'm also surprised that none of the web journals that publish electronic writing make allowances for time-shifted work (to the best of my knowledge).

There's certainly a huge populist explosion of this type of writing, however. Tens of thousands of people use content management systems like Blogger and LiveJournal: these systems essentially automate the organization of material into chronological streams. I wouldn't generally consider most weblogs or LiveJournals to be "electronic literature," but there's a contiunuum here, with the hyperlinked brevity of Robot Wisdom on one end. On the other end we find the literate, essay-like entries of, say, Michael Barrish's Oblivio, Steve Cook's Snarkout, or Paul Ford's FTrain (this last also includes things that apear to be personal essays but which are actually fiction). Are these sites still weblogs? Arguable, but the important point is that these sites make use of temporality: the sites are not static, and this makes us read them differently from how we would read, say, a book of short nonfiction pieces.

When applied to fiction, temporal writing often takes the form of serialized narrative, such as Phantomnation or my own Imaginary Year. A key related text is Michael Stutz's piece, "Episodic Writing."

Forerunners of temporal writing: content-management applications, syndicated newspaper columnists, periodical narratives (such as comic books), Thomas Wolfe's episodic novels, film serials, Victorian-era serializations / series novels.

Labels: electronic_literature, narrative, time, weblogs

Tuesday, June 11, 2002
1:03 PM
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I'm back.

All stories about my whereabouts are true.

My travels have left me with a set of questions which can be generally organized under the heading what do adults need?

Specific questions that fall under that heading: what pieces are required for happiness, and what are ethical methods of achieving those pieces in a sustainable way? What are the new difficulties that one faces in adulthood, and are there (ethical, sustainable) means of surmounting those difficulties? Are "alternative lifetyles" more likely to yield happiness than "traditional" lifestyles? If so, what are the difficulties involved with pursuing an alternative lifestyle, and what activities could counteract those difficulties? Do adults need play, and does play provide more for an adult than simple regression? What is the role of ritual in an adult life? Of learning? Who are the people who are thinking about these ideas? What are the helpful texts?

Labels: adulthood

Monday, June 10, 2002
11:29 AM
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