flemmings | Random, and Little, Big

Clapotis is such an unfortunate term for anything, especially something as beautiful as a clapotis. It also sounds like one of those ground-cover plants. 'The clapotis have taken over the garden. I'll have to uproot them all this Saturday.'

I think I said that I'd had Little, Big on my shelf for twenty years. Turns out to be closer to a quarter century. And I can't tell you how odd that felt when I realized it. "Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume." I just started reading it.

It gives me literal nightmares, in fact, contents unseizable but certainly related to what Housman mentioned:

And from the cave of oracles I heard the priestess shrieking
That she and I should surely die and never live again.

which possibly may have to do with the Eheu fugaces feeling attendant on discovering when I actually bought the physical book, but probably has more to do with its contents. It's a good thing I never dropped acid back in the days when acid was popular. Stuff that's too highly coloured, stuff that references memories too closely (quite prosaic memories too- hot summer afternoons in early childhood, the lights of someone else's living room on some Novemberish evening) give me the kind of fantods I can't deal with. Titus Groan did it; Little, Big is doing it. I can't stop reading it but I'm hoping the uneasiness of the ambiance will give way to the prosaic mundane, and also hoping it won't.

It's a bit odd to be reading this after reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and not the other way around, as I assume everyone else did; and I wonder why no one I know mentioned Crowley when they were discussing Clarke. JS&MN did indeed do some of the synapse-tickling that LB does: feather-touch of unplaceable and sinister for-no-good-reason memories, of other voices and other rooms. (Oh yeah, Capote. Did I mention early Capote does it too?) But Clarke's pastiche keeps you at an intellectual distance, admiring the technical brilliance of writing in Thackery's or Trollope's or whoever's voice. There's no intellectual distance with LB, and to make it worse I'm reading Mushishi at the same time. The two resonate far too well together for comfort. I should be reading the dry sauterne of 100 Demons instead, to counteract LB's dizzying instant-drunk sweet sherry. Not the arghness of oh say The Fairy Feller's Master Stroke- odd things not quite seen in the deep woods of August- but the commonsense domesticity of the dragon in the living room scarfling his sixth bowl of rice.

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frankly, clapotis sounds like a parasite that makes one's genitals turn purple and fall off. ^^;;

I intend to name someone in my writing Balanitis Xerotica Obliterans, as soon as I find someone who deserves it. :)

Knowing you is indeed an educative experience.

Lichen sclerosus (LS) is a chronic, progressive, sclerosing inflammatory dermatosis of unclear etiology. Most reported LS cases (83%) involve the genitalia. In men, this genital involvement has traditionally been known as balanitis xerotica obliterans (BXO). A more accurate term is male genital or penile LS.

Occasionally however I could wish to remain uneducated... (Isn't there a CLAMP manga called something like that?)

There's Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, but I think it's more about losing eyes or feathers (like most Clamp) than losing penises.

Spare us poor clinical coders a few pitiful amusements. Like the other day, when we had what we refer to as a "shopping list" from someone who wanted figures on sufferers from sexually transmitted diseases, and therefore wanted the diagnosis codes for such disease to enable counting. There was cheerful discussion of "do you think oral thrush counts?" and "wait, wait, what about crab lice!"

(The fact that we are one team in the middle of a large room with a lot of other people who probably got to hear this . . .)

Actually I was thinking of B'TX (http://www.finalmanga.net/anime-manga/rubrique53.html) which is by the Seiya mangaka for all I thought the long-ago anime looked CLAMPesque.

(snickers) When I launch my award-winning series BXO, only you will know the truth!

Now you make me want to read LB. And Capote. And Trollope. And find out who's Crowley. And ...

And there is not enough time in the world, which makes me want to weep, and is probably just revenge for sending you Mushishi without furigana.

Let me know if you every want more Mushishi. I think it's up to volume 8 ...

Crowley wrote Little, Big. Trollope's oeuvre is something one can live without reading. Capote's early short stories are just that, stories, and readable on transit if there's any transit involved in your commute. Might even be available as a talking book. These are all activities for your retirement, in between babysitting grandchildren. Though you *know* I still think you should quit your job and find congenial P/T work in a daycare.

I shall probably want more mushishi. It's really quite a strange series. (Lack of furigana doesn't bother me with novels. I'm not sure what the trouble here is unless it's just a pringtime access of Teh Stupid.)

Springtime access, even.

This is going to be so completely random, but hi, I'm studying the notion of cultural appropriation in anime/manga-based fanfiction, and I've been distributing a questionnaire to various fanfic writers to help in my research. Your name's popped up several times, and you come highly recommended as a fanfic writer. ^^ I was wondering if I could trouble you then to do this questionnaire as well? Completely obligation-free, I promise. You can say no if you don't want to do it. =)

Cultural appropriation. Aarh, them be dangerous waters, matey. But sounds interesting. Sure, I'd be glad to. Email addy's in my user info.

you come highly recommended as a fanfic writer. ^^

And here I'd thought I'd managed to pass under the radar. ^^;

awesome, i look forward to reading your answers =)

haha no, i ♥ your Saiyuki fanfiction =33

Random, and Little, Big

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