Status
The past is as urgent as ever
Finished reading: The War of the Poor by Eric Vuillard 📚
This incendiary novella - only 66 pages long - burns so fiercely it felt like a bomb was about to go off in my hand. With amazing economy the author, Eric Vuillard, brings to life the brief, violent career of Thomas Müntzer. He makes the past as vivid as an execution, and renders the urgency of the past fully present. The Peasants’ War, so distant in time, is now.
“Müntzer is thirsty, hungry and thirsty, terribly hungry and thirsty, and nothing can sate him, nothing can slake his thirst. He’ll devour old bones, branches, stones, mud, milk, blood, fire. Everything.”
Gripping.
My piano is a forest
Currently reading: The Forest of Wool and Steel by Natsu Miyashita 📚
I love the metaphor of the piano as a living forest, and I’m enjoying the journey of the diffident main character, Tomura, in his apprenticeship as a piano tuner. It’s certainly making me see my own piano in a new light.
I'm now @Richard@mastodon.au - yes I joined Mastodon. There's an original idea. As though there aren't enough half neglected social media accounts in my life. Pretty sure my micro.blog account federates semi-automatically anyway, but haven't worked it out yet. Can someone please point me to a simple how-to article, I wonder?
Not thinking of writing a novel in November
Well, I didn't sign up to NaNoWriMo, where you undertake to write 50,000 words in a month. Partly, it's just not my way of doing things. I have recently completed a novel manuscript, which took longer than a month. But then again I also wrote a lot of other stuff while I was doing it. As previously mentioned, you can get a lot done while writing slowly.
Thinking of writing a novel
Manton mentioned NaNoWriMo and that has got me thinking.
https://www.manton.org/2022/10/07/love-reading-about.html
When I publish a post with no title, where does it go and who gets to see it?
Thanks to Tom Critchlow, I now know a simple JS trick for including the micro.blog feed into a website:
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://micro.blog/sidebar.js?username=tomcritchlow"></script>I had forgotten that posts to my wordpress site only show up on micro.blog if there’s no title.
Let’s see whether this post, written on my new iPad, makes an appearance…
Finally the iPad
Having finally got hold of an iPad, I’m expecting more posts here soon - and by extension on micro.blog
zines
I'm imagining writing a handful of 'zines and setting up stall at one of those 'zine fairs. I would like that. I just looked it up and found a pop-up 'zine fair just down the road this Sunday. I will go to seek inspiration.
http://www.niemanlab.org/2017/12/zines-had-it-right-all-along/
Great bike ride down the river and along the bay this morning. Cold to start but warmed up nicely. Flat rear tyre though - twice... argh! I'm getting new tyres, finally. Should be good by Wednesday.
You have been warned
It starts innocently enough, then they take over the world. You have been warned.
A big win for civilization in England?
A judge has ruled that a local council in England needs to consider its statutory duties before closing down libraries due to funding cuts.
[The Guardian] (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/14/family-claims-win-in-high-court-challenge-to-northants-library-cuts)
Just by posting on my site, the post is automatically mirrored to micro.blog
I’m thinking of adding a connection between this site and Manton Reece’s micro.blog It’s a bit like Twitter but there’s more control of your site’s own contents. And it’s possible to syndicate everything to Twitter anyway.
