leaving, again
I read the time wrong on my plane tickets. Got to the second hemisphere earlier than I’d expected to. Arrived in the fashion of one of my unfinished screenplays— in the blue. Early blue, evening. Then left. Arrived again, to the second place. Here it is as cold as I was warned, and as beautiful, and I have finally begun to read Katie Kitamura’s Intimacies, which is the first book anyone recommends to me when I say I’m writing a novel about a translator. Kitamura’s is about an interpreter, though, and I do think there is a distinction— however slight, however arbitrary, however pretentious. I don’t know if I will finish it before it becomes an unfinished thing.
Why is it harder to restart something than start it? I’m a master of abandonment. I touch everything and leave everything and now I have banked upwards of 30 (a simultaneously modest and exaggerated estimate) stories I was called to once. I am 2-3 weeks late to a draft 2 submission, the whole shebang entirely voluntary so the fault is entirely mine.
The Substack I never intended to forgo. So I’m somewhat back. The guide for Clarion Westers says they do not recommend keeping alive any type of blog or such during the program, owing to its intensive nature. I understand it is ill-advised. I understand also how it is the perfect excuse for me to put this off longer and gather more shame around the delay— I love the shame.
So, sigh, I’m somewhat back. Expect the same— tidbits, essays, reviews, complaints.
some recs for my restless:
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory which is an animated kids show that I have not shut up about. It is a sequel to Camp Cretaceous, but you do not need to have watched Cretaceous to watch Chaos, which is better in every way. It dares to go where kid’s TV has seemingly stopped going and also— imagine this— it has dinosaurs.
The Yale Review’s Objects of Desire column that “[invites] writers to meditate on an everyday item that haunts them.” Every entry is incredible, though my favourite is probably Lydia Davis’ (surprise surprise).
And last:
be back soon xx