The FoxLot

Behind one of the houses I lived in, there was a brushy, overgrown bit of property. We called it the fox-lot because only the wild animals got any use out of it. That's sort of what I'm going for here. • Email • Writing

[foxlot]

This kitten loved being in a bag so much. I kept trying to put her down and she would just stare at me until I picked it up again.

[foxlot]

There's this idea that writing is a muscle. If you aren't using it, it's weakening, atrophying into mental and emotional flab that hangs around you and your words, making them uglier and stupider and less nimble. Then you wake up one day, droopy verbs all akimbo, and you can't get up off the couch.

I've been thinking about it because recently I heard that an old editor of mine thought I'd been scared away from the internet, or from publishing, or from commenters, and that's why I hadn't been writing anything. I'm sure it was a joke, and not genuinely meant, because this person is tremendous and nice and I like him a lot. I mean, I've written approximately two things a year for the last four, so it's not unreasonable to think something's up.

(He also thinks that writer's block isn't real, and I agree with that, though folding sweaters might not be the right alternative for anyone, anywhere.)

At a reading a couple weeks ago, Marilynne Robinson said that when she was working on Housekeeping, she was sure she was writing an "unpublishable book," which is funny now. Then she waited 24 years, just to start writing a book about about a dying pastor in Iowa in 1954, "a thing one just doesn't do!" Another unpublishable book, by all fashionable criteria, and from a one-hit wonder, too. Gilead won a Pulitzer. This reading was for the third novel she's written since that one, which is sitting in my bag unopened because I'm afraid of how bereft I'll feel once I've finished it. 

There's this other idea, that the only thing that makes you a writer is to write. This is also true, and can be useful in all sorts of circumstances, like when you are trying to justify your reading as writing time, or when you (when I) want to binge-watch Top of the Lake while eating mac and cheese. It works because sometimes your fear of feeling like a fraud is stronger than the desire to make something, so then you make anything in order to stop feeling like a liar. It works, if by 'works' you mean it produces disappointing garbage. (It should be obvious that I am only speaking of myself here: I know these things work for other people, but for me, they have produced mostly work that I'm embarrassed about.)

This is probably why I have always had normal office jobs. Some of them require writing and some don't, but either way there's always something else that needs to be done, and that is refreshing. It allows time for my glacial thoughts to get over themselves, and creates less trash overall. Robinson spent a decade writing three novels and an essay collection, after thinking about it for a quarter century, and that seems like a totally reasonable pace. Slow Writing! It could be a thing, with tshirts. 

I prefer: write only what you need to. Unless your job is to be a Hot Taker, or your natural pace is 'blogger,' in which case I'm genuinely impressed and watching you tires me the fuck out. For me, it works to write the stuff that I thought about for weeks, the thing that I was twisting over at 3am. That's the only stuff people email me about, anyway, and I love email more than anything.

So if you've been missing me here, I'm very sorry! I have a couple things in the works, they just take longer than they should, especially since I moved. In the meantime, my email is in the left rail there, and I'll be doing a reading in a couple weeks, which you're most welcome to attend! More soon, bye.

[fealinx]

3. what do you call an 800-pound gorilla “sir” daaaamn what daaaamn what is it that gorilla was a lady oh shit yeah you made some super-sexist assumptions oh man you misgendered an 800-pound gorilla oh man you just got your ass beat by an 800-pound gorilla-lady i try and i try to make real connections but i just wind up hurting people

[old-hopes-and-boots]

In the 1880’s wild horses roamed Oregon state in the USA, and they were prized for their exceptionally good looks and long manes and tails, hence their being referred to as the ‘Oregon Wild Long-haired Wonder Horses.

[foxlot]

Burrowing owls, standing off.

[danielrain77]

Hermit crabs in glass shells.

[foxlot]

boyfriend: When I tell people my girlfriend is Mormon, and they ask me if she wears magic underwear, I need to come up with a better response than, "I don't know, why don't you stick your face in that paper shredder?"

me: You could just ask them what kind of underwear their girlfriend is currently wearing.

boyfriend: I should have clarified, I need a LESS rude response that still points out how insane and inappropriate that question is.

me: But violence is totally rude!

boyfriend: It's not a real threat, you can't actually stick a body part in there.

me: You could invoke a different weapon. I don't know I'm not helping here.

[craftandmemory]

"Using my own hand as a base material, I considered it a canvas upon which I stitched into the top layer of skin using thread to create the appearance of an incredibly work worn hand. By using the technique of embroidery, traditionally employed to represent femininity and applying it to the expression of it’s opposite, I hope to challenge the pre-conceived notion that ‘women’s work’ is light and easy. Aiming to represent the effects of hard work arising from employment in low paid ancillary jobs such as cleaning, caring, and catering, all traditionally considered to be ‘women’s work’"

Eliza Bennett

A woman’s work is never done

2011

Flesh, thread

http://elizabennett.co.uk/

[foxlot]

I can't decide if this is great or a sign of End Times. Probably both. 

[csmalldog]

In Salt Lake City, Utah, Boy Scouts are bringing pizza to county clerk employees who are working through lunch to get as many marriage licenses issued to the hundreds of gay applicants waiting for them.

Prop 8 was only five years ago.

Don’t tell me change can’t happen. #EqualityUtah #marriageequality

[foxlot]

There is an Italian bakery in carroll gardens where you can get a buttered sesame roll, cookie, and coffee for $2 and so I am never leaving.

[foxlot]

You know the elevator!! My hero!! And you work at "The Chron" as we call it?

yes! it's at the Atlanta Marriott, where I was attending a conference for 'the chron' (which we also call it). it really is a surreal Panem-like building.

[foxlot]

"Ve Neill, who did her makeup, glued little tiny butterflies down her arms—you know, on her skin—so it looked like these butterflies were all over her body.  When we were shooting that scene during the reapings, Francis looked at me and he goes, “Look—those butterflies!” There were these two monarch butterflies that flew into the shot, and flew towards Effie. We thought, Oh, my God. Do they think that’s their home? Do they think that’s their people?"

Trish Summerville, costume designer for Catching Fire

[fishyneko]

Hidan’s horse :))

[sixpenceee]

The Graves of a Catholic woman and her Protestant husband, Holland, 1888

[foxlot]

watching The New World with boyfriend, specifically the scene where Rebecca shows her son around the farm

bf: here's the part where they make America ugly

me: huh?

bf: with cows

me: oh. though that's a nice-looking one, because it's a terrence malick movie. and also it's an ox, not a cow. see? he's plowing.

bf: shut up with your farm knowledge.

me: i didn't know you thought cattle were the problem with America.

bf: i want her to go back to pretending to being a deer.

me: that's a lot of prejudice for a man who won't date vegetarians.

[foxlot]

(this was the before.)

[foxlot]

Yeah, that'll do.