The Miniature Wife

Roxane Gay is Spelled With One "N"

Wed, 19 Dec 2012 10:33:24 -0600

When we read fiction, there’s an implicit negotiation between reader and writer. The writer is going to share a story that might not be at all plausible in places we don’t know filled with people we cannot ever know, but the writer will do their best to make you forget such impossibilities….

A lovely consideration of The Miniature Wife by Roxane Gay. Click through to read the full review.

"Others have the world, for better or worse; I have this half-dark, and the toil of verse."

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 15:15:23 -0500

“Others have the world, for better or worse;
I have this half-dark, and the toil of verse.”

- Jorge Luis Borges, from “On His Blindness” (via proustitute)
And now a word from our sponsor:

Underwater It struck me as unbearably depressing that all our...

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 07:10:04 -0500

Underwater

It struck me as unbearably depressing that all our future work, all our ambitions and ideas, would ultimately result in a failed merman prototype and a presumably submerged and irrecoverable planet.

Photo by Emily Raw. Story by Manuel Gonzales

Read the full story here.

RAMPAGE The day they told him he was a robot was a strange day...

Sat, 04 Aug 2012 07:53:25 -0500

RAMPAGE

The day they told him he was a robot was a strange day indeed.

Photo by Emily Raw. Story by Manuel Gonzales.

Read the full story here.

Here I am presenting at a Pecha Kucha hosted by the lovely ad...

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:56:28 -0500

Here I am presenting at a Pecha Kucha hosted by the lovely ad firm, McGarrah Jessee, during SXSW 2012, where I talk very quickly about my thoughts on storytelling and bats and tricking kids to like to write and robots. Sexy robots.

I’m going to file this one under: TERRARIUMS I REALLY...

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:02:33 -0500

I’m going to file this one under: TERRARIUMS I REALLY ACTUALLY LOVE

Although that buck looks more like a moose to me.

fuckyournoguchicoffeetable:

TERRARIUM TUESDAY

Fuck your open air terrarium with tiny animal figurines.

The Wildcraft

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:09:09 -0500

For the discerning pursuer of finer things of awesomeness, exhibit A:

The Wildcraft: Poetry, Prose, Interviews & Hip-Hop from the Young Men at Turman Halfway House.

Listen to it at 91.7 fm (in Austin) or live-stream it at KOOP. Begins at 2pm CST. Created by Heather Jones and Louise Hanks, volunteers for Austin Bat Cave of an extraordinary caliber.

Lovely photograph from the equally lovely Emily Raw.

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 14:27:12 -0500

Lovely photograph from the equally lovely Emily Raw.

For many years I longed, or so I said, for an adult onesie, but...

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 07:18:01 -0500

For many years I longed, or so I said, for an adult onesie, but that was before I had kids of my own, before I knew what an adult onesie might look like, might look like on me, and I have since corrected what I say I want so that it more carefully fits the mental image of what I want, which are footie pajamas. Heidi has it right. Here is an adult onesie. I’m picturing myself in it even now…

heidijulavits:

MY NEW ROMP’R

Described by others as an adult onesie.

bostonreview: “Marilyn Monroe learned the Mocambo, a popular...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 13:10:26 -0500

bostonreview:

“Marilyn Monroe learned the Mocambo, a popular Hollywood nightclub, would not book Ella Fitzgerald because she was black. Marilyn phoned the manager and told him she would reserve a front row table every night Ella performed there, knowing that her presence would get a lot of press and publicity for the club. Soon, Ella became the first African American to perform at the Mocambo, and as promised, Marilyn was seated up front to enjoy her favorite singer.” — Frank Beacham

"The more deeply we are cast under a story’s spell, the more potent its influence. In fact, fiction..."

Mon, 28 May 2012 14:04:23 -0500

“

The more deeply we are cast under a story’s spell, the more potent its influence. In fact, fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than nonfiction, which is designed to persuade through argument and evidence. Studies show that when we read nonfiction, we read with our shields up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally, and this seems to make us rubbery and easy to shape.

But perhaps the most impressive finding is just how fiction shapes us: mainly for the better, not for the worse. Fiction enhances our ability to understand other people; it promotes a deep morality that cuts across religious and political creeds. More peculiarly, fiction’s happy endings seem to warp our sense of reality. They make us believe in a lie: that the world is more just than it actually is. But believing that lie has important effects for society — and it may even help explain why humans tell stories in the first place.

”

- Jonathan Gottschall, author of the excellent The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human, on why fiction is good for you. (via explore-blog)
Fiction: Better for you than veggies.

Sex in the Echo

Fri, 11 May 2012 11:25:56 -0500

Sex in the Echo:

Your weekly whatstheworth, this time with sex:

Ten years ago, when she was still Elizabeth Watson, Flicker dropped out of school to open the retro nuclear-winter-themed club, End of Times, which she marketed with the slogan, Go out dancing…

Good Posture Helps Your Spine

Thu, 10 May 2012 21:40:24 -0500

Buying beakers of acid online tonight for Anabel tomorrow…

fakescience:

Living Parts of Me

Fri, 04 May 2012 10:12:32 -0500

Living Parts of Me:

A fabulous new whatstheworth from a fabulous and as-of-yet undiscovered writer, Kerry DeMunn, and a beautiful photograph from Kramer O’Neill:

There’s sadness at the first drop, then deep grief as it starts for real. Just one drop, there’s still hope, but then you know for sure: not this time, not this month, not now.

The Dizzies: Guilty pleasures are the best

Thu, 03 May 2012 22:19:53 -0500

The Dizzies: Guilty pleasures are the best:

thedizzies:

Are you a fiction or a nonfiction person? What’s your favorite literary genre? Any guilty pleasures?

My guiltiest pleasure is Harry Stephen Keeler. He may have been the greatest bad writer America has ever produced. Or perhaps the worst great writer. I do not know. There are few faults you can…

OMG. I am in love.

Really fuckyournoguchicoffeetable? The tea-kettle is the ONLY...

Wed, 02 May 2012 12:29:00 -0500

Really fuckyournoguchicoffeetable? The tea-kettle is the ONLY thing you have a problem with in this photo? I expect more from you…:

Fuck your Michael Graves for Alessi kettle with bird-shaped whistle.

Wah-wah…. blowncovers: Today’s artist spotlight: Tom...

Tue, 01 May 2012 16:13:56 -0500

Wah-wah….

blowncovers:

Today’s artist spotlight: Tom Gauld

The Bat Cave: Scientists! Where you at?!?

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:34:36 -0500

The Bat Cave: Scientists! Where you at?!?:

Calling all Austin-area sciency-types who also enjoy working with kids and volunteering for worthwhile organizations…

austinbatcave:

Austin Bat Cave is currently looking for scientists who like kids! We are running a weeklong science fiction/science fact writing workshop for elementary/early middle-school kids over the summer and we have plenty of people good at science fiction but are woefully short on people good at science fact…

I’ll let you in on a little secret: That’s me in a...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:09:57 -0500

I’ll let you in on a little secret: That’s me in a bear suit.

npr:

publicradiointernational:

cheatsheet:

The most graceful falling bear we’ve ever seen.

The bear landed safely on the padded mat.

“If a bear fell in the forest would anybody hear it?”

Bloody Joke

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 09:09:36 -0500

Bloody Joke:

Your weekly whatstheworth featuring not just Manuel Gonzales and Emily Raw but the ink-be-smeared hands of Stephanie Anderson:

She dressed in her nicest dress, which she smeared with more globs of ink, even though she laid herself out on the floor face-down, effectively hiding the globs of ink on the front of her dress, but she was ever the perfectionist.

Details mattered, you know.