Redefining misanthropy for a fresh generation. Standard posts begin with a definition from Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary followed by a modern adjustment. Miscellany on Wednesday and storytelling on Saturday.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Fire and Ice, Part IV
Story #36, in which Doug finds trouble below the treeline. To hear the story, fish Lake Atitlán
I love the story! I sure recognize Indie. and love the term "misuse of imagination". I know dictatorships and religions punish what they consider bad thought, yet the phrase "misuse of imagination" has never come to me, I thank you for it.
Jimmy Whiterspoon says, never sing the same song two times, you never tell the same story two times. :)
Wow, seems like you´ll never gonna get away from that vulcano. Sar, I have a feeling that that is where our next party should be held, since it seems half of us are already there ;)
Logo, Indie is playing the cloud game right now at his site, Synchronicity of Indeterminacy, if you don't know it you should really treat yourself. His site is almost the perfect example of blogging as art. Oh, and you can find that volcano by taking the bus from Antiguo to Jesus y Maria and starting up to your right.
Jamie Dawn, may you never get closer than TV to lawyers. Thanks, I hope you're right.
Cowgirl, did I forget to mention how windy the trail is? I bet I make it down next week, though. I can feel it.
It figures that you and Indie would be at a volcano, about to be covered over by the lava that is the VOMIT from the DEVIL'S VILE MOUTH! Satan, get thee BACK!
I'm dying to be a guest provider of definitions at some point... but I'm prepping for a move soon that'll leave me without a reliable internet connection for a while, so I'll contact you after that!
Still checking in on you often, hope you're having tons of fun. ;)
Oh, Tara, I wish I could say something besides, no but I googled them by themself. I would love for you to be a guest. Shoot me an email when you're settled.
Reposting my comment from Doug Drones On - this story was indeed a parallel discovery for me, as you can read:
Sorry it was so late - I'm just way way behind in my blog reading. Something like one year behind.
I'm really honored by the story you wrote up. And I think it really did happen exactly the way you wrote it down. I have a vague deja vu feeling.
Some synchronicity: This morning I answered a mail from "Fang Jing" in China who I just helped figure out a trick to get blogspot blogs, which are still blocked there). She commented about the current story picture: "The picture is not very special itself, at least familiar to me, or has something similiar with the world near me. But your story happened never in my live or my association with the picture." And that made me think, why do I do that? Write to a boring photo(And why do I have trouble with the really good pictures.) I wrote back: "I have no idea either, except that if something bored me I try to imagine somehow that it is interesting. That may really be what happens."
Is imagination a defense mechanism against boredom?
That said, I feel my imagination is no different than anyone else's. Your descriptions of me describing the clouds sounded brilliant to me, and I couldn't imagine myself thinking of them. I think imagination always sounds better to other people than to the one imagining. I think some of my stories are embarassingly banal, until I show my muse and she says that they're great. (And just as often, when I think something is great, she proves that it's banal).
Thanks again so much for the story Doug. I'm truly honored and sorry it took me so long to get here. Now I'm waiting for part v.
Indie, I'm glad you liked and finally read it. The last week for me has been a little bit like Christmas with a patient child.
Obviously writing it made me think about how you think. That's a mystical terrain. To whatever extent it helps, I imagined that your process begins with creating a plausible scenario to explain an image and then an implausible scenario to explain the first.
Doug: one of the reasons I started my blog was to see how creativity works at all. Though I can't say I know much more now than when I started. One thing: you make it sound so easy. Sometimes I have spontaenous ideas like in your story. That worked maybe with the first 20-30 stories I wrote. But by that time I'd thought of everything spontaneous that I could think of, and so many of the stories are really like squeezing blood out of a rock, to finally get something that I think can pass as a story. I don't know if I see young, pretty girls everywhere who have just turned 18, but if I see a picture of a pretty girl, I usually imagine that she is pretty. (I'm easily inspired by beauty). Maybe when I finally reach 360 I'll write an afterword for the blog trying to introspect about the creative process. ---
P.S. I don't feel that I deserve all the praise you guys are piling on top of me. But I do want to keep it in my scrapbook. Thanks for all the nice comments.
23 comments:
I love the story! I sure recognize Indie. and love the term "misuse of imagination". I know dictatorships and religions punish what they consider bad thought, yet the phrase "misuse of imagination" has never come to me, I thank you for it.
Jimmy Whiterspoon says, never sing the same song two times, you never tell the same story two times. :)
Discovery... you Dawgy Doug, you!
Discovery... Indeterminacy is on the bohemian's list as of.... right now!
Wow! You sure cannot get away from that blasted volcano!
Discovery: The cohabitation of a Bohemian, Dragon and Hermit in the unlikeliest of familiar settings.
Btw, I think you best nailed Indie with your clouds passage.
Thanks, Ariel, and great quote from Witherspoon. I guess telling the same story four times is a lot.
Miz B, it's like the volcano swallowed me, isn't it?
Thanks, Sar. It is starting to seem like a crowded cabin, isn't it?
i thought the volcano would be smokin' something mean but it seems it's you who is
- Christopher
Another very clever and great job, Doug. Indie's going to love the story!
Wow, seems like you´ll never gonna get away from that vulcano. Sar, I have a feeling that that is where our next party should be held, since it seems half of us are already there ;)
Discovery: the adventure we get every weekend over at Doug's place.
It's getting crowded on that volcano! Next thing you know, a Starbucks and a Target will be opening up.
Thanks, Actonbell. I guess I can think of other examples.
Haha, Karma. Not for decades but it will linger, won't it?
Welcome, Mutha and thanks! AD was big stuff wasn't it?
Thanks, Aral. I went to his site after I posted and he's out for the weekend. I hope he reads it.
Hahaha, Minka! OK, ok, I'll leave next week. There were no little cocktail parasols to be found.
LOL, Dddragon. Cyber Mochachino? [SIC?]
OK, this is a fabulous vacation spot, this volcano.
I need to know how to find it.
AND
I want to play the cloud game with Indie, that sounds fun!
Doug, great word of the day, you are so clever.
Indie certainly does have a depth of imagination, and some humor too, just like your Hermit version of him.
He is going to LOVE this!
Discovery: A term I hear on those law/lawyer TV shows.
Logo, Indie is playing the cloud game right now at his site, Synchronicity of Indeterminacy, if you don't know it you should really treat yourself. His site is almost the perfect example of blogging as art. Oh, and you can find that volcano by taking the bus from Antiguo to Jesus y Maria and starting up to your right.
Jamie Dawn, may you never get closer than TV to lawyers. Thanks, I hope you're right.
Cowgirl, did I forget to mention how windy the trail is? I bet I make it down next week, though. I can feel it.
there's bus service to Jesus and Maria from Guatemala, geez...
It figures that you and Indie would be at a volcano, about to be covered over by the lava that is the VOMIT from the DEVIL'S VILE MOUTH! Satan, get thee BACK!
Ariel, the bus service is excellent.
Sorry, Cowgirl. I meant it winds back and forth.
Come on, Soapy. Let me show you a volcano.
I'm anxious for Indie to read this!!
He said at his blog that he is away for the weekend.
I can't WAIT for him to find out that he's the hermit!
All your stories revolve around the great outdoors, mine around the great indoors.
C'mon out from the cold, Doug, it's nice in here.
Me too, Jamie Dawn. I was worried he never would unless I gave it all away, but you handled that well at Indie's site and for that I thank you.
Fred, any story I tell taking place after about '95 will not only have me indoors but probably eating something.
Great pics! Did you take them?
I'm dying to be a guest provider of definitions at some point... but I'm prepping for a move soon that'll leave me without a reliable internet connection for a while, so I'll contact you after that!
Still checking in on you often, hope you're having tons of fun. ;)
xoxo
Tara
Oh, Tara, I wish I could say something besides, no but I googled them by themself. I would love for you to be a guest. Shoot me an email when you're settled.
Reposting my comment from Doug Drones On - this story was indeed a parallel discovery for me, as you can read:
Sorry it was so late - I'm just way way behind in my blog reading. Something like one year behind.
I'm really honored by the story you wrote up. And I think it really did happen exactly the way you wrote it down. I have a vague deja vu feeling.
Some synchronicity: This morning I answered a mail from "Fang Jing" in China who I just helped figure out a trick to get blogspot blogs, which are still blocked there). She commented about the current story picture: "The picture is not very special itself, at least familiar to me, or has something similiar with the world near me. But your story happened never in my live or my association with the picture."
And that made me think, why do I do that? Write to a boring photo(And why do I have trouble with the really good pictures.) I wrote back: "I have no idea either, except that if something bored me I try to imagine somehow that it is interesting. That may really be what happens."
Is imagination a defense mechanism against boredom?
That said, I feel my imagination is no different than anyone else's. Your descriptions of me describing the clouds sounded brilliant to me, and I couldn't imagine myself thinking of them. I think imagination always sounds better to other people than to the one imagining. I think some of my stories are embarassingly banal, until I show my muse and she says that they're great. (And just as often, when I think something is great, she proves that it's banal).
Thanks again so much for the story Doug. I'm truly honored and sorry it took me so long to get here. Now I'm waiting for part v.
Indie, I'm glad you liked and finally read it. The last week for me has been a little bit like Christmas with a patient child.
Obviously writing it made me think about how you think. That's a mystical terrain. To whatever extent it helps, I imagined that your process begins with creating a plausible scenario to explain an image and then an implausible scenario to explain the first.
Doug: one of the reasons I started my blog was to see how creativity works at all. Though I can't say I know much more now than when I started. One thing: you make it sound so easy. Sometimes I have spontaenous ideas like in your story. That worked maybe with the first 20-30 stories I wrote. But by that time I'd thought of everything spontaneous that I could think of, and so many of the stories are really like squeezing blood out of a rock, to finally get something that I think can pass as a story. I don't know if I see young, pretty girls everywhere who have just turned 18, but if I see a picture of a pretty girl, I usually imagine that she is pretty. (I'm easily inspired by beauty). Maybe when I finally reach 360 I'll write an afterword for the blog trying to introspect about the creative process.
---
P.S. I don't feel that I deserve all the praise you guys are piling on top of me. But I do want to keep it in my scrapbook. Thanks for all the nice comments.
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