Excerpts from the style sheet of the Kansas City Star, where Ernest Hemingway worked as a reporter in 1917:

• Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative.
• Eliminate every superfluous word, as “Funeral services will be at 2 o’clock Tuesday,” not “The funeral services will be held at the hour of 2 o’clock on Tuesday.” “He said” is better than “He said in the course of conversation.”
• Avoid the use of adjectives, especially such extravagant ones as “splendid,” “gorgeous,” “grand,” “magnificent,” etc.
• Be careful of the word “also.” It usually modifies the word it follows closest. “He, also, went” means “He, too, went.” “He went also” means he went in addition to taking some other action.
• Be careful of the word “only.” “He only had $10″ means he alone was the possessor of such wealth; “He had only $10″ means the ten was all the cash he possessed.
• A long quotation without introducing the speaker makes a poor lead especially and is bad at any time. Break into the quotation as soon as you can, thus: “‘I should prefer,’ the speaker said, ‘to let the reader know who I am as soon as possible.’”

“Those were the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing,” Hemingway told a reporter in 1940. “I’ve never forgotten them. No man with any talent, who feels and writes truly about the thing he is trying to say, can fail to write well if he abides with them.”

"Our dislike of stillness and boredom is at root revealed to be this full-bloom metaphysical terror: 'take away their diversion and you will see them bored to extinction. Then they will feel their nullity without recognizing it, for nothing could be more wretched than to be intolerably depressed as soon as one is reduced to introspection with no means of diversion.'"

- on Pascal's Desideratum, Le Courbusier and the Concept of the Self p.132

its time for mai thymes.

Current life book title:

I Like Being Alone, and How Am I So Busy with Nothing to Do.

book illustration is of a young dirty, but dapper in a black suit, gentleman on a white cast iron park bench. french in design and modestly art deco. the gentleman's hat is tipped forward, and on the brim sits an oversized maggot. the maggot is reading a copy of the book about the gentleman. it's hardly visible but the young gentleman's right eye is tilted towards the maggot, and his mouth slightly open as if in a mode of speech. a woman in a beautifully styled summer dress, floral print sea foam green and coral, walks her shaved poodle in the background, near a small pond with no birds in it.


the back cover reads:


"Absolute poverty." - C. Dickens


"A trifle stale, yet instantaneously black and white." - C. Chapman


"It sang to me, as if from the Alps." - C. Dion


"Gritty." - C. Palaniuk


"1 Star." - C. Saw


  

Udder Failure update.

I am quite enjoying my attempt to throw 5 and 7s at all that i can write on and in. I have noticed the following:

a) do not write while tired, aka when i've been staying up late
b) do not try to write about lofty ideas, the more successful pieces are more sporadic
c) do not limit oneself to the basic haiku ideology. its stifling
d) do try achieve some kind of non-narrative quality in the "switch" line
f) do have fun

I wouldn't say I'm churning through. But it is strange that alot of the pieces are turning out to be tanka.

indirect

Udder Failure: 1,000 Haiku/Tanka by an unrepresented lactose-intolerance Art Historian.

other book ideas

1,000 Knots in a Shady Corner.
Knitting serial killer who knits finely crafted noose to hang her victims.


Empty Crime-scene, Flying Cat.
Chinese medicine man curses a college student with a cat that will only fly in her presence. This drives her to kill her dog-loving, cat-hating, roommate.


Room of Single Shoes: Memoirs of Incompetent Hoarder.
Forgetting to retie her shoelaces, Macy would distract herself while searching trash, thrift, and friends closets.  

Hunger Hunter: Escapades of a Brunch-only Enthusiast.
Trang gets drunk only Sundays, and sadly can only eat while drunk. This misunderstanding of this endless-mimosa enthusiast gone anorexic get him into trouble with a gang of fat racists. 

Legend of the Lint Hunter: The Carpeted Room.
Treating her O.C.D., Doctor Jibran places Delia's in many awkward anxiety-provoking situations. Little did Jibran know of Delia's obsession with possession and what was to come. 

I can't stop this book from overtaking me.

Insight, and future.

http://www.poetryfounsdation.org/harriet/2007/03/name-a-novel-by-toadex-hobogrammathon/

This is literature, and truth. Something else, teach assholes to read please so they can at least try this. And I'll point of those that do not read, and shame them. This lifestyle lets the brain evaporate, and the body crumble. Older ages, with their old sages. I heed them.

10/10

Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki
by David Chadwick


This has to be one of the most entertaining and interesting books I've read. The approach is simple, how zen, and retains the complicated nature of Japanese culture and Zen culture. Though it may just be resonating with my interests in these two things, I appreciate the outside point of view of Suzuki-Sensei. Rather than bogging the reader down with too many Koans, or too much high-Zen theory, we can see the Zen of Chadwick's travels and learning of the way. I find that these types of discussions are far more resonating to the western audience, who are exposed to this type of narrative at an early age. The western P.O.V. is also more available than the Japanese, perhaps. Overall, the narrative, the goal of the book, and the subject matter are all things I love. Thus a 10/10 for this not so little book.

6/10 + 4/10

I've been reading some older sci-fi literature lately, which has so far been interesting in it's treatment of religion v. science. To be more exact I have just finished Rama II, part two of Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series.

RENDEZ-VOUS WITH RAMA: 6/10

This book was extremely interesting. Innovative in it's treatment of both character, and perspective. The more basic concepts of space travel are approached in a democratic way. I quite liked the more technical moments, basic astro/physics not my forte however. My least favorite thing about this book was it's end. Rather anti-climactic it really just reaffirmed that the more important aspects of the books were it's style and treatment of content.

RAMA II: 4/10

This book was depressing. Clarke adheres to some of the stylistic qualities of his first, but moves in a direction I did not appreciate or expect. The science aspects still make the reader feel smart when they get them, and he includes some discussion of logic/problem solving that is quite fun. The book as a whole seems to be centered more on the human/moral dilemmas that were touched upon in Rendez-Vous with Rama. The religious discussion was pushed much farther, to the point where a Saint is created to provide a more dynamic range of tools. The introduction of Michael O'Toole, the scientist-catholic, was frustration. It's a sci-fi novel and unless the pope is some cool space-traveller I'd rather not have to deal with him. The moral dilemmas are completely acceptable, but I suppose I've been teaching myself to adore the more personal, post-apocalyptic style sci-fi. This early attempt at a space Opera seems strange, the six/seven main characters so fueled by their own endeavors. So overall I do not support the logic of what causes the events to happen. The crew seems inept at dealing with the alien ship/visitors from the beginning (bad sign).



To expect too much from an author seems a fault of mine. Though in reality it just means I have a creative mind. I just take things a little too far, so I'm comfortable embellishing the stories of others.