Effectual Affectations

this image is haunted

You know what doesn’t fuck around?

It’s Ursus arctos horribilis. “ursus” meaning bear in Latin and “arctos”, bear in Greek.

so essentially a grizzly is a “horrible bear bear.” 

Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

(via gatheringbones)

This quote right here, which I read years before I read one of his novels literally and I say this with no poetic liberty, saved my life. I repeat it to myself constantly to this day.

The thing I love about Terry’s writing is that he loved - loved - civil society.  He loved the correct functioning of the social contract.  He loved technology, loved innovation, but also loved nature and the ways of living that work with and through it.   He loved Britain, but hated empire (see “Jingo”) - he was a ruralist who hated provincialism, a capitalist who hated wealth, an urbanist who reveled in stories of pollution, crime and decay.  He was above all a man who loved systems, of nature, of thought, of tradition and of culture.  He believed in the best of humanity and knew that we could be even better if we just thought a little more.

As a writer: how skillful, how prolific, how consistent.  The yearly event of a new Discworld book has been a part of my life for more than two decades, and in that barrage of material there have been so few disappointments, so many surprises… to come out with a book as fresh and inspired as “Monstrous Regiment” as the 31st novel in your big fantasy series?  Ludicrous.  He was just full of treasure.  What a thing to have had, what a thing to have lost.

"There’s a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that’s all some people have? It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan."

Not a single one of those, not a single one, gave me the emotional response of, say, Pacific Rim.

I don’t care what you think of that specific example, I just want to say that sometimes stupid escapist ridiculousness is exactly what the world needs.

"People don’t want the truth! They want opiates! They’re just sheep! They don’t care about my Important Meaningful Insights!"

Yeah, no, fuck off.  My life is kind of difficult, I’ve been suicidal, I’m hella poor, I’m mentally ill, things aren’t rosy.  I don’t want your fucking Saving Private Ryans.  I don’t want your Brokeback Mountains.

I want Pacific Rim.  I want The Rocketeer.  I want Enchanted.

Because my life contains enough truth.  Too much truth.

Take me away from that truth.  Don’t dice it up, garnish it, and serve it back to me.