Get me out of here if you can and I won't do anything you wouldn't

[sovay]

My poem "Punic War IV" is now online at Through the Gate. Like the majority of my poems in the last three years, its writing was politically driven. It is even aptly timed for Memorial Day, the way most of this country goes about it.

In pleasant counterweight to the previous two nights, I slept about eight hours with only a slight break around the time the sun came up, after which I burrowed back under the weighted blanket and conked out again. Have some links that aren't mine.

1. Courtesy of moon_custafer, who thoughtfully tagged it for me: the proper bracha for throwing a milkshake at a fascist.

2. Abigail Nussbaum on Israeli Eurovision vs. Netanyahu.

3. I love how much this story does with implication: Nibedita Sen's "Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island."

4. The amusing, educational text that taught Babylonian scribes and teaches us: "At the Cleaners."

5. R.I.P. Judith Kerr. I can't remember if I knew that the same person had written Mog the Forgetful Cat (1970) and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (1971). I certainly didn't remember her husband was Nigel Kneale.

pameladean, the first time I saw my husband in a show he didn't write himself, it was Theatre@First's The Lady's Not for Burning. Now he's in their production of The Revenger's Tragedy. I'm looking forward so much. I thought you should know.

Comments

[sporky_rat]

I feel like I should share the proper bracha for throwing a milkshake with several people in England who would use this well.

[sovay]

I feel like I should share the proper bracha for throwing a milkshake with several people in England who would use this well.

Please do! Ritual has to be enacted to work.

[sporky_rat]

I have indeed shared it - and I emailed it to friends of mine at the local synagogue.

Their response was a cackling gif.

[sovay]

Their response was a cackling gif.

Mazel tov!

[pameladean]

[personal profile] pameladean, the first time I saw my husband in a show he didn't write himself, it was Theatre@First's The Lady's Not for Burning. Now he's in their production of The Revenger's Tragedy. I'm looking forward so much. I thought you should know.

Oh my goodness. What part(s) is he playing?

I am beginning to wonder about Theatre@First, just a little.

P.

[pameladean]

I was so wowed by the news of The Revenger's Tragedy that I forgot to say how amazing your poem is. It is itself and it is you, but it did give me a sudden strong flashback to John M. Ford's "Troy: the Movie" in one spot. And it's such an ordered brilliant look at horrible chaos. The last lines made me gasp.

P.

[sovay]

Oh my goodness. What part(s) is he playing?

Supervacuo. Ambitioso is Brian Keller, who was Thomas Mendip when Rob was Hebble Tyson. They play well together.

I am beginning to wonder about Theatre@First, just a little.

I am very fond of them and if they stage anything in Minoan, I will notify you and/or flee the country.

[sovay]

It is itself and it is you, but it did give me a sudden strong flashback to John M. Ford's "Troy: the Movie" in one spot.

I have not read that! I will have to see if I can detect the echo.

And it's such an ordered brilliant look at horrible chaos. The last lines made me gasp.

I have never come up with a good response for someone telling me something like that, but thank you. I mean it. It means the poem worked.

[a_reasonable_man]

I liked the story. In theme, it reminded me of "All Our Salt Bottled Hearts."

And now, if I encounter a fascist while carrying a milkshake, I'll know what to do.

[sovay]

I liked the story. In theme, it reminded me of "All Our Salt Bottled Hearts."

Thank you! May I ask how so?

And now, if I encounter a fascist while carrying a milkshake, I'll know what to do.

If the fascist is stationary for long enough, you could always get the milkshake and come back.

[pameladean]

Oh, the possibilities there seem really good, then.

I'd appreciate the notification but you may flee the country first if that seems wisest.

P.

[pameladean]

It's a very different poem in many regards but there are just these moments -- and it's a matter of rhythm, too, I think.

I can never respond to comments like the one that I made to you, myself; and yet I do make them, since I appreciate being on either side of them.

P.

[gwynnega]

Great news about The Revenger's Tragedy!

I look forward to more milkshaking of fascists.

[moon_custafer]

Good to know there’s also a clown—free performance.

[heron61]

That's an excellent poem, if also sadly necessary & timely.

[sovay]

That's an excellent poem, if also sadly necessary & timely.

Thank you.

[sovay]

Great news about The Revenger's Tragedy!

I'm really looking forward! I have never seen a stage performance, only Alex Cox's (admittedly great) film.

I look forward to more milkshaking of fascists.

It reminds me very much of the pie-ing of Anita Bryant and I'm for it.

[sovay]

Good to know there’s also a clown—free performance.

I don't understand the fear of clowns, but I accept that it exists, and I agree that it's thoughtful.

[thawrecka]

I really like that poem.

[sovay]

I really like that poem.

Thank you.

[alexxkay]

I played Supervacuo once! (A pseudo-SCA production that was technically a staged reading, but was about halfway to having actual production values.)

I've loved Middleton for years, ever since catching a college production of Women Beware Women.

[moon_custafer]

I feared some but not all clowns as a child— I was wary of the mime who occasionally appeared on a CBC kids’ show, but that was more to do with the impressionist piano music that accompanied him. Other clown-adjacent phobias: rainbow ‘fros and faces coated with masks of whipped cream, post-pie-strike.

[sovay]

Other clown-adjacent phobias: rainbow ‘fros and faces coated with masks of whipped cream, post-pie-strike.

I don't believe this production of The Revenger's Tragedy will involve people being pied, although it would be kind of amazing if it did.

[a_reasonable_man]

"Salt Bottled Hearts" evokes the experiences of emigrants and refugees, Jewish ones in particular, while this one evokes the experiences of colonized peoples (and the scholarly commentary on those experiences), and in formal structure, the stories are quite different.* Yet in both this story and yours, the "civilized" world subjects a people it sees as "monstrous" to genocidal attack; a few of them survive in diaspora; their descendants (or most of them), while remembering the old ways, can never really return to their "home."

*This story one reminds me a little of "Notes Toward the Classification of the Lesser Moly," because both narrative by implication.

[sovay]

Yet in both this story and yours, the "civilized" world subjects a people it sees as "monstrous" to genocidal attack; a few of them survive in diaspora; their descendants (or most of them), while remembering the old ways, can never really return to their "home."

Thank you for articulating that. I can't see my work from the outside, so I can't see all the patterns on my own.

[edit] I am really glad that you like the stories enough to think about them so.

[brigdh]

Congratulations on the poem! I still love this one so very much.

And wow, thank you for the link to "Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island." That was absolutely stunning.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the poem! I still love this one so very much.

Thank you!

And wow, thank you for the link to "Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island." That was absolutely stunning.

You're very welcome. I've loved everything I've read by Sen.