I've just learned to turn it off
I Won't Send Roses (Mack & Mabel)
I won't send roses or hold the door
I won't remember which dress you wore
My heart is too much in control
The lack of romance in my soul
Will turn you grey, kid
So stay away, kid
Forget my shoulder when you're in need
Forgetting birthdays is guaranteed
And should I love you, you would be the last to know
I won't send roses
And roses suit you so
My pace is frantic, my temper's cross
With words romantic I'm at a loss
I'd be the first one to agree
That I'm preoccupied with me
And it's inbred, kid
So keep your head, kid
In me you'll find things like guts and nerve
But not the kind things that you deserve
And so while there's a fighting chance, just turn and go
I won't send roses
And roses suit you so
I won't send roses or hold the door
I won't remember which dress you wore
My heart is too much in control
The lack of romance in my soul
Will turn you grey, kid
So stay away, kid
Forget my shoulder when you're in need
Forgetting birthdays is guaranteed
And should I love you, you would be the last to know
I won't send roses
And roses suit you so
My pace is frantic, my temper's cross
With words romantic I'm at a loss
I'd be the first one to agree
That I'm preoccupied with me
And it's inbred, kid
So keep your head, kid
In me you'll find things like guts and nerve
But not the kind things that you deserve
And so while there's a fighting chance, just turn and go
I won't send roses
And roses suit you so

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I'd never even heard of Mack & Mabel before you posted this, but I love Mabel Normand. I'm not a big Mack Sennett fan, though.
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I'm under the impression that the musical itself had irreconcilable issues, but the music is very much worth looking into. (I have linked "I Won't Send My Roses" in my reply to
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By the way, is the last story in Singing Innocence and Experience called "Return on the Downward Road" or "Return on the Return on the Downward Road"?
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"Return on the Downward Road." That one and "Letters from the Eighth Circle" suffered a bizarre and inexplicable error in the page headers. Blame my publisher (and ignore the fact that I didn't catch it while proofing . . .). One of its characters has since become that rarest of things in my own work, a recurring character, except that the other two stories he's in turned out to want to be novellas or longer and consequently neither of them are projects I can work on right now. But someday. I have some incredibly bizarre dream-imagery that desperately needs a home.
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Hmm. "Letters from the Letters from the Eighth Circle" might refer to the font, maybe? Or am I not helping?
except that the other two stories he's in turned out to want to be novellas or longer and consequently neither of them are projects I can work on right now.
I hope you do get a chance someday. I'd certainly like to read those.
By the way, would you mind if I made some fan-fiction for "Moving Nameless"?
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Not in the least. : P
I'd certainly like to read those.
Thanks. Frankly, I'd like to, too: I never know how stories end until I've written them.
By the way, would you mind if I made some fan-fiction for "Moving Nameless"?
*blink*
I would not mind at all. Thank you for asking.
What sort of fanfiction are you thinking?
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Probably a comic, since after writing six bad novellas and two bad novels I've decided I suck at prose fiction. It might not be for a couple weeks, though, since I'll be wanting to concentrate fully on the final Boschen and Nesuko chapter. But in reading "Moving Nameless", a whole other fully formed story popped into my head and I doubt I could resist doing something with it.
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Cool. I look forward to the results.
(Are you on the last chapter of Boschen and Nesuko already?)
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Heh. What? The 456 page web comic I've been doing for the past two years? Yes, I'm afraid it's somehow the last chapter already.
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(I meant more that I hadn't realized this upcoming chapter was the very last; I assumed it was nearing a close . . .)
I still think you should collect it.
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That's good to know. I thought it was pretty clearly in denouement--I wouldn't want it to seem like a completely abrupt stop.
I was thinking of doing two more chapters, but I decided on just one after a lot of thought. I often find I do better with slightly less space than I think I need.
I still think you should collect it.
That's nice of you to say. Do you really thing the artwork in the first few chapters holds up? I still don't think I'd be able to find a willing publisher.
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Yes; I think it does. It's not the quality of the artwork in the first couple of chapters, anyway, it's the slight differences in character design that don't settle until the seventh or eighth chapter. But the characters are all recognizable as themselves.
I still don't think I'd be able to find a willing publisher.
I have no idea how these things work. But if you did find a publisher, I would certainly buy a copy.
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I know what you mean. What's weird is I mostly didn't realise I was doing it.
But if you did find a publisher, I would certainly buy a copy.
Thank you.
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Sonya, I've barely been able to get online or LJ because I'm swamped at work, but when you were doing that thing where people had to answer in quoted lines, you quoted some things I loved and I had wanted to ask you what they were from. I have to read more of at least two of them. Maybe I can go find that post of yours and then specify which ones.
And, you know, regarding your other post on the day out at KGB, etc. Your days are so full and rich--and I know it's what you make of them and that's a wonderful thing. I mean if you were here in my house you'd be making all these things around me alive too, I'm sure. It's just always good to read what your mind sees.
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It's a musical by Jerry Herman, from 1974; I've never seen a production, but the original cast starred Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters and the music is wonderful.
Maybe I can go find that post of yours and then specify which ones.
It's here—ask away!
I hope your life becomes less swamplike soon.
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I have the fervor of myself for a presence
and my own spirit for light;
and my spirit with its loss knows this;
though small against the black,
small against the formless rocks,
hell must break before I am lost;
before I am lost,
hell must open like a red rose
for the dead to pass.
I'll hold your hand while they drag the river
I'll cuddle you in the undertow
I'll keep my hand on your trigger finger
I'll take you down where the train tracks go
Let's while away the hours
Let's spend an evil night together
What is deep, as love is deep, I'll have
Deeply. What is good, as love is good,
I'll have well. Then if time and space
Have any purpose, I shall belong to it.
If not, if all is a pretty fiction
To distract the cherubim and seraphim
Who so continually do cry, the least
I can do is to fill the curled shell of the world
With human deep-sea sound, and hold it to
The ear of God, until he has appetite
To taste our salt sorrow on his lips.
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—H.D., "Eurydice"
She is one of my favorite poets: the only person I have ever read who could make English sound like sixth-century Greek.
I'll hold your hand while they drag the river . . .
—Jill Tracy, "Evil Night Together"
Listening to her should be self-explanatory. : P
What is deep, as love is deep, I'll have
Deeply . . .
—Christopher Fry, The Lady's Not For Burning
I saw this the Theater at Monmouth when I was thirteen and it made a great impression on me. The language is beautiful, and the characters sharp; if you haven't read the play, I'd recommend it. It's endlessly quotable.