Aug 20
Khakjaan WessingtonArt, Combat Words, Craft, Literature, TWAK, evolution, guns, humor, memes, philosophy, poetry, politics, promotion, random, richard dawkins, science, web, writing combatwords
CombatWords! August 20, 2010: Evolution
This cycle of cells is vicious, isn’t it? Predator and prey all germinated from the same batch(es) of cells and filled every exploitable niche on this planet: an endless cycle of growth and consumption. Parasites, symbiotes; eater and eaten all draw energy from the sun and its legacy. When I think of the chain of life, I sometimes think I am a skin cell that has forgotten it is part of a bigger organism. Of course, most of the time, I just think my cluster of cells is precious and the rest have little to do with me. Evolution can be metaphorical as well; I find it hilarious for example when I hear about technology ‘evolving.’ Do creationist engineers hide in secret covens and call their manifold works the products of intelligent design? Do they grit their teeth when their colleagues discuss the ‘evolution of the business process’? There’s more than one angle to this one.
Combat Expiration: Sunday, August 22, 2010; 12am PST
Critique Expiration: Sunday, August 22, 2010; 6pm PST
Bonuses: Flat bonus of +1 for compositions posted before Friday, August 20, 2010 9pm PST. +2 for compositions posted before Friday, August 20, 2010 6pm PST.
Rules: http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html
ps: Okay, this is posting >1min early. Those who got here early have some extra initiative.
Jul 30
Khakjaan WessingtonArt, Craft, Literature, humor, memes, philosophy, poetry, writing combatwords
CombatWords! for July 30, 2010: Good
The Good: Shall we say ‘The Good’ maximizes human happiness, as Aristotle would have us define it? Good is of Anglo-Saxon origin, so I think it’s safe to say it predates a Latin—and therefore Mediterranean—definition. GE Moore sez ‘The Good’ is for suckers. Or let’s make it more simple—what if you could go back in time and shoot your French machine-gun a little more accurately at Hitler in WWI? Is that good if you prevent WWII? Is that bad if that means WWII is fought in the 50s with nuclear weapons? See? This shit gets tricky. What does it mean to be good? Is it an act constrained to time? Our experience? Or forget all that; be opposite-kid and write about Evil, because ooh, you’re so rebellious. As long as you riff off the theme, you can rack up the bonus points.
Combat Expiration: August 1, 6pm PST
Critique Expiration: August 3, 12am PST
Bonus Increment: +1 per 3 hours ahead of deadline with a maximum time bonus of +15. Yes, time bonuses are going to be huge in this CombatWords, but quality matters. The limit is +15 to give PST people some time to write after work. Don’t want to give the East Coast an unfair advantage. If you don’t want to wake up with the Saturday penalty, you’d better get writing NOW.
Rules are here: http://trickwithaknife.com/?p=861 and here http://combatwords.blogspot.com/2010/07/official-rules-for-combatwords-updated.html
Jul 23
Khakjaan WessingtonCraft, Literature, TWAK, Uncategorized, evolution, humor, memes, philosophy, poetry, writing combatwords
Combatwords for July 23, 2010: Pleasure Versus Pain
Pleasure and pain; comedy & tragedy; happiness and despair—these are the moods and feelings we chase or flee. They are also the foundations of behavioralist worldviews. Han Fei Tzu and BF Skinner have plenty in common, despite their 2000+ year gap. Take this topic however you’d like: humans as animals; the two flavors in life; whatever.
Combat Deadline: July 25, 6pm PST.
Critique Expires: July 27, Midnight PST.
Time Bonuses: +1 per 5 hours ahead of deadline.
ARE YOU A JERSUSALEM CRICKET OR A CAMEL SPIDER???!!!
FIGHT!!!!!!(?)
Jun 29
jmeshornLiterature, philosophy, random philosophy, questions, time travel, writing
I watched this bad time travel movie (I forget the title). It did pose what turns out to be an interesting question. In the film the characters have come up with an idea and written it down. This idea will make them rich, famous and culturally significant. There are time travelers who kill culturally significant people just after they make their greatest creation (you know, so we wouldn’t have to put up with the last fifteen years of Billy Joel).
Anyway, our heroes are faced with a choice: they can destroy their creation (forgoing fame, fortune and a sort of immortality) and live or they can refuse and die at that moment, knowing that their work will live on for centuries.
As writers how would we deal with that. What if you just wrote THE novel. The thing that would live on for generations after you, but the only way to avoid immediate death was to destroy it? What would you do?
Jun 29
Nathan TyreeReview, books, philosophy, science
The Selfish Gene By Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins is a Zoologist, and one of the greatest voices for evolutionary theory. In his books The Blind Watch Maker, River out of Eden, and Climbing Mount Improbable he argues beautifully, and eloquently for the truth of evolution. He (along with the late Stephen Jay Gould) has helped to bring understanding of evolution, and natural selection, to the common man.
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Jun 22
Khakjaan WessingtonCraft, Literature, Review, Uncategorized, philosophy, poetry, writing Shitbots on the web
http://wordplay-kmweiland.blogspot.com/2010/06/why-no-writer-knows-what-hes-doing.html
I wrote a comment on there, but wanted to copypasta what I wrote on Twitter as I was still in the throes of outraged nausea.
“@KMWeiland the whole argument is predicated on the fallacy that mastery is a set of immutable traits. You measure literature by the metrics of other disciplines, rather than as the thing in itself. There are so many errors in that essay, the only thing that shone through was a willingness to subordinate coherent thought & method to the essay format. I don’t care if I alienate a bunch of ppl for saying this, because that essay is literary poison & the position it represents is my mortal enemy. Learn some basic logic!”
There’s more on the comment page; but I wanted to take a moment here to remind you cats that form is the platform, but the content has all the components. You can build a jet out of balsa wood, you can paint it so it looks real, but the motherfucker will not fly. If you do not have anything to say, it doesn’t matter how you say it. If your writing lacks engines, machine guns, an ejection seat and the like, buy some fucking books and quit breathin’ my ink!
Jun 10
P. H. Madorephilosophy
I have taken a nod from the assholes of yesteryear and gone underground a bit. There are numerous excuses I could make. The truth is that I’m tired of the “scene.” That’s not what writing is about. Every week, it seems, I see a new young buck excited about his small press title, begging for dollars. I don’t believe that the majority of our contemporaries on the “indie lit scene” have done anything to reach out to the big bad real world with its non-politically-correct thinking and terminology. I believe it’s been years since some people saw the light of day. As many of you know, I’ve put my primary projects on hold and faded into the background. Here goes Nate Tyree letting this project fail by becoming its soul contributor. Anyways, I’m getting back to the backbone of the game: the writing. My only major goal for the rest of this year is to put out the next nonpress title in good style and time. I don’t believe the world misses me very much, nor do I believe they’d much miss those who despise me. I’m tired of publishers asking me for novels and me not having them to give. These days I’m working from the dark of morning to just before midnight. Tonight was a blessing. I don’t want the honesty to fade from TWAK. I don’t believe we’re losing the war. I think I’ve got a good handle on the way things are going. You have to realize that gimmicks always fade. And so may they. Please, friends. Move on in my absence. Stop pretending that I’m the only one with anything to say or the only one who cares. We know that’s not true. It’s time we get real, and for real.
Fuck the scene. May we build a new world over its ashes. May we drink its blood with milk.
May 16
Nathan Tyreephilosophy crazy people, Literature, moral subjectivism, objectivism, philosophy
Moral Subjectivism: A Rational View
People can be divided into two groups: Moral Objectivists, and Moral Subjectivists. The beliefs of these two groups vary widely.
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