I can barely believe it’s nearly three already. Still, I suppose I got up late. I read the second half of a short story by Angus Wilson earlier, which I was supposed to read and analyse by tomorrow. Well, I intended to get onto analysing it, but then I read another Raymond Carver story. It was one of his better ones, in my opinion, since some speak to me less than others. It was about a man who felt his life was falling about going to abandon his children’s dog because he hated it. Having read that, still procrastinating, I decided to reread William Faulkner’s short story Tomorrow. (more…)

Recently, since reading Raymond Carver and Ernest Hemingway, I’ve come to a new appreciation of the short story. I’ve always written short stories, but I’ve always wanted to be a novelist, to tell long, grand tales over hundreds of pages. Consequently, I’ve always read novels rather than short stories. And novels are worthwhile, fulfilling experiences. But they take a long time, and it just hit me that maybe, and I think this is true of myself, though I can’t speak for anyone else, I generally don’t enjoy novels while I’m reading them, only afterwards, when I look back on them. (more…)

I realise it’s been out for quite some time, but I feel the Animatrix is somewhat under-appreciated. Firstly, let me explain what it is. The Animatrix is a collection of nine short films (each around the ten minutes long) based in some way around the Matrix universe. All but two of them are by different directors, most of them established Japanese anime directors. It’s essentially the movie equivalent of a short story compendium.

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Usually I wouldn’t bother going to the cinema for a kids’ film, certainly not one put out by Disney, but I made an exception for Wall-e, partly because IGN gave it a good review, partly because I like some of Pixar’s stuff and mostly because it stars a robot. And I have to admit, I was impressed by the film. (more…)

I was sat the other night, watching X-files alone in the dark, and it finished. The creepy music started to play and then I felt something crawling up my leg, but only barely. I looked down and there was a Harvestman there, looking up at me (presumably) just about to reach my knee. Ugh.

Harvestmen are my least favourite of all creatures. They just look like they shouldn’t exist, and they really freak me out. (more…)

I recently read a post on the Olympics on Richard Swinburne’s blog in which he asks about why we should want to watch people “throw stuff or run fast” and why the Olympics is so concerned with physical attribution and not mental. What particularly seems to annoy him is that the closest mental equivalent is the Nobel prize, which is awarded for a lifetime’s work, and not a minute’s running.

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I like cycling: I cycle to university, I cycle to the shops and I cycle for pleasure. Part of the appeal of cycling for me, apart from the fresh air and the exercise, is the incredibly strong connect between intention and movement. When you’re cycling, all you need to do to change direction is shift your body-weight slightly to one side or another, and instantly you’ve altered your trajectory. You don’t even have to think about. Now where else do you have this simplicity of movement? (more…)

(this is a follow-on from my explanation of modernism)

Thinking about Modernism a little more, I’ve decided that a big part of the reason I like it is that it seems to extend beyond the story to encompass the whole human experience, rather than just how the characters feel during the events of the book.Now, with a lot of books, and films, this is something that’s always bothered me: books and films always have an ending. Usually they end with the hero saving the world and/or getting the girl. Sometimes they end with a life-changing revelation or an optimistic message for the future, but they do all end. Which is, of course, in sharp contrast to life. Life has only one ending. Rarely, of course, a film will end with the death of a main character, which is generally very climactic and poignant, but this is still in contrast with life: in life when people die they just die, and everything goes on as normal around them. (more…)