When I first moved down here, I certainly wanted to spell it Murfeesboro. And then, when I heard how old men from there said it, like a cold engine turning over–Murrr-friss-BUH-RUH–I added the “r” but am still Hell-bent on spelling it Murphreesboro.
At this point, Tennessee, I feel like yous should just change the spelling to save me from embarrassment.
Anyway, good poem here.
Say you write a genre novel, possibly about the last werewolf in existence and it’s really good until the end when SURPRISE you’re setting people up for a sequel. So, yeah, you really need them to read that sequel, which will presumably also be a genre novel, since it is, sorry for the redundancy, the sequel to your werewolf book.
Do you
a. Embrace genre fans?
b. insult porn stars?
c. make it seem like genre fans are too stupid to really get the genius of your book because it’s too literary?
d. say some more smarmy things about porn stars that makes a gal think you should probably not try to get around porn stars in real life?
e. kind of be smarmy towards the dude you’re trying to compliment with your review?
So… that’s a weird strategy. Maybe this is a reason more writers should blog. Then you’d learn that there are idiots all over and that people, no matter what you write, are going to misunderstand it or give you shit just to be assholes. It’s not confined to genre fans, certainly. Hell, if Duncan ever writes a non-genre book, he may find that out.
Oooo, this is a cool story about the rediscovery of the Vikings’ sunstone.
Jonathan Meador has the story of his arrest in this week’s Scene. I think he does a really good job of expressing the terror and confusion that people who aren’t used to being thought of as problems by the police feel when all of a sudden they are. If you are used to being seen as a problem, his confusion and fright might seem a little quaint. Still, good story.
I think Jeff Woods has the best quote of the whole thing, though.
“Our purpose is to provide a safe environment,” Haslam said Tuesday after speaking to higher education officials in Franklin. “If we can come up with rules to make that happen, then that’s what we’re for. Our goal is not to remove people from the plaza. Never has been, never will be. Period. Our goal is to provide a safe environment. That’s not just our goal. That’s our legal responsibility.”
If it didn’t actually hurt people, it would be hilarious how often Governor Baby’s hands are simply tied in ways that means he has to dick over the very people he should be protecting. His goal wasn’t to remove people from the plaza. All those protestors just fell into the handcuffs the THP were holding out to demonstrate how they worked. It was all just a horrible misunderstanding. Just like he didn’t want to have to strip Nashville of home rule in order to dick over gay people, but gay people live here. He’s powerless.
Ugh.
Tiny Cat Pants 