Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

Maybe I should change my pseud to "The music's played by the uncut Martha".
  

    

That's correct, Pamela.  That means that I never got one, although several
people in my vicinity, including Miss-Mousey, Stagewalker AND madman got
one.  I pouted, but it did no good.  Neil did not invent kersplooie, of
course, but he made it his own.
  

    

How about if Stagewalker, Miss-Mousey, and I surround you and whisper
"kerspooie" at you in our best Neil impressions? We might be able to
arrange that. It wouldn't be quite the same, but it's an amusing idea.
  

    

If it takes place at the performance of Stagewalker's next production, I
will consider being mollified.
  

    
Neil impressions - 
I have a nephew who models, and acts (actually has an agent whose name
I recognize), and one of his assets is that he spent 3 years in
London, 3 in Maine, 3 in Spain (military kid) and can still do those
accents. V. tempted to send him Neil reading/speaking stuff to buff up
his Brit, as I do love Neil's accent so... but I would have to choose
carefully, as he's just 14...
  

    
(346 & 347 -- That would be me. ^_^  When I first showed up here, I
thanked Martha for her Salon articles on Big Brother.  She remarked
that those articles were really just abridged versions of her posts to
the BB topic in the TV forum.  So, in my reply, I signed off with
"DanGuy, who's off to find these alleged ''millions of words'' so he
can experience uncut Martha.")

And, because I can't bear to post in this topic without asking an
honest-to-goodness Neil question, here's an old question of mine that
slipped through the cracks back in <104.1383> : Having just re-read
_Smoke & Mirrors_, a thought occured to me this morning.  The Moorcock
story, was part of that a riff on Joyce's _Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man_?  Or is that definition of what comprises excessive
masturbation a common one across the water?
  

    
Technically, Linda... only Miss Mousey got the Kersplooie... Madman
and I just had our ears to the metaphorical door. I'd hate to take
credit for such Neil-favors when they weren't deserved.
  

    

Aha, Dan Guy. Thanks for the reminder. And that's the story.

And, another Dan- agreed. The kerspooie was hers. Some of us just got an
undeserved boon by province of position.
  

    
Is all this kerspooie stuff something sf-based that we east-coasters
are just not privy to?
  

    

The "kersplooie" thing is approaching what we on the WELL call a "meme" -
a thought that takes on a life of its own and sometimes even wanders off
the WELL...

Way back when in an earlier topic, Neil used the word "kersplooie."

Miss-Mousey remarked that it was a word she could not imagine Neil
saying.  He then offered to say it, when next they were in proximity.

Then, when Neil was at Cody's books in Berkeley, and stagewalker and
madman and freeform and I were standing in line waiting for our books to
be signed and Miss-Mousey was wandering back and forth...she looked at me
and said, "That reminds me!  Neil has to say kersplooie."  And she asked,
and he kindly acquiesced, only he did it maddeningly in a whisper into
Miss-Mousey's ear, thus depriving some of those who were standing nearby
of our own experience of hearing it spoken.
  

    

I think "meme" is a Richard Dawkins invention, actually... the term is in
wide use in some places outside the WELL. Just to go on the record. 

Now if only it were as simple to get Neil to say other things we can't
imagine him saying. Like <streak>'s quote from the other topic.
  

    
Maybe one just has to ask nicely, madman...  ;-)



... slightly back on subject, just read the San Antonio review, and
was wondering at: he finds out that his late wife died while
consummating an affair 

Doesn't consummate indicate, in a sexual sense, the first time a
relationship becomes physical/sexual? ...because, unless I'm baked,
Laura was ending it, not beginning it.


-Kelly, who keeps signing her name Loiosh, indicating she's been
posting too much in other places...
  

    

Madman, you are absolutely correct!  According to one of the three
definitions of "meme" found at dictionary.com:

meme

<philosophy> /meem/ [By analogy with "gene"] Richard Dawkins's term for an
idea considered as a replicator, especially with the connotation that
memes parasitise people into propagating them much as viruses do.

Perhaps I've been on the WELL too long - 10 years in October - everything
is being to appear to originate here!

And Kelly, consumate:

According to www.m-w.com (just for variety)
Consummate can mean:
1 a : FINISH, COMPLETE <consummate a business deal> b : to make perfect c
: ACHIEVE
2 : to make (marital union) complete by sexual intercourse <consummate a
marriage>

So it appears that it can be used to indicate an end to something, while
the second definition says nothing at all about whether this is the first
time or not...
  

    
Halloo, just popping in for a moment to catch up in between episodes
of running around like a chicken with my head cut off... (more details
in 115, er, 116... um, whichever one this isn't)

Neil - re: #299, So next time I see you I'll have to ask for a Frank
Oz impression instead of an Ellison?

DanW - re: kersplooey, It's not so much that I like to hear it... it's
kind of up there with what <the other glen> said about needing to
repeat it until I get it; because the word I know in my head and the
accent I hear out of Neil's mouth just don't quite mesh. And it sounds
significantly more bizarre when loudly whispered. 

AG extras - I'll happily be the chick with the dog on Haight Street.
Been there, done that (minus the dog), just not on film. 'sides, I'm
good at looking confused... without even trying!

Neil - So, now that you're wrapping up a lot of the AG promotion,
what's up next? Any short stories involving Charles Fort maybe? (hey,
you told me to remind you...)

squeaks, who has decided that 'consummate' can be as vague as
'sinople'
  

    
So, Neil, see, y'all already have extras for the AG movie lined up.
  

    
That My San Antonio review mentioned in today's blogger entry is pretty
damned peculiar. Gotta love this first line:

"American Gods" is so intricately detailed in its imagery that even its
stand-alone chapters would get an A+ from any creative writing professor.
  

    
Oh man, that's rich.
  

    
#321 - maybe, Glen. I think kids are better at getting the same buzz
from something the next time they read or watch it. I know that, as a
kid, I could get the same joy from a book or story I loved by rereading
it; I was capable of both not-knowing what happened next and also of
looking forward to my next favourite bit, with the same head.

As an adult, I can't replicate that feeling of "this is the first time
I'm reading/experiencing this story" on a second read or viewing. Not
really. 

Mike -- oddly enough, I had the same thought on Sondheim and
Hammerstein.

Sam -- god, I love that Mythology quote. I wish I'd remembered it -- I
would have shoved it in as a chapter heading somewhere...

Dan -- just spoke to my agent; they got the request today, and I'll be
okaying it.

#331 -- Janell -- no plans to annotate American Gods other than what
people have done so far on the web. Although maybe one day I can get
the Authors on the Web people to post the Bibliography I wrote for it.

And no plans to sharecrop it, either.  -- & given how much work was
involved editorially in the Sandman Short Story book, I don't think I'd
go down that route again. (There were two co-editors on the book, one
editor at DC, two at Harper Collins, and, bafflingly, none of them did
anything at all, and I found myself the hardest working figurehead
around.)

I don't think there will ever be any direct sequels, but there may be
an indirect sequel or two.

Pamela -- that's scary. I've spent the last 28 years believing that
SLAUGHTER ON TENTH AVENUE was Gershwin. 

The LA street was 50% Mulholland and 50% drivers I don't know taking
me to see people whose houses I could never find again in the hills,
and always too fast...

An AG film is a long way away if it happens.

Julie Taymor was, at one point, I was told, interested in doing
Stardust for Miramax -- now that I woulod have loved to have seen.

#347 -- Not consciously, but it's a book I read as a boy, as I read
all of Brunner, and the name may have popped out from there. 

No plans to collaborate with Jane right now -- or with anyone.  I
think the trouble with retreating to prose between Hollywood gigs is
you bob around like a cork on an ocean as a Hollywood writer, so when
it's just me and some paper I like the fact that no-one can tell me not
to do something -- or to do it.

Dan Guy -- that was a straight lift from my school chaplain...

Michelle  -- what's up next? Lots of things people are waiting for,
right now...

Sam -- yup. Very odd review...
  

    
Neil - Sweet Shiva on a Skateboard! I just read that review you linked
to on the blogger. I can't believe they let this person review books!
And the last sentence just about killed me. Law enforcement would be
advised to read the chapter on the bank robbery?? Somebody keep this
person from breeding...

*jaw dropping* Your agent just got it today?? This is the kind of
stuff that drives me nuts. We just did a major web project (did...
actually, will be doing until I die) and the software rep told us that
a feature we wanted would be "no problem" and I just found out now,
months later, that the request was a major nightmare for the
programmers and will probably go down in company lore as one of the
hardest requests ever made on earth. All we knew was that it was "no
problem." Thank you for being so gracious, Neil... I honestly had the
impression that there had at least been a verbal ok between your agent
and the publishers (something along the lines of, "oh I'm sure that'll
be fine. Let me just slip it by Neil while he's considering the other
thousand things vying his attention")
  

    
 The reviewer also doesn't know what the word "consummate" means, or
didn't read the book closely at all.

 And "eerily conversational".  They're conversations, and they are,
perhaps eerie.  But they aren't "eerily conversational."  And the
closing line recommending that law enforcement read the chapter on
bank robbery is good for a laugh.  They could really benefit from
learning how to make it snow by concentrating hard.
  

    
A+!
  

    
Dan -- well the fax that arrived today from The Permissions Company on
behalf of you lot was dated August 7th. It's possible that that
conversation happened (although I doubt it), but they didn't send it
till yesterday.
  

    
PS Dan -- is your max seating capacity really 49?
  

    
Yes, I would like to know all sorts of info on the theater and everything
too.
  

    
Neil—re: SLAUGHTER and Gershwin.  Perfectly understandable, as far as
I’m concerned.  

>[...] and 50% drivers I don't know taking me to see people whose
houses I could never find again in the hills [...]
 
Well, things do have a tendency to disappear into hills, where sorts
like you are concerned...

Re: Julie Taymor and STARDUST.  Yummy.  I miss it already.  I just
mentioned that a Taymor-AG combination scared me, because it would be
like piling power on power and I might have a blackout from the
overload.  (But I’m in protective mode this week.  I might think better
of it when I’m in bright colors.)

I did notice the conspicuous silence regarding the Zelazny question. 
Do I really have to go back and read all 10 books again for one little
quote?  (Not that I’d mind, except that I just finished them a few
months ago and the pile of To Be Read is sprouting like mushrooms
across my living room floor, as it is....)

Martha: Professor Soukup?

Len--re: knitting--Well, I’m domestically challenged, so it would
probably amount to essentially the same thing.

DanW: 
>We must take Kersplooie on faith. It is all things, and nothing. 

This riff was lovely.  I’m dying to say something witty in response,
but I’m fresh out.

Linda: I’m ever so sorry.  

Linda/<madman>/Mousey: Dare we plan a GROUP Kersplooie?!?

Miss Mousey:  
(Linda wrote) >were standing in line waiting for our books to be
>signed and Miss-Mousey was wandering back and forth...

I can never stand still at signings, either, which is a good thing
because that’s how I met Walker and a couple of Thingies!

-P
“Take all the aforementioned, put into Internal Character Blender, hit
Liquefy.”
-Jack Womack