{"id":4722,"date":"2009-12-07T18:53:22","date_gmt":"2009-12-07T23:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=4722"},"modified":"2009-12-07T18:54:30","modified_gmt":"2009-12-07T23:54:30","slug":"what-it-is-12709","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-12709","title":{"rendered":"What It Is: 12\/7\/09"},"content":{"rendered":"

What I’m reading:<\/em> I finished Up in the Air<\/a>\"\" last week, and enjoyed the heck out of it. I’m still sifting through my impressions of the book as a time capsule of the end of the ’90’s. It was published in 2001, just a few months before 9\/11. While that event’s obviously (to me) the defining moment of our decade, the book is also informed by views of data, privacy, and Invisible Webs that seem antiquated only 8 years later. I think I’m going to re-read this one in the next weeks and try to write a little more about it.<\/p>\n

During a conversation we had on Sunday, Samuel R. Delany mentioned to me that the introduction to his essay collection Longer Views<\/a>\"\" contains a neat discussion about how Montaigne’s Apology for Raymond Sebond<\/em> connects to the rest of M.’s essays, so I gave that one a read. (For those of you who haven’t been following this blog religiously and for years, the Apology is a 180-page piece in the midst of Montaigne’s generaly much shorter essays, and is so dissimilar in theme and content to the others that I was left completely flummoxed by it. Here are parts 1<\/a>, 2<\/a>, 3<\/a> and 4<\/a> of my ramblings on that one.) The writer of the introduction, Ken James, seems to think that M. changed his mind over that mammoth essay, but fro what I recall, the Apology was a commission, and it felt more like M. was stuck having to defend something he didn’t particularly believe. Why don’t you go give the Apology for Raymond Sebond a read and get back to me with your thoughts?<\/p>\n

What I’m listening to:<\/em> Dave Rawlings Machine’s A Friend of a Friend<\/a>\"\", a lot.<\/p>\n

What I’m watching:<\/em> Pootie Tang<\/a>, which was far funnier than I expected. Still terrible, but pretty funny.<\/p>\n

What I’m drinking:<\/em> Desert Juniper & Q-Tonic<\/p>\n

What Rufus & Otis are up to:<\/em> Trying to fit together in the one-dog crate again. I had a Sunday appt. (cleaning a small section of Chip Delany’s apartment) and Amy had to work all weekend, so we had to delay Otis’ debut on the Sunday morning Wawayanda park greyhound hike for another week. Grr.<\/p>\n

Where I’m going:<\/em> Nowhere special.<\/p>\n

What I’m happy about:<\/em> Getting to see some old pals this weekend.<\/p>\n

What I’m sad about:<\/em> Missing the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival<\/a> this weekend, but my visa’s not up to date, so there’s no way I could’ve made it to Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

What I’m worried about:<\/em> Contracting hantavirus from trying to clean Delany’s apartment.<\/p>\n

What I’m pondering:<\/em> What book I’ll pick up next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What I’m reading: I finished Up in the Air last week, and enjoyed the heck out of it. I’m still sifting through my impressions of the book as a time capsule of the end of the ’90’s. It was published in 2001, just a few months before 9\/11. While that event’s obviously (to me) the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “What It Is: 12\/7\/09”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26,4,45],"tags":[118,65],"class_list":["post-4722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comics","category-literature","category-monday-morning-montaigne","tag-montaigne","tag-samuel-r-delany"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-1ea","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10264,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-212-samuel-r-delany","url_meta":{"origin":4722,"position":0},"title":"Episode 212 – Samuel R. Delany","author":"Gil","date":"April 3, 2017","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 212: Samuel R. Delany \"The most important thing I thought students needed was the one thing you're never allowed to teach.\" Legendary author (and longtime pal) Samuel R. Delany (a.k.a. Chip) joins the show to talk about the sex lives of older gay men, how he's taken\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_6683.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":13044,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/covid-check-in-with-samuel-r-delany","url_meta":{"origin":4722,"position":1},"title":"COVID Check-In with Samuel R. Delany","author":"Gil","date":"April 1, 2020","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show COVID Check-In: Samuel R. Delany \"I may be one of those people who operates fairly well in chaos. So the very fact that there's chaos around gives me something to fight against and focus on what I'm doing.\" Happy birthday to legendary science fiction author Samuel R.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/covidchipcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C522&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3331,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/note-hideous-gridded-paper","url_meta":{"origin":4722,"position":2},"title":"Note hideous gridded paper","author":"Gil","date":"January 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I was going to put this Michael Bierut post among the week's Unrequired Reading, but I thought it deserved its own entry. It's all about the notebooks that Bierut has used for the past 26 years. He's up to #85. As anyone who knows me can imagine, I find this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Design"","block_context":{"text":"Design","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/design"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5546,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/when-youre-a-bear-youre-a-bear-all-the-way","url_meta":{"origin":4722,"position":3},"title":"When You’re a Bear You’re a Bear All the Way","author":"Gil","date":"August 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I cleaned out the attic and our storage room this weekend, and have uncovered a bazillion photos I need to get around to scanning and writing about. Here's a pic from around 1999 or 2000 from a birthday diner for Samuel R. Delany. Chip is probably just holding his cane\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Chip Delany\"","block_context":{"text":"Chip Delany","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/tag\/chip-delany"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1978,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/hot-chip","url_meta":{"origin":4722,"position":4},"title":"Hot Chip","author":"Gil","date":"April 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy birthday \/ April Fool's day to Chip Delany! Thank you for keeping faith in my abilities as a publisher, long after a sensible man would have given up.","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10433,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/readercon-pre-game","url_meta":{"origin":4722,"position":5},"title":"Readercon pre-game","author":"Gil","date":"July 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Getting ready for Readercon 2017? Then check out my podcasts with some of this year's guests: Samuel R. Delany\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 John Clute 1\u00a0\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 John Clute 2\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 Liz Hand 1\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 Liz Hand 2\u00a0(brief) \u2022\u00a0mp3 Michael Dirda 1\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 Michael Dirda 2\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 Michael Dirda 3\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 Scott Edelman\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 John Crowley\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 Theodora Goss\u00a0\u2022\u00a0mp3 (I think she'll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Classic Comics Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Classic Comics Criticism","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/classic-comics-criticism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/readercon.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4722"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4725,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4722\/revisions\/4725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}