You Can Never Go Home

For most of what has been the Holiday Season, I have not felt in the holiday spirit. I have been, for the most part nervous and edgie. My socials skills have not been the best and a few times I have been rude. When this happens this usually means I'm uncomfortable. I discussed this with my parents and they said that technically I have no home at the moment. I'm on the verge of moving out, though I do come home on weekends, but either way when I stay to long I begin to miss the other place. I had the same problem during exams with serious homesickness, at one point I didn't even want to go back to University but I don't want to live at my old home either.

So anyways, as with all Christmas posts, I'm going to give a list of all the stuff I got. Since I had only two things that I praticularly wanted, and I got both of those I suppose it was a good year. I might not ask for anything next Christmas, but that dosn't seem likely. So here's the list

• The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky box set
• Carnivale Season 2
• The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse
• Hiro Bobblehead
• A Confession, by Leo Tolstoy
• A book about books
• Two note books
• New Pencils
• The Traditional Terry's Chocolate Orange
• Three sweaters
• 25 dollars worth of Itunes I have yet to spend
• The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

That's all I can remember, but I like lists and this is something that I do at Christmas and Birthdays or when I buy used books.

Christmas Eve '08

Well I had to blog about this eventually, it's Christmas Eve and tomorrow all the kiddies who have well-off parents are going to wake up to see Santa Claus has left them presents. It's a time or warmth and cheer, and as such I feel especially uncomfortable when family members argue loudly about really minor stupid things like cleaning rooms and stuff. Mind you, I would probubly find it annoying if they were overtly cheery on Christmas, but still we'res the Christmas cheer.

I'm starting to think that the entire idea of Merry Christmases are something that big buisness has sold us on. I hate to get all Marxist, but I'm probubly going to blame the Catholic Church on this one too, since they were the guys who organzied Christmas as Jesus' birthday, but they arn't as guilty as big buisness.

Besides that, I'm not really concerned with Christmas. The entire holiday just sort of snuck up on me. Now it's all in my face and I'm thinking shouldn't I be more excited. I don't really feel excited at the idea of getting swag tomorrow. Earlier this year I even considered not getting anything. You know, just not getting any actual presents. For myself mind you, but I caved because well, free stuff.

Well, that's all I have. It's the Christmas season, emotionally unsatisfied, getting presents.

A Psueodonym?

I've been thinking about adopting a pseudonym. As many of you may be aware now, my full name is Dylan C.G. Thomas, as seen through my as of yet undeveloped websight. I have always felt some difficulty with this name however, because there is already a writer named Dylan Thomas, who while being a couple things I'm not, such as national Welsh, a boozer and dead, still make me feel a bit uncomfortable. We both have the exact same name and as such I'm worried that we'll be mixed up, or I'll always be in the shadow of the other Dylan Thomas. As such, I've been thinking about starting using the pseudonym of Dylan Williams.

The name Dylan Williams is pretty good I think. Technically, it should be my last name because of some factors in my family tree I ended up with a different last name, but genetically I'm a Williams, whatever that means. Maybe one day I'll go to Ireland and track down my ancestors. But I really don't see much harm sighning my works Dylan Williams. I did find at least two other Dylan Williams out there, but ones a painter and the others in Sports. One of them even has a face book account, if not an unknown third, but I couldn't get to it. I would appreciate what you guys think of the pseudonym.

My First Short Story

Published this thing before I wrote anything by accsident. How's that for you.

Well, two big things happened tomorrow. First, I finished by first semester of University. When I go there next year it will be a whole new ball game. I'll be taking a philosophy class, a course on Eastern religion and the follow up to my English course. For the next two weeks I don't have to worry about papers or essays or anything.
Second, my first short story, Cattle Man's Folly, has been published at The Oddville Press. Go here to download Issue Two for your very own. It's free and has other stories you can read. I'd like to thank everyone who helped, which would by Steph for giving me the place to publish, everyone at Revel for being my test audience.

So it has finally happened, I'm a published author. This excites me alot, since it's actually like I'm a published author. I should be working on a bibliography. I know it's only one story, but I feel I should be working on that. I'm going to publish this before my screen blanks out again.

More Wold Newtonness

I've got a picture up because I feel my blog looks more interesting if I have a picture up. The problem is that I usually talk about personal stuff, and thus I don't have much else to talk about. Thankfully, I have my interest in Wold Newtonry, which is where this picture came from. It's also the cover for the Wold Newton book that I can actually sign out from the Library. I have it out now, and I wonder if I'm the only person to actually sign it out.

The good news is that I've got access to the two founding documents in Wold Newtonry, Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. Granted, I don't have them on me, but I know where they are and have had access to them. They're in the rare book section of Dana Porter and as such I can't sign them out. However, they do offer a pretty handy in my Wold Newton family tree. I've been putting one together over the last few days, using mainly the internet, but it helps to have a print source. Since I have a major exam tomorrow, and will be leaving for home in a matter of days, I don't think I'll be able to get ahold of them for a few more days. I do plan on doing some extensive looks into them next year however.

Other then that things are good, I know where my exam is going to be tomorrow, which is good. It's not going to be in the Office for Persons with Disabilities, or OPD as it is called by most. It's in a building in the math room. I have a good feeling about this exam. I'll just be glad when all this is over and I can go home and relax.

Homesickness

I want to go home. I'm in the middle of Exam season and all I want to do is go home. I'm tired, frustrated and havn't been getting to sleep at a decent time and havn't written any of my fiction. I have the time know, I could easily do it in between studying for my English Exam but the well is dry. I have so many ideas and I don't know if I'll be able to write them all.

Mostly I just want to go home. I feel sick of University and need a long break, preferably one where I can write something. I had this idea for a story in which I have writer's block and have to fight this monster that lives in Conrad Grebel, comes out at night disguised as a janitor and plants it's progeny in the walls of the residence. It holds a special item that will give me back my abbility to write. Also I plan on getting back to writing "The Last Dance Revolution." I really hope that I can write that one, because I don't know if I have the neccisary experience. The book is a love story, and I've never been in love. I'm also worried that the novel won't be as good as it can be because I'm still a young author. Maybe I'll just work on it for most of University, clean it once I graduate and have it published. During that time I could aslo get the First Four all written up, make long details for the plots and characters and how the novel is going to be presented. I'd like to use different ways of presenting a story. I think multiple view-points is going to be a method, and I have at a false document as a novel.

Upcoming Events

This is an interview Alejandro Jodorowsky made for his upcoming movie King Shot, which looks like it will actually come about.

And this is a little taster of what is going to happen in the next season of Lost.

Christmas Card from Tom Waits

Hey everybody, it's Tom Waits!

Wait, I just got an idea...

Alright, I just wanted to run this by you
Dick Cheney on acid. Should this happen? Discuss.

UES

I'm in a melancholy mood. I think it's partially the game I'm playing with the guys at Watsfic. It's my introduction into the World of Darkness, and my characters is a vampire. I'm really not liking the idea because apparently the entire point of vampirism is your damned. I don't want to play a character that is literally cut of from humanity. Why are people into vampires anyways, it seems to me that if there are vampires they must lead a very miserable existence. They're basically parasites. I feel very sorry for my character. I think I'm going to have him mysteriously disappear and rewrite him into my mythos, where they're aren't any vampires per say, but I kind of like the idea of what vampires are so I'll rewrite it in some way. I'm converting Dean, that's my character's name, Dean Gettys, into something else though. Maybe I could reintroduce him as that thing but I'd have to take it up with the Storyteller (World of Darkness talk for Dungeon Master).

In other news, I am discovering a new kind of stress. University Exam Stress, or UES. This is like High School Exam Stress (HSES), except that it slowly builds up over several days. I believe that UES is much worse then HSES, especially when you have an essay due Friday. Everyone says that I'm in a good place for my essay however, since I'm working on it and have a good idea. My English proffessor, who I'm probubly not going to see for quite some time as I'm done my first courses, said that I just need to write what I have down and ideas will come to me to flesh it out. I already have a page and a half of writing done, which is more then I expected. She probubly has a point.

I'm actually feeling a bit better writing all this down, I don't know why. I don't know why bearing my soul to you people makes me feel better. Maybe it's because I know most of you. Maybe I'm just secretly an emotional exhibitionist at heart and like people to know what goes on in the dark recesses of my soul. I always thought I had some perverse desire to share my soul with others, but I like to do it on my blog. That way it's kind of like I'm not actually telling you anything, I'm just writing it down.

Various Ponderings of TV in Two Aspects

If I could make a TV series I would. I would love to create an ongoing serial like Lost or Twin Peaks or Carnivale, something with an ensemble caste and something really weird going on. If I could I'd make the Big Novel that TV series, since it already has a large cast. I could probably even get it around three seasons, sat twenty-three episodes each. That would come of to around sixty-nine episodes. I could do everything I want with that story and more. But I don't know if it would be picked up, and if so someone would want me to tune it down or something like that. Maybe I could run it past HBO and keep it cheaper then Carnivale, which seems to have been one of reason it was cut. I'm fine with not even having that many scenes, it will only help the synchronicity.

Anyways, I'm also looking into getting back into the Wold Newton game. I plan on taking a look into the background of Dale Cooper, of Twin Peaks' fame, as well as taking a look into the alleged marriage of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler.

I think that Dale might be a descendant of Holmes and Adler, possibly through Archie Goodwin. I'm having trouble finding many fictional Cooper's, but I did find two. First, Jed Cooper from the western film Hang 'Em High, and Anthony Cooper, who's Locke's father in Lost. Is Dale Cooper the son of Anthony Cooper? I've done some calculations on when Dale was born, which is 1956, the same year as Locke. My guess is that Anthony was married, produced Dale in this marriage and that Locke is an illegitimate child. The fact that Locke is an illegitimate child goes with what is shown in the Lost episode Cabin Fever as well as Locke's back story. I'm probably going to avoid making any more guesses about this, since there is very little information about Dale's past available. I'm guessing that Dale was aware of what his father was doing, was ashamed and that helped lead to his joining the FBI. I will also bring forth that Anthony didn't spend much time raising Dale and their relationship was probably never very close.

Legacy

I don't know if most writers have as clear idea of there career as I do. I already have four ideas for novels with an idea of the order they will be written in. They have titles, a basic idea of the plot (some are more well defined then others) and what kind of book they will be (in length, format, things like that). I think I can write them in the next ten, fifteen maybe even twenty years. Along with this I'm going to write alot of short stories. I want to be remembered, in addition to being a good novelist as a good short story writer, though I am probubly going to be remembered as a novelist I want to be known for writing good short stories.

I have titles for all four of my novels. Some of these titles may change and the order in which I will write them may also change slightly. All books will be connected by recurring characters, texts and concepts (ex. The Rosicrucians). But I have this very well-planned out. This is the list I have them currently in.

1. The Last Dance Revolution
2. The Lost Gospel of Joshua Nazrewsky
3. The Beat Hotel: A Mystery Novel
4. The Alchemist's Game

The Last Dance Revolution and The Lost Gospel of Joshua Nazrewsky are alike in that they are looking to be between 300-400 pages and have no traditional narrative styles. The Beat Hotel is going to be more conventional and I'm hoping short, something I could do for NaNoWriMo maybe. This I'm not so sure about what it will be like, all I know that Jack Monsairty is the main character and it's set at the Beat Hotel. The Alchemist's Game is the Big Novel, it has a name know. That is going to be an epic, granted one which will take place only on a few days, but with flashbacks that will involve most of the legendary time period that was the 1960s.

Before I write all these novels, not to mention what I hope will be alot of good short stories, I plan on doing alot of indepth reading of the classics. Writers I plan on paying praticular attention to are Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Joyce and Pynchon. Other writers I plan on reading are Ernest Hemingway, Paul Bowles, G.K. Chesterton, Salman Rushdie, William S. Burroughs, Dashiell Hammett, Samuel Beckett, Raymond Chandler, D.H. Lawrence, Herman Hesse, and Hunter S. Thompson. I'm also going to look into surrealism and possibly magic realism, since I my writing style seems to be turning towards some mutant branch of magic realism. I also plan on looking into poetry, since I am toying with the idea of being a poet. A poet seems to be the least commercial thing one can possibly be and since I am against commercialism on principle so I plan on learning how to become a poet.

After I write my first four novels and lets say fifty short stories I am going to continue to write, but I am not concerning myself with that stage yet. I plan on writing after that, though what I will write is unknown. I may write another novel on the scale of Alchemists Game, the hypothetical Really Big Novel. I may start writing straight epic fantasy. I may become a religious mystic, write mystic poems and write short mystic novels that espouse retirement from the world. I may not have anything published for a decade or two, publish the long awaited Really Big Novel, die and then have various papers I have written published, such as the various Wold Newton articles I hope to write published. I may write novels that will be even greater then the First Four. I may not write anything at all, but I sincerly hope not. I may write a romans-al-clef like Kerouac, but not to the extent he did. I may writer mystery novels under a pseudonym. I might write something under a psuedonym some day, to mess with people and make them think "Did Dylan write this?" I don't know what I'll do.

Funny Smells

Something about my room at University smells funny. Whenever I come in I get this funny feeling in my nose that says this place smells funny. I don't know what it is, but it smells like the fungus that grows out of to much sterility. My room is a bit to sterile, my mom and her friend who is also my spiritual mentor are going to help me redecorate at some point.

What I really need is an apartement where I can burn things in. Like candles and insense. I miss being able to burn insense in my own room. I wonder how long it will be until I can have my own place.

Oprah

So I was pasing in the hall today and I noticed the picture of Tom Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah's coach. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. This got me to thinking about Oprah. I don't watch Oprah, but I know who Oprah is. This is strange to me, since I do not know what it is Oprah is supposed to do? As near as I can figure she's a symbolic high priestess of American culture. She has some experience as an actor, but not to the extent that we'd think of her as an actor. Oprah is simply Oprah.

How To Write a Dystopia

I tried to read Brave New World again today, which is something that would be a good idea to read again for English Literature. I got through the first paragraph and everything that I hated about the novel came rushing back. This is not to do with any thing on Huxley's part, since what I hated about the novel was the incredibly vapid society he created. This is leading to the problems I see with reading Huxley, which I will have in the following statement.

Dystopian novels, such as Brave New World and 1984 are by there vary nature upsetting. This makes them hard to read, but they are none the less necessary to read because of the upsetting nature of the subject matter.

This concerns me because The Last Dance Revolution is, at least partially, a dystopia novel. I don't know if the society I created is necessarily repulsive enough. If Last Dance Revolution is to work as a dystopia, then I'm going to have to create a society with no redeeming features. In short, I'm going to create my own nightmare of a society. What would that entail?

• No Freedom, This is probably a cliche, but the society I create will have to be devoid of free speech.
• Nationalism, I've never trusted nationalists or nations. Any society I consider a nightmare would put the nation as one of there chief virtues. This would lead to racism and xenophobia.
• Violence, Violence is a major theme in Last Dance Revolution at any point, but I mean a society where the threat of violent death hangs over everyone's head. In the world of Last Dance Revolution, America is the hub of terrorism and most people are armed. I don't think anyone should be armed personally, but I suppose I'll talk alot about violence in my works. I sense it could be a major theme.

That's basically all I can think off. So I should probubly work on more oppressive state sensorship. Or I could just toy with the idea that Naos and Helen are true anarchists and would find just about any government oppressive.

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa is one of my favorite books I have never read, and the book I would have written if I was an exiled nobleman living in Napoleonic Europe. It has everything I that I'd like to write about at some point, conspiracy theories, eroticism and general weirdness and is all told in a frame narrative, like 1001 Nights. I'm not sure about the general plot, but I am going to be ordering a copy of this book pretty soon. This is what Penguin Classics says about the book.

The traveller, aristocratic adventurer, political activist, ethnographer and publisher Jan Potocki (1761-1815) is a legendary figure in Poland, not least for his literary masterpiece The Manuscript Found in Saragossa.
The novel's narrator Alphonse van Worden, a young Walloon officer journeying to join his regiment in Madrid in 1739, is diverted into the Sierra Morena and mysteriously detained in the company of thieves, cannibalists, noblemen and gypsies whose stories he records for us as he hears them, day by day over a period of sixty-six days.
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, which has counted Alexander Pushkin among its many admirers, was published only in part in its author's lifetime, and thereafter has only been known fully through a Polish translation which appeared long after his death; controversy still rages over the original French text and the meaning to be attributed to it. A novel of stories-within-stories, it combines the picaresque with gothic horror and the supernatural, wit with erotic lyricism and inventiveness and, like the Decameron and the One Thousand and One Nights, it offers entertainment on an epic scale.

I am thinking about writing a frame narrative at some point. I'm even wondering if I should work all my works into one large frame narrative, but that could easily get far to complicated and experimental then I'm willing to go. I probubly could work it into a frame narrative, but I'm not sure how I should go about doing that. I have at least one novel that already has multiple plots and one that is going to be made up of various documents. If I where to combine all my works into one long frame narrative then I would have to have one pretty complicated book.

No, I don't think I can make all my books into one long frame narrative, though they are all interconnected I don't think they can be a single book. I might write a frame narrative one day, but it will be more of an expirement and it will be after I have the various novels and short stories I need to write first down. I was thinking that after I write The Big Novel, there will be another novel that will be The Really Big Novel, which will be the Brothers Karamazov to The Big Novel's Crime and Punishment. But that is not for today, or tomorrow, but for the distant future. I will have to actually read The Manuscript Found in Saragossa a couple times, and probubly the Arabian Nights too. But again this is not something that I plan on thinking about for a long time.

End of Semester One

Well, I'm almost done my first semester of University. It's a bit overwhelming that everything has gone so fast and now I'm going to be taking new courses in December. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, but everyone tells me that's how all first year students feel. Mostly I've just felt overwhelmed by work and the oncoming tests that should happen in December. To be honest, there is nothing much else that is happening. I have a paper on Paul and Bible Commentaries in Bible, and I have to get started on my final essay in English. That's about it. I also went to the Bomber and had a talk with a guy who's taking Biology and likes Basketball. He may be reading this since I gave him my address for my blog.

Soft Machine Dream

I had a dream last night where we were assighned to read "The Soft Machine" by William S. Burroughs in my English class. This was admittedly strange, since Burrough's didn't write anything of any real importance until the fifties. Maybe I was in a future English class, anyways, everyone had a copy of The Soft Machine but me and I was trying to get my teacher to give me one, but he (I think it was a he) only had the teacher's guide. I did have a magazine and somewhere in that magazine was supposed to be the complete text of The Soft Machine, but I couldn't find it. I wasn't in the same English room I had know, it was more, I don't know, Cambridge or something, like a big fancy room with wood paneling or something like that. Just thought I'd bring that up.

A Letter to Upset Republicans

Dear Republicans,

First off, I understand your pain. If McCain won I would be in the same mood you are, and I really understand that this praticular letter is addressed in a select group of Rebublicans.

It has come to my attention that some Republicans are thinking of moving to Canada since Obama one. Now, I don't know if this is true or not, but if this is and any of you are reading my blog. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING STUPID! If you are seriously thinking about moving to Canada to escape Obama then you are seriously messed up in the head. We have a conservative government, and are still more liberal then you are with Obama, and what's more Canadians don't want you. Sure, we'll be polite, but we'll do it in such a way that makes you feel slightly uncomfortable.

Second, your Republicans. You don't become expatriots. Your entire nature is that your government can do no wrong, why else would you realect Bush. Expatriots are created by people trying to get away from the oppressive laws that you inforce upon them. And do you know what kind of people become expatriots?

Homosexuals...

Drug addicts...

and Communist Sympathizers.

Heck, sometimes it's a combination of all those elements.

So in Conclusion, your stuck with Obama Republicans. Canada is not were you can go and you don't have the neccesary mahones to become expatriots. As conservatives, it's neccessary for you to be family-oriented, Church-goers who give us actual artists something to rebel against. You wouldn't enjoy becoming an expatriot either.

First Flu of the Golden Age

Well, Obama is going to be President, the golden age is upon us and I have a cold or the flu or something. My head hurts and my nose is red from all the time I've been blowing it since last night. I really can't wait to get back home, maybe have a large cup of neosytran and sleep on my Temperpedic Bed. I'm basically sleeping on a board over here.

University does not seem to mesh well with my writing. I have written very little since I got here and stopped working on my novel. I'm at a state where I have three books trying to get out of me at once, and various short stories and the occasional poem trying to slip through. I have a plan for the first four novels, first I want to publish Last Dance Revolution, then either one or two novels, then the Big Novel. I'm also thinking about trying out Burrough's routine style. Alot of my ideas consist of scenes, so I might try writing those scenes down. I'm going to go for more of a plot then Burroughs went for though, and also there are the short stories I plan to write. I plan on writing a good deal of short stories.