“A state of chronic powerlessness eats away at a person.” ––1Q84, by Haruki Murakami, pg. 132 “Freedom has little meaning without reference to power. Those who claim to be on the side of freedom while ignoring the growing imbalance of economic and political power in America and other advanced societies are not in fact […]
This is my fiftieth journal, which feels like an appropriate time to reflect on the origins of the words&dirt blog. When I began this project more than two years ago, I wanted to develop ideas about a way of life that was experimental for me. I wanted to step outside the traditional channels of education […]
“When I’m writing a story, I use words to transform the surrounding scene into something more natural for me. In other words, I reconstruct it. That way, I can confirm without a doubt that this person known as ‘me’ exists in the world.” ––1Q84, by Haruki Murakami, pg. 46
Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings is like the first computer my family ever owned: It took a long time to boot up, but did some pretty nifty stuff once it got going. This massive fantasy novel is the first in a series of ten planned installments, only two of which have been published. Committing […]
Anyone who has visited the Raymers knows the gravel road that spans the two acres between the main road and our house. The road is in generally poor condition, with grass growing in a strip down the center and a number of sizable potholes that hold standing water in the wet season. We’ve been wanting […]
“He was protecting. He was saving. Yet he was killing. How could something so terrible be so beautiful at the same time?” ––The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson, loc. 18294
“What you saw belongs to you. A story doesn’t live until it is imagined in someone’s mind.” ––The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson, loc. 15774
“‘If I should die,’ Dalinar said, ‘then I would do so having lived my life right. It is not the destination that matters, but how one arrives there.’ ‘The Codes?’ ‘No. The Way of Kings.’” ––The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson, loc. 15375
In mornings dark, days Unborn Bathed in pools of artificial light I find myself, trappings all At the base of Hunger Mountain David Hinton smiles, ancient sages at his back All smiling, all mysterious As if knowing some unknowable And not sharing We begin up the Mountain Sometimes wandering, leaves in watery eddies Sometimes bounding, […]
“The center of identity is constructed of those stories we tell ourselves––the poems and philosophies, memories and mythologies and scientific explanations––and the ten thousand things remain always beyond them. Seen at its most fundamental level as generative ontological tissue, that elsewhere beyond our stories is what Lao Tzu called ‘dark enigma.’ To see landscape, the […]