Hi guys. Anyopne seen Survivor lately? The old-timers seem to have vanished.
Two men were working in the field, one was taken the other remained...
is it like the hatrack rapture or something?
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I usually don't comment on the absence of friends or associates. (I think I picked it up from "The Wind in the Willows.")
I make an exception at work---if their absence makes more work for me. Sometimes I have to be absent, though, so it all balances out.
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
Not so much a rapture as perhaps a literary Singularity, like in 4400. But that's just me: Keeping it sci-fi.
[This message has been edited by ChrisOwens (edited July 11, 2007).]
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Perhaps it's a Good Will Hunting sort of thing. One day he just isn't here and we know he went off and made something of himself. Perhaps they are working on masterpeices that would make Shakespeare cry. (Of course you could make Shakespeare cry by saying his codpiece was so last era.)
Posted by InarticulateBabbler (Member # 4849) on :
Or poking him in the eye. Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
maybe the boys in beijing finally got him
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
He reminded me of a character in one of the shorts stories in Maps In A Mirror. The one about a writer named Doc something who gave biting critiques, yet never showed any of his own work. Turned out, he was the best writer in history.
Posted by wrenbird (Member # 3245) on :
Maybe he ran off with his long lost love.
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
i want him to come back
Posted by debhoag (Member # 5493) on :
has anybody even considered the possibility that he could have been abducted by EVIL FLYING ROBOT MONKEYS? Geez guys, get a grip! I'd start looking for banana peels - and, whatever you do, don't split off to go searching for him one by one.
Posted by Inkwell (Member # 1944) on :
I'm sure Survivor is still around. Or if not around, perhaps a little to the side...content with keeping his multifaceted observations to himself, for the time being.
In any case, a long break (or bout of lurking) can be quite refreshing, IMHO.
Inkwell ----------------- "The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp." -Anonymous
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
I miss Survivor as well. I'm not entirely sure why he stopped coming, but I'll see him this weekend and convey your well-wishes. I do know he started playing Dawn of War quite a bit, and I know that my husband prefers playing Dawn of War over food and sometimes even sex, so you guys shouldn't feel dissed. You're probably still in the top 5 of his preferences.
As an aside, I used to think of myself as a relative newbie. But I've been posting here for... 3 years or more, I'd guess. If you count when I was posting as pooka the first time, and not the time I lost my password last year.
[This message has been edited by franc li (edited July 12, 2007).]
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
thanks franc li,
enjoy your weekend and say hi
seriously, preferring dawn of war over... food???
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
Oh, eh. He say's he's just into anime now, he played through Dawn of War and the 2 expansions. We had a good talk, went to Harry Potter V, he thought it was entertaining but still thinks Rowling is not a good writer.
My husband would be playing Dawn of War and I would pull a batch of something out of the oven and announce it and get a perfunctory "Okay". The 3 offspring and myself have at, though I do reserve him a "serving size" as stipulated on the box. Eventually he drops in and says "Hey, why didn't you call me?"
Yeah.
Posted by lehollis (Member # 2883) on :
"Rowling is not a good writer."
I tend to agree, though I do feel she is a good storyteller. I think that is not the same thing.
EDIT: Found it
[This message has been edited by lehollis (edited July 23, 2007).]
Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :
Rowling may or may not be a good writer in any convention sense. I won't debate that because I'm not qualified to argue it. But I think there's something that needs to be said for being able to write a book that I buy the day it comes out and read in two days. Maybe that's "bad writing." I don't know.
But if that's the case then I profoundly support bad writing.
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
Well, I'd compare it with junk food, except Survivor would make an impassioned case that a nacho and chocolate on white bread sandwich is actually good for him. Well, maybe not nachos per se, but you get the idea. He feels eating too healthy does violence to the soul.
Posted by Balthasar (Member # 5399) on :
The problem with the word "writer" is that it has a double meaning. So let's make a distinction between story and prose. Rowling is a very good at crafting stories, but not very good at crafting prose. But who cares? As Somerset Maugham said
quote:One fusses about style. One tries to write better. One takes pains to be simple, clear, and succinct. One aims at rhythm and balance. One reads a sentence aloud to see that it sounds well. One sweats one's guts out. The fact remains that the four greatest novelists the world has ever known, Balzac, Dickens, Tolstoy, and Dostovesky, wrote their respective languages very indifferently. It proves you can tell stories, create characters, devise incident, and if you have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn who you write. All the same, it's better to write well than ill."
Posted by dee_boncci (Member # 2733) on :
Well said, Zero.
Posted by Inkwell (Member # 1944) on :
If eating too healthy (i.e. shunning the wonders of bacon) does indeed perpetuate violence against the soul, then that universal phenomenon of staying on the health food bandwagon for only four-point-three days makes perfect sense.
It's simply too painful for the subconscious glutton in all of us...das Es in full revolt.
Inkwell ----------------- "The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp." -Anonymous
Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :
quote:The old-timers seem to have vanished.
I don't know about Survivor, and I'm not sure I qualify as an old timer, but I'm still around, fwiw. I see a lot of new timers here, which means the site is healthy, but it is nice to see familiar names. (Nice to see you back again, Balthasar. )
Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :
Is it just me, or does EVERY thread seem to degrade into the world of Harry Potter and JK Rowling?
Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :
degrade? haha you mean evolve...
afterall HP is the single most interesting anomaly that it the writing world (I think) take this poor random unpublished writer who enters the world of published fiction (only narrowly) with a plan to write 7 books (how many publishers would go for that?) and without advertisement its sales go through the roof, it's sold to scholastic, and becomes the most successful fiction series of all time and this nobody author becomes the most well known author (among volume of readers) and probably the wealthiest as well. From rags to riches by simply dreaming up a story and writing it.
I'm sorry, but that's a hell of an inspiration to me.
Posted by oliverhouse (Member # 3432) on :
I'm with you, djvdakota. I've only read part of the first book, and my kids have seen a few of the movies. I understand why people like it. I think Rowling's story is hugely inspiring (and much more interesting than the HP books themselves, in fact).
But I can't wait for the conversations to isolate themselves into their own threads. I don't mind skipping all the HP threads, but my oh my, HP is everywhere.
Okay, I'm done. That was my first and last HP post.
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
you guys do know that Ms Rowling frequently visits this site... don't you? Or so she said last time I spoke to her.
Posted by oliverhouse (Member # 3432) on :
Fine. You called me out of self-imposed HP-commenting-retirement.
I didn't know that. I'm not demeaning her work, just saying that it's not my kettle of fish. And I'm sure she will understand that copious quantities of a topic can get to be a little much, especially for someone for whom it's not as exciting as it is to many others.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
quote:you guys do know that Ms Rowling frequently visits this site...
Yeah, and Stephen King looks over my shoulder when I type this.
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
Hi Steve!
J.J. Abrams and crew are waving thier hellos...
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
...and I hear that Orson Scott Card has something to do with this site...
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
