Recap and procrastination of the master's thesis.

Mike Swanwick read on the 11th at the Temple Gallery and he was great. He read a new ghost story that was imminently compelling. More important was the very fact that a science fiction writer read at Temple in the first place (no small thanks to Chip Delany for getting him here in the first place). Afterwards, Mike Swanwick, I and some grad students went to a bar called Sugar Mom's and put down a few beers. Super nice guy who encouraged me to read China Mieville and Charles Stross. We debated the roles of African Americans in fantastic literature and talked about his winning of so many writing awards. I think Swanwick was nervous for having to read in front of such an 'educated' audience because he was moved by the response he received after his reading ended. Granted, some of our professors are brilliant people, but a good story is a good story and Mike Swanwick read a good story. His accessibility was important, too. In the same way that Nathaniel Mackey came out for a few drinks after his reading, the relaxed social atmosphere and free-flowing conversation caused by booze can make big difference in a writer's reception and perception.

Unrelated: I found that my poetry professor, Jena, is also a Gemini (same as me). This did not surprise me in the least. She is brilliant and stubborn and she and I never get along. I'm not a big horoscope fanatic, but I take pride in sharing a star sign with Harlan Ellison, Marquis de Sade and Marilyn Monroe.

Jena and I are such polar opposites in poetry, but we're both judgmental and always willing to feel superior to an audience if it makes us get over our own insecurities. I look at the differences between Jena and I as being like the differences between a happy drunk and an angry drunk. I'm a happy drunk and Jena is an angry drunk. I like social interaction and the friendly side of being a writer while Jena is so focused on her way of doing things that whatever falls out the norm gets a smiting. I think Jena must not have had a flowering period whereby she was able to cultivate the more sociable aspects of her personality. If only she could loosen control of her life a little, stop being afraid to pound a few beers with strangers, stop isolating herself because of her perceived gap between her and the 'world.'

She can still be bitter, grouchy, superior, like all good Gemini’s, but goddamn she need sot get out more. She needs MDMA and booze.

I hate to see a good Gemini go down the wrong track. If she were younger, I could have helped her.

Now, must write.

BASTARDIZED MEGOPOLIS (c): INTENTIONAL DISREGARD FOR AUTONOMOUS SPACES IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS