Equality, Humility, and Other Fine Things

"Nobody cares how smart you are -- they care how willing you are to treat them like equals."
                                                                                      -Holly Lisle

Yes, I think I'm better than you. It doesn't really matter who you are, it's safe to assume that this is the case.

I'm sorry. I know it's not true, somewhere, but still I think it.

Yes. It's an issue. One of many -- don't worry, I'm not about to be perfect anytime soon. Unfortunately, it takes me a while to get around to noticing these issues -- at least, it seems like a while to me. And even when I do notice them, it doesn't mean I'm able to fix it.

It's this...pretension, delusion of grandeur, self-importance, pride, etc. that really prevents me from writing, in several forms.

I can't write in private, because I'm trying so hard to be better than I actually am.
I can't write here in public, because I'm so afraid of revealing to the world that I'm so damned pathetic.

It's not the time, or the inspiration, or anything like that. Not really, at least.

Nope. It's pride.

It's Not About the Money, Part One: They Speak Spanish in Paris? -- Episode 3

(For episode two of this series, go here.)

Oh, boy. Here we go...

My face at the RE-planning stage.

Hello, everybody. Sorry about the delay in this post. Celebrations for the Royal Wedding are underway here in London and everyone is enjoying the four-day weekend. Despite all this joy and excitement, however, it's time to tell you about the lowest point of our European adventure.

Train tickets.

Another Thought on Interdependency

Sorry for disappearing for a few days there. I'm in the midst of Finals Week at school, so things have been a bit busy. I'm back with another thought about series, though.

Upon further reflection, I realized that there was a category of novels that I was leaving out of my original analysis for ongoing series. I don't really have a proper designation for it yet, though it's probably a more accurate representation of the independent style.

See, there's this whole sub-genre of stories like The Dresden Files and a lot of mystery novels, such as the works of Agatha Christie, where you have a single protagonist spread out over several books, but the stories are otherwise generally unrelated. Sure, you might have a character here or a plot element there that played a minor role in one book take center stage in a later one, but that has more to do with the author mining earlier works for inspiration than it does with an effort to craft an overarching, interconnected tale.

With this in mind, I suppose it's worth re-evaluating the different designations I provided and/or re-categorizing some of the works that I filed away in that post (Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings especially.) For now, though, I think I'll just leave off with the brief recognition of my ignorance above.