This is how we go on: one day a time, one meal at a time, one pain at a time, one breath at a time. Dentists go on one root canal at a time; boat builders go on one hull at a time. If you write books, you go on one page at a time. We turn from all we know and all we fear. We study catalogues, watch football games, choose Sprint over AT&T. We count the birds in the sky and will not turn from the window when we hear the footsteps behind as something comes up the hall; we say yes, I agree that clouds often look like other things - fish and unicorns and men on horseback - but they are really only clouds. Even when the lightning flashes inside them we say they are only clouds and turn our attention to the next meal, the next pain, the next breath, the next page. This is how we go on. 

-- Stephen King

New Segment! Every wednesday we present a picture of a nerdy tattoo and a recommended comic book.

Via Great White Snark

Today's recommended comic book reading is We3 by Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely

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Today's word of the day is "perfidious" -

Perfidious

deliberately faithless; treacherous; deceitful

We're deathly afraid of that stabbing word "pretentious," the word that students use to curse each other's ambition. It's a young person's word, a shortcut-to-thinking word. I'm a big fan of pretension. It means "an aspiration or intention that may or may not reach fulfillment." It doesn't mean failing upward. It means trying to exceed your grasp. Which is how things grow. 

-- Warren Ellis

There's a recent spate of books being culled from blogs where an author can reach a wider audience while preserving their voice.  Of course, the intimacy and accessibility that comes from a free blog found by fans on the net is sacrificed for the sake of monetary compensation and greater exposure.  But the fans will continue to follow the artist as long as that artist doesn't change his voice or whatever ineffable qualities he exhibited that attracted people to him in the first place.  But is it worth paying money just to get something that's mostly free online?  True, many authors add some previously unreleased material - but that usually doesn't count for the majority of the text.

Enter Brian Cronin's Was Superman a Spy? from Penguin Books.  Based on Cronin's column "Comic Book Legends Revealed" that he writes for the Comics Should Be Good Blog at Comic Book Resources, the book is an examination of the comic book industry - with particular interest in superheroes, the business aspect of comic books and the cultural impact that they've had since World War II.  Cronin uses some key characters from the "Big Two" comic companies (DC & Marvel) to act as a gateway into the evolution of the medium and the industry, and examines the various changes and interesting anecdotes that have befallen them over the years.  In particular focus are Superman, Batman, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Captain America, X-Men, The Incredible Hulk and Walt Disney comics.  There are extenuating chapters on bits of comic book arcana covering other characters, with interesting and curious stories of particular creators or characters.

I tend to think of myself as a person fairly well versed in comic book lore, who knows a lot of the storied history of these iconic characters - their fictional origins as well as the inspirations their creators drew on to give birth to these figures of the new mythology.  Even with that snobbish background, this book is incredibly accessible and packs a lot of information into a sparse few chapters. 

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Today's word of the day is "circumspect" -

Via Geekologie

Circumspect

1. Watchful and discreet; cautious;
2. Well-considered

At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation, and prejudice.

- Gore Vidal

Song: "One Headlight" by The Wallflowers

Event: Misheard lyrics

One of the coolest things about art is its inherent subjectivity.  What something means to you may mean something completely different to me.  That possibility for myriad interpretations opens up any works - allowing it to be as emotionally resonating or coldly apathetic as the audience which witnesses it.  And what makes such interpretation even more malleable is when the audience member is either misinformed or simply perceives something incorrectly.  The piece of art - though that may be a lofty title to attach to it - that most reminds me of the transitory identity of art is The Wallflowers' song, "One Headlight."

To start - I'm not a Wallflowers fan; I don't own any of their music, I don't know any songs outside of this one and their cover of Bowie's "Heroes."  I know that the lead singer is Bob Dylan's son and that they haven't really been around for the past decade or so.  And "One Headlight" doesn't get as much radio play as it once did.  But whenever I do happen upon it on the radio, usually on some "Best of the 80s, 90s and Today" station, I stop scanning the stations, listen to the song with a smile, recalling my incorrect reading of the song.

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Today's word of the day is "aloof."

Aloof

-adverb

at a distance, esp. in feeling or interest; apart: They always stood aloof from their classmates.

-adjective

We are all our own graveyards I believe; we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were. If we're healthy, every day is a celebration, a Day of the Dead, in which we give thanks for the lives that we lived; and if we are neurotic we brood and mourn and wish that the past was still present. 

-- Clive Barker

Today's word of the day is "consternation" -

Consternation

The imagination of teenagers is often -- I'm tempted to say always -- the only sure capital they possess apart from the love of their parents, which is a force far beyond their capacity to comprehend or control.

During my own adolescence, my imagination, the kingdom inside my own skull, was my sole source of refuge, my fortress of solitude, at times my prison. Like all teenagers, I provisioned my garrison with art: books, movies, music, comic books, television, role-playing games. Given their nature as human creations, as artifacts and devices of human nature, some of the provisions I consumed were bound to be of a dark, violent, even bloody and horrifying nature; otherwise I would not have cared for them.

- Michael Chabon

"I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both."

-- Soren Kierkegaard

(Reprinted from my previous blog)

God damn it.

I hate myself. I mean, I always hate myself. But now I have a specific reason to truly hate myself.

That was my chance, wasn't it? My chance to do what I know is Right...and I just couldn't.

I can think of a billion ways to rationalize my actions. I was polite. I was doing the capital "G" Good thing. I took the high road. I'm not a man prone to violence. But any way you slice it, I failed. I failed you all...and that moment will haunt me for the rest of my days.

God damn it.

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Today's word of the day is "juxtapose"

Juxtapose

to place close together or side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast.