Been busy with writing, so chibis again. Only 3 pages to go!
The picture on the wall, invisible to the naked eye, is a poster for the Folsom Street Fair.

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It’s so cuuuuute!

Check out Astronaut Jesus and Tofu Robot, too.

Thanks to Laurie for pointing this review out to me. I’m very happy that someone can like the book because of its flaws rather than despite them, because I think to a large extent it’s made of its flaws.

Concerning an important point raised in the review: Gwynn would definitely like to have his hair washed by an admirer; not sure about being tied up by it, since that would hurt, and might damage his hair too (and we couldn’t have that); but given his enthusiasm for dominant women, I imagine he would agree to some sort of more or less comfortable and dignified bondage. Think velvet handcuffs and the vision of creamy–or golden, or ebony–breasts mounting the horizon of a soft leather corset like two young headmistresses coming over a hill. (He said that, not me…)

Oh, and Des Esseintes as a chair at a party? LOL. That gives me an itchy drawing hand.

N.B. — If there’s one thing all the stupid accusations of copying CM have done, it’s to keep me turned off writing another book in the same vein. Which might be a good thing, in the long run. Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, and all that. Which reminds me, I think I might have traced Ashamoil back to its beginning: “It’s safe in the city / To love in a doorway…” And of course, “My set is amazing, it even smells like a street…”

Edit: It disappeared twice from one bookshop I know. Maybe there are shy copies that don’t want to be read.

So the Opposition–or parts of it–thinks the Australian Government’s planned apology to Aborigines will reinforce a victim mentality. I doubt it. Can anyone think of a time when receiving a sincere apology made them feel more like a victim?

Liberal leader Brendan Nelson is no doubt right that there are bigger issues for the Government than an apology to Aborigines. However, looking at the international news today, I notice that the German Government has approved two new Holocaust memorials in Berlin, for gypsies and homosexuals, near the Reischstag and the Brandenburg Gate. No doubt Germany has more immediately pressing issues too; but a government should find time to attend to the symbolic–to the monuments and moments that will become part of the public history.

The point of symbolism is to make an impact on the heart and memory, to involve the emotions, to make a current flow in a certain direction–in this case, the direction of goodwill and reconciliation. Symbolism encourages the will to attend to the practical. In the case of an apology, it is hard to imagine that not doing would be better than doing.

And then, get on with the practical–in which the previous government had some success with its policy of intervention in dysfunctional Aboriginal communities. One thing the Rudd Government might want to keep as a lesson from its predecessor is that the politically correct thing to do is not always the actually correct thing. But an apology to the indigenous people is more than just a bit of PC fluff–or it should be.

It’s my pleasure to announce that The Etched City has been taken up by Fullon Books in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, and by Mag in Poland. I really want to thank Gray Tan in Taiwan for his patience and persistence in selling the book to a difficult market.That’s 11 translations now. I feel very lucky to have had so many with a first book.

I look forward to seeing both new translations and admiring the hieroglyphic play of words I can’t read

Edit: Title of post changed from “China and Poland” to “Chinese and Polish”. The “Chinese” refers to the Chinese language, not the political entity of the People’s Republic of China. There is currently no deal for mainland China.

Here be porn - or as close to porn as this is going to get:

Forget your dinky Victorian cottage in inner Melbourne or Sydney at the cost of the annual GDP of between two and five African countries, or your ten square feet of bricked-in air in London or Tokyo for an infinite sum plus your soul. You can have, instead, this renovator’s delight in Slovakia. Or this old synagogue, or for those of you who need more space, this 46 room Renassiance mansion.

According to the website, the encouragingly named castlesforallbudgets.com, which sells castles, manors and other historic properties in seriously picturesque Slovakia (no irony here, mes amis - the place looks very gorgeous indeed), prices start at $10,000, so you can afford to factor in a bit of renovation.

My favourite is this fortified manor house with vaulted stone ceilings. On the inside it looks like the castle where Forage lives.

So… anyone want to go halves?

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/16/healthscience/15brain.php?page=1 

But nobody knows whether dark energy — if it dies — will die soon enough to save the universe from a surplus of Boltzmann brains. In 2006, Dr. Page calculated that the dark energy would have to decay in about 20 billion years in order to prevent it from being overrun by Boltzmann brains.

Hopefully the random permutations of matter in the multiverse will create Jerry Cornelius, some time before those 20 billion years are up, to save us from chaos.

I want to write “the smell of dust and mice was still on the nose”, as a character leaves a gallery passage and enters a tower. In Australian idiom, “on the nose” means smelly, physically or metaphorically, though many of us understand the American and British use of it as meaning exact or right on the dot. Am I going to confuse non-Australian readers if I use it to refer to a bad odour?

I was about to write about my trip to the dentist yesterday,  but I am greatly distracted by the sight of Wass (the maid who put out Stu’s burning hair with her bare hands) standing outside our window on the little ledge cleaning the part the window cleaners missed. Yes, there is a balcony below, but still, this is the 36th floor and I’ve never had the courage to do more than lean out to place a plant on the ledge. I was quite unable to dissuade her from climbing out. She has now returned and my heart rate is slowly getting back to normal.

I was going to say something about a filling. I’ll remember in good time, I suppose.