Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Quick Wednesday morning recap

No work out of the house today. On my list of things to do, (some already completed):

1. Help to save a possum and its baby from being attacked by a blackbird and a honey eater next door. The possums were trying to get from tree to roof and we could hear the racket of the birds and see the distress of the possums from our dining room and bathroom windows. Princess and I were in paroxyms of anguish. We clapped our hands to try to distract the birds from their pecking assault, and finally baby possum got onto the roof to safety. Then mother possum was trapped in the eaves so I threw pieces of bread to stop the bird cornering her. They have all gone away now.

1a. Get all children out of the house. This includes cutting up apple and pear for Princess who has braces on her teeth and getting contact lenses into her eyes because she has sport today. She is the high-maintenance one. Lucky she came from my body and I love her beyond reason. Also I feel guilty because the bad eyes are from me, as well as the bad teeth. She's got all my bad stuff; DNA is a bastid.

2. Have coffee.

3. Walk the dog.

4. Read the paper .

5. Pick up book on order from Readings. I love Readings. I love books.


6. Resist reading Coetzee's Summertime and the new Niffenegger book. Isn't Niffenegger probably the most unfortunate name around?

7. Submit passport renewal application.

8. Stop looking at blogs.

8a. Desist in giving Perseus love advice. There's only so much a busy-body like me can do.

9. Cook dinner.

10. Go through my story and insert bits I have pulled out of research notes to do with fairytales and mother/stepmother stuff.

Did you know that "According to Tartar, the wicked female fiends are some of the many faces of maternal evil in fairytales representing the obverse of all the positive qualities associated with mothers"?

AND

"various cooks, stepmothers, witches and mothers-in-law with voracious appetites for human fare, even for the flesh... of their own relatives.... (are) cannibalistic fiends [known in] German [as] Menschenfresserin (devourer of humans)"?

AND

Biological mothers are replaced by these fiends, because "the fantasy of the wicked step-mother, witch, mother-in-law and other female villains not only preserve the good mother in tact (usually dead in these stories), it also prevents one having to feel guilty about one's angry wishes about her."

AND

"The monster of fairy tales and psychic fantasies is the murderous mother in disguise. She is the one who figures in our nightmares, or as Gilbert emphasises, our nightmères."

I don't know who Tartar and Gilbert are but as I'm not writing a thesis, I dont' care.

11. Cut out all the unnecessary words in my story.

12. Decide whether it needs to be more than the 82,000 words it is now. Or less. Any advice?

13. Decide whether to submit for a competition. I hate competitions because I never win them.

14. come up with a better surname for main character and family in the story. I'm thinking Lovelock is good. It's real too. I heard someone called Lovelock on the radio the other day. Her first name started with L and ended in Y. Cool name.

15. That's about it I think. It's enough.

5 comments:

phoenixmummy said...

I agree, DNA is a bastard. Our kids have inherited just about every negative physical trait from the ex and I. Ex is blind as a bat but our daughter inherited her eye problems from me, a beta-thalassemia gene from her father and allergies from both of us.

And Niffennegger is a REALLY unfortunate name, but it does stand out.

Cheers and hope Wednesday turns out well for you.

I'm not Craig said...

I'm finally reading the first Niffenegger book (assuming the time travelling one was actually her first novel). I'm undecided so far but it possibly might be good.

If Perseus is looking for a nice atheist girl, he should try hanging at at http://www.theage.com.au/national/highpriest-of-atheism-is-on-his-way-20091005-gjgg.html.

And do tell him I said hi, won't you?

Unknown said...

Lucy Lovelock by any chance? That's a great name.

Perseus said...

Hi, INC! How's it hanging? How's Jesus going? Tell him I said, 'Hi'.

As much as picking up a hot atheist appeals to me, the thought of going to a conference to do so horrifies me.

'Conferences'. Bah.

Melba said...

Fuck Perseus you are so fussy. But anyway it wouldn't be you going to a conference to find a hot atheist, it would be you going to a conference to make all those arguments about the non-existence of god that you do so well. THEN the hot atheist chicks would find you!