Listen, make his day and yours at the same time.

That is a lot of planes.

Wait…they are? It takes real guts to touch something that perfect, I’ll say that.

The coffin might be made of laminated particle board, but it sleeps like a sepulcher, I assure you.

“I even got to curl my hand in a grotesque hypnotic gesture for a sec.”

Ummm, this looks incredible.

Because the book concentrates on what they choose to do or not do. You get to see how their basic personality unfolds in how they live their lives, rather than how the author chooses to mete it out to you.

Been thinking about this a lot, & I think that’s one of the things that makes the book so good. A lot of time, showing & not telling can become a kind of parlor trick. Revealing the characters slowly makes things shallow. But since we know them 20 pages in, we get to know them on a deeper level.

That has a kernel of truth.

I love how mad people get when I say this. What binds people in an age cohort are the things they experience in their formative years. 9/11 made a lot of 20-somethings fascists and a lot of them pacifists. That’s it. Birthdates don’t dictate or mean anything. Generations are astrology.

Also, “Gandalf” is literally the name of a dwarf in Old Norse named Gandalfr, and he used that. Dude knew his shit.

And in the exceptions, like in some German dialects (like Berlinerish) and Old English, G is *still* “J” only before front vowels. See: Berlin “verjessen” instead of “vergessen.” Or “yester-“ in English instead of “gestern” in German for “yesterday.” Shit’s predictable and has rules, my dudes.

He came to Davis,CA when I was in grad school there, and I have never seen a crowd that out of control in the eyes in my life. People were manic. The guy has a charisma I’ve never seen before. I guess what I’m trying to say is, yeah, right? But, like, it’s some deep shit. Truly wild.

Oh no! How the little guy doing?

I still can’t believe it’s not real meat, either.