Musings

“before the invention of boundaries (which was the invention of fences, and also the invention of countries – countries being the invention of men wearing clothes the colour of trees, patrolling the arbitrary lines, the dark promise of their rifles);

before the invention of stamps (which was the invention of bureaucracy, which was the invention of embassies, which was the invention of old women gathered hopelessly on Hope Road, the quartz of their sweat glistening on their foreheads)”

~from “Here That Was Here Before” by Kei Miller

“creative output of any kind depends upon a steady stream of tiny self-delusions — guardrails to keep yourself from veering into a pit of self-doubt and despair…”

R.E. Hawley

“We order our lives with barely held stories…”

Michael Ondaatje, Warlight

we are not doomed yet

juggle the numbers

some are doomed

but not the 3 of us

or not the 3 of us

just yet

or maybe 1 of us,

the smallest,

the 1 of us

still learning

numbers,

who doesn’t know

what 2 of us

are keeping to ourselves

~from Alphabet, by Ailbhe Darcy (2018)

“In truth, Luddism and science fiction concern themselves with the same questions: not merely what the technology does, but who it does it for and who it does it to.”

Cory Doctorow, Science Fiction is a Luddite Literature