exurb1r
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A New Book to Ruin Your Sunday
🕑 Added 2022-12-04 11:50:09 +0000 UTCHello spaniels,
I hope you enjoyed the new video, or didn't hate it anyway. As promised to Patreon folks months ago, you'll find the new book of poems attached to this message – please don't even think about buying it. It's a bit counter-intuitive, but editing seems to get harder the smaller the book is...? The last few weeks have just been me sitting on the sofa in a bathrobe screaming at typos and poor phrasing. Well, here it is in any case. (Alongside the print version, you should also find an epub file if that's more your speed.)
Last year I hit a wall with sci-fi and decided other genres might be the way to go. I spent a month or so trying to write a sort of comedy brochure (???) called Mean Nothing and Be Happy Anyway, a tongue in cheek introduction to absurdism. It got to page 3 of daft quips and trying to convince the reader we don't need ultimate truth to be content, and I realised the thing was making me hate myself. Not great for motivational literature. I've always thought writing should be play, and if it doesn't feel like play you've gone wrong somewhere. As a last ditch attempt at keeping it alive I tried the thing as a poem instead. That was a lot more fun. I haven't taken writing poetry seriously since I was about sixteen, so you can imagine what a surprise it was to find the thing wasn't just fun but compulsive. There's one in there called The Good Ship Lightship Ikkarad which I think I've been trying to write for about 15 years now. Felt rather nice to get it out finally.
The real joy of poetry – maybe you know this already – is that a certain feeling will hit you while you're on the train or reminiscing in the shower, and instead of having to spend days trying to eke it out in a short story or a monologue or whatever, instead of trying to set up foreshadowing and bait for the reader, if you can find the right rhythm a poem will do it in thirty words or less, no narrative trickery needed. It's unconstrained in a sort of 4am-let's-see-if-any-bars-are-still-open way – the most fun I've had in a while.
There was a bunch that didn't make it into the finished book, either from being too pretentious for a book of poetry (yeah, apparently it's possible) or a poem that seemed like a terribly fun idea but just wouldn't end up anywhere that felt like a proper finish. If you like, I'll collect up all the orphaned and discarded stuff in a few days when my brain is back online and post it here. Then again that feels a bit like trying to cook a nice meal for someone, then serving pop tarts as dessert. I'll leave that ball in your court.
As ever, a huge cheers for sticking around on here, and if you get around to giving the book a read, thank you ever so much.
Massive love and hope you're doing well,
Ex
Comments
RobotWobot
Hey just read your comment. I'm not Exurb1a of course, but wanted to let you know it's a lovely comment: nothing to apologise for. ^_^
Klaudia Mielcarek
Can we have the unfinished pieces?
Izabel van der Ploeg
Sorry if my comment sounds a little sycophantic or sad, but I really enjoy your works and appreciate them deeply.
Izabel van der Ploeg
I have thanked you before, but I want to thank you again, your words feel as if the thoughts in my mind were pulled out refined and put down on paper in such an eloquent way and in such detail I fear I'll never be able to communicate as well as you. Yet inspires me to try harder at improving my own way of communicating ideas. Your works bring me incredible joy, to know there are others who observe, think and come to similar conclusions, at least from my interpretation, as I do. For just a moment, I don't feel as alone.
Ahry Siss
Thanks a lot!
Joakim
Mr. Exurb1a, I hope you take this moment to really let it sink in what you've accomplished. Regardless how good or bad the book might be, it is not an easy task to finish a book. Thank you for sharing.
Vojta Vaněk
I demand the pop tarts for desserts! Really looking forward to reading the new book, cheers
K7QQQ
New book and new video? It's like Christmas came early.
feelovenergy
Thanks Ex. Missed you ♡
Roman Kowalew
Hey space turtle, is it somehow possible to get a signed copy, so I can stuff it into my bookshelf until the motivation muse kisses me and I read it in one go?
AlexInABox
Already bought myself the paperback for Christmas. Gonna be a hard time trying to resist reading your book in advance 😵💫
Clouthe
That's a great way to end the year. Hope you have a splendid december
Mattt
I'm worried about the cat mate, if you end up making that scraps post (please do) dont forget to attach some photos please. Much love forever
RobotWobot
Wow, thanks for the miraculous new book and video! There was me thinking I was a raging nihilist, but suddenly I’m now conflicted between absurdism, nihilism *and* existentialism. I’m not quite up-to-scratch with these meanings and how widely known they are, but after Googling it I have a hunch that we’ve both come across this article on “danielmiessler.com”, since it tells you all three meanings and follows with three main ways to react - much like in the video. 😄 Anywho, if this is the last post before 2023, I bid you a wonderful new year and a swell Christmas. 🎉 🎄 Oh, and every time I mention I’ve been making something you always request to see it… and I’ve now made a new video. Feel free to watch. I imagine a lot of the inspiration came from your wonderful videos, except yours are generally fun and inspiring whereas this one’s just straight-up depressing. ENJOY: https://youtu.be/twTqcQmkDgM
jæns olsrud
Make audio book, i suck at reading
