Kristin Cashore's Blog, page 55

"The only thing that limits us is our imagination"

Erik Johansson, photographer of the impossible, concludes his TedTalk with that statement. I love all the photographs he shows in his talk (embedded below), but the one at 4:42 is the one that MADE MY DAY.



(If you can't see the video, go to my Blog Actual.)

I, for one (taking the question of imagination in a different direction) think lack of imagination breeds small-mindedness and cruelty, and imagination breeds compassion... I think our world is suffering from a crisis of lack of imagination, and in this country, at least, it shows itself in people's quickness to pronounce moral judgment on others -- which then has hurtful political consequences. I would say more about that except that I'm busy watching Downton Abbey.  Talk amongst yourselves. Go Sybil!  Whoo-hoo!

******

Also -- in other news -- easiest beef stew crockpot recipe ever:

1 can of Guinness
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, pressed (or less, if you don't love garlic as much as I do)
2 bay leaves
1 pound (+) of stew beef (not too lean, or it'll be tough)

Sizes and amounts can change, depending on your tastes. Throw it all in the crockpot and cook it for 2 or 3 hours on high, or 5 or 6 on low. Technically, you're supposed to brown the meat before you stew it, but I didn't bother with this recipe, and it was delicious anyway.

February 14: Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day

Click my Indonesian cover to enbiggen. Hello to my new Indonesian readers! *waves* ------->

So, three years ago, I decided to declare February 14 Interplanetary Be Who You Are Day. If you don't have the energy to click on that link, don't worry, I'll explain. But first, I would like to announce that in the spirit of inclusiveness, I am changing the name to Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day. Now, not only extraterrestrial and extragalactic people but also alternate versions of ourselves can join our celebration! (Listen. You go ahead and start a holiday and see how hard it is to draw lines.)

So, there are a lot of things I don't like about Valentine's Day. For example, the working conditions of the people who grow our flowers. The muddy, murky issue of conflict diamonds. The child labor crisis in the chocolate industry. (I'm not actually trying to be depressing here! Just honest. The reality is depressing. I'm also not suggesting I'm any more innocent than anyone else. I love cut flowers, I love chocolate, and I have a diamond on my person at this very moment, and no, I am not always sure where it all comes/came from.)

Closer to home, I also don't like this about Valentine's Day: it tries to divide people up into two neat categories. (1) People who are madly in love and happy. (2) People who are single, sad, lonely, pathetic, and deserving of our pity.

Seriously? It's so reductive! There are a gazillion kinds of people; there are a gazillion kinds of relationships and ways to live; there isn't one good, happy way to be and one bad, sad way to be. Stop being so unimaginative, world!

Anyway. Hence: I've decided to rename February 14 Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day. Here is an (incomplete!) list of people it is completely fine to be on this day (and every other day!):
A person who is thinking about beginning a relationship but isn't sure.A person who is thinking about ending a relationship but isn't sure.
A person who has decided to have a boyfriend and a shop on Etsy instead of a wife and a law degree, even though it will anger his mother.
A person who has decided to have a cat and an emu instead of kids, even though it will baffle her father (and also the emu might bite him. Though the argument could be made that so might the kids). A person who is holding the hand of his lover who is about to have sex reassignment surgery.Children eating lollypops. A person who wants what she doesn't want and doesn't want what she wants and often can't figure out what she wants and often can't have what she wants and sometimes has what she doesn't want and frankly feels RATHER UNSETTLED MUCH OF THE TIME. A person who's in love with the Ryan Gosling Hey Girl Library tumblr. A person who's in love with the Rachel Maddow Hey Girl tumblr.A person with a broken heart who is sobbing.A person who feels that just because a relationship ended, that doesn't mean it failed.A person who would love to think about Valentine's Day and his one true love, if only he hadn't just gotten out of surgery and can't move.A person who loves Valentine's Day, wears pink, has heart socks, loves being in love, and has a big romantic day planned.A person who is helping her toddlers make their first valentines.A single parent who is trying to find the right partner. Also, a single parent who isn't trying to find a partner, because they don't want one.  A person who's in love with more than one person.A person who thinks he'll never find anyone who understands him.A person who is recovering from a painful event and is nowhere near being ready to think about sharing herself with someone else.A single person who loves being single.A person in a traditional relationship.
A Cylon who fell in love and consequently messed up someone else's life by accident, because she didn't know she was a Cylon. Listen, these things happen.A doctor and war veteran whose deepest love is a brilliant socially-maladaptive consulting detective who shoots holes in the wall when he's bored.The third daughter in an early-20th-century aristocratic Yorkshire family who thinks she might be in love with the Irish revolutionary chauffeur, but it's confusing, because it would be an enormous blow to her family, and also, he can kinda be a jerk sometimes.An author who might be watching too much TV?An extraterrestrial named Blorkybeans (loose translation) who is enjoying her post-heartbreak intergalactic port city cruise more than she expected to, because it turns out she's good at making friends, even though her ex tried to convince her she wasn't. Anyway, he looked like a glorpyplotch. (That's like an extraterrestrial version of an octopus.)Me.You.Did I miss anyone?

Here are some links about buying fair trade and about how to avoid conflict diamonds. Thanks to Marc for suggesting the word "Pan-Universal" ^_^. Have a great holiday, everyone! Spread the news about Pan-Universal Be Who You Are Day to anyone who might want to celebrate it!

Randutiae and a Cover

Guys, look what you can get at Crate & Barrel for only $400.

*......*

NEVER SKIMP ON YOUR WHITE RECTANGLE.

So, I recently realized that a problem in my house can be solved by getting a new bookcase. I'm very excited to have an excuse to get a new bookcase. It also gives me an opportunity to mention another local indie that I adore, and that you should check out if you live in the Cambridge area: The Door Store, at 940 Massachusetts Avenue, between Central and Harvard Squares. They're a small, family-run business, and can make certain types of wooden furniture to order. (They made my TV stand and the little table inside my front door to my specifications.) They also have a lot of beautiful handmade furniture lying around ready to be bought. The staff is made up of men and women who are carpenters and who know what they're talking about. Also, they won't charge you $400 for a mass-produced white rectangle.

Next, Tui has some lovely vids up on her blog. And I also like this (very funny) video about panic attacks (and also about cheese and Whole Foods ^_^), with Sara Benincasa, comedian, writer, and author of the memoir Agorafabulous!: Dispatches from my Bedroom. Animation by Scott Bateman (and thanks, B!):


Moving on -- wanna see my German cover for Bitterblue?


"Die Königliche" means "the queenly" or "the royal one," which matches the form of the first two German titles (Die Beschenkte -- the one who's been given a gift; Die Flammende -- the flaming one). Carlsen always gives me such beautiful covers! The braids are what I love most about this one. No wonder Bitterblue's head often hurts, with those heavy braids!

The German version will be published on August 18. I can also report that Roca's Spanish version will be published in May. So will some of the other translations -- I'll pass on the news once I've confirmed it. (The USA/Canada/UK/Australia/New Zealand pub date is May 1.)

Check Out These Links

In Atlanta, a series of fatphobic billboard ads have been targeting kids. At her blog Dances with Fat: Health Comes in All Shapes and Sizes, Ragen Chastain is raising the money to put up "billboards and print media campaigns from a Health at Every Size® perspective to show kids of all sizes that they are valued and respected." Click on the link to read more about it, and consider donating something. Donations as low as $5 can be processed online.

Also, thanks to Tamora Pierce for writing the post "Shame on You, Komen Foundation!" My thoughts exactly, but expressed better and with really interesting links. It comforts me that so many people are angry about this.

On the Character/Writer Relationship

Earlier this week, an interview question got me thinking. It was a question about whether, just as I inhabit my characters' minds in order to write them, my characters return the favor and inhabit my mind.

The most straightforward answer is no. I don't think about my characters unless I'm writing, or thinking about writing. If I'm trying to make an important life decision, for example, my characters don't weigh in, nor do I ask myself "What would Katsa or Fire or Bitterblue or Po or Raffin do?" They don't insert commentary while I'm at the store or the movies or the art museum. If they're witty speakers, they (unfortunately) don't inspire me with witty things to say. Nor, except in rare occasions with one particular (pretty random) character, do I ever encounter people in my real life who look like my characters or remind me of them.

The truth, in fact, is that I tend to forget about my characters when I'm not writing them. I was having a conversation with my sisters once in which the subject of (*mild, non-specific spoiler ahead -- not for Bitterblue*) "book characters who fall off cliffs" came up. I said that I couldn't think of any book characters who fall off cliffs. They gave me a funny look, and assured me that if I thought really hard, I might be able to come up with one. It still took me a few minutes to realize that one of my own most important characters falls off a cliff.

I think maybe writers write from a place that isn't exactly self-conscious -- or least I do. So there isn't exactly a connection between my writing and my "real," conscious life. When I stop writing and return to my extra-book life, my characters disappear. Other people's characters wander freely through my mind; I'll consciously think about characters from the TV I'm watching or the books I'm reading. But in my life, my characters exist for the purpose of writing, and if I'm thinking about them, it's because I'm writing, or thinking about writing, or thinking about having written them.

That being said, there's more to the answer. Have you noticed that I've been posting the occasional full-fledged rant lately on my blog? I'm so mad at Bank of America that I can't help blogging about it. I hate the for-profit health insurance industry so much that I can't help making snarky comments. Just Monday, I mentioned my short fuse, and I can't count the number of times in recent months I've stopped myself from expressing vitriol on the blog, about every news headline I see. Why am I so angry?  I'm now 99% sure it's because in my daily writing life, I'm writing about an angry character.

Fire is a character who's frightened a lot. I realized partway through writing Fire that consequently, I was very close to my own fear (which is largely why writing that book was so uncomfortable. I was frightened all the time). I stopped feeling that particular brand of fear when the book was done. Bitterblue is trapped in a web of confusion, and I'm convinced that this is part of the reason I spent certain sections of the writing of that book wandering in my own, milder, personal confusion. That particular brand of confusion has now passed. These days, I'm close to my own anger, and probably will continue to be, until I make more progress in my current writing project. 

Is this because my characters inhabit my mind? I guess the answer is yes, more or less, somehow. I seem to have a tendency (unconsciously, undeliberately, and often uncomfortably) to filter my own life through the feelings of the characters I'm writing. I suppose it makes sense. I spend so much time in their minds that it's logical for the boundaries to blur. Also, I've been saying that I don't think about my characters unless I'm writing... but I bet most writers would agree that until a project is completely in the bag, we're almost always writing it, at every moment, even in the moments when we're not. Sometimes we're not writing in the moments when we are, too, but that's for a whole other post :o).


Anyway. I didn't make this anger connection until I was asked the interview question, so I'm quite grateful to the interviewer for helping me realize something was going on. Perspective on your own moods is always good!

***
In other news... this one goes out to my parents. Have y'all ever listened closely to the words of this song? That Gonzo is a poet.

"He who desires not to use Bernini's designs, must take care not to see them."

I have such a short fuse lately when it comes to the news. I think about blogging about things (the latest being Alabama's disgusting, cruel new immigration law, which is just one of numerous disgusting immigration laws in place all over the world today), then realize it's going to be a huge energy suck because of how angry I am... and I need to save my energy for my work. (Which is always at least indirectly about the news anyway.)

So this is going to be another post of Rome pictures. The last post of Rome pictures -- and by the way, if you're new to my blog, I assure you that I hardly ever post as many pictures as I've been posting. Really, you're all the victims of my fascinating new phone. I've never wanted to take pictures before, ever in my life, until I got this phone...

So. I adore the work of sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598-1680, Italy). It's one of the reasons Rome is one of my favorite cities – it's is full of his sculptures. You can see them in museums; you can see them on the street. One of his sculptures, Apollo and Daphne, inspired one aspect of Bitterblue, which I'm sure I'll be talking about more on this blog at some point (I have lots to say about Bitterblue, but there's not much point in saying it until more people have it in their hands and have read it). In this post, I want to share some images of Bernini's famous fountain, Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi ("The Fountain of Four Rivers"), which sits in Rome's Piazza Navona.

 Look at how perfect he is. Look at his feet and hands.
 It's a statue with many emerging forms. Can you see the horse?

 This man is my favorite.
 Here's another angle. Takes my breath away.
Can you see the emerging alligator-type-thing?
 Horse again
 Emerging lion
On my last night, I went to Piazza Navona to see the fountain. My memory was working in its typical way – I remembered that I loved the fountain, but I didn't remember anything else about it, including what exactly it was about or even that Bernini had been the one to design it. The sight of it took my breath away. I thought in my head, "Wow, good as a Bernini." But still, I didn't remember that it was a Bernini – until I got back to the hotel and looked it up online. I was not particularly surprised.

To see a picture of the fountain entire, learn where I got my subject heading, and read about what all the figures in the fountain mean, go to the fountain's Wikipedia page. And if you're ever in Rome and want to see more Bernini, by all means, go to the Galleria Borghese.

Dome Fatigue Is Real

All photos are of ceilings unless otherwise indicated. All are from Rome.  All were taken on my phone, which is an iPhone 4S. And last time I checked, Blogger was crap at jump cuts, but this post has 30+ pictures, so I can't not.  After the second picture, click on the link that says "Read more"... or, to see all the pictures, just click here.

Dome of Abbazia San Bernando alle Terme

One of the domes of the Basilica dei SS. Ambrogio e Carlo

Another of the domes of the Basilica dei SS. Ambrogio e Carlo

Another of same

Another of same

Ceiling fresco of same

Dome of Chiesa SS. Vincenzo e Anastasio Padri Cistercensi

Ceiling fresco of same

Ceiling (and upper walls) of Oratorio del SS. Crocifisso, which is a
random office-building type thing I happened to wander through

Dome in Chiesa di Santa Maria di Loreto al Foro Traiano

Teeny little ceiling light in same

Main dome (there are many many) in St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

Another view - St Peter's

Another

Another dome, St Peter's
Another (there are so many -- I took pics of at least 11 and that wasn't all)

Floor

Floor

Moving on to the Vatican Museums -- miles of ceiling frescoes

I like these ladies at work on the ceiling

This fresco had a net under it to catch pieces flaking off

Here's what the ceilings look like in the halls of the Vatican Musei

Doorway

Wall painted with stars

Spiral staircase in the musei. Note the circle on the floor at the bottom --
-- because here's what it looks like when you stand on that circle and look up at spiral and ceiling.
Random entranceway ceiling in a building on the street called Corso Vittorio Emanuele II

 Random lights on the terrace of a restaurant near Piazza Navona. I know they're pretty unspectacular
 compared to the other ceilings I photographed, but I liked them a lot
 Dome in Basilica di S. Maria in Aracoeli

 Another of same
 And finally -- last but far from least -- the ceiling of
 the Pantheon on my last night. The sun was setting.
 Can you see the star?

At Codename: La Coraggiosa's House in Trevagnano

What could possibly be better than Hercules curled up in a ball?
 
Hurcules and Kasa curled up in a ball!

Some Photos from Rome and Orvieto

It's 6 PM in Rome and bells are ringing all around me. I'm posting this on my phone (with the help of dear Siri), with pics also taken on my phone,  so we'll see how it works...

Here's looking up at the (hole in the) ceiling of Rome's Pantheon. The Pantheon has an interesting history to do with pagans that you can read about here. 


Here's looking down into the bottom of the Pazzo si San Patrizio ("Well of Saint Patrick") in Orvieto. The well has an interesting history to do with popes and mules and double helixes that you can read about here.



Here's looking up at the sky from the bottom of the well.



Here's looking up at one of the domes in the church of Sant'Ignazio di Loyola in Campo Marzio in Rome.



And here's looking up at a few more in the same church.







Are you sensing a theme? Yes, I've been looking up, and looking down, a lot. However, I'VE ALSO BEEN LOOKING SIDEWAYS AND ALL AROUND.

For example, returning to that well in Orvieto – here's Melina.


And returning to the Pantheon, which is my favorite building in Rome, possibly in the world. Here are some random shots.

column
floor






outside pillar
The end!

Packing, but --

-- just had to come onto the blog to say that the final (3rd) episode of Series 2 of the BBC's Sherlock , "The Reichenbach Fall," is among my favorite ever 90 minutes of television. Congratulations to everyone who had anything to do with making this episode. I believe in these characters, and all of their feelings, 101%. (Also, I love Molly and I'm dying to know what she did.) Here's a teaser by the BBC which is inadequate at expressing the awesomeness, but will acquaint you with some of the main players:

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Coming to PBS in May -- and, a third series has been confirmed.

My goal while I'm in Italy is to eat a gelato for each of my blog readers. :D?