Court Merrigan

Look like Nebraska should have stayed in the Big XII

Court Merrigan — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 05:45:15 +0000

Look at this map – the Big XII is practically the only conference not rife with dead zones. Look at all those happy green dots spread across Nebraska. (Though my hometown out in the west rates only a purple dot.) The SEC and Pac-12 – you’re screwed. The B1G is mostly screwed, too.

Well, I guess it will be on the Husks to keep the B1G going. With some help from Iowa, evidently.

Filed under: College Football, Worth noting Tagged: dead zones cfb conferences, dead zones in america, nebraska in the b1g, nebraska should have stayed in the big xii

A word is required

Court Merrigan — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:20:18 +0000

In 2001, I was living in Tokyo and there was this girl.

In 2002, I left Tokyo and there wasn’t this girl anymore.

In 2003, I wrote a story about her and us. Cheap loop-de-loop tricks obscured the story itself. It was sent to hard drive exile.

In 2010, I cut the crap and got to the story.

In January 2011, the story was published at Night Train.

In November 2011, the girl found me on Facebook and we friended one another. Now we exchange messages and are talking about Skyping one of these times.

Last night, I was sipping bourbon and thinking about Tokyo and her and that story and posted a status indicating as much on Facebook.

This morning, she liked my status.

This morning, I am writing about all this here.

I don’t know what word captures the moment of (inter)cultural possibility that we have arrived at here. I think we need one.

Filed under: Worth noting Tagged: a word is required, tokyo, tokyo 2001

It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.

Court Merrigan — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:19:18 +0000

Spotted at reddit.

Filed under: Amusing Tagged: success and failure

Welcoming in the Year of the Dragon

Court Merrigan — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 17:48:20 +0000

It is very usual for Civiliz’d and Polite Nations to look upon all others as barbarous … Europe now being the seat of learning, and Science, wherein learned Academies are set up for the Discovery of Hidden Secrets in Nature, we take all the Rest of Mankind for meer Barbarians: But Those who have Travel’d into China and Japan, must confess those People far surpass us in the endowments, both of body and mind.

-Jean Crasset, 1705

Filed under: Worth knowing, Worth noting Tagged: 1705 quotes, china, japan, jean crasset, year of the dragon

The Museum, ten thousand years from now

Court Merrigan — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:55:10 +0000

When those creatures of my imagination, the Galactic Museum-Keepers, look back on our past, with the objectivity of a vantage point near the edge of the universe, ten thousand years into the future, they will center their display on China, and cram Western civilization into a corner of some small vitrine.

- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

Filed under: Worth noting Tagged: china, felipe fernandez-armesto, galactic museum-keepers

KNUCKLE SANDWICH

Court Merrigan — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:04:37 +0000

Filed under: Amusing Tagged: knuckle sandwich

Stop SOPA, sign the petition

Court Merrigan — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:49:16 +0000

Unless you like your internet to look like this:

Here’s the petition: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

Thank you.

Filed under: Worth knowing, Worth noting Tagged: sign the anti-sopa petition, stop sopa

Youth In Asia

Court Merrigan — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:04:41 +0000

I distinctly remember as a gradeschooler wondering why those kids in Asia wanted to kill our sick and elderly.

H/t Joe Clifford.

Filed under: Amusing Tagged: joe clifford, youth in asia

Ringing in the new year with a rejection-o-rama

Court Merrigan — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:21:08 +0000

Since its last update, I’ve been rejected an additional 14 times. Most of them have involved that same long story that The New Yorker and Paris Review liked but didn’t take. That one has been rejected 30 (yep – thirty) times so far, and is awaiting dismissal at 8 other places as we speak. When some editor finally sees fit to grab hold of this story, it’ll rate its own post on its own long strange journey.

Not going to go relive all the rejections, except to say that the turn-downs from Needle (I WILL CRACK THAT MARKET SOMEDAY, GODDAMMIT) and Shimmer and The Pedestal and Unstuck and CutBank were encouraging. Not nearly as encouraging as an acceptance, but hey.

The Failure list has been updated.

Filed under: Failure, Rejection, Writing Tagged: cutbank, cutbank rejection, failure, literary rejections, needle magazine, needle magazine rejection, rejection, shimmer magazine, shimmer magazine rejection, the new yorker, the new yorker rejection, the paris review, the paris review rejection, The Pedestal magazine, the pedestal magazine rejection, unstuck magazine, unstuck magazine rejection

Chapter 7 of Absalom, Absalom!, different each time

Court Merrigan — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:21:22 +0000

Last night I was re-reading Chapter 7 of Absalom, Absalom!, where the lynchpin of Sutpen’s motivation is finally revealed, a section I’ve always found somewhat unconvincing – really? The boy is disrespected by one house slave once in his life, and this is the reason for all that follows? – but last night, I think I finally grasped the grandeur and truth of what Faulkner was getting at. How a life sets itself upon a course, inexorably, and can in no wise stray from that course for all time after.

Not very American-dreamy of you, Mr. Faulkner! Small wonder the book is little read outside American lit classes these days. Even so, this section remains one of the finest in the English language, the sheer tidal force of the language beating your brain into joyful submission.

I’ve been reading this book every couple of years since I was 18. It gives the wondrous feeling of being a different book each time.

Filed under: Literature, Worth noting Tagged: absalom, absalom absalom, Faulkner