Enemy of Entropy
September 2010 NaBloPoMo Theme: Art
I received the NaBloPoMo newsletter today and learned that this month’s theme is Art. On the one hand, I thought, “I have nothing to say! I’m not an artist. Blah.”
On the other hand, I’m coming to realize that I must have order in my life or I start dying, bit by bit. “Enemy of Entropy” isn’t just a fanciful blog title. Disorder is painful to me. Dull colors, harsh lighting, loud sounds, poor ventilation, and pervasive odors can drag anyone down, but they make me ill very rapidly.
If you find me surrounded by chaos you can be sure that either I haven’t been in that space long enough to impose order, or that something is very, very wrong.
I’m healthiest and happiest when I’m when I find ways to increase the amount of harmony and beauty around me. There is beauty in order, and art, for me, involves order — some kind of order, even if it isn’t always obvious.
I’m never going to be an Artist in any classical sense of the word. I have, however, established peaceful, joyful spaces for my family and friends to live in and visit. I put together fabric and fibers to create unique works of embroidery. When I sing, alone or with others, the result is no less beautiful for its ephemerality.
I’ll be trying to explore my own kind of art this month through blogging, my identity as an artist. And I’ll be working on getting back to blogging regularly, obviously. This is a new sort of blog post for me, more introspective. We’ll see how that goes.
Book Review: The Horns of Elfland edited by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman
The Horns of Elfland by Ellen Kushner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It took a while to track down this volume, as it has long been out of print. Interlibrary loan was, once again, my friend. But how odd to read an actual physical book again, when I’ve been reading ebooks almost exclusively lately! Read on…
Review: Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth
Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Blood Oath is an interesting and fairly refreshing variation on the vampire riff. Most of the current tales give us a suave, sexy predator who mesmerizes his or her prey, leaving humans pining for their presence. They might even fall in love with a human. Nathaniel Cade, however, refers to humans as food, saying, “Would you have sex with a cow?” That makes much more sense to me. It’s a good thing he isn’t interested, either, as the typical reaction people have to encountering him is utter panic, often involving the loss of bladder control. Read on…
Book Review: Changes by Jim Butcher
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I do not give out many 5-star ratings, but for this book I couldn’t do anything else. That is despite the fact that Jim Butcher did something I honestly didn’t think he would do to his legions of loyal readers, something that I absolutely detest. Something that I will not tell you about, because I loathe spoilers. Read on…
Review: American Gods by Neil Gaiman
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m trying to remember whether or not I’ve read any of Gaiman’s other novels before, and I’m fairly certain that I haven’t. I read Good Omens, but that was co-written with Terry Pratchett, and the collaboration was genius. I know that the entire world seems to love Sandman, of course, but I’m just not a fan of graphic novels. In fact, it took me a while to realize that the Good Omens co-author and the Sandman author were one and the same. Read on…
