Hypocrisy

Jul. 29th, 2021 02:41 pm
pjthompson: quotes (quotei)
Random quote of the day:

“Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.”

—François de La Rochefoucauld, Maximes, #218



Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Desus and Mero, Beyoncé, or the Marine Corps Marching Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.
pjthompson: (Default)
1. I don't know why I'm still amazed at the utter hypocrisy of people pointing fingers at others for the stuff they routinely do themselves. Yet still I find myself surprised. No, nothing directed at me, just a general observation, and if you're reading this it's dead certain you're not who I'm talking about. And since going after straw dogs and easy targets means many folks will nod and go along with the finger-pointing, no one is likely to call the hypocrite out.

2. Another bout of stomach difficulties this week: I hear this flu makes you sick, then lets you think you're recovered, then hits you again, so I don't suppose anything sinister is going on. I'm feeling better today. Well, except for the usual creeping, clinging malaise.

3. I've rewritten one of the offending chapters of A Rain of Angels and am overall satisfied with the change. I'm having a hard time motivating myself to go on to change the next chapter, the one requiring me to completely get rid of one comic character that I rather like and replace him with a grim and scary sort, then shift the other comically stupid character to one that is sinisterly stupid. I am so done with this novel. But I will slay the monster yet!

4. A big restructure is also necessary in order to proceed with Venus in Transit. The next chapter to be posted on OWW, chapter 9, requires me to start the restructure, but I can't seem to work up the enthusiasm for it. Maybe I should finish the novel, then restructure. I don't usually favor circling back to make changes before pushing through to the end because it usually lands me in just the kind of malaise I find myself in now. Maybe I could stomach it better as a completed first draft that needs fixing, as that is the usual pattern of ripping things up to reassemble. Maybe.

5. I thought yesterday I'd say to hell with both these projects and write something just for fun. But I didn't. Couldn't think of what I wanted to write, it seemed like too much trouble. My vaunted drive to write seems to have vaulted over the wall. I wonder what my reasons for writing are these days? The old formulae no longer seem to apply. Perhaps what's needed is a restructuring of myself rather than my novels.
pjthompson: (Default)
You can view some atmospheric pictures of the notoriously haunted Waverly State Sanitarium here, plus a click through to an eery video, as well as read the commentary of someone who took the tour. Ghost Hunters will be doing their 6-hour live show from Waverly on Halloween night. I see a DVR recording in my future since that's way past my bedtime on a school night.

Apparently, the owners of Waverly want to turn it into a kind of haunted resort. Oh my. Herein lies my hypocrisy and contradictions. I think using the trapped and tormented spirits of the dead as entertainment like this is wrong—yet I eagerly gobble up all these ghost shows, and if I was anywhere near Waverly, I'd take the tour, or the one at Eastern State in Philadelphia, or any of the other infamously haunted places around the country.

I will further confess that the only reason I visited the Drum Barracks in Long Beach (actually adjacent Wilmington) is because they're supposed to have Civil War ghosts. My friend and I tried to surreptitiously get EVPs and took a lot of pictures, but we got nothing of scientific value. We did experience heavy atmosphere and creepy feelings: in other words, no evidence at all.

I guess I'm informally doing research for my novel, Venus in Transit, because I've been reading a number of books on ghost hunting and one of the MC's in that novel is a paranormal investigator. I hadn't planned on doing that, but the season has coincided with the time of year when I wonder what I'm going to work on next. VIT has the advantage of being two-thirds finished. I got close to 70k done on it before it went belly up. I went off on a tangent that didn't work, and I realized the ending was too nebulous, so it sort of died on the vine. I've had a few years to think about it and may have a new ending forming up. I also recently reread what I'd written, and everything but that tangent seems to hold up pretty well. (I can't say the same for the other older, unfinished novel I thought of working on, that which used to be called A Taste of Night before Vicky Petersson.)

And btw, those of you living in the Philadelphia area might be interested to know that Eastern State Penitentiary, abandoned and super-haunted prison, puts on a haunted house extravaganza this time of year with actors and special effects and loads of bloody-gory family fun.

I'd go in a minute if I was in the neighborhood. Even though that would be wrong.

Booga-booga, ya'll!

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