Friday, August 07, 2009

Churlishness

I feel churlish right now. It's a small thing, I'm going to go jump in a shower in a minute and it'll rinse away with the water and the lovely almond Olay with creamy ribbons. But for now I'm a bit grr. There's a writer I know online, we have worked together at times, exchanged comments and thoughts, congrats and commiserations, you know the kind of thing. I have been delighted at their successes in the past and may have even mentioned them here. I comment occasionally on their blog, I have them in my recommended list. I went to their blog a few minutes ago and happened to look at their own list. A number of familiar names there, shared writing chums. My blog wasn't on the list though, and I thought, hmm, well fuck them then. I felt a frizz of anger, like, oh, I suppose s/he doesn't think I am good enough to be on her/his list, or maybe s/he doesn't like my stories, or me. It's the sort of thing that happens often, that sudden irritation that flashes through an otherwise calm day, it's the bloke in the post office who pushes in front, the woman in the garden who makes a stupid comment as you walk by, it's anyone at any time. It's people! Here online huge furores can storm through forums, blogs, groups. In the absence of the nuances of speech misinterpretations are rife, wilful or not. All boils down to the same thing, folk being folk. Let it wash away. Except for the bastard who has snubbed me. Wink. And if you can't, if you are sure that you need to express your hurt, anger and so on, well then go for it, but try to be honest, plain, open. All the back stabby games are so fucking tiresome.

Anyway, in an antidote to churlishness I thought I'd send out some random link love.

I am truly jealous of Ravi Mangla's imagination. Read "Jupiter" here at the always gorgeous Wigleaf.

I have just been kindly sent a copy of "The Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology 2" which I look forward to reading.

I also just received Hobart 10 which as always looks amazing and is chock full of good writing.

Finally, for people who watch television I recommend Lowculture and its forums. Written by genuinely funny people it's an ace place to hang out and chew over the latest telly.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Hope it's not me! For some reason I haven't been able to update my links page for over a year - the template crashes every time I try.


I should just move over to a new template but I'm scared I'd lose all my old posts. I am a bit of a wimp about that kind of tech-bloggy thing ...

Unknown said...

Kay! It wasn't you, no. We've never worked together -and I figured you were out of my league anyway ; )

pierre l said...

I have checked two of my favourites and they both link back here, so I'm happy. I am sorry to read about your unhappiness though. I need to find an excuse to come and visit your shop again.

Unknown said...

Pierre, I'm not so unhappy. My point really was that these little things sometimes blow up into bigger things than they need to. It's a minor irritation, no big drama.

Bob Jacobs said...

I link here, Sara, and I'm happy to do so, because you're not a bad person deep down and your writing is okay. Then I read a post like this where you use a possessive apostrophe with commiserations, and now I'm going to spend the day worrying about it.

Will it reflect on me? Will it? Will people think less of me for linking here?

I'm off to the post office to push in front of some vertically challenged women, to get the grr out of my system. Wish me luck.

Cheers,
Bob

Tania Hershman said...

It's not me, I know it's not me because I clicked on the link from my blog to your blog to get to your blog.. so... ok. But I get it. I feel really bad every time I take someone off my blog roll to put on someone else... and did I tag everyone I needed to in the Facebook note? And... and. It ain't churlish. And.. you can ask her to link to you. And... I get that same feeling looking other people's blog rolls. I get it.

Unknown said...

Bob - I have no idea what you mean about the apostrophe, you poor deluded man. And let me assure you that your profile can only be raised by association with me. After all, I do work one day a week in a bookshop so I'm pretty important.

Tania - You rule!

Unknown said...

There are no leagues - but if there were, I'd be proud to be in the same one as you ...

Vanessa Gebbie said...

Cor, phew. I just went and checked the links too. The wrath of the Crowley is a dreadful thing. All working fine.

But it is funny, innit. From experience, when you are feeling down/negative anyway, everything seems 'intended' when it probably isnt at all. Whoever it is, they would probably be devastated to think they were the cause of you feeling bad.

I have just handed over the Workhouse into the ownership of someone else, and am waiting for confirmation of the change of name before blogging about it. But some weeks ago, a member said 'why dont I take it off your hands, save you paying for it?' And I saw all sorts of plotting, (especially at the moment) when there was none at all.

vx

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