The Miracle of the Mundane

On Saturday, I played another rather excellent session of 7th Seas LARP. During the course of that, my character ended up in an interesting conversation with a priest over whether miracles were inexplicable and obvious events, or tiny changes deliberately hidden behind rationale explanation to not compromise our free will. The priest remained adamant that they were son et lumière, glorious in their imperviousness to logic, and things moved on.

However, this morning, I went to look up something in my dictionary of quotations and it opened on this quote:

I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds, for something extraordinary to happen to us.

– Khaled Hosseini

Which made me wonder: is the miracle in neither the obvious defiance of natural law nor the hidden influence that we can interpret either way, but in the moment when we are living rather than waiting.

Or perhaps I’ve read too much Colin Wilson.

Permission To Travel

With the United Kingdom adopting a cabin-baggage device ban similar to that of the United States of America, discussion of the arbitrary (and purposeless) nature of the ban has increased. However, what if there is a purpose; not in what is banned, but in what is not.

Happy Death Day to You, Dear

To celebrate the anniversary of HP Lovecraft’s death, have five minutes of cosmic dread.

The Call of Cabbage

Even the most cursory internet search for HP Lovecraft is likely to uncover a fresh-to-the-searcher article or discussion of his racism: he was objectively racist; he was a product of his time; he was more racist than his time; he was a racist but his works aren’t; and so forth. I suspect the broad questions of cultural relativism might never be answers satisfactorily, but what if he objectively wasn’t racist? What if he was actually anything but prejudiced?

Terms of Endearment

Romantic books and films show the path from first meeting to forever as a series of struggles and reversals; show love as a disruptive rather than supportive force. Which makes sense, as fiction without challenge usually lacks interest. However, this unconscious acceptance that love is pain might go deeper than that; deep enough that we need to change our language.

The Answer to Every Investigator’s Worst Nightmare

Do you find yourself needing to display the power and majesty of the Empire, without causing the more delicate members of your expedition to swoon at the sight of your power and majesty? I might have the solution.

I know I’ll be happier during an attack by chthonic entities knowing I don’t have to choose between taking the time to dress and having my valet shave me. And, as one of the first ten purchasers, the tailor added Tillighastification at no extra charge; so I’ll be equally protected against non-corporeal entities.

Through Mathematics, Madness

Being the only person in her company who understands one of the tools of her job, my wife’s employment seemed safe. However, it appears Dark Accounting, waxing in unnatural life, seeks to steal her uniqueness. Behold the squamousness of its relevance:

Actuarial assumptions are an entity’s decision to accept an explanation as insane as this.

An example is whole life insurance contract as either a service condition or a labyrinth of nighted depths.

Only when exposed to the resonator did further guidance present before horrified eyes.

But I fear you will not believe. Even in the face of such evidence you will claim ’tis only chance that makes these few of many seem to contain specific meaning. That the willows do not move against the wind when unobserved.

Do You Want a Revolution?

Politics isn’t easy, which is why not everyone’s doing it. Even describing one’s politics can be tricky in anything other than the most superficial of terms. However, the people who ask are often the ones who don’t listen to long and nuanced answers. So, I’ve tried to find an answer that isn’t; that captures complexity and truths without losing brevity.

And I keep coming back to a quote from Grant Morrison’s Invisibles. Somehow it seems appropriate to answer a question driven by the sound-bite culture of social media and gap-between-the-adverts news with a quote rather than my own words.

…trying to pull off a track that’ll result in everyone getting exactly the kind of world they want.

Everyone including the enemy.

– King Mob to the Marquis de Sade
‘Arcadia #4’, The Invisibles

And very appropriately British to make someone’s bed for them so they might lie in it.

Lovecraft Sin Sangre

One of the biggest issues with visual media based on (or inspired by) Lovecraft’s work is that no combination of prosthetics and CGI really captures indescribable horrors, risking it becoming just another horror tale. Which can be fun, but isn’t the Yog-Sothery I seek of a Mythos tale.

Which is why I enjoyed the balance of growing paranoia and props in this short film.

So Happy Together

Continuing this week’s theme of expressions of love, this mural of Donald Trump kissing Boris Johnson went up near me earlier this month. On the surface it seems like political satire, but it might be much more. It might be an effort not to mock, but to uplift.