Conrad Aiken's "Silent Snow, Secret Snow"

I've found Conrad Aiken's "Silent Snow, Secret Snow" and know that it resonates with me. It is a perfect illustration of the internal logic of a person tired of external stimuli, who finds his internal world more alluring and somehow safer. This is a boy who lives more vividly within, rather than externally, near his skin.
The story also illustrates how easy it is to lose touch with reality if we allow it. If we look deeply into the well of ourselves, we see no reflection, but a secret stream that can carry us away.

In one of my stories, I had a character, deceased but part of a hallucination, chide her son for wanting to immerse himself in his strange notions, as she had done before dying: "It will drown you if you put your whole head in." And he answers: "But what if I just want to dip my face in to see what the other world looks like?"

There's a surprising underlying logic to insanity that, while idiosyncratic to every person, still draws so many things together.

Einstein's Fascinating Conceptions

On my way home from my 6-9 p.m. class on Tuesday nights, I've started listening to Krista Tippett's show, Speaking of Faith, which I initially didn't know what to make of. I'm deeply spiritual, but life experience has made extremely wary of religious manipulation. The show is actually not about preaching and more about understanding, whether it be from cultural or theological standpoints. Moreover, I was impressed to find that Tippett broaches--and invites guests who tackle--the very thorny issue of spirtuality's complex (and seemingly contradictory) relationship to science.

This link leads to a program dealing with Einstein's religious affinities, which--perhaps not unspurprisingly--didn't fit into a conventional church setting. Einstein didn't believe that God could possibly be concerned with human affairs. He also felt that God follows a fixed pattern of handling the Universe, meaning there could be no deviations from fundamental scientific rules. However, when the quantum physicists, who built on Einstein's discoveries, came along and found that sometimes subatomic particles shoot off in random directions for no reason, Einstein couldn't imagine these inexplicable and incalculable deviations from expectation (which to me proves that there is some predestination, but also 'free-will' or, in the case of non-sentient particles, chance within a generally consistent framework).

Anyway, fascinating concepts. Eventually, I plan to pick up her related collection of essays by subject specialists.

'Newish' Fiction--

Savannah has newish fiction (a fable) at Fictionaut. Check out Revolutionaries here!
"But the rats that stood before me now were lean and squint-eyed, looking sideways at me and sizing me up in terms of shank, brisket, flank, tip, and sirloin. For the very first time in my life, I was glad to have been relieved of my testicles, as rats are not honorable."

Upcoming Reading @ Cyperpunk Apocalypse!

Savannah is thrilled to be part of Cyberpunk Apocalypse's 1 year anniversary party. She'll be reading from new work, along with a host of other writers and DJs, on March 30. Party is from 6-10 p.m. at AIR. Come party with us!