bookkeeping

[truepenny]

Kekropia

September 8: 193 words
September 9: 1,771 words
September 10 (thus far): 60 words

Total: 1,924 words

Comments: I feel like the turtle in Xeno's [I mean Zeno. Xeno is an Ephebian. Curse you, Terry Pratchett. --Ed.] paradox. I crawl and crawl and the finish line gets closer and closer but remains tantalizingly out of reach.

Verdict: I am pleased with myself for yesterday's output.

Comments

[oursin.livejournal.com]

I feel like the turtle in Xeno's paradox. I crawl and crawl and the finish line gets closer and closer but remains tantalizingly out of reach.

Yes, that is what I'm feeling, except it's possibly closer to the airport nightmare of endless delays and obstructions. It's a horrible place to be stuck: commiserations.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

And you HAVE output. I am so slow these days. There's too damned much thinking required on this draft.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

What I was actually thinking about (I realized when I caught the Freudian slip in my original post) is this scene from Pyramids:

     "Give in?"
     "We simply haven't got all the parameters right."
     "I know what we haven't got all right."
     "What is that, pray?"
     "We haven't got any more bloody tortoises. That's what we haven't got."
     Teppic carefully poked his head over the top of the dune.
     He saw a large cleared area, surrounded by complicated ranks of markers and flags. There were one or two buildings in it, mostly consisting of cages, and several other intricate constructions he could not recognise. In the middle of it all were two men--one small, fat and florid, the other tall and willowy and with an indefinable air of authority. They were wearing sheets. Clustered around them, and not wearing very much at all, were a group of slaves. One of them was holding a bow.
     Several of them were holding tortoises on sticks. They looked a bit pathetic, like tortoise lollies.
     "Anyway, it's cruel," said the tall man. "Poor little things. They look so sad with their little legs waggling."
     "It's logically impossible for the arrow to hit them!" The fat man threw up his hands. "It shouldn't do it! You must be giving me the wrong type of tortoise," he added accusingly. "We ought to try again with faster tortoises."
     "Or slower arrows?"
     "Possibly, possibly."
     Teppic was aware of a faint scuffling by his chin. There was a small tortoise scurrying past him. It had several ricochet marks on its shell.
     "We'll have one last try," said the fat man. He turned to the slaves. "You lot--go and find that tortoise."
     The little reptile gave Teppic a look of mingled pleading and hope. He stared at it, and then lifted it up carefully and tucked it behind a rock.

--Terry Pratchett, Pyramids (New York: ROC-Penguin Books, 1989), pp. 143-44

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Has everyone read SMALL GODS except me?

[sigh]

And the American edition even has a tortoise on the cover.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Small Gods is my favorite Terry Pratchett novel.

Which doesn't answer your question. *g*