Michal's mulling over the possibility of compounding his puny Fiction Corpus with a copious amount of his best fiction books yet; cites fatigue
Posted:
I can't reject the concept of utilizing English as a worldwide language. I don't accept the debilitating model by which English is presented for study.
Polishing one's dexterity with a language isn't like bringing about a more flexible variety of bamboo. A language - a living language - isn't merely an instrument that you can teach yourself to exploit with greater amounts of precision. A shared language can not be uncoupled from the philosophical currents of a circle of people of which it is a description. A language isn't recited; it happens - and keeps happening as long as a circle of people keeps using it.
To make a pupil recite English is to deprive him of its cultural context. A capable educator must find a method of introducing it; the wisest student goes out to seek it.
A dictionary has the potential to be an influential tool. The best dictionaries describe a language based on a specific corpus, a body of written language of varying scope and consistency. Such a corpus could contain anything from a book about literature to a whole bunch of flash fiction. I lost many a night laboring on my "modest" Fiction Corpus in order to form a special genre of dictionary based on the ability of one man to tell a story in many different forms. It is a labor of love and listening.
I have drawn up a million words and I have tabulated them, reframing them - not just to teach an American language but to reveal the human soul, and to provoke that soul or spirit not just to recite but to happen.
Author's Note: I have been enjoined from sharing the details of my true romance adventure until such time that the other party is prepared to present her perspective on the affair arrangement...
My plane touched down in Poland on June 20th. A month later I was in Austria. Two days later, Slovenia. The next day, Croatia. A week later, Italy. The next day, Switzerland. The next day, France. The next day, Germany. The next day, Belgium. The next day, Holland. All with a woman I had met my first weekend on the Continent.
I knew naturism was popular in many parts of Europe and as an artist who had worked on body acceptance for his entire career I was keen on documenting some small part of it. Lo and behold, I found a very important part of it hiding in Poland. Her name was Margo.
As an American, I was full of optimism and confidence bordering on recklessness. I was ready to run the wheels off the car I had just bought and eventually I would. As a European, she was cautious and mistrustful. She needed to make sure the air conditioner worked. Which it did. If you knew how to turn the broken knob in just the right way.
6,000 miles. One car. One tent. We started learning how to listen. We started learning how to open up. We started cooperating. Even when we were angry, even when it was so difficult that it didn't seem like it would turn out well, we stuck it out. We completed the trip and we came back happy. We had beaten the devil on the road. Back home more devils were waiting to abuse us. More anger. More fear. More sadness. This time we were prepared. This time we had each other and we could harken back to the joy and the trust and the suprise that 6,000 miles had created. We could remember what it was like to live in one tent.
6,000 miles across Europe with a complete stranger
During our trip across Europe, Margo very bravely opened up to me and to the camera. It was a difficult thing to do considering the scars that she carries. I wanted to share with the world her often joyful, often sad, often angry but always liberating experience except that the Internet is full of pictures of naked women and men and full of trolls who abuse them.
I realized that what I really need to point out is not the openness that Margo and I cultivated between ourselves, but the darkness that continues to surround us. When I censor nudity, I do so in a way that does not compromise the integrity of the human body. In censoring the photographs that Margo and I took during our trip, I was quick to notice that in those pictures where Margo was at her most open, at her most unguarded and most relaxed, in a word, when she was herself and basking in the sun I was forced to blacken her completely.
Why does our society drive people into darkness? Why can we not accept ourselves as we are? Why can we not accept our bodies? Have we truly become eunuchs? Or are we capable of defying the sickness that pits us against each other? Together we could conquer the devils that abuse us.
Whether you enjoy being nude or not, whether you've been photographed nude or not, but especially if, for you, like for Margo, it's something you never thought you would do, consider submitting your own photograph to be published in a censored manner as a form of protest against the ubiquitous presence of the human body on the internet, naked or not, that is published and duplicated ad infinitum without context and without regard for the identity or the needs of the individual being depicted.
Michal's Dictionary: Understanding the word Midnight
A word can represent many things. First and foremost it represents a type of gesture. A specific way of speaking. A specific way of inscribing a mark. A specific way of moving your hand. To know one of these kinds of gestures is to know how to pronounce the word midnight in some kind of way.
If you want to communicate an idea using the word midnight, you will need to know what other people are made to think when you make the gesture. You will never have complete awareness of or control over the associations or identities that are invoked by a set of words, but you can know what was and what is a single word's jointly accepted definition, at least for a given place, thereby tracing a direction which will help you to understand what kinds of associations and identities are driving its use.
By using the word yourself, you enter into a long-standing albeit oftentimes unconscious debate over its definition, forever entangling yourself into the history of its use. The way you use it, and which other words you use it with carries weight.
The more you know about where the word midnight is located in the fabric of a language, the better you will be at exploiting its cultural power.
Pronunciation of Midnight
I have yet to publish a pronunciation for the word midnight.
Video of me pronouncing "midnight."
Definition of Midnight
The term midnight refers to a time when some people have long gone to bed and which other people take as a sign that they should wrap up what they're doing regardless of whether they end up doing it or not.
Common use of midnight in illustrative example sentences
I have yet to come up with a third sentence using the word midnight.
Audio of me saying the sentence:
I have yet to come up with a fourth sentence using the word midnight.
Audio of me saying the sentence:
I have yet to come up with a fifth sentence using the word midnight.
Audio of me saying the sentence:
I have yet to come up with a sixth sentence using the word midnight.
Audio of me saying the sentence:
I have yet to come up with a seventh sentence using the word midnight.
Audio of me saying the sentence:
Usage of Midnight in Michal's Fiction Corpus
Michal's Fiction Corpus of Acceptance Literature (FiCAL) is presented under the Bare Bottom imprint. It is currently comprised of six bodies of work, each representing a different pillar of culture and incorporating a wide variety of writhing styles.
I have yet to make a morphological analysis of the word midnight.
That doesn't mean it's not high on my list.
Table of Frequency for the Word "Midnight."
This table lists in descending order the total number of times that the word midnightand any of its morphological derivations appears in the Fiction Corpus, along with a breakdown of frequency by title, the respective rank of each word in the complete list of all words in the Corpus, as calculated both densely and competitively, as well as the percent increase in frequency of the word over the frequency of the next lowest rank in the complete list.
Percent Increase over next rank
RANK
WORD
Frequency
TOTAL # of occurences
MCDONALDS
JESUS
SEX
TSIGA
JACKSON
DINGBATS
dense
competitive
modern/sloppy
biblical/terse
poetic/high-brow
hard/fast
talky
mixed salad
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
I have yet to publish the table of frequency for the word midnight, but I will get to it shortly. -Michal
A story bible for a comic book series set in a post climate-change California narrated by eight characters who live through a natural disaster that sinks Los Angeles and triggers a war with an expansionist Mexican government covertly supported by China.
Frame #3069
okay were on the insterstate. its smooth. not so rough. i almost threw up my midnight snack back there.
An experimental science fiction Christology that makes Jesus the hard boiled narrator of his own early years on a bizarro earth made dark by volcanic ash and informally ruled by a man from Mars who sells bottled air.
"Would he hurt you?"
"Not with his claws, but people feared his tongue: his black tongue, which people said was the tongue of death. If he licked you with it while you were awake, they said your skin would burn off."
"Uh-uh."
"If he licked you in the face and you accidentally looked into his eyes, they said your whole head would burst into flame."
"That's not true."
"That's what people said: they said if you woke up in the morning after sleeping by the fire and your face was wet, it was the Lonely Planet who licked it, and you were gonna die by midnight no matter what."
"That's bogus."
"That's what I said. 'Cause you're right: it's not true."
"It's not?"
"No. The Lonely Planet is a ghost wolf, but he's not a bad wolf: he's a good wolf."
A literature book narrated by a pair of siblings on either side of the Atlantic whose profoundly weird sexual experiences pose a serious challenge to their traditional understanding of mathematicians, marriage, gay young men and God.
I sat down right next to Indiana; we looked at the clock. She said she would go home now. I told her I would take her. She said that she would drive herself. I told her not to argue. She started crying. I looked at the clock. She tried to control herself, and, partly succeeding, I asked her if she were ready. She started to nod; but I wasn't convinced, and I was right. She started crying once again. So I turned to her and tried to calm her down. "I am so stupid," she said. "I'm only crying now because I ruined your party; I'm still doing it." I told her not to worry, that whatever was happening the party was unimportant. "Oh A. Jo Ann," she said, "It is important. It is very important. If you can't have a good party then what can you have?" I told her how silly that was, and besides, we had a great party. "But it's not even midnight," she said. I smiled at her, and wiped away her last tears. "Come on," I said, "I'll take you home."
And they said: no cheating. But I knew: because Albert was coming into Romania, the part where I live, to visit his family, and they were good friends of my family. They were very close to us. And he was always coming. But that time I knew that he wanted to take me back to Budapest with him. It was very funny: because also, on the day of Luca, we start making a chair from wood. Everybody is making this chair. And we have to keep making the chair and we cannot finish until the day before Christmas - almost like the apple. So when we finish, we put the chair inside the church. And if during the midnight mass, somebody steps on top of the chair, they are supposed to be able to see who is the witch. So Albert, he stepped on the chair, and he looked around, and everybody was looking at him, and then he looked at me, and he smiled, and he said: she is the witch, because she has bewitched me. And he asked me to marry him. Right there: standing on the chair. Everybody was waiting for me to say yes. And I purposely waited a long time. My mother: she whisper, he is crazy. And I said yes. I said really loud yes."
I didn't believe her one bit. And I also started arguing that Advent begins on St. Andrew's Day, not on St. Catherine's. Grandmother was not perturbed: first, she corrected me by saying that Advent officially begins on the Sunday closest to St. Andrew's, and then she went right back to her story-telling by mentioning that St. Andrew's was the preferred occasion for maidens to work their magic. Well before midnight, a girl could make several attempts at augury: she could, for example, pray while sweeping the floor with a new broom; she could step on a piece of silver in her room; and my absolute favorite: she could look up a chimney naked. By whatever method she chose, if she were successful, she would see her future husband. For a long time, I had no idea what such a vision would look like, until I tried it myself - but more about that later (in the meantime, see if you can guess where it was, and under what circumstances).
But he didn't go far. He waited in the shadows outside the rectory, watching people come and go until well after midnight, when everything became very quiet - almost quiet. That's when he spotted his prey coming haphazardly down the street. Nike was overjoyed, but, of course, he was not surprised. He began approaching the rectory door.
NIKE: Oh, what a night! I hope you enjoyed yourself, Father.
Having brought home the writing again, I stayed up past midnight finishing. I don't know how long I tossed and turned after I went to bed. My body was tired, but my mind was awake: paranoiacally so - even though my body had been resting the entire day, while my mind was tirelessly working.
A collection of stories featuring a sexy Parisian ghost, a spooky Moon base full of vagina-faced aliens, a policeman with an Irish name, a truck full of watermelons, a flautist, and a man who has to see another man about a diseased horse.
She was alone-in the Bois de Boulogne-at night-why? Walking with purpose-where was she going? For what? If a prostitute, why here? Was she lost? Her first night on the job? Ridiculous. On a midnight stroll, why the wimple? A nun? Heaven forbid.
A real play. With drama in it. Talk fast. It takes two hours. Set in a guest house. In a small community. After a murder. Lots of suspicion. The characters learn to listen to each other. It's funny.
"Midnight" does not make an appearance in Sorry Miss Jackson.
A story book full of short fiction stories. An interesting bedtime mystery. A fairy tale. Science fiction romance. Adult life. Uninspiring gay fiction. Horror.
"How are you going to enjoy the rest of the evening? It's not even midnight."
"I'll manage." I brushed the bottom of her eye with the back of my finger. She caressed my jaw. I told her I would drive her home. She argued. I shook my head. I told her I would have to insist.
I checked the clock. Thirty seconds to midnight. I dropped the keys. I unbuttoned my sweater. I tore it off. I threw it towards the couch. I pulled up my dress. I twisted out of it. I dropped it. I brushed down the straps of my bra. I reached back. I wrenched apart the clasp. My breasts bounced free. I dropped the bra. I rolled down my tights. I almost tripped. I yanked them off. I shoved down my panties. They fell to my feet. I pulled one leg out. My toes got caught. I flapped them around. They were loose. I kicked the panties behind me.
Grandmother got halfway through tossing her hand. She lifted her finger again. "It's funny you should mention St. Andrew. Cherry branches weren't the only things girls used. On St. Andrew's Eve, if a girl swept the floor with a new broom at the stroke of midnight, the dirt would reveal the face of her future husband. It would help if she were stepping on a piece of silver. On the other hand, she could also try looking up a chimney. That was my favorite. You had to do it naked."
"At the beginning of midnight mass, Albert jumped on the chair. Everybody stared. They were shocked. Nobody had ever done it. They looked at him like, "What are you doing?" He stared at me. He smiled. He said, 'That woman is the witch." He pointed at me. He said, 'She is the most beautiful witch in the whole world. She has bewitched me.' Albert asked me to marry him - right then and there.
Grandmother blushed. "You mean, look up a chimney? I'm afraid there was only one chimney in the house where I grew up. It was in the kitchen, next to the table, which, by midnight, was always surrounded by drunk men. They wanted me to do it. They said, 'Reinhard is on the roof. Go quickly. Look up. Don't forget to take off your clothes.' You have to understand, Reinhard was the ugliest man in town."
This table lists in descending order of frequency a selection of word pairs that appear in the Fiction Corpus and groups them according to the morphological derivation of the word midnight that appears in the pair.
Type
WORD
Frequency
TOTAL # of occurences
MCDONALDS
JESUS
SEX
TSIGA
JACKSON
DINGBATS
modern/sloppy
biblical/terse
poetic/high-brow
hard/fast
talky
mixed salad
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
I have yet to perform a collocation analysis of "midnight." I hope I can get it done sometime soon. -Michal
Life is a spinning sphere with Joy at one pole and Sadness at the other. Each continuously feeding its pair. Joy flanked by the emotions of Trust on one side, Surprise on the other. Trust leading to Anticipation; anticipation leading to Fear. Surprise leading to Disgust; disgust leading to Anger. Anger and Fear fueling our Sadness. Sadness giving way, in time, to Joy; through Hope, an orientation towards Love. Love, an openness towards Joy, Trust and Surprise; the sum of emotion; emotion amplified by others. Multiplied and divided, in equal parts. Such that to those from whom it has been subtracted, we must add. Until we are whole.
Help me keep the "Midnight" page alive...
If you love women and art...
Michal is importing Polish art...is he brainsick?
Michal's Sales Pitch Lot 1: Silesian Handicrafts
T-shirt fundraiser for sale
Last T-Shirt with the logo that I designed.
From a set of, I believe, twenty produced by Margo and given out to a portion of the last 20 women to finish the 20th anniversary Fiat Road Race in Bielsko-Biała, cf. the movie. This is the last one left in it's original packaging and my supporters - like the poor women of Bielsko - are going to have to fight for it. Whoever invests the most money with me, and who lets me borrow it to invest in the next lot, will not only be rewarded with some beautiful piece of art, but will get this priceless t-shirt as a reward for being my top supporter. $1000.00 or best offer. Remember to authorize me to hold the sum as credit against a future purchase and to authorize me to borrow against it.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #1 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
Felt handbag for sale
Felt bag by Dorota.
Entirely hand-sewn. Base: polyester felt, 100% PE. Motif: South American woolen yarn, dyed, 100% wool. Hand-worked with a needle. Unique and inimitable design. Inside: cotton fabric, closes with zipper, inside pocket. Available now for $220.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #2 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
Decorative collar for sale
Decorative collar by Zuzanna.
Ethnic layered cloth jewelry constructed on a cotton base and adorned with ribbons, tassels, and a yellow fringe. Fastened on the side with 11 buttons, fitted entirely with a pleasant lining. The style is an Indo-Asian-African multinational color combination. The collar is very extravagant and an extraordinary addition to any clothing, guaranteed to attract attention. Just a simple dress and a unique image is ready. Dry-cleaning recommended. Available now for $200.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #3 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
Seamless handbag for sale
Handbag by Sylwia.
Handmade from felted all-natural Australian and South American wool. Entirely felted, seamless. Finished with a white lining, inside is a small pocket. Lining is sewn and stitched in by hand. Available now for $180.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #4 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
Patchwork quilt for sale
Patchwork quilt by Alicja.
Bedspread made of cotton and polyester material. Inserted with polyester lining. 90 by 70 cm. Available now for $120.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #5 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
Nuno-felt shawl for sale
Shawl by Sylwia.
Scarf made with the nuno felting technique (wet felting fibre into a silk gauze) using South American wool. Two-sided scarf with latticework at the ends. Wholly in the colors red, black, green in an abstract pattern. Available now for $100.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #6 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
Clara the doll for sale
Clara by Alicja.
Clara loves roses and greenery, adores tormenting spiders with long legs and sleeping soundly in the afternoon. Cuddly toy made of cotton and polyester, stuffed with polyester lining. Available now for $70.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #7 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
Noah the doll for sale
Noah by Alicja.
Noah doesn't know what to like and what not to like but keeps wondering and thinking about it. Cuddly toy made of cotton and polyester, stuffed with polyester lining. Available now for $70.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #8 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
Black suspenders for sale
Black suspenders by Zuzanna.
Two-sided suspenders from black material with a rose motif on one side and striped cotton on the other. Connected by a leather triangle. Adjustable length. Hand washing in cold water recommended. Available now for $50.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #9 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
Orange suspenders for sale
Orange suspenders by Zuzanna.
Two-sided suspenders made of denim and orange material with a Polish floral folk design. Connected by a leather triangle. Adjustable length. Hand washing in cold water recommended. Available now for $50.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #10 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
Green suspenders for sale
Green suspenders by Zuzanna.
Two-sided suspenders made of denim and green material with a mountain folk design. Connected by a leather triangle. Adjustable length. Hand washing in cold water recommended. Available now for $50.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #11 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
Felt earrings for sale
Felt earrings by Dorota.
Material: South American woolen yarn, dyed, 100% wool. Hand-worked with a needle. Pendant of anti-allergenic metal. Available now for $40.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #12 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
Round ceramic earrings for sale
Round ceramic earrings by Dorota.
Material: Glazed ceramics, hand-molded. Available now for $40.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #13 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
Oblong ceramic earrings for sale
Oblong ceramic earrings by Dorota.
Material: Glazed ceramics, hand-molded. Available now for $40.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #14 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
'Coral' necklace for sale
Corals by Sylwia.
Necklace made of cotton pieces with organdy and decorated with beads, suspended on cotton strings. Can be worn as a necklace, as a brooch or as a belt tied at the side. Available now for $40.00. Ships free of additional charge via USPS (uninsured) unless otherwise directed.
To purchase please mail a USPS money order in an envelope clearly marked Lot #1/Item #15 to M. Slaby at house number 201 on Ridge Road in the town of West Milford, in the state of New Jersey, one of the beautiful United States of America. The postal code is 07480-3112.
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