This is going to be a long-ish note, primarily because I'm going to be quoting at length from Jay Springett's excellent INTERNET OPERATOR zine. As you can see from the gif above, I've given it the highlighter treatment, pulling out things which resonate with me.
…A few years ago, it was fashionable among the youth, including my son, to refer to people as "NPCs" or "Non-Player Characters". As Wikipedia explains:
A non-player character (NPC) is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster, or referee, rather than by another player. In video games, this term usually means a computer-controlled character that has a predetermined set of behaviors that potentially will impact gameplay.
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It's a bit of a coincidence that the main protagonist in both the last book I read and the current book I'm reading are both the same age as me. Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene was absolutely fantastic, and I'm enjoying the modern James Bond novel Solo by William Boyd so far.
…Reading things that are relevant to the facts of your life is of limited value. The facts are, after all, only the facts, and the yearning passionate part of you will not be met there. That is why reading ourselves as a fiction as well as fact is so liberating. The wider we read the freer we become.
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It's good to have a word to sum up the effect that capitalism can have on us, especially through pernicious advertising.
The lamp I want is playful. Confident. Carefree yet sophisticated. Qualities I want to embody… but buying the lamp won’t give me those qualities (though I would enjoy looking at it).
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I had a terrible dream last night where I was supposed to board a plane. I can't remember exactly where to, but it definitely wasn't New Orleans which is the flight I ended up on.
At the last minute, I managed to get off the plane, and ended up back in an airport. However, I couldn't get out because I had someone else's passport - and I didn't have mine.
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