This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives, jobs and maybe even your mind.
It could mean not eating for three or four days.
It could mean freezing on a park bench.
It could mean jail.
It could mean derision, mockery, isolation.
Isolation is the gift.
All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it.
And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds.
And it will be better than anything else you can imagine.
If you’re going to try, go all the way.
There is no other feeling like that.
You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire.
DO IT. DO IT. DO IT. All the way
You will ride life straight to perfect laughter.
It’s the only good fight there is.
“Roll the Dice” by Charles Bukowski
from What Matters Most Is How Well You Walk Through The Fire
Live theater in the His Dark Materials universe must be wild. Surely an actor's daemon also has lines to recite, so their daemon's form probably also factors into casting decisions. Maybe some plays have vague character descriptions for daemons, but I bet other plays have really specific or central daemon characters. And sure, big-budget theaters can afford to hire a separate actor with a particular daemon to stand backstage while their daemon plays its part onstage, but community theaters don't have those kinds of resources.
Like if you're casting for Julius Caesar, surely the real historical Caesar had a pretty iconic daemon, right? Are you going to cast an actor with a pigeon daemon as Caesar and just have everyone suspend their disbelief that it's Caesar's lioness, ἁμαρτία?
What made this Eric Carmen hit one of the greatest pop songs of all time?
What made this Eric Carmen hit one of the greatest pop songs of all time?
(March 14, 2024). Upon learning on Monday (March 11) of singer Eric Carmen’s death in his sleep last weekend, I was saddened by yet another loss of one of the great musicians from my youth, and I immediately thought of the roughly three successful phases of his decades-spanning pop music career, and which song from those periods ranked as my favorite.
The first era, of course, was as lead…