Comments on: Thomas Sullivan: GROWING UP DEAD

By: Thomas Sullivan

Thomas Sullivan — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:30:34 +0000

Elvis didn’t die fighting pirates? Oh. Hey, he was in the music business. Of course he died fighting pirates. They probably killed him. Spiked his drugs with…uh, drugs. Ashley is lucky if she has a lampshade or two of your imagination.

– Sully

By: Wayne Allen Sallee

Wayne Allen Sallee — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:32:58 +0000

Quite a fascinating read this time around, Sully. I must’ve rubbed off on my niece Ashley who is now 16, I had an Elvis cabdle in my room I got as a gift, her friend (they were both then about 7) told her that her mom said Elvis died from taking drugs, and my wonderful niece countered that he did not, rather he died fighting pirates! I hope knowing me doesn’t hurt her chances at college. I hadn’t thought of the pirate story in years until reading your post. Be well.

By: Thomas Sullivan

Thomas Sullivan — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:51:02 +0000

Bulwer-Lytton alum bonafieds are the best. This explains how my column resonated with you, and for that my day is made, thank you very much. But then, I too fell out of that tree. Had an opening line in BRIDE OF DARK AND STORMY, and I, for one, won’t stop till it’s delivered here (see below). I liken my style — my main style — to a failed Vladimir Nabokov (favorite author), and it’s a natural declension and descention from there to B-L.

The deathless line: “Help! help!” Ruth Rambles shouted, unaware that her male companion for the afternoon’s 1st Baptist Kite Fly had become entangled in some discarded piano wire while running to lift his Blue Dragon off the dappled pasture, or that the vicious hounds lips were caught on the barbed wire fence.

Thanks and write on…

– Sully

By: slum_goddess

slum_goddess — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 14:02:54 +0000

excellent column, dude. i won’t go into the memory-triggering thing cos i wouldn’t be able to stop (i’m the unofficial winner of the yearly Bulwer-Lytton competition; e.g., superfluous too-florid desciptions? check. run-on sentences? check. cliche’s up the wazoo? check. needless details brought forth thanks to following tangents that have nothing to do w/my original point which veer off thanks to my ADD? check. you get the idea…

anyway, thank you (found you via David N Wilson on Twitter and i thank him as well). /rimone

By: Thomas Sullivan

Thomas Sullivan — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 04:01:23 +0000

I am, I am. They’re the only things I’ve ever created that I didn’t have to edit. Time and setting didn’t matter, it turns out. Untangling the plot is what made them strong. Thanks, Mark.

– Sully

By: Mark Lancaster

Mark Lancaster — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:44:46 +0000

Great essay, Sully; and how delightful to get to know your “kids” this way. Thanks for sharing, it’s cool to get to know more about you and your family — Colleen and Sean sound like wonderful people, you should be very proud.

Mark

By: Thomas Sullivan

Thomas Sullivan — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:31:43 +0000

TV turnips? Love it. Yeah, I think an “interesting life” is purely a function of who and what you are. The same world is there for all of us. But if you can’t see it with all its statements, connotations, patterns, history and contexts you are…um, a TV turnip.

Thanks, Amalgam.

– Sully

By: Robert C. Jones

Robert C. Jones — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:24:50 +0000

I was just beginning to eat my gluten-free, low-cal-peanut-butter-sandwich breakfast when I stepped right into Mikey’s nose-picking episode. Moving along at flank speed, however, I escaped, dragging but a minimum number of disappetizing [the word seemed more appropriate than unappetizing and will now have justification for appearing in the OED] images with me for future enjoyment.

Once again, you have shown interesting facets of yourself and how much of the Universe you can analyze using material that is close to hand. Of course, having progeny that turned out, in spite of difficult conditions, to be persons about whom you can forever be proud in so many ways certainly makes the instant example both easier and more gratifying. It is difficult to cast off what appears to be the norm and acceptable manner of being. It is far easier to simply remain in the ranks of TV turnips that accept the “restraints, discipline and limits” and create roll models for so many.

When I was attending journalism classes, Why, Who, What, When, Where and How formed the backbone that supported and ensured a complete story. That seems to have become a forgotten rule in modern journalism. Fortunately, it seems to yet prevail in the world of science. In fact, a true scientist has been defined as a person who has never shed his or her childish urge to ask such questions. Retaining that urge can make one’s life infinitely more interesting, and it appears that your kids have a great chance of leading such interesting and rewarding lives. Splendid job there, dad.

Amalgam

By: Thomas Sullivan

Thomas Sullivan — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:33:03 +0000

Triggering your memories is like mining a rainbow’s end. Glad to have done that service.

– Sully

By: Janet Berliner

Janet Berliner — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:54:46 +0000

Thanks for the memories–yours and the ones they triggered in me. –Janet