Welcome to the centre...

The Center Cannot Hold is the blog of Loki.

And as you have almost certainly realised, the title of it derives from W.B. Yeats’ classic poem, The Second Coming. For those of you not familiar with it, the relevant section runs:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand…

I can’t promise a revelation – but if I hear of one, I’ll be sure to let you know.

So this isn’t really a personal blog – I have a LiveJournal for that – it’s more a collection of loosely grouped essays and random weirdness, divided into several categories and delivered on a somewhat regular basis:

Daily:

The Rock ‘n’ Roll History of the World

charting history as revealed in popular music.

Weekly:

1001 Afterlives to Visit After You Die – Sundays

the next logical step after all those books of 1001 whatevers to experience before you die.

The Ducal Line – Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays

a science fiction novel in epistolary form.

Pharmacopoeia Fantastica – Tuesdays

the dictionary of imaginary drugs.

Crossing Over – Thursdays

a great chain of crossovers between various fictional worlds, primarily from a roleplaying point of view, interspersed with other, more random crossovers.

Ad hoc:

These categories will pop up less often, usually only as I think of something to write about in them. They may, on occasion, displace a weekly feature from its slot, but more often than not, they’ll simply show up on Thursdays or Saturdays.

Blessays

long form blog essays (Or ‘Blessays” as Stephen Fry calls them) about all kinds of things. Often consisting of me ranting about whatever’s annoying me on that day.

The Campaign for Symmetrical English

an attempt to make English make sense, by creating all the words that are logically implied by English but which don’t exist. Until now

Daft Lyrics Database

you know how sometimes you listen to a song, and it seems to make no sense – and then later on, you discover that you misheard the words? This isn’t about that. This is a listing and analysis of all the lyrics that make no bloody sense whatsover even when heard correctly.
And sometimes, when I feel so inclined, it’s also a place to put filk lyrics. Sorry about that.

Fictions

original fiction, usually set in either Hell, Teleran or the Lokiverse.

Militant Agnostic

defending doubt and banishing certainty from both the deist and the atheist.

As needed:

Station Keeping

assorted announcements, maintenance and changes news. Used only when needed, and usually in addition to whatever other posts there may be that day.

I’m always happen to entertain suggestions for topics you’d like to see covered in The Campaign for Symmetrical English, The Daft Lyrics Database, The Pharmacopoeia Fantastica or Crossing Over. If there’s a word, a song, a drug or a crossover you’d particularly enjoy watching me tackle, by all means let me know.

Other Content:

In addition, there’s some other content of a more (though not entirely) static nature, to be found in the Pages sections:

Keating the Musical Annotations

explaining the background and history of Casey Bennetto’s wonderful musical.

Trade Paperback Timelines

listings of a number of different comic timelines, in a reading order that follows the internal logic of the stories themselves.