Pressure Makes a Pearl
Feb. 8th, 2026 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mallorys_cameraCRAZY cold when I woke up this morning: -5°F with a real-feel of -13°.
This has been a brutal winter.
The Work in Progress has really saved me.
It's giving my life meaning & forward momentum at a time when, honestly, life feels like an unrelenting slog.
I am the oyster, goo goo g'joob. Pressure makes a pearl!
###
Why do people join cults anyway?
I think because despite the fact that end-stage capitalism dangles meaningless choices in front of captive consumers—choose between 87,000 (!!!) possible combinations of Starbucks caffein customization options—most people don't like making choices, not really. They prefer to crawl into a set of lifestyle choices that have already been made and claim them as their own.
So, I suppose Chapter 6 begins with an observation along the lines of, In my real life, I made a hundred decisions a day: [Your facetious list goes here.] But here in Creepy Mansion, I made no decisions at all. It was relaxing.
But where does it proceed from there?
A word came into my mind yesterday: Profoundary.
I have no idea what a prefoundary is, but I know it's a key element in the New Millennium Kingdom lifestyle.
Oh, and I do want to do a Bible Study parody.
###
Other than that...
Neal has to rescue Grazia, but I don't want that to seem too melodramatic or Lifetime Television-y, plus Grazia has to be profoundly changed by the New Millennium Kingdom experience—henceforth, she does believe that the Universe has a plan and that every move she makes is part of it, preordained somehow.
And the chapter will end with this line after Neal dies and the point-of-view segues back to the front porch of the Catskills cabin where Grazia, Daria, and Flavia have gathered after Neal's memorial service: The heartbreak for me is the lonely guardianship of all those memories, floaters from an increasingly ephemeral past.
This has been a brutal winter.
The Work in Progress has really saved me.
It's giving my life meaning & forward momentum at a time when, honestly, life feels like an unrelenting slog.
I am the oyster, goo goo g'joob. Pressure makes a pearl!
###
Why do people join cults anyway?
I think because despite the fact that end-stage capitalism dangles meaningless choices in front of captive consumers—choose between 87,000 (!!!) possible combinations of Starbucks caffein customization options—most people don't like making choices, not really. They prefer to crawl into a set of lifestyle choices that have already been made and claim them as their own.
So, I suppose Chapter 6 begins with an observation along the lines of, In my real life, I made a hundred decisions a day: [Your facetious list goes here.] But here in Creepy Mansion, I made no decisions at all. It was relaxing.
But where does it proceed from there?
A word came into my mind yesterday: Profoundary.
I have no idea what a prefoundary is, but I know it's a key element in the New Millennium Kingdom lifestyle.
Oh, and I do want to do a Bible Study parody.
###
Other than that...
Neal has to rescue Grazia, but I don't want that to seem too melodramatic or Lifetime Television-y, plus Grazia has to be profoundly changed by the New Millennium Kingdom experience—henceforth, she does believe that the Universe has a plan and that every move she makes is part of it, preordained somehow.
And the chapter will end with this line after Neal dies and the point-of-view segues back to the front porch of the Catskills cabin where Grazia, Daria, and Flavia have gathered after Neal's memorial service: The heartbreak for me is the lonely guardianship of all those memories, floaters from an increasingly ephemeral past.
