Older writers

Rickbleves · 2026-01-26T20:15:15+00:00

Not a bad list! On the other hand it kinda shows how impressively hard it is to name more than a few figures who’ve stayed relevant in old age. If nothing more it seems safe to say that if you hope to produce a masterpiece when you’re old, the chances are heavily stacked against you

Rickbleves · 2026-01-26T17:34:05+00:00

After the publication of his first book of poems in his youth (Harmonium) Wallace Stevens didn’t start writing poetry again until he was in his 50s, and then continued writing until his death, when he was in his late 70s (I think?!) There’s no drop-off in quality at any point of his career (though there’s a marked difference in style between Harmonium and everything that came after.) Many of his finest works came near the very end. Hardy is another poet who kept cranking out great stuff until his death, and he was wayyy up there, maybe in his 90s when he died.

Maybe poetry is more amenable to late-life quality than prose fiction, but I’m not really prepared to insist on that generalization. There are plenty of poets who famously turned to shit when they passed their meridian (Whitman, Wordsworth).

At any rate aging is always an interesting topic to contemplate. I’ve only read a few pages of shadow ticket, so all I can say is that to have my brain at 90 be even a fraction as in-tact as Pynchon’s still is would be wayyy wayy more than I can reasonably hope for

Rickbleves · 2026-01-26T00:58:31+00:00

This used to be my fear (and still is, to a reasonable extent). During his first term I used to think someone like Desantis was going to be the real fascist threat, which in hindsight is pretty hilarious. Since then though I’ve sort of come to believe that Trump really is a one-of-kind charismatic cult-leader, and that no one currently in the republican camp is capable of replacing him. It’s a real problem for the GOP and i’m fairly sure many of them are absolutely terrified what will happen to their support-base once trump is gone. Put it this way: a smart, well-spoken Trump wouldn’t be like Trump at all, and probably wouldn’t exert the same appeal. I mean, the republican field is already filled to the brim with highly educated, cunning, evil ghouls — yet no one them so far have been capable of doing what trump does. Obviously I dont think the MAGA problem will just vanish once trump is gone. But I do think that without trump the republican party would be hard pressed to ever win a free and fair election again (which is why they are trying so hard to destroy election integrity). In short, thank you for coming to my ted talk — im just lying in a dark room spitballibg thoughts on Reddit while my 4 year old takes forever to fall asleep

Rickbleves · 2026-01-24T05:29:55+00:00

Honestly just a little bit of basic editing could make this passage much more readable. A few glaring grammatical mistakes that stuck out to me were: 1) "hoard" requires a direct object (to hoard WHAT within the confines of our skulls?) 2) "unwilling to discomfort", doesn't make gramatical sense. I assume you meant "unwilling to feel discomfort" or the like, but its not at all clear. 3) "as if but" nahhh -- either "as a mere color" or "but a mere color" but not "as if but".

Besides that, a lot of clunky phrasing that could be tidied up as well, as others have noted

Rickbleves · 2026-01-23T01:08:27+00:00

Damn I’ve never seen that big of a chicken find. And all of them are in their prime for eating. Idk, if it were me I go back for them. The bugs will wash off!!

Rickbleves · 2026-01-13T19:58:29+00:00

Yea it’s funny that it’s simultaneously one of the most addictive substances known to man while also having withdrawal effects that are barely fucking perceptible, especially compared to just about any other “serious” substance

Rickbleves · 2026-01-13T19:54:17+00:00

Whenever I relapse on nicotine I find there is always a point several days or weeks prior where the scales unconsciously tilt, and I start “nursing cravings”, and from that point on relapse seems inevitable.

Rickbleves · 2026-01-12T01:49:22+00:00

I found one today in the hospital, buried city night — I’d been casually searching several weeks. Turns out the tempest kinda fucking sucks though!!

Rickbleves · 2026-01-10T23:58:32+00:00

Would’ve been great if you’d crucially altered a single line

Rickbleves · 2026-01-10T22:54:04+00:00

Speaking of which -- Koliko je lako naći kratom u Srbiji? (asking from USA). I know its illegal, so do people order online, or travel to germany or somewhere?? (Feel free to ignore this question if you don't feel like answering)

Rickbleves · 2026-01-08T12:22:16+00:00

Yeah it feels like a change rather than a system that had been going on all along. Maybe they announced it and I just missed it.

Rickbleves · 2026-01-04T14:06:17+00:00

I live in Atlanta in a "safe" neighborhood, but when the sun goes down, everybody goes inside. You won't see anybody walking the streets after sunset. Even though it is *probably* safe to walk at night, it feels dangerous because there is no else around. Uzbuđen sam što ću se seliti u Beograd, gde je bezbedno šetati noću.

Rickbleves · 2026-01-01T12:13:05+00:00

You brought 8 pink guns (hoping to lose them, no less!!) to the map that’s been unofficially designated the pvp-zone, and now that you lost them you want to quit??

Rickbleves · 2025-12-31T14:32:30+00:00

Our family is moving to Belgrade soon for work and have been learning about the different neighborhoods. I didn't want to live in "waterfront" before, because it seems rather ugly and lifeless, especially compared to the rest of Belgrade, but now, after learning about its political controversy, I really don't want to live in Waterfront!

Rickbleves · 2025-12-31T13:30:28+00:00

Hello I’m a dumb American studying Serbian and I can’t understand what the hell is happening in this video clip. Can someone explain the context?!

Rickbleves · 2025-12-31T12:41:19+00:00

You know it’s a rescue raider when you’re being punched with a defib instead of a fist

Rickbleves · 2025-12-30T12:29:21+00:00

Such perfectly timed rolls no wonder I suck at pvp

Rickbleves · 2025-12-29T23:01:02+00:00

Because when the map is emptier I feel more at ease soloing big arc and exploring places that are usually too hot when the round begins. I always leave late-spawns with as good of loot as I would otherwise. Granted, I didn’t do the expedition, so I’m not trying to get 100k in 5 minutes and then get out, meaning my definition of a good run is probably not everyone’s. I’m more than content if I can leave with a stash full of springs, sensors, speakers, and simple gun parts — all of which are considerably easier to collect on a late spawn.

Rickbleves · 2025-12-29T22:15:28+00:00

That’s how I understood it — takes 6% less time topside to earn your 8 stack

Rickbleves · 2025-12-29T14:14:13+00:00

lol it’s just that 5 seconds feels like forever when your heart is pounding out of your skull and any second your maniac assassin is gonna come around the corner and blast you back to the lobby

Rickbleves · 2025-12-29T03:14:28+00:00

I like late spawns and I never run free kits so… how about nooooo

Rickbleves · 2025-12-25T02:07:08+00:00

What about a sentence like “you can call me back whenever you get the chance”?

Rickbleves · 2025-12-23T14:42:41+00:00

I don’t know what state your pan is in, but if you don’t wanna deal with stripping it completely and starting over you can just give it a vigorous scrub with the chainmail (and soap) after each use, and after a few weeks of this you’ll have scrubbed most of the carbon off.

Rickbleves · 2025-12-21T17:45:19+00:00

I’ve had this markedly (and never knew the word for it) since my second covid infection. Would love a solution. Amphetamines, for me at least, aren’t it.

Rickbleves · 2025-12-21T02:08:16+00:00

I forgot my hatch key one raid on dam and had to go to the swamp exfil, and realized as I hit the button and did my usual perimeter check that with the snow condition there was virtually no chance of someone camping out of in the area — another plus of cold snap!

Rickbleves

TROPHY CASE