Lovely, detailed explanation of generating artificial names that sound like they come from the same (nonexistant) language. Fun.

"Landscape in fiction is never just background, or you’re wasting your opportunities. Let the landscape do as much of the work of informing the reader of your intentions as possible. Entangle your ideas & meanings with the setting. Fold them into one another."

Only read part one so far, but is proving useful for at least wrapping my head around a few concepts.

"The campaign’s second big lie was that the UK would be able to have access to the single market without accepting the free movement of people from the EU. No country has this arrangement, and there is no reason to think it is possible. If Britain were to secure a deal whereby it had access to the single market and control over EU immigration, it would be the end of the EU – because other countries would leave the EU and demand the same. Leave campaigners don’t seem to understand that Continental elites feel just as strongly about the continued existence of the EU as the Leavers feel about Brexit. For the EU to survive, it will be important for the UK to be seen to pay a high price for leaving. We don’t know what that price is going to be, and I don’t look forward to finding out." Strong stuff from John Lanchester – a delight to read as always – but god, I don't half feel queasy doing so.

Alex's column on game mechanics is one of my favourite new RPS features – they're all cracking, and a good example of understanding games by going to the source, rather than guessing – and also highlighting the fact that games are made by *people*, not just conjured out of thin air. Really good stuff.

"Innovation doesn’t come from the profit motive.

Innovation comes from those who are happy to embark on a course of action without quite knowing where it will lead, without doing a feasibility study, without fear of failure or too much hope of reward. The engine of innovation is reckless generosity"

I couldn't quite pick a single line to quote, but I think I'll choose this. I've been listening to a lot of FCB this weekend, and it's all rung true for me. But especially: the value of serendipity on culture, of one thing informing another months or years later, of the value of pleasure and the imagination to all walks of life. So much here.

Long, and beautiful, and the kind of education I will fight and fight and fight for.

"The SSS-12 is probably the best hardwood sequencer to ever be put on water. An incredible machine, It stores and plays the last 12 hours of river samples. Custom circuits convert the saltiness of each sample into pitch, the more salt the higher the pitch, giving a sonic impression of the tidal cycle. With its wooden conveyor belt the SSS-12 automatically updates every hour so you always get to hear the last 12 hours of tidal activity."

Wonderful.

"I came back to writing as a way of thinking and of thinking through, of occupying the space between things, and opening them up again."

Writing is thinking is writing.

"Learning to play music is an long exercise learning to to be kind to yourself. As your fingers stumble to keep up with your eyes and ears, your brain will say unkind things to the rest of you. And when this tangle of body and mind finally makes sense of a measure or a melody, there is peace. Or, more accurately, harmony. And like the parents who so energetically both fill a house with music and seek its quietude, both are needed to make things work. As with music, it takes a lifetime of practice to be kind to yourself. Make space for that practice, and the harmony will emerge."

Yes.

God this is good – AL Kennedy on language, its power, its potency, and the awful ways grammar is currently being taught.

Great interview about what sounds like a wonderful book.