Sarah Hoyt has some interesting remarks on how to conduct yourself in a blog war…most of which sound like good ideas for discourse in general. Things like knowing who you’re talking to. Knowing what you’re talking about. Attacking ideas, not individuals. Supporting your argument rather than appealing to what everybody knows (because it is probably wrong). I have no interest in starting a blog war—I am not a controversialist—but the points she makes are worthy of note. Read more
This was first posted in March of 2004. As I’ve hinted upon occasion, our favorite TV show at the moment is Good Eats, which airs on the Food Network. It’s not so much that we’re foodies (we’re not) as that Alton Brown is both funny and informative. He doesn’t just show you how to cook something; he also goes into the chemistry and physics of it. And he goes about it in a suitably whimsical way. Anyway, in Alton Brown’s... Read more
The Irish Gaelic word “craic” is an odd bird. Pronounced “crack”, it means “news, gossip, fun, entertainment, and enjoyable conversation”, and apparently it’s a culturally significant word in Ireland. I first ran across it in the Silly Wizard song “Take Her in Your Arms”, which at one point describes the scene in a pub: There’s a seisun in the corner, and the craic is grand tonight. That means that there are folks playing music in the corner (a “session”), and... Read more
It was less the antique feel— the red and gold lacquer, or the translucent panels and low ceilings, styles and skins— than it was the general air of dishevelment. Dirt snuggled in corners, rust peppered surfaces, ad hoc repairs had become permanent by the sanction of passing time. — Michael Flynn, On the Razor’s Edge Read more
Wednesday is usually fiction day around here, but President’s Day weekend threw off my schedule; so you’re getting a half-assed Monday sort of piece instead. Two of my pet peeves: the dictums that “there are no wrong answers” and that “there are no stupid questions”. These are usually used in classroom or group instruction settings to encourage people to ask and answer questions without being self-conscious. That’s a good thing; and I’m sure that people who use these statements do... Read more
Kelly Sedinger has some pertinent commentary on my last week’s post “Why Write Fiction“, which might perhaps better have been titled, “Why I Write Fiction,” or even “How I Write Fiction”. It appears that he writes the way I usually do, by making up details as he goes along. I prefer that; it’s fun, and open-ended. What I’m doing with S’Mary’s World feels more like solving a system of simultaneous equations: because I’ve built the world already, there are lots... Read more
The next of Dorothy Sayers’ Peter Wimsey mysteries is The Nine Tailors, which I enjoyed thoroughly this time around, and more than the first time I read it. And the most interesting thing about it is that the mystery is the least interesting thing about it. Lord Peter is traveling through the Fen Country on New Year’s Eve, and has a flat tire in the snow; and once rescued by the vicar of Fenchurch St. Paul finds himself dragooned to... Read more
Two Serpents Rise is the second book in Gladstone’s “Craft Sequence”, following upon Three Parts Dead. Some hundred or so years in the past the people of Gladstone’s world learned to use the “Craft”, drawing upon the same powers as the gods. The gods didn’t approve, leading to the God Wars; and in many parts of the world the role once played by the gods is taking by “concerns”, corporation-like entities, bound by contracts, for which the flow of magic... Read more
The interior life is just like anything else that you begin with excitement and enthusiasm: the excitement and enthusiasm wear off, and you end up with dryness. You don’t want to sit down and pray; when you do, it seems meaningless and pointless and boring and no fun. That’s the bad news. The good news is that the dryness will come and go. There are two reasons for this, one human and one divine. The human reason is what Uncle... Read more
If you’re like me, you’ve participated in dozens if not hundreds of bull-sessions, electronic or otherwise, on the topic of “What constitutes good literature?” The presence of the book in the “Literary Fiction” section is no clear guide; the “Literary Fiction” section is mostly filled with pretentious tripe. The popularity of the book is no clear guide; people will read the most appalling trash in large quantities. And the book I revere might well revulse you. It can be tempting... Read more
Cry 'Woof'
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In