Authors, Fiction

Happy Birthday to H.G.Wells

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Today in 1866, H.G. Wells, who said, “I must confess that my imagination refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and floundering at sea,” who said, “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race,” was born. Wells had little imagination for submarines and also for hell. He said, “Sailors ought never to go to church. They ought to go to hell, where it is much more comfortable.” I suppose he was returning his eyewitness report from hell when we said that. Otherwise, how could he know?

For his birthday, here’s a collection of book covers for War of the Worlds.

Uncategorized

Another Spotlight Is On

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Perhaps I missed the announcement. I just learned Andrew Breitbart has launched a new website, Big Government, edited by Mike Flynn. They are still talking about ACORN, of course. I hope that organization is thoroughly prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney General and A.G. in various states.

Uncategorized

Apology (in haste)

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Tonight, no proper post. Just an apology, because I don’t have time to post. Tomorrow I probably won’t write anything, because I’m leaving after work for the great reenactment of the Battle of Teutoberg Forest in New Ulm, which I told you about a few weeks back. That means that on top of my usual Thursday night bill paying, I have to wash clothes.

On top of that, I lost my computer connection for a while. When I finally gave up trying to re-set the modem I called Earthlink customer service, and precisely the same thing happened as happened the last two times I called (for the same reason, by the way). Before I could reach my faithful Indian helper, the connection came back, all on its own. This time it happened before I’d even gotten properly into voice mail. I believe they must have set things up so that an extra-strong signal gets transmitted to your modem when you call in, an automatic fix for the majority of callers. I call that a good thing, too. Saves time and stressful human interaction.

See you Monday.

Goofing

Book Titles, if they were written today

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Originally it was called Walden, but had Thoreau written it today, he may have had to call it Camping with Myself: Two Years in American Tuscany. Matthew’s gospel might have been called 40 Days and a Mule: How One Man Quit His Job and Became the Boss. Hamlet? “Grieving: A 5 part study of Danish family dynamics.” Read other silly titles from today and feel free to make up some of your own. (via Frank Wilson)

Fiction, Non-fiction

“Perelandra turned my life upside down”

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Jeanne Damoff writes about Lewis’ gift for telling the truth in fiction:

Lewis does a great job of portraying the woman as intelligent but entirely pure. She entertains the Un-man’s ideas because she’s never had a reason not to listen to anything being said to her. Though Ransom tries to counter all the lies, the woman has no reason to trust one of them over the other. She’s never encountered debate, never required discernment. But occasionally the Un-man pushes too far. When he invites her to “make a story” about living on the Fixed Island–to imagine herself doing the forbidden thing–she says, “If I try to make a story about living on the Fixed Island, I do not know how to make it about Maleldil. For if I make it that He has changed His command, that will not do. And if I make it that we are living there against His command, that is like making the sky all black and the water so that we cannot drink it and the air so that we cannot breathe it. But also, I do not see what is the pleasure of trying to make these things.”

She follows up this post with another called “The post I do not want to write.”

Fiction

Oh, I do like this

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By way of Patrick O’Hannigan’s The Paragraph Farmer, the funniest thing I encountered all day (and I heard a recording of Jimmy Carter calling opponents of government health care racists!).

Slate.com presents: The Interactive Dan Brown Sequel Generator!

Just plug in the city of your choice, and the sinister organization of your choice, and build your own blockbuster! Save money! Impress your friends! Write a bestseller of your own!

Book Reviews, Creative Culture