‘Challenging’ (when applied to a non-interactive work or aspect of a work) is one of those compliments that seems to me to say more about the critic than the subject: what does it mean that a piece of fiction is ‘challenging’? Whom does it challenge? Why is this challenge a good thing? Is the challenge … Continue reading Thought of the Day: Challenging
Thought of the Day
Thought of the Day: Harmony with Nature
Inspired by this video (which I'm at present only halfway through, so caveat spectator: so far, while I'd dispute some points and his overall framework, his main argument is pretty sound. Spoilers for both Avatar and Princess Mononoke, by the way). Though this is also something I'd concluded a while back. To live in harmony … Continue reading Thought of the Day: Harmony with Nature
Thought of the Day: Hollywood Friendships
I think the most positive aspect of Hollywood as an industry, in its golden era at least, were the great, intense friendships that sometimes resulted; people like Laurel and Hardy, or Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda, or Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, or Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The entertainment industry has always been a … Continue reading Thought of the Day: Hollywood Friendships
Thought of the Day: Most Important Authors
My preliminary picks for the five most important authors of the 20th Century: -J.R.R. Tolkien-Edgar Rice Burroughs-Agatha Christie-Raymond Chandler-H.P. Lovecraft (A case could be made for H.G. Wells, except that his most important works were almost all written at the tail-end of the 19th century)
Thought of the Day: Logic Puzzle Monster Movies
Many of the best monster movies function as a kind of logic puzzle: given these factors (which have to be worked out over the course of the story), how do you overcome this challenge? Tremors (which I just re-watched recently) is one of the best examples of this: the characters spend about the first half … Continue reading Thought of the Day: Logic Puzzle Monster Movies
Thought of the Day: Perpetually Revolutionary
It is perhaps the most distinctive mark of the modernist that he never can imagine that his views are anything but revolutionary, even (or especially) when they are ubiquitous. Thus we have the amusing spectacle of a man sneering at ‘conformists’ while never straying an inch from the common assumptions of his own age and … Continue reading Thought of the Day: Perpetually Revolutionary
Thought of the Day: Making History
Another one of the great truths we miss, thanks to an illusion created by historical accounts (not the same thing as history per se); society ought not be made for the extraordinary, but for the ordinary. The people who end up being written about are generally not the people who make up the general running … Continue reading Thought of the Day: Making History
Thought of the Day: Materialist View of Origins of Life
The materialist view of the origins of life is one of those things that looks okay from a high-level, blurry view, but which turns utterly absurd once you examine it closer. Or perhaps not even that; just when you phrase it correctly. It seems to be that a chemical reaction became self-perpetuating and everything that’s … Continue reading Thought of the Day: Materialist View of Origins of Life
Thought of the Day: Phyllis Wheatley and the Modern Age
Was reading a little bit about Phyllis Wheatley the other day. For those who don't know, she was a slave girl taken from Africa when she was about five or six and who eventually got bought by a wealthy New York family. Realizing how intelligent she was, they taught her to read and write and … Continue reading Thought of the Day: Phyllis Wheatley and the Modern Age
Thought of the Day: Subsidiarity and Democracy
A representative government, however it starts, naturally expands. This is because the elected official's position is dependent on the majority of people voting for him. Therefore, he (or more often his party) is incentivized to offer them anything he can. If they have problems, he'll offer to solve them and try to make them as … Continue reading Thought of the Day: Subsidiarity and Democracy
Serpent's Den 