My latest essay (first in a little while) is now up at The Everyman, this one critiquing our tendency to insist that this, that, or the other fact 'doesn't matter' by applying the analogy of detective literature. I read a lot of detective fiction (I also write it, though I’ve written much less than I’ve … Continue reading Detective Philosophy at ‘The Everyman’
Thoughts
Friday Flotsam: Some Reading and Some Thoughts
1. Read classic noir pulp short Angel Face by Cornell Woolrich, about a savvy stripper-with-a-heart-of-gold trying to save her loser of a brother from a false accusation of murder with help from a sympathetic detective. Really exactly what you want in this kind of thing: snappy dialogue and narration (“One of them was kind of … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Some Reading and Some Thoughts
Scene Dissection: Rattlesnake Jake
Gore Verbinski’s Rango, starring Johnny Depp, is a very strange and uneven film. On the surface, it’s weird and creative, but at its core it follows a fairly strict and by-the-numbers formula, with mostly pretty flat characters living in the service of the jokes. It’s not a bad movie by any stretch, and it’s become … Continue reading Scene Dissection: Rattlesnake Jake
Thought of the Day: On Breaking Laws
When you break the law, you do not in fact find chaos. You find older, stronger laws. This is true whether the law be of man, God, or nature. All created things that we know of are composite beings, formed of smaller natures set in a particular relation to each other. A car, for instance, … Continue reading Thought of the Day: On Breaking Laws
‘Uncharitable’ is the Preferred Term
Uh, X is actually considered an offensive term for Z-types. It’s okay for other Z-types to calls us that, but not for someone else to. Y is the preferred term. “Ah. Do you speak for all Z-types?” Well… “So, as I understand it, X is the most common term. It’s been in use for time … Continue reading ‘Uncharitable’ is the Preferred Term
A Digression on Mortgages and Race
Found this article at mpamag.com (my work website links to them, since it’s a mortgage company), which rather amused me in a dark way. I won't go through the whole thing, suffice to say it's about a new 'equitable housing plan' being put forward by Fannie Mae (one of the two major housing authorities) to … Continue reading A Digression on Mortgages and Race
Friday Flotsam: Cars, Alignments, and Age
1. I am thinking I am going to have to find creative ways to avoid driving places for the near future. $70 for a full tank is rather much. Looks like I may be self-identifying as Albanian for a while (there’s a very beautiful, but also very ethnically definite Albanian church within walking distance of … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Cars, Alignments, and Age
Suicide and the Corporate World
I was looking up the American Federation for Suicide Prevention the other day (no, nothing personal; just curiosity). At the top of the page it urges “Demand More for Mental Health!” You know, I've often wondered: since mental health became a wide-spread industry back in the early-mid twentieth century, have suicide rates increased or decreased? … Continue reading Suicide and the Corporate World
Surprisingness
C.S. Lewis, in a passage I can’t now find, comments that there ‘surprisingness’ is a different thing from ‘being a surprise’. The latter is simply a question of reaction; it’s subjective and, by its nature, can only come once. But ‘surprisingness’ is a quality in the thing itself, the quality of being so structured as … Continue reading Surprisingness
Thoughts on ‘Sing 2’
I liked Sing a lot more than I expected, and in fact found that it only got better upon reflection. So, naturally, I decided to check out the sequel to see if they managed to keep to the same level of quality. Honestly, this one's even better. Some time after the events of the first … Continue reading Thoughts on ‘Sing 2’
Serpent's Den 