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)
The Dangers of Being an Internet Content Creator
The other day I watched a documentary on the rise and fall of Rooster Teeth, the web video production company behind Red vs. Blue and other series. It followed what seems to me to be an all-too familiar pattern, one that we who wish to produce content ought to consider very carefully. The short version … Continue reading The Dangers of Being an Internet Content Creator
The Board Game from Hell
One night during my visit in Maine we played the Board Game from Hell. It didn’t look like much: just a variant of ‘Chutes and Ladders’, done in an appealingly cartoony style of firemen and citizens. The fun visuals lure you in, like the bright colors of a Venus fly-trap, making you think that the … Continue reading The Board Game from Hell
Poetry: “Lines on General Robert E. Lee”
“Si veris magna paraturFama bonis, et si successu nuda remotoInspicitur virtus, quicquid laudamus in ulloMajorum, fortuna fuit.”—Lucan.Whilst martial echoes o’er the wave resound,And Europe’s gore incarnadines the ground;Today no foreign hero we bemoan,But count the glowing virtues of our own!Illustrious LEE! around whose honour’d nameEntwines a patriot’s and a Christian’s fame;With whose just praise admiring … Continue reading Poetry: “Lines on General Robert E. Lee”
Sunday Thoughts: On Mercy
We finished the Jules Verne biography on the way home from Maine (now's not the place for a full review, but basically it was about six hours of an interesting study stretched to twelve by a good deal of repetition, the biographer going off on his own pet theories, and his harping on Verne's sex … Continue reading Sunday Thoughts: On Mercy
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
Walt Disney Content Strike
I just received word from Amazon that they consider some aspect of The Wisdom of Walt Disney in violation of their trademark content policy. So, while I'm trying to find out just what and how I can correct it, the book will be temporarily unavailable in paperback. Sorry everyone. UPDATE: The strike's been withdrawn and … Continue reading Walt Disney Content Strike
Friday Flotsam: Verne, History, and Broomsticks
1. Visiting relatives in Maine all this week 2. On the way up, listened to a biography of Jules Verne. It was certainly interesting to get a look into the life of such an important author, though the biographer is rather annoyingly intrusive; his thesis is that Verne is one of the great authors of … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Verne, History, and Broomsticks
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
Serpent's Den 