Stephen Glass Update
So, that Stephen Glass guy. Tried to become a lawyer. Whatever happened to him?
Tagged: Fiction
The Bath
A short story about an old man, his loneliness, and his resolve to perform a simple ritual.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Bar Applications
A few thoughts on recovering one’s reputation for good moral character from very public past misdeeds. There should both a skeptical eye cast towards those who have been dishonest in the past and room for redemption from mistakes made in the past — but when does the latter overcome the former? Is it enough to have stayed out of trouble?
The Executioner
“I’ll get the right arm, you get the left. One of us will have the actual agents, and the other will have saline solution.”
The Adventures of the Delineator: The Mark of the Assassin
~ by Jon Stonger From the Logs of Captain Dave: “Get the money upfront,” hissed Doc hissingly in my ear. We were sitting in a shady bar on the second planet in the Scorchemal...
The Adventures of the Delineator: The Rescue of Princess Ama Part I
~by Jon Stonger From the Logs of Captain Dave: "You have got to be pulling me through a black hole!" said Doc. "This can’t happen. I know the universe is a cruel, perverse and...
The Adventures of the Delineator: They Lost my Luggage?
~by Jon Stonger This is the first in a selection of short stories from The Adventures of the Delineator. These tales follow the clueless Captain Dave as he guides the small crew of the...
Bachmann, Burr, and Patriotism
How about a break from arguing over the mandate? I’m in the middle of Burr, Gore Vidal’s fictional account of the life of America’s most reviled duelist. Why am I reading it? Well, the...
My belated contribution to Freddie’s book club
I’m well off the pace of Freddie’s book club, but I’ve been meaning to write something about The Name of the Rose for some time now. Below, you’ll find a few half-formed thoughts on...
On Hobbits, Race, and Self-Contained Worlds
I come down closer to Jamelle Bouie’s side of the Hobbit argument than Adam Serwer’s. Jamelle argues that basically Tolkien’s story is one of the British Isles, and that the mythological backdrop of Middle-Earth...
Wes Anderson: The College Years
The New York Times digs up Anderson and Owen Wilson’s contributions to Analecta, UT’s student literary magazine.
Charmed Life
I finished reading Diana Wynne Jones’s Charmed Life a few days ago. As far as young adult fantasy goes, it was quite good with more than a few unexpected twists. It wasn’t as funny...
Science Fiction Friday
io9 lists the best science fiction novels for fantasy fans. I’m not familiar with any of these selections, but I’ll go ahead and recommend Jack Vance’s Tales of the Dying Earth, Gene Wolfe’s Book...
A list of books from my childhood
Tyler Cowen and Peter Suderman have both compiled (non-definitive) lists of books which have influenced them the most over the years. I have thought about this some, and come to the decision that the...
Scandinavian Noir
N+1 reviews the Millenium trilogy, a Swedish crime series that takes a surprisingly dim view of the welfare state:
Lost vs. Heroes
Following up a little on my last post wherein I quoted Peter Suderman lamenting the lack of direction and planning for the show Battlestar Galactica, let me just add that two other shows I...
the art of magic in fiction
The other day I was sitting around drinking beers with a friend and talking about magic. Specifically, we were discussing the abuse or misuse of magic in fantasy writing. It is my theory that,...
Angels & Demons
I read Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons several years ago. I liked some of the puzzles, and the mystery and suspense were gripping enough, but at the end of the day Brown’s prose makes...
an ocean full of paper boats
“I may as well admit that I have been more influenced (as a person) by my childhood readings of Tolkien and Lewis than I have been by any philosophers I read in college and...
Stranger than Nonfiction
Looking for a glimpse into the conservative foreign policy id? Try National Review’s Rich Lowry, whose latest techno-thriller has just been published: After learning that an Iranian scientist is in the process of developing...
