Sunday Morning Book Thread 05-31-2015: The Patriarchy Strikes Back [OregonMuse]

The Inklings: C.S Lewis (left) and J.R.R. Tolkien
Not shown: Charles Williams and Owen Barfield

Good morning to all of you morons and moronettes and bartenders everywhere and all the ships at sea. Welcome to AoSHQ's stately, prestigious, internationally acclaimed and high-class Sunday Morning Book Thread. The only AoSHQ thread that is so hoity-toity, pants are required. Or kilts. Kilts are OK, too. But not tutus. Unless you're a girl.

Book Quote

The book you don’t read won’t help.
–Jim Rohn

Another Bastion of Cisnormative Oppression Identified

I really loathe the Marxist obsession with race, gender, and class. And I hate how this obsession has seeped into pretty much everything. Get a load of this crap:

In a pub in Oxford there lived some writers. Not nasty, dirty decadent writers, whose books were filled with intimations of sex and an oozy smell, nor yet dry, bare Modernists with a horror of heroics or fantastical things: These Oxford writers were Inklings, and that means heterosexual white male Christians who created some of the most enduring works of 20th century fantasy.

Yes, be sure and point out that these guys were "heterosexual white male Christians", because it's just so, so super-important that everyone absolutely has to know this.

And then there's the progressive appeal to butthurt:

Their scholarly machismo made it possible for Lewis to do a very public volte-face from heartfelt atheism back to Christianity but never entertain the thought of a female Inkling.

Yeah, because it's a well-known fact that the Inklings group was formally organized as a He-Man Woman Haters Club that routinely rejected highly-qualified female applicants in order to preserve and protect their white male privilege.

But what did you expect from a bunch of machismo-laden white guys?

Christian faith was indisputably one strand of the Inklings' creative DNA, but what then to make of all those elves and heraldic creatures and otherworldly voyages, the underlying obsessive strangeness of so much of their fiction?...One is left with the impression that within each of those hearty, laughing, church-going writers, there beat a pagan heart.

Apparently, the only way the reviewer can come to bring herself to admit that she very much enjoys the writings of these cisnormative white guys (whom she has undoubtedly been taught to think of as class enemies and bad people) is to pretend that they're something entirely different than who they actually were.

Because, you see, only pagans can write good stuff. Not those icky Christians!

It's kind of like she's an ardent feminist who keeps a stash of bodice-ripping romance novels underneath her bed that she reads on the down low, when she thinks no one else is looking.

The book she's talking about, by the way, is this one, The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams. I'm not sure what this new book offers that's any different than earlier efforts (fo example, this one, that one, and this one here), not that I was able to find out much about it from this review. However, I did learn much about the author's inability to see anything other than through the Marxist categories of race, gender, and class, the holy trinity of a godless faith.

And thus we see yet another example of how progressivism poisons everything it touches.

Are You Worth $3.4 Million Dollars?

You are if you're science-fiction writer John Scalzi:

John Scalzi, a best-selling author of science fiction, has signed a $3.4 million, 10-year deal with the publisher Tor Books that will cover his next 13 books.

Yeah, I know he's quite the SJW, but I like this:

Mr. Scalzi...said his wife, Kristine, had kept his ego from going supernova.

“My celebration, personally, has just been standing around,” exclaiming with profane expressions of delight, he said. “And my wife saying, ‘Yes, now go take out the trash.’ ”

We all of us, even SJWs, need someone in our lives who is able to tell us that we're (a) full of crap, (b) bughouse crazy or (c) both. It's one of the keys to remaining sane. If you get powerful enough, or rich enough, or isolated enough, you get closer and closer to the point where you will longer know what normal is any more. $3.4 million probably isn't enough to get him there, but it's good to hear he has some perspective on it.

Dadly Virtue

Early for Father's Day, but the same gang of ne'er-do-wells what gave us The Seven Deadly Virtues: 18 Conservative Writers on Why the Virtuous Life is Funny as Hell have come out with a new one, The Dadly Virtues: Adventures from the Worst Job You'll Ever Love. It covers all aspects of the job from 'A' to 'Z', and the chapters appear to be arranged in chronological sequence of dadhood, from when the first newborn baby arrives, all the way to grandfatherhood.

Authors include conservatives Matthew Continetti, Stephen F. Hayes, James Lileks, David 'Iowakawk' Burge, and others.

Jonah Goldberg's chapter is excerpted over at National Review, What Having a Dog Can Teach You about Life.

In a Fox News interview, authors Hayes and Jonathan Last bring up Tucker Carlson's chapter on adventure, where he talks about building a potato cannon with his kids, and then they run out of potatoes, so they load it with Barbie dolls, only the hair catches on fire, so you have these flaming lawn darts shooting out over the lawn, lodging in trees, etc.

I think my respect for Carlson just rose a notch.

And unlike most best-selling Kindle books that are often exorbitantly priced at $15.99, $16.99 and even higher, the Kindle price for TDV is a more reasonable $9.99.

Lastly, I like the cover art. It shows a new dad holding a drooling baby he obviously doesn't know what to do with (note the splat of spit-up directly over his shirt pocket), but his own father is standing behind him, resting a calm, reassuring hand on his shoulder, so we know everything is going to be OK.

Ann Coulter Is At It Again

Her latest book, Adios, America! The Left's Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole is scheduled to be released on June 1st. Hey, that's tomorrow. In her Townhall column, Coulter mentions

Teddy Kennedy's 1965 Immigration Act was expressly designed to change the demographics of our country to be poorer and more inclined to vote Democratic.

I'm curious to see how she proves intent ("expressly designed"). While there's no doubt that "poorer and more inclined to vote "Democratic" was indeed the result, I hope it doesn't turn out to be a bunch of "post hoc, ergo propter hoc"-ery.

With no welfare state to support them, about a third of pre-1965 Act immigrants returned to the places they came from. British and Jewish immigrants were the least likely to go home -- less than 10 percent did.

I've always thought that what we call an immigrant problem is mostly a welfare state problem. If illegal immigrants weren't showered with benefits (from the public treasury) immediately upon arrival in this country, maybe the problem would be more manageable. But what do I know?

Although America is admitting more immigrants, they are coming from fewer countries than they did before 1970. On liberals' own terms, the country is becoming less "diverse," but a lot poorer and a lot more Latin.

In fact,

America has already taken in one-fourth of Mexico's entire population

My first reaction was this could not possibly be true. But Mexico's population in 2013 was 122 million. and wikipedia notes that there are anywhere between 7 and 20 million illegals currently residing here, so Coulter's claim sounds quite plausible.

In Denmark, actual Danes come in tenth in criminals' nationality, after Moroccans, Lebanese, Yugoslavians, Somalis, Iranians, Pakistanis, Turks, Iraqis and Vietnamese.

Immigrant crime is a problem that no one, and I mean absolutely no one, in pretty much the entire world, wants to talk about. Merely mentioning it brings an immediate accusation of racism.

Coulter complains about not being interviewed on major media outlets despite being a best-selling author, but if that's what she wants, she should rewrite her book along crudely Marxist lines, i.e. she needs to rail against "big business" and "big agriculture" and how the evil capitalists, whether Democrats or Republicans, always need an oppressed working class to feed off of, and how that has been the historic function of illegal immigrants all along. She'd have no trouble getting interviews, then.

A bit of false advertising here as it sounds like some of these 24 Books You Can Read In Under An Hour sound like short stories (notably the ones labelled as "Kindle Singles"), but there's some classics on this list. To which I would add the following short books:

Barak Obama's Foreign Policy Triumphs

Barak Obama's Domestic Policy Triumphs

Rules For Chastity by Bill Clinton

We Won't Behead You This Time: The Islamic Pacifist Tradition

Going Around The Bend: Feminists Who Aren't Bughouse Crazy by Robert Stacy McCain

I'm sure I've missed a few.

Moron Recommendations

Longtime moronette 'tms' has a recommendation, and I can no better than to simply quote from the e-mail she sent:

I'd like to recommend Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck by Jon Acuff. I am not typically a career/business/time management/self help reader...However I am really enjoying Do Over...For people actually grinding at a time clock job, I think you'll love it. It's about developing and applying the four things that actually matter: character, skills, relationships and hustle. It's funny and doesn't try to me more than it is.

Acuff is also the author of Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters and Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job & Your Dream Job.

What I'm Reading

I've started the Elmo Jenkins series with the first novel, Ordained Irreverence. Elmo is a recent seminary graduate who is interning at a large, nondescript Protestant church in some city somewhere. Even though it's fiction, the author, McMillian Moody says that most of the events are inspired by actual events from the days when he, too, interned at "a large downtown church." It kind of reminds me of James Herriot's 'All Creatures Great and Small' books, where all the stories are autobiographical and all the real-life names are changed to something else. Some reviews say the EJ books are "laugh out loud" funny, but I do not find them so, at least not this one, which has been mildly amusing at best. This doesn't mean it's a bad book, I'm enjoying reading it, and I like Elmo, the main character, as he has to learn the business of his calling to serve God, and how to deal with the unique personalities of both the church staff and members of the congregation. In other words, kind of like Herriot, only with extra added religion, which, by the way, isn't especially intrusive.

The other Elmo Jenkins books are Some Things Never Change, The Old Man and the Tea and A Tale of Two Elmos.

___________

So that's all for this week. As always, book thread tips, suggestions, bribes, rumors, threats, and insults may be sent to OregonMuse, Proprietor, AoSHQ Book Thread, at the book thread e-mail address: aoshqbookthread, followed by the 'at' sign, and then 'G' mail, and then dot cee oh emm.

What have you all been reading this week? Hopefully something good, because, as you all know, life is too short to be reading lousy books.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:59 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 1st

Posted by: mallfly at May 31, 2015 09:01 AM (qSIlh)

2 how'd I do that? Off to a happy Sunday!

Posted by: mallfly at May 31, 2015 09:01 AM (qSIlh)

3 Too bad I'm illiterate.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at May 31, 2015 09:03 AM (rwI+c)

4 Their scholarly machismo...

If there's anything more macho than a writer...well, I just don't know what it is.

Posted by: Pajama Boy at May 31, 2015 09:03 AM (FcR7P)

5 >>Because, you see, only pagans can write good stuff. Not those icky Christians!

Yes, lion the witch and the wardrobe practically screams pagan.

Posted by: Lea at May 31, 2015 09:04 AM (vmMMi)

6 by the way, don't forget that the Three Stooges' first pic at Columbia was called "Woman Haters"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_Haters

Posted by: mallfly at May 31, 2015 09:04 AM (qSIlh)

7 The book you don't read won’t help.
- - Jim Rohn

Most of the books you do read won't help either.

There was a thing on Facebook - - "The cost of libraries are less than the cost of an ignorant nation." or something.

So the money we are spending now on education, and libraries doesn't seem to be helping much then does it. All that money spent when so many people refuse to educate themselves, as if education is something given to you like a breakfast plate at iHOP. When education is more like the muscle mass you develop on the weight machine; you have to work for it.

I shouldn't be posting comments while I'm in this mood.

Posted by: Harly Kruptbender at May 31, 2015 09:04 AM (Bba8w)

8 What have you all been reading this week?

I am all loaded up with lowest-common-denominator airport-shop fifth-grade-reading-level girlie crap, because the local library's summer reading program starts tomorrow and I need to log 500 pages a week to qualify for the prize drawings. O_o Don't judge me.

Posted by: HR trinken trinken trinken at May 31, 2015 09:04 AM (rHXGG)

9 re 3: well, I'm not illiterate, I can prove my parents were married.

Posted by: mallfly at May 31, 2015 09:05 AM (qSIlh)

10 Barak Obama's Foreign Policy Triumphs

Barak Obama's Domestic Policy Triumphs

Is it really "fair use" to quote the entirety of each book, too?

Posted by: t-bird at May 31, 2015 09:05 AM (FcR7P)

11 We listened to Gone Girl on DVD during our rescent trip. I think it was good, as my hatred for various characters whipsawed all around. I'm curious how they made a movie out of it though, considering how much was just internal dialog.

Posted by: Grump928(C) at May 31, 2015 09:05 AM (rwI+c)

12 My word, I'm early for once. I just started "The Last Policeman" and the author is doing an excellent job of portraying the melancholy without saying "Everyone is melancholy."

A few weeks ago I said I was reading a book that was truly awful yet needed to write a review of it. I managed not to be too brutal, I think. But I had an email from the publisher asking me to review it on amazon and I declined. I did, however, write the publisher and tell her that the book was in dire need of a lot more editing, and that the author desperately needed to learn to show rather than tell. To that end, I told her the author needs to read the scene in Gone With The Wind in which Scarlett is getting ready for the barbecue at Twelve Oaks. Florence King said that scene is the best example of showing rather than telling (of Scarlett's anxiety at seeing Melanie Hamilton again) that she had ever seen. And I've long had the impression that Florence King has read everything.

I also started Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples which just flows along. I must pay more attention to the writing while I'm reading.

Anyone else ever feel totally Marxist when using the word "peoples"?

Posted by: Tonestaple at May 31, 2015 09:08 AM (jAHuk)

13 7,

Cut. Jib. Newsletter. Shared attitude towards make believe intelligence.

Posted by: anon a mouse at May 31, 2015 09:10 AM (C9pBZ)

14 I haven't had much time to read this week. I'm at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene. Met a great bunch of folks who are writers, and some great runners.

The end result is a ton of listening and chatting, too much drinking, and a conviction that having a patron is a very cool deal.

A writer bud of mine keeps claiming he smells weed as we go about town. Duh, Eugene.

Posted by: Long Running Fool at May 31, 2015 09:11 AM (VieSy)

15 I just finished pratchetts first disc works book but it dragged for me and I don't have much desire to read more.

I'm starting guests of the ayatollah which has been sitting on my shelf for years.

Posted by: Lea at May 31, 2015 09:12 AM (vmMMi)

16
I really loathe the Marxist obsession with race, gender, and class.

When other people do what they do (generalize by the characteristic), they call them racist/sexist/etc.

Yet Marxism (and the wider Leftist philosophy) is entirely about group-ism.

Posted by: Pappy O'Daniel at May 31, 2015 09:13 AM (oVJmc)

17 A good week book-wise! First, the Book Barn at the local dump yielded up two volumes of Winston Churchill's series covering WWII (Their Finest Hour and The Grand Alliance). Can't imagine throwing these away. Or, for that matter, not having the whole set....

Then I dropped a Barnes ampersand Noble gift card on David McCullough's new bio of the Wright brothers. On sale, too. I'll be reading that after WSC's tomes.

About Churchill: he was a wordy sumbitch. Much of Hour is made up of memos he sent (as Prime Minister) to various military and government types. From them, one learns that he had a race facility for getting to the nut of any problem or issue.

One also learns that he loved to hear himself talk. The books, like his memos, could benefit from some outside editing to pare down the extraneous gabble. I can imagine the recipients, like readers of his books, muttering "get to the point, Winston!"

Nevertheless, I'll be looking around for the other volumes in this set. The man was a brilliant leader, and a pretty damn decent writer.

As a cherry on the sundae, I also got copies of three Kurt Vonnegut books (Player Piano, Cat's Cradle, and Welcome to the Monkey House), all written relatively early in his career. I really came to despise his writing over the years, feeling that he woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and said "hey, I'm Kurt Vonnegut! Go me!" after which he wrote formulaic, pretentious, repetitive crap. But his early stuff is great.

So lots of page-turning ahead!

Posted by: MrScribbler at May 31, 2015 09:14 AM (P8YHq)

18
The feminist screecher would do better spending her time by picking out and training which cat she wants to eat her face after she's does alone and her corpse isn't discovered for weeks.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars(TM) at May 31, 2015 09:17 AM (VLTL9)

19 Good morning rons. Sitting in church on AoS. I'm waiting for the phone to burst into flames. I want to thank everyone for supporting my little writing hobby. Sales of golden angel have jumped way beyond expectation. I have to stop now cause the pastor is huge and will take my phone, later rons.

Posted by: Oldsailorspoet at May 31, 2015 09:18 AM (5wvcc)

20 We all of us, even SJWs, need someone in our lives who is able to tell us that we're (a) full of crap, (b) bughouse crazy or (c) both. It's one of the keys to remaining sane.

=====

Nah I can do without thanks

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 31, 2015 09:19 AM (Cq0oW)

21
Author Neil Gaiman has admitted that a 1984 "rock and roll biography" of pop group Duran Duran is "the worst thing" he's ever written. The book, which Gaiman confessed to writing solely "for the money", is now out of print. He has never allowed it to be reprinted.

"I went down to the BBC press office, paid them for their press clippings, because that's what we did before Google, and essentially wrote a book based entirely around BBC press clippings," he said. The book came out, and was a bestseller for exactly one week, before the company behind it went out of business.

Ironically, the biography itself, Duran Duran: The First Four Years of the Fab Five, since seems to have turned into something of a collector's item: on Amazon, second-hand copies are listed for as much as �805.

http://tinyurl.com/optrmm9

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at May 31, 2015 09:19 AM (kdS6q)

22 Finished The Burning Room, another Harry Bosch novel, by Michael Connelly. Good read as always.

Part way through Cesar Millan's "Cesar's Rules" in the futile hope that I can train my pup, since simply kicking him hasn't seemed to work.

Started on Hammett's "Red Harvest" based on comments here.

Intend to start James Herriott's "Dog Stories". Herriott was mentioned above, and once upon a time, Netflix had the BBC's "All Creatures Great and Small" series available. Don't know if it still is available, but if you ever get a chance to see it, do so, because it beautifully depicts the heart of a great country that no longer exists.

Posted by: Hrothgar at May 31, 2015 09:20 AM (ftVQq)

23 I've often wondered if we're keeping Mexico afloat by importing their criminals and excess laborers.

Posted by: Citizen Cake at May 31, 2015 09:23 AM (ppaKI)

24 Jerry Pournelle, "There Will Be War 2: Men of War" -

I reviewed #4 a few weeks back: http://acecomments.mu.nu/?blog=86&post=356501#c23589082

So this is another one: essays on future war, alongside shortstories. This one more focuses on the men (and women!) affected. And this time I've read further into it before dumping a review . . .

We start with... Frederic Brown's "The Weapon". This classic very-short story (srsly, read it) doesn't actually deal with the mind of military men at all, and it's more an anti-war tale. I'm glad it's here though because I'd last seen it in a "Read" magazine in 1986ish.

Doan Van Toai's "And Baby Makes Three" gives us what happened to the loyal Vietnamese whom the Watergate Congress left behind. This one works like a punch to the gut; someone should re-read it to Vox Day.

Poul Anderson, "Time Lag" is great, for showing how relativistic travel affects battle-plans. Similar is Arthur C Clarke's "Superiority". You know how in Alien Legacy and other strategy games when you spend all your resources on tech, your enemies then catch you with your pants down and beat your ass? That.

Rick Rubin's "Final Muster" handles what a future peacetime society can do with soldiers who have been decommissioned, possibly for ever.

Jerry Pournelle offers a one-off "Manual of Operations" where some drunk guy finds a flying saucer that only recognises commands from the aliens who built it. But humans can approximate the alien signature if their BAC is at .238... The collection ends with Eric Frank Russell's hilarious "Allamagoosa" (oops!).

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at May 31, 2015 09:24 AM (AVEe1)

25 cold rainy day here and I know the toddler will be bored so we're all going to the bookstores later. what I've always done on rainy Sundays

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 31, 2015 09:28 AM (Cq0oW)

26
Author Neil Gaiman has admitted that a 1984 "rock and roll
biography" of pop group Duran Duran is "the worst thing" he's ever
written.

One book I have on my shelf is "Without Me You're Nothing: The Essential Guide to Home Computers" (copyright 1980) because it was written by Frank Herbert (yes, that Frank Herbert).

Pretty fun getting learned on BASIC by the author of Dune.

Posted by: Pappy O'Daniel at May 31, 2015 09:29 AM (oVJmc)

27 #21 - hope Mr. Gaiman's check for the Duran Duran book cleared before the company who hired him to write it cleared.
I finally finished Agnes Morley Cleaveland's No Life for a Lady - a very good read, but kind of heartbreaking at the end. Her brother eventually gave up serious cattle ranching, and she went to live in San Francisco.
Starting next on Christopher Corbett's Orphans Preferred - a history of the Pony Express - it looks very promising.

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at May 31, 2015 09:31 AM (95iDF)

28
I don't need a left wing cocksucking totalitarian in my life.

Posted by: Soothsayer at May 31, 2015 09:35 AM (V/11D)

29 I had to get the morning walk done early today. Suppose to go to 100 here in the SW corner of Utah.

I read The Everlasting Man by G. K. Chesterson. Previously recommended here, the work is a Christian outline of history which show the relationship of Christianity to the other religions of the world from a unique perspective.

Posted by: Zoltan at May 31, 2015 09:35 AM (YPsdv)

30 Great post!!

It's kind of like she's an ardent feminist who keeps a stash of
bodice-ripping romance novels underneath her bed that she reads on the
down low, when she thinks no one else is looking.

Worse, they openly adore a trilogy about a virginal co-ed who is seduced by a domineering billionaire (named "Christian"?) and teaches her the way of BDSM and submission. WTF?

Posted by: Lizzy at May 31, 2015 09:36 AM (q6kiT)

31
On reserve:

Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War
P. W. Singer and August Cole

Tom Clancy fans will relish Singer and Coles first novel, a chilling vision of what might happen in a world war launched by a Chinese sneak attack on Americas eyes and brains in outer space. Singer, a military strategist, and Cole, a former defense industry analyst for the Wall Street Journal, easily wed their knowledge to a fast-moving plot and characters who make an impression.

The United States, China, and Russia eye each other across a twenty first century version of the Cold War, which suddenly heats up at sea, on land, in the air, in outer space, and in cyberspace. The fighting involves everything from stealthy robotic drone strikes to old warships from the navys ghost fleet. Fighter pilots unleash a Pearl Harbor style attack; American veterans become low-tech insurgents; teenage hackers battle in digital playgrounds; Silicon Valley billionaires mobilize for cyber-war; and a serial killer carries out her own vendetta. Ultimately, victory will depend on blending the lessons of the past with the weapons of the future.

http://www.ghostfleetbook.com/

Sounds like a classic old school techno-thriller, and there's nothing quite like dozens of pages of technical end notes to sucker me in.

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at May 31, 2015 09:37 AM (kdS6q)

32 So basically, Scalzi is p-whipped.

Not a surprise, really.

Posted by: Pappy O'Daniel at May 31, 2015 09:37 AM (oVJmc)

33 >>I don't need a left wing cocksucking totalitarian in my life.

I kinda like it.

Posted by: Reggie at May 31, 2015 09:38 AM (sQzB6)

34 Excellent post, OregonMuse. You're really on fire this week.

I'm reading "Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson" by Lyndsay Faye, bought during a Kindle sale. Currently 4.5 stars, unfortunately $9.99 off-sale. Not up to the level of the Horrowitz Holmes books, but quite competent.

Next book -- Matthew Pearl's "The Last Bookaneer"

Simmon's "Flashback" -- meh, at best.

Posted by: doug at May 31, 2015 09:39 AM (odJ0S)

35 The United States, China, and Russia eye each other
across a twenty first century version of the Cold War, which suddenly
heats up at sea, on land, in the air, in outer space, and in cyberspace.
The fighting involves everything from stealthy robotic drone strikes to
old warships from the navys ghost fleet. Fighter pilots unleash a Pearl
Harbor style attack; American veterans become low-tech insurgents;
teenage hackers battle in digital playgrounds; Silicon Valley
billionaires mobilize for cyber-war; and a serial killer carries out her
own vendetta. Ultimately, victory will depend on blending the lessons
of the past with the weapons of the future.

http://www.ghostfleetbook.com/

Sounds
like a classic old school techno-thriller, and there's nothing quite
like dozens of pages of technical end notes to sucker me in.

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at May 31, 2015 09:37 AM (kdS6q)

I was going to buy this, until I saw the reviews.All Social Justice Warrior, all the time.

Posted by: redclay at May 31, 2015 09:39 AM (GM8B7)

36 can't think of too many feminist characters

i can think of many strong female characters but they all seem to be younger like Nancy Drew and such.

Posted by: Bigby's Knuckle Sandwich at May 31, 2015 09:40 AM (Cq0oW)

37 Hey, baby, I'm not safe, but I am good. In the sack.

Posted by: rapey Aslan at May 31, 2015 09:40 AM (3F6F8)

38 I had to get the morning walk done early today. Suppose to go to 100 here in the SW corner of Utah.
Posted by: Zoltan at May 31, 2015 09:35 AM (YPsdv)

Where you At? We just moved to Ivins 3 months ago and I'm always looking for fellow morons.

Posted by: Tunafish at May 31, 2015 09:41 AM (6FsbQ)

39 I don't need a left wing cocksucking totalitarian in my life

Unfortunately, 52% of the country voted for him again , so we're stuck with him until 2016.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 09:43 AM (tiyBy)

40 The Inklings were a he-man woman hater's club? Apparently she has never read any of Tolkien's works.

Elbereth, Yavanah, Melian, Luthien, Galadriel, Idril, Elwing, Arwen, Eowyn, Rosie all out-shined and were greater than their male counterparts.

The only evil females in Tolkien's mythology were Ungoliant and Shelob.

Posted by: davidt at May 31, 2015 09:48 AM (uGrec)

41 Fiddy rounds loaded, hunnert n' fiddly to go.

Posted by: Weasel at May 31, 2015 09:48 AM (e3bId)

42 So, Scalzi's got hisself a guaranteed income of US$340,000 per year for the next 10 years, assuming his publisher doesn't go tits-up in the meantime. That's a very nice income, but it's still not Fuck You Money. I make just a little more than Scalzi. I call it "Fuck Me" Money, which is what I mutter to myself every year as I make out the check to the IRS.

Social Justice Warrior-types tend to come from the lower-compensated side of things. Other People's Money pays for all their fantasies of How Things Should Be. Now that he's in the Hated 1%, I wonder if Scalzi's SJW tendencies will be moderated by getting bilked by all the freeloaders, year after year.

Posted by: Rear Admiral at May 31, 2015 09:49 AM (oUKDL)

43 Slate interview with Neal Stephenson about his latest book - "Seveneves" -- http://slate.me/1PWv4x7

I'll wait until the library loan time goes from two to four weeks and I have lots of free time. Good ideas, but could be edited into much shorter books, IMHO.

Posted by: doug at May 31, 2015 09:52 AM (odJ0S)

44 We actually spend less on education than we did inthe past but we spend more on teachers salaries and compensation.

So this hole canard that we need to spend more is bogus.

If you look at a chart of educational spending from the 70s onward spending has risen exponentially while test scores have remained flat.

Posted by: Kreplach at May 31, 2015 09:53 AM (lPu4P)

45 I requested my online library (MyMediaMall) stock "Clinton Cash," and I just downloaded it. I was not surprised they weren't carrying it yet.

Posted by: Smallish Bees at May 31, 2015 09:54 AM (YPgXi)

46 What's wrong with comments?

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 31, 2015 09:55 AM (MAvk4)

47 Picked up a book that I thought would be better: _The Buried Pyramid_ by Jane Lindskold. It's a modern pastiche of a Victorian ripping adventure yarn about an expedition to find the titular buried pyramid. Plucky girl from the American west and her British archaeologist uncle. All good stuff.

But . . . first of all I hadn't realized it was a young-adult book, and after a while the lack of grown-up emotions and psychology began to get tiresome. (This doesn't happen when I reread favorites from childhood, and it didn't bother me with the Harry Potter books, but this time it did.)

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 31, 2015 09:56 AM (MAvk4)

48 (continued)

The second thing that grated was something I see a lot in historical fiction: Victorian characters with suspiciously early-21st-century attitudes about women, foreigners, "natives," etc. This isn't a new problem, either: if you read the Hornblower novels it starts to get weird how Hornblower's "eccentricities" all happen to be normal practice for the people reading the books in the 1940s and 50s.

Passed it along to my kid, who is more of the target audience. We've already read _King Solomon's Mines_ so he's got a better sense of how proper Victorian fictional adventurers should act.

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 31, 2015 09:56 AM (MAvk4)

49 What's wrong with comments?

? They look normal to me.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 09:57 AM (tiyBy)

50 Where you At? We just moved to Ivins 3 months ago and I'm always looking for fellow morons.

Posted by: Tunafish at May 31, 2015 09:41 AM (6FsbQ

Small world. We're in Ivins too. We moved here 6 years ago from CA and love it here. We live near 200 W and 520 S.

Posted by: Zoltan at May 31, 2015 09:57 AM (YPsdv)

51 Secretariat of State John Kerry broke his leg.

Posted by: Boss Moss at May 31, 2015 09:57 AM (gY8zj)

52 Huh. Weird. Turns out trying to use an em-dash character blows up the comments server.

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 31, 2015 09:57 AM (MAvk4)

53
I was going to buy this, until I saw the reviews.All Social Justice Warrior, all the time.
Posted by: redclay

From an advance reading copy that has appeared in my hands as if by magic:

"Do you understand what you are doing by turning down command and requesting the Pentagon job? I say this as a friend but also as your captain. If you dont fleet up, the entire Surface Warfare community will consider you dead. Your career will be crucified," said Riley.

Simmons took a deep draw from his cigar and exhaled. "Lindseys got a bad case of what she calls seasickness, as in shes sick of me going to sea. The kids are okay with it, but they dont know any different. And maybe thats the real problem."

Riley started to pull again from his cigar, then stopped and threw it overboard. "Dont you think the whole crew miss their kids and spouses and dogs and all that shore shit? To do the job right, you have to give everything; thats how its always been. You think my husband likes it? He hates it too," he said.

"My husband", he said.

Then again, it is the Navy.

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at May 31, 2015 09:57 AM (kdS6q)

54 G. R. O. S. S.

Get Rid Of Slimy girlS

Posted by: dissent555 at May 31, 2015 10:01 AM (yR6A1)

55 The second thing that grated was something I see a lot in historical fiction: Victorian characters with suspiciously early-21st-century attitudes about women, foreigners, "natives," etc.

And there always has to be a woman character who is a perfect mirror of modern-day feminist attitudes and beliefs.

I see this a lot on TV period dramas, and it really gets irritating.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 10:01 AM (tiyBy)

56 Small world. We're in Ivins too. We moved here 6 years ago from CA and love it here. We live near 200 W and 520 S.

Posted by: Zoltan at May 31, 2015 09:57 AM (YPsdv)
We're in Desert Rose between 200 E and 400 E. I've enabled my email address - let's meet up.

Posted by: Tunafish at May 31, 2015 10:01 AM (6FsbQ)

57 Regarding the article: It's *almost* as though the author hadn't done her homework and discovered that Dorothy Sayers was an active part of the Inklings group, which was not a card-carrying-membership kind of gathering, but rather a smarties-who-are-around-to-hang-out-and-talk thing. Also: Did the author not know that Tolkien was a leading specialist in Old English language and culture, with a strong emphasis on the pagan world of Beowulf? And perhaps the author might have spent the time to actually *read* some of the Inklingses' works meditating on the value of the ancient heathen values, myths, and societies? I mean, it's like she *inferred* that they liked the pagan stuff without ever taking the time to figure out that they were explicitly making reference to those things. Idiota.

Posted by: Smallish Bees at May 31, 2015 10:03 AM (YPgXi)

58 Huh. Weird. Turns out trying to use an em-dash character blows up the comments server.

Yeah, if I put one of those characters in the post, I get a black diamond. If you try to do it in the comments, pixy will barf.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 10:03 AM (tiyBy)

59 I was going to buy this, until I saw the reviews.
redclay at May 31, 2015 09:39 AM

Laurie David's Cervix at May 31, 2015 09:57 AM

That's exactly what I was trying to say, and couldn't find the words. Thank you.

Posted by: Harly Kruptbender at May 31, 2015 10:03 AM (Bba8w)

60 I'm reading Clancy ' s "Sum Of All Fears" for the first time even though it's 20 years old. What strikes me are the rules of conduct in Washington, what used to be "normal" appear so old fashioned ...I.e. The Senate has to ratify treaties, a cabinet member forced to resign for immoral behavior, the President actually has American interests at heart despite his personal political leanings.....In comparison to where we are today it's jarring.

Posted by: small town girl, crusader at May 31, 2015 10:05 AM (Ml0T/)

61 Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.

Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.

- Groucho Marx

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this sh1t at May 31, 2015 10:06 AM (0HooB)

62 Cut. Jib. Newsletter. Shared attitude towards make believe intelligence.

Posted by: anon a mouse at May 31, 2015 09:10 AM (C9pBZ)

Perfect. Stolen!

Posted by: 98ZJUSMC Suntanning in Bizzaro World at May 31, 2015 10:06 AM (mmlFU)

63 What's a 71 year old man doing horsing around on a bike?

Posted by: Boss Moss at May 31, 2015 10:06 AM (gY8zj)

64 I just finished pratchetts first disc works book but it dragged for me and I don't have much desire to read more.

I'm starting guests of the ayatollah which has been sitting on my shelf for years.

Posted by: Lea at May 31, 2015 09:12 AM (vmMMi)

Leah, they get better. All of the books can stand alone, mostly, and the first 3 discworld books are Pratchett world-building, for himself as well as the reader. So you can skip around and get a taste of what is trying to be said.
Equal Rites is where it starts getting good. I always suggest Small Gods since that is where Pratchett really pulled the stops out.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 31, 2015 10:08 AM (t//F+)

65 "hey, I'm ~~Kurt Vonnegut~~ Ernest Hemingway! Go me!" after which he wrote formulaic, pretentious, repetitive crap. But his early stuff is great.

Posted by: MrScribbler at May 31, 2015 09:14 AM (P8YHq)

FIFY

[although there are many names that would have worked]

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 31, 2015 10:08 AM (Zu3d9)

66 Looked at the Coulter book on Amazon, $15.39 on e-book, ouch. It'd have to be no more than $10 for me to be interested.

Listened to Something Wicked This Way Comes by Bradbury, which is a line from Shakespeare's MacBeth. A sinister carnival arrives in a small town shortly before Holloween, and it's up to two boys and one of their Dads to deal with them. Pretty good YA story.

On the Hugo front read Murder World by Jason Cordova, which is nominated for the Campbell award (best new writer). It starts out as a silly comedy where a spaceship captain (drunk/fat/broke) and his right-hand woman (wisecracking tough fighter/pilot) accept a job to recover data from a crashed spaceship. They hire mercs and land on the planet known as Murder World, and find it's a pretty dangerous place. Pretty entertaining though the language isn't particularly sophisticated.

One of the novels nominated for Hugo is Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch #2) by Ann Leckie, so I read Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch #2) which has won the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C Clarke and other awards. It's beautifully written, the world-building has some interesting concepts, the few major characters are well drawn and there are enough moments of action to keep up a level of excitement.

My only knock is the author decided to make it a gender-free book. The narrator is unusual (no spoilers), can't tell the difference between sexes and refers to everyone with feminine personal pronouns. Throughout the book I'm trying to picture these characters and have to juggle male and female versions of each which is a headache. Still, pretty good book, hope she drops the act for book #2.

Posted by: waelse1 at May 31, 2015 10:12 AM (Z8gDw)

67 Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 10:01 AM (tiyBy)

Is it the conceit that we are the smartest people of all time, and that those before us simply didn't understand?

Or (and this is my guess) are most of these writers stupid and ignorant and badly educated, and they just don't know any better?

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 31, 2015 10:14 AM (Zu3d9)

68 Thanks kindltot. I can see glimpses of why people love it but it just didn't go anywhere ultimately. And knowing there were 20 or 30 more I just decided to read something else for a while... Maybe I'll try it again in winter. (I like a lot of nonfiction in summer)

Posted by: Lea at May 31, 2015 10:15 AM (vmMMi)

69 I guess it's too difficult for the gender hacks to give Tolkien credit for writing one of the boldest and bravest female characters in all of literature. Or maybe they just don't read? Eowyn, anyone?

Posted by: BG in Texas at May 31, 2015 10:16 AM (ZGW/b)

70 Posted by: BG in Texas at May 31, 2015 10:16 AM (ZGW/b)

Galadriel. Arwen.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 31, 2015 10:18 AM (Zu3d9)

71 Still, pretty good book, hope she drops the act for book #2.

Based on your description, don't get your hopes up.

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at May 31, 2015 10:21 AM (AVEe1)

72 @66 Agree about ebook pricing.

I made an exception and bought Eric Greiten's "Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life" for $12.99 on Kindle because I really loved the book as a library loan.

I usually content myself with library loans and don't buy non-sale ebooks.

Posted by: doug at May 31, 2015 10:21 AM (odJ0S)

73 Saw on news source this morning and in the margin that Beau Biden died yesterday from brain cancer.

Condolences to his family. Terribly difficult to lose a child at any age.

Posted by: Jen the original at May 31, 2015 10:21 AM (JaIou)

74 #55 - I've often seen the concept of period characters with suspiciously modern ideas described as "presentism" and I deplore it, most energetically. The past IS another country, and if you are playing fair with readers you have to reflect that. In a way writing HF is world-building, only in the past, and not in the future as is usually the case in science fiction.

I have to admit, it is quite good fun, writing characters who have very obviously un-PC attitudes. It often feels as if I am giving current social justice warriors a swift kick in the shorts when they are not looking, because then I can look at them in wide-eyed innocence and say, "But it's historically accurate!"

(There were also historical figures who did have rather more modern notions, but they were few, far between and usually seen as eccentrics anyway.)

Posted by: Sgt. Mom at May 31, 2015 10:22 AM (95iDF)

75 Finished Rebel Yell by S.C. Gwynne. A fascinating biography of Stonewall Jackson. Recommended. Now I'm going to go attack the Hugo Awards packet.

Everyone have a great week and thanks for the recommendations.

Posted by: Achilles at May 31, 2015 10:22 AM (TpeIH)

76 I think the Narn i Hin Hurin contained Tolkien's best female characters, in terms of most realistic. Mind you since it's Narn i Hin Hurin, nobody in it has a good day . . .

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at May 31, 2015 10:23 AM (AVEe1)

77 Apolgize for my earlier post, didn't realize this was the book thread....

"showing myself to the door quietly"

Posted by: Jen the original at May 31, 2015 10:23 AM (JaIou)

78 Luthien was the power in the power couple of Beren and Luthien.

Posted by: davidt at May 31, 2015 10:25 AM (uGrec)

79 I think there's three dynamics at work in the "contemporary people wearing period clothing" phenomenon in historical fiction.

1. It IS hard for writers to immerse themselves in a period mindset and communicate it to readers.

2. It's hard (or at least people believe this to be true) to make people with unfashionable period attitudes sympathetic to modern readers. I have my doubts about this, but it's conventional wisdom.

3. It's hard to sell a story containing characters with unfashionable period attitudes to a modern editor.

So the simple route, the easy way out, is to just write modern-day people with proper modern attitudes and opinions.

What's funny, of course, is that the modern attitudes will become obsolete faster than the period attitudes. People still read Twain, Kipling, Haggard, et al. Who's going to read this?

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 31, 2015 10:25 AM (MAvk4)

80 >>"Christian faith was indisputably one strand of the Inklings' creative DNA, but..."

What, did the talking woodland creatures distract her from the Christian themes throughout the chronicles of Narnia?

Posted by: Lizzy at May 31, 2015 10:27 AM (q6kiT)

81 "showing myself to the door quietly"

Posted by: Jen the original at May 31, 2015 10:23 AM (JaIou)

Not so fast....

Posted by: The Barrel at May 31, 2015 10:28 AM (Zu3d9)

82 From the critique of libraries crom WAY up thread--that's why I'm in library school, to do my little part in slowing the relentless Leftist slide of libraries. To stand athwart piles of books yelling "Libraries are just okay!"

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at May 31, 2015 10:28 AM (MYPM9)

83 Several weeks ago, "Dadly Virture" authors Jonathan V. Last, Jonah Goldberg, P.J. O'Rourke, Stephen Hayes Tucker Carlson and James Lileks gave a hilarous talk at the American Enterprise Institute (moderated by the childless Rob Long, who is also extremely funny). It appeared on CSPAN and can be found on YouTube.

As I said in an earlier comment about the talk, all of them were quite witty and enjoyable, but Carlson stole the show. I've never been a big Carlson fan but he was very funny. It was a surprise that Carlson married quite young and is the father of 4, a hunter, and a (reformed) user of chewing tobacco. Those are not traits I associate with someone as preppy as Carlson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8SMOk2T5DI

Posted by: Donna &&&&&& V. (brandishing ampersands) at May 31, 2015 10:31 AM (+XMAD)

84 I'm currently trying to read "Silver", the sequel to "Treasure Island" by Andrew Motion. It's pretty slow so far.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at May 31, 2015 10:33 AM (MYPM9)

85 Echo!

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at May 31, 2015 10:35 AM (MYPM9)

86 Lea, I think what Pratchett did was hard. None of his characters were particularly appealing. Rincewind is a coward, Hrund is an over-muscled idiot, Two Flowers is a fool blinded by preconceptions, and everyone else tends to be venal and self interested to the point of being sociopathic (especially the gods). However Pratchett winds up turning out a book about people who are pretty much just people, faced with hard and murky choices, and when they make their decisions they carry them through to the best of their ability, and often to their eventual failure. Then they get up, rub dirt on it and get going again.

That may be Pratchett's greatest gift, he wrote about people who are people. Too many writers write about characters and heroes that never face a hard decision, and never show any depth.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 31, 2015 10:38 AM (t//F+)

87 About the little He-Man Woman Hater's Club, I love C. S. Lewis. My favorites: The Screwtape Letters, the middle book of his Space trilogy (Perelandra), and from the Narnia books I like most The Magician's Nephew; The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; and The Last Battle (you know, the Creation, the Atonement, and the Second Coming--that's a tough combo to beat).

Tolkien: I read the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit twice. I think that's enough for me. And I hated the Silmarillion.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at May 31, 2015 10:40 AM (MYPM9)

88 Is it the conceit that we are the smartest people of all time, and that those before us simply didn't understand?

Or (and this is my guess) are most of these writers stupid and ignorant and badly educated, and they just don't know any better?

Oh, I think both are true. Mostly (b), though, which, of course leads naturally to (a).

Progressivism makes you ignorant. The SJWs simply have no idea how completely stupid their blather about class, race, etc. sound to someone outside of their little progressive bubble.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 10:40 AM (tiyBy)

89 Re 3, 7, et-al----I am Semilitterate

Posted by: Semilitterate at May 31, 2015 10:42 AM (xGFba)

90 Morning horde

Posted by: RWC - Team BOHICA at May 31, 2015 10:42 AM (XAFOu)

91 The SJWs simply have no idea how completely stupid
their blather about class, race, etc. sound to someone outside of their
little progressive bubble.

Posted by: OregonMuse

All within the bubble, nothing outside the bubble, nothing against the bubble.

Posted by: SJW Mussolini at May 31, 2015 10:42 AM (MYPM9)

92 The third book of Lewis's "Space Trilogy," _Such Hideous Strength_, is a tough sell nowadays. It's all set in England, no voyages to Mars or Venus, and there's a strong focus on the disintegrating marriage of two people who aren't very likable at all. Identifying with either one of them is not easy.

But after rereading it a couple of times, especially in recent years, it's a lot more prescient and accurate than a lot of people give it credit for. The villains seemed absurd in the 1950s, but now they seem almost ordinary: a bureaucratic-media cabal wrapping itself in "scientific" authority to impose totalitarian control. Sound familiar?

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 31, 2015 10:45 AM (MAvk4)

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at May 31, 2015 10:45 AM (MYPM9)

94 I have two recommendations;

"The Plantagenets" by Dan Jones is very good. He has a knack for pithy summations of situations and the couple of chapters detailing what a bastard King John was are worth the price of the book.

and

"The Greatest Knight" by Thomas Asbridge, a biography of William Marshal. Marshal was a knight that entered service to Henry the Young King and eventually ended up as one of Henry II's retainers. He served the Plantagenets his whole life eventually rising to become Guardian of the Realm for Henry III. He fought (and won) his last battle at Lincoln during the Baron's War at the age of seventy.

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living... at May 31, 2015 10:45 AM (MkQKr)

95 Donna, thanks for that dadly virtunes youtube link, I downloaded the video for later watching.

And ditto your thoughts about Carlson.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 10:46 AM (tiyBy)

96 The villains seemed absurd in the 1950s, but now
they seem almost ordinary: a bureaucratic-media cabal wrapping itself in
"scientific" authority to impose totalitarian control. Sound familiar?

Posted by: Trimegistus

Nope, doesn't sound familiar at all.

Posted by: Bill Nye the Fascist Guy at May 31, 2015 10:47 AM (MYPM9)

97 From the powerline blog - excerpt from Zev Chafets' "Remembering Who We Are" -- "Life Lessons From Justice Thomas" -- http://bit.ly/1ACWvVZ

I can not recommend Justice Thomas's memoir "My Grandfather's Son" highly enough. I read it because of Rush Limbaugh's enthusiastic recommendation. Brilliant book by an exceptional man.

Posted by: doug at May 31, 2015 10:47 AM (odJ0S)

98 If you want a non-middle earth Tolkien tale, "Farmer Giles of Ham" is a hoot.

Posted by: the guy that moves pianos for a living... at May 31, 2015 10:48 AM (MkQKr)

99 Re 3, 7, et-al----I am Semilitterate

Posted by: Semilitterate

omg I'm a Sagittarius we're like totally compatible lol

Posted by: LIV at May 31, 2015 10:49 AM (MYPM9)

100
For laughs, fergutards get tased:

https://goo.gl/cvMkcL

She also posted a photo of her non existent injuries as she ran off to the ER.

Posted by: Bruce with a Wang! at May 31, 2015 10:50 AM (iQIUe)

101 Every Kerry headline could start out "Due to his inability to be normal..."

Posted by: JD at May 31, 2015 10:52 AM (TzeLs)

102 Reading Rebuilt by Michael White and Tom Corcoran. Our Catholic church is in need of some revitalization and this book was recommended by a friend.

Posted by: bossybarb at May 31, 2015 10:53 AM (QyBQv)

103 Oh, and I am reading through Drake's Northworld Trilogy again.
Norse myths and powered battle-suits go well together.

I wonder if Drake had considered using Thor's visit to Jotunheim where he wound up sleeping in Skrymir's glove and was tricked into trying to drink the sea.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 31, 2015 10:53 AM (t//F+)

104 1. It IS hard for writers to immerse themselves in a period mindset and communicate it to readers.

I think this is the main reason. It takes crap ton of work and is very difficult to do, and if you're lazy, you're not going to want to even try.

The best 'ancient' character I've ever read was Merlin from _That Hideous Strength_, the third book in C.S. Lewis' space trilogy. A 5th century man is re-animated in the 20th century and whoa, he might just as well be from some other planet.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 10:54 AM (tiyBy)

105 The best 'ancient' character I've ever read was Merlin from _That
Hideous Strength_, the third book in C.S. Lewis' space trilogy.

---

Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer was pretty close, too.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at May 31, 2015 10:55 AM (MYPM9)

106 "69 I guess it's too difficult for the gender hacks to give Tolkien credit for writing one of the boldest and bravest female characters in all of literature. Or maybe they just don't read? Eowyn, anyone?"

It's not like Eowyn was missing from the recent movies, too, but maybe it was because Eowyn was attracted to the opposite sex and therefore would not have qualified as a proper wymym to these hacks.

Posted by: Sasquatch at May 31, 2015 10:57 AM (LCkcQ)

107 I would love to read one of the books listed above about The Inklings, but I want to avoid Marxist/SJW interpretations . Has anyone read any of them and can make a recommendation?

Posted by: JoeF. at May 31, 2015 10:57 AM (dWs2Q)

108
I have this problem. I can write.... but I can't read.

So...no. I didn't read the post.

Posted by: fixerupper at May 31, 2015 10:57 AM (JmjOe)

109 Well Oregon Muse may I thank you for the shout out last week. During that weekend promotion, a total of 95 downloads occurred. The Sunday mention was responsible for 62 by itself. So thank you.

As for modern attitudes in historical figures, might as well ask if you prefer Picard over Kirk. Each character has fans, just the Kirk one is more akin to mid-20th Century America and that is because Roddenberry intended that.

Good for Sclazi getting $3.4 million. But I still will never read any of his works because of what he did to a classic of science fiction. I am talking about his bowdlerization of H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy,

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 31, 2015 10:57 AM (ULEme)

110 But after rereading it a couple of times, especially in recent years, it's a lot more prescient and accurate than a lot of people give it credit for.

I know a conservative Christian writer who re-reads _That Hideous Strength_ once every year; he says it's one of the most prophetic novels he's ever read.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 10:58 AM (tiyBy)

111 I have this problem. I can write.... but I can't read.

I didn't know Matt Yglesias posted here!

Posted by: boulder terlit hobo at May 31, 2015 10:58 AM (AVEe1)

112 Lol...

Posted by: fixerupper at May 31, 2015 11:00 AM (JmjOe)

113 Of course in the end, Eowyn learned her place

Posted by: davidt at May 31, 2015 11:00 AM (uGrec)

114 I would love to read one of the books listed above about The Inklings, but I want to avoid Marxist/SJW interpretations . Has anyone read any of them and can make a recommendation?

I don't know, but my guess would be to pick an early one, and maybe you'll get lucky and the progressive rot hadn't spread that far, yet.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 11:01 AM (tiyBy)

115 Because of the ongoing fuss about "Social Justice Warriors" vs. "Sad Puppies" in science fiction, Mr. Scalzi's good news could also be headlined:

"SUPPORTERS OF DIVERSITY CHEER WHITE MAN GETTING MONEY"

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 31, 2015 11:02 AM (MAvk4)

116 97 "I can not recommend Justice Thomas's memoir "My Grandfather's Son" highly enough. I read it because of Rush Limbaugh's enthusiastic recommendation. Brilliant book by an exceptional man."

Powerline just reproduced Justice Thomas's 2008 University of Georgia's commencement speech yesterday.

Posted by: Sasquatch at May 31, 2015 11:02 AM (LCkcQ)

117 "We all of us, even SJWs, need someone in our lives who is able to tell
us that we're (a) full of crap, (b) bughouse crazy or (c) both."

You know who tells/taught you that?

A woman. Or someone who wants to control you. (same thing)

If you need someone else to keep you sane and rational then you really aren't sane or rational, are you?

You're only what they tell you you are.

(I realize this was said mostly tongue in cheek but for some it's truer than for others and frankly we need to stop thinking in cliches that are demonstrably false and harmful. but then I'm bug shit crazy according to this one.)

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at May 31, 2015 11:02 AM (zRby/)

118 83, Lady Donna of the Ampersands, I second that. I watched that video yesterday and it was entirely entertaining and occasionally LOL-worthy. Next up, an AEI interview with Charles Murray about his latest: http://tinyurl.com/o9ppy82

Posted by: Tonestaple at May 31, 2015 11:02 AM (jAHuk)

119 "I've always thought that what we call an immigrant problem is mostly a welfare state problem. If illegal immigrants weren't showered with benefits (from the public treasury) immediately upon arrival in this country, maybe the problem would be more manageable. But what do I know?"

The real problem isn't the illegals themselves. They don't tend to go on welfare. But they have kids who are American citizens and with the kids then they go on full blown welfare. But even if illegals didn't cost a penny, what pisses me off is the unwillingness to assimilate.

Liberals always talk about how America is a nation of immigrants. Yes. A nation of immigrants who fucking assimilated and became Americanized within a generation. There was no Press 2 for Ukranian or a DMV test in Polish available. That's the difference.

Posted by: HUCK / AKIN 2016 at May 31, 2015 11:03 AM (0LHZx)

120 "Is it the conceit that we are the smartest people of all time, and that those before us simply didn't understand?

Or (and this is my guess) are most of these writers stupid and ignorant and badly educated, and they just don't know any better?"

Sad to say, that is my default assumption these days, especially for writers noticeably younger than me.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at May 31, 2015 11:03 AM (Z8DIA)

121 That makes three Morons all at once in Eugene. Cool.

I feel woozy. Is this real life?

Posted by: Insert Clever Name Here at May 31, 2015 11:04 AM (1WydT)

122 Hhhhmmm did the AoS Sasquatch ghost write a book??

http://www.ufunk.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/selection-du-weekend-142-17.jpg

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 31, 2015 11:05 AM (ULEme)

123 So what I"m gathering is I should get the Dadly Virtues book?

Because honestly I have no fucking clue how to raise a conservative girl in a postmodern, sex crazed progressive world.

Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) rogue bioethicst at May 31, 2015 11:09 AM (s92xH)

124 I was talking with another person interested in books and writing, and her take was that modern readers don't read old books, and increasingly CAN'T read them. Nineteenth century prose is becoming inaccessible to them, and consequently nineteenth century ideas and attitudes as well.

I find myself wondering if this is a chicken-and-egg problem: are they unable to read old books because the schools dumb down the reading list, or are the schools bowing to harsh reality?

Posted by: Trimegistus at May 31, 2015 11:09 AM (MAvk4)

125 (I realize this was said mostly tongue in cheek but for some it's truer than for others and frankly we need to stop thinking in cliches that are demonstrably false and harmful. but then I'm bug shit crazy according to this one.)

I had guys like Stalin and Kim Jong Il in mind when I wrote that. No one around them that they have any contact with will tell them the truth, because it's too dangerous. All the courtiers are able to say is what the Big Man wants to hear, flattery, rosy scenarios, Potempkin economic figures, etc. They have no idea what reality is anymore.

I think celebrities can get this way, too. Michael Jackson comes to mind. Probably nobody could ever tell him that sleeping with young boys was not OK.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 11:10 AM (tiyBy)

126 I'm watching an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with my 18-month-old. It's awful. Pete is the "villain" of the episode. Why is he a villain? Because he wants to be faster and win a road rally. Because wanting to win is, of course, a bad desire that is to be stamped out in our kids, don't ya know.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at May 31, 2015 11:10 AM (MYPM9)

127 That Science Fiction has become what it's become is a sad commentary on what else is going on in our civilization. (what's left of it).

Sadly these authors reflect the people who are buying their books. I can't believe they'd continue to write this drivel if it weren't selling units.

That a South State Street 3 card Monte hustler was elected and reelected to the Presidency is only more proof of the state of the American society.

Too bad I won't be around to see them wailing and gnashing their teeth when they find out how much their nihilism will affect them and their children. (that's if they ever do)

Posted by: Bitter Clinger and All That at May 31, 2015 11:11 AM (zRby/)

128 I had guys like Stalin and Kim Jong Il in mind when I wrote that. No one
around them that they have any contact with will tell them the truth,
because it's too dangerous. All the courtiers are able to say is what
the Big Man wants to hear, flattery, rosy scenarios, Potempkin economic
figures, etc. They have no idea what reality is anymore.

-----

Reggie keeps me grounded.

Posted by: Pres'nt Obama at May 31, 2015 11:12 AM (MYPM9)

129 That makes three Morons all at once in Eugene. Cool.

We almost have enough for a moron meet-up.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 11:12 AM (tiyBy)

130 I dug out my copy of Flash Floods in Texas, by johnathan Burnett to peruse.

To all the douchebags trying to politicize the weather, these floods are not new here. I'm just re-reading about the 96 ft wall of water on the Pecos that moved down to the Rio Grnade and took out all the international bridges from Del Rio to Falcon dam.

I always look forward to the book thread. Thanks for all the work you put into it.

Posted by: stace at May 31, 2015 11:12 AM (yCkeu)

131 Not a book question for the horde.

I have just about had it with cable TV.

Any experience/recommendations with Dish or Direct?

Any info would be appreciated.

If you move to an area where Mediacom is the cable provider you're well and truly screwed.

Posted by: weirdflunkyonatablet at May 31, 2015 11:12 AM (pxMbm)

132 106, 69, Eowyn was always one of my favorites in LOTR, but the movie failed to have her say "Begone, foul dwimmerlaik" when she went after the Nazgul lord and so gravely disappointed me. Now, when I say "Begone, foul dwimmerlaik" to someone who is annoying me, I just get a blank look. That should have become a catch-phrase.

Posted by: Tonestaple at May 31, 2015 11:12 AM (jAHuk)

133 Good for Sclazi getting $3.4 million. But I still will never read any of his works because of what he did to a classic of science fiction. I am talking about his bowdlerization of H. Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy,
Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 31, 2015 10:57 AM (ULEme)

I was talking to a few of my friends in the sad puppies world who know about this Scalzi Deal. I guess it has lots of caveats sales numbers attached. It's also 10 books and three children's books. I fully expected a little more bitterness but Larry Correia (The Monster hunter) Was congratulatory which shows a lot of class. Most of that crew was.

However, common thought is the odds of him actually collecting all of that money is pretty slim.

Posted by: Oldsailors Poet. at May 31, 2015 11:14 AM (KbNXw)

134 40 The Inklings were a he-man woman hater's club? Apparently she has never read any of Tolkien's works.

Posted by: davidt at May 31, 2015 09:48 AM (uGrec)

That, and Lucy was the strongest character in The Chronicles of Narnia. The main character in Till We Have Faces is Orual, and the women in That Hideous Strength are generally portrayed in a good light.

But yeah, Christian = Sexist.

Posted by: Michael the Hobbit at May 31, 2015 11:14 AM (0RdKg)

135 Every time I hear the term He Man Woman haters club, I think of Tough Guys by REO Speedwagon.

Posted by: Oldsailors Poet. at May 31, 2015 11:17 AM (KbNXw)

136 I have read some of Scalzi's works. I liked Old Man's War okay, the first sequel was not as good and I could see it going off the "war is always always bad" rails, so I quit. I liked Redshirts okay, but it definitely felt slapdash and amateurish--I actually assumed it was his first book.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at May 31, 2015 11:18 AM (MYPM9)

137 94
Asbridge is also the author of a good history of the 1st Crusade which I read many years ago. When I saw he had written a book about Marshal, I immediately snapped it up. As a younger son of a minor noble, Marshal was completely self made. An amazing man. He had more nobility in his little finger than most of the royals he served or associated with. I can't figure out why the Brits haven't done a mini series on him.

Posted by: Tuna at May 31, 2015 11:19 AM (JSovD)

138 "122 Hhhhmmm did the AoS Sasquatch ghost write a book??

http://www.ufunk.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/selection-du-weekend-142-17.jpg"

My days as a teenage sasquatch, captured in book form!

Posted by: Sasquatch at May 31, 2015 11:19 AM (LCkcQ)

139 Because honestly I have no fucking clue how to raise a conservative girl in a postmodern, sex crazed progressive world.

Being Christian helps. It's not guaranteed, of course, but it does provide a moral framework from which the progressive crap can be resisted.

Also, love your wife. Do not get divorced.

Also, be a part of your daughter's life, as much as you can. Do not be the aloof, distant father. That is a sure recipe for disaster.

If you can, home school, or try a private school. Public schools are pretty much guaranteed to be hotbeds of progressive crap, and you don't need the SJW educrats poisoning your daughter for 6 hours every weekday.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 11:19 AM (tiyBy)

140 "Rich kids use the Internet to get ahead, and poor kids use it 'mindlessly'" is an article on Marketwatch about author Robert Putnam's book "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis."

Closing quote makes my head feel like exploding: "A technology that reduces all the world's information to ones and zeroes may exacerbate our division into haves and have-nots, Putnam says. 'At least at this point in its evolution, the Internet seems more likely to widen the opportunity gap than to close it.'"

SJW think -- Because some use the Internet to further themselves, while others use it to amuse themselves, the knowledge gap is the fault of the Internet? Might it not be the fault of the users who choose to amuse, rather than learn?

Posted by: doug at May 31, 2015 11:21 AM (odJ0S)

141 Being Christian helps.

----

Indeed it does.

Posted by: Christian Grey, sexual deviant at May 31, 2015 11:21 AM (MYPM9)

142 OSP when it comes to brick and mortar establishment publishing there are always caveats about sales numbers. Or are there some special snowflake clauses?

Combat Meido Alice is now in the edit and rewrite stage. Trim a hundred words and and add twenty is the SOP right now. So hovering at 9k.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 31, 2015 11:22 AM (ULEme)

143 136
His "Agent to the Stars" is amusing. Early book, before he started to take his SJW thing seriously.

Posted by: Tuna at May 31, 2015 11:22 AM (JSovD)

144 Posted by: Turd Ferguson at May 31, 2015 11:18 AM (MYPM9)

I understand they have all steadily decreased in quality. I don't read Sci Fi so I can't judge his work personally. If this is the case Tor may be banking on selling an SJW personality, he has capitalized on that. I too am guilty of buying a book because of my opinion of the author and not necessarily the work.

Posted by: Oldsailors Poet. at May 31, 2015 11:22 AM (KbNXw)

145 I'd be willing to make the 2.5 hour drive for a Eugene MoMee sometime.

Posted by: PabloD at May 31, 2015 11:22 AM (roESk)

146 Also, nood.

Posted by: PabloD at May 31, 2015 11:25 AM (roESk)

147 Posted by: Christian Grey, sexual deviant at May 31, 2015 11:21 AM (MYPM9)

Har de har har.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 11:25 AM (tiyBy)

148 "Begone, foul dwimmerlaik"

I'm gonna try saying that this week !
I'm fairly used to getting that blank look anyway.

I was also saddened that they took away Faramir's best lines; (imho) "... but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend: the city of the Men of N�menor ..."

Posted by: sock_rat_eez at May 31, 2015 11:26 AM (Z8DIA)

149 Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 31, 2015 11:22 AM (ULEme)

I don't know, I haven't seen the contract. However, It's understood that he is being rewarded for more than his writing and the message being sent is, "See what happens when you're a good boy."

Posted by: Oldsailors Poet. at May 31, 2015 11:27 AM (KbNXw)

150 I read Scalzi's first book. All the characters talked like they were snarky high-school nerd boys. I decided not to read any more of his books.

Posted by: Doug at May 31, 2015 11:28 AM (+CE04)

151 "Rich kids use the Internet to get ahead, and poor kids use it
'mindlessly'" is an article on Marketwatch about author Robert Putnam's
book "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis."

---

This is true--at the library I work, we have people who are there from when we unlock our doors to when we kick 'em out at 9 pm who simply play games on Facebook the entire time. And we have others who grab stacks of book to help them get ahead--from MCAT and GRE test books to GED and ASVAB and everything else.

Posted by: Turd Ferguson at May 31, 2015 11:28 AM (MYPM9)

152 Here are two highly recommended, thought provoking books that are easy reads (well for me at least)"

Stalin : the court of the red tsar by Montefiore

and

The Red Queen : sex and the evolution of human nature by Ridley.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at May 31, 2015 11:28 AM (u82oZ)

153 Posted by: Tonestaple at May 31, 2015 11:02 AM (jAHuk)

Thanks for the link!

You're welcome, OregonMuse. Hope you enjoy it.

And yeah, it seems like such a failure of imagination to project 21st century PC "virtues" onto historical characters instead of trying to see their world through their eyes.

Funny, isn't it? Leftists are moral relativists - but not when it comes to their own beliefs, which they think are pure and holy and will always be seen that way by the Enlightened of every era.

One surefire way to make a leftist go ballistic is to suggest that for all we know, people 100 or 500 years from now will regard leftist championing of abortion in exactly the same way leftists regard 19th century slaveowners. Liberals go absolutely insane when they contemplate that for a second, because they can't bear to think that they will not be seen as being on the side of the angels. And in their cartoonish version of history, they see Southern slaveowners not as complex humans who were creatures of their place and time, but as completely evil villains guilty of the worst crime ever - racism. The idea that they might be judged just as harshly (and that the prolifers who hold signs outside of abortion clinics might be seen by future generations as brave and noble instead of loony) is something the SJWs cannot even admit as a possibility.

Posted by: Donna &&&&&& V. (brandishing ampersands) at May 31, 2015 11:29 AM (+XMAD)

154 17
As a cherry on the sundae, I also got copies of three Kurt Vonnegut books (Player Piano, Cat's Cradle, and Welcome to the Monkey House), all written relatively early in his career. I really came to despise his writing over the years, feeling that he woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and said "hey, I'm Kurt Vonnegut! Go me!" after which he wrote formulaic, pretentious, repetitive crap. But his early stuff is great.

Posted by: MrScribbler at May 31, 2015 09:14 AM (P8YHq)

I went through a Vonnegut phase for a while when I was younger, and I've read most of his books. It seemed to me that he became embittered later in life, and his later books were harshly critical of capitalism and America, to the point of preachiness.

But his early work is still worth reading. "Player Piano" was his first novel, published in 1952. It's not usually counted among his best, but it has an interesting background. After he came home from WWII, he went to work in the public relations department at General Electric. They were always talking about the wonderful future that would be created by technology and labor-saving devices, so he extrapolated a future where machines did most of the work, and people sat around with nothing much to do. Essentially, the whole nation was on welfare.

It's still relevant today, as we hear about burger-flipping robots being designed to replace $15/hour minimum wage workers.

"Cat's Cradle" was published in 1963, and he was really hitting his stride by that point. It's about the end of the world, and it's flat-out hilarious from cover to cover. There are all sorts of subplots and running jokes weaving around and bumping into each other. It's still my favorite Vonnegut novel.

Posted by: rickl at May 31, 2015 11:30 AM (sdi6R)

155
Scuzzi comes from a very wealthy family. I wonder how much of his book(s) advance he will donate to real charity and by real I mean not some stupid vanity charity, e.g., save the lesbian whales...

Posted by: Bruce with a Wang! at May 31, 2015 11:30 AM (iQIUe)

156 Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 11:19 AM (tiyBy)

Alas, unless the school system obviously crashes in the next few year I doubt my wife is going to go for private school.

She's very much pro-public school for a reason I can only gather as "I went to a public school, also we already pay for it."

I keep trying to explain that she thrived in spite of, not because of, that school system, but it doesn't seem to get through.

We'll see what's up when the little one is school age I suppose. Nothing changes my wife's mind like hands on experience. If (when) they try to teach a second grader how to put a condom on a banana I'm guessing she'll take her out of public school faster than I ever could.

Posted by: tsrblke, PhD(c) rogue bioethicst at May 31, 2015 11:31 AM (s92xH)

157 141 Being Christian helps.
----
Indeed it does.
Posted by: Christian Grey, sexual deviant at May 31, 2015 11:21 AM (MYPM9)

Ok I know we are joking about this story, but seeing the movie just made me feel deeply sorry for Christian grey and I suspect that where the author pulled her readers in, although I couldn't make it through her prose beyond the first chapter.

He's basically a victim of abuse. That's why he's a mess.

Not that the girl isn't an idiot for going along with it but still. Guy needs therapy.

Posted by: Lea at May 31, 2015 11:31 AM (vmMMi)

158 Greetings:

Gratuitous and unsolicted book design suggestion:

I read mostly non-fiction or mostly non-fiction so I bump up against the rather indefinite end-notes situation. Obviously, flipping back and forth to the notes while reading is less than fully desirable especially when the "note" is really just a source citation.

So, perhaps someone out there in the out-there book design world could/would come up with a more useful system wherein actual notes, meaning more but not crucial information, could be segregated (Oh, noes, segregation !!!) from the simpler source citations which would seem to be of more import to professors and intellectuals and others of those ilks.

Posted by: 11B40 at May 31, 2015 11:31 AM (abx5/)

159 That makes three Morons all at once in Eugene. Cool.

We almost have enough for a moron meet-up.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 11:12 AM (tiyBy)

Let me know, I might show up.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 31, 2015 11:31 AM (t//F+)

160 I know a conservative Christian writer who re-reads _That Hideous Strength_ once every year; he says it's one of the most prophetic novels he's ever read.
Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 10:58 AM (tiyBy)

I agree, and I also re-read the space trilogy every year. I first read them in high school in the seventies and thought that That Hideous Strength was a bit out there. Now I believe that themes of propaganda, brutal leftism masquerading as "NICE," sexual perversion, and the demonic strength behind them really were prophetic.

Posted by: Michael the Hobbit at May 31, 2015 11:32 AM (0RdKg)

161
I'm starting guests of the ayatollah which has been sitting on my shelf for years.

Posted by: Lea at May 31, 2015 09:12 AM (vmMMi)

The cold war between the captive Marines and the mohammedan guards is a hoot. Especially the dishes/bathroom incident.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at May 31, 2015 11:35 AM (ynQIy)

162 So Scalzi is getting special treats by TOR in response to Sad Puppies ... Must be nice to bribe fellow travelers so they stay allies.

Not really, considering what that type of action says about the character of both parties.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 31, 2015 11:35 AM (ULEme)

163 Stalin : the court of the red tsar by Montefiore

Oh, goodness, I read that one too - absolutely terrifying.

Life for the average Ivan was awful under Stalin, but it's not like the people close to him were having much fun either in that snakepit. Stalin could have you over for dinner one night and have you and your family arrested the next day.

And Beria, the serial rapist: think of a guy just as lecherous as Clinton, only with even fewer scruples, more sadism and almost unlimited power.

Posted by: Donna &&&&&& V. (brandishing ampersands) at May 31, 2015 11:37 AM (+XMAD)

164 158
So, perhaps someone out there in the out-there book design world could/would come up with a more useful system wherein actual notes, meaning more but not crucial information, could be segregated (Oh, noes, segregation !!!) from the simpler source citations which would seem to be of more import to professors and intellectuals and others of those ilks.

Posted by: 11B40 at May 31, 2015 11:31 AM (abx5/)

I know! We could put them at the bottom of the page. We could call them "footnotes".

Posted by: rickl at May 31, 2015 11:37 AM (sdi6R)

165
So, perhaps someone out there in the out-there
book design world could/would come up with a more useful system wherein
actual notes, meaning more but not crucial information, could be
segregated (Oh, noes, segregation !!!) from the simpler source citations
which would seem to be of more import to professors and intellectuals
and others of those ilks.
Posted by: 11B40 at May 31, 2015 11:31 AM (abx5/)

Footnotes?

Posted by: Kindltot at May 31, 2015 11:38 AM (t//F+)

166 >> If (when) they try to teach a second grader how to put a condom on a
banana I'm guessing she'll take her out of public school faster than I
ever could.

It will happen after all the little annoyances add up to the unmistakable conclusion that public school is not what it used to be.
Things like visiting the classroom and seeing that your kid's awesome school supplies were pooled and doled out to others (so she's using a crappy pencil while some other kid has her Ticonderogas), your sweet lil' kindergartener pointing at an SUV as you walk to school and commenting "That's killing the planet!" and being told no, you cannot bring in cupcakes on her birthday, how about you donate a copy of her favorite book to the school library instead?

Posted by: Lizzy at May 31, 2015 11:41 AM (q6kiT)

167 Last week their was a brief mention of this book. If you're looking for a fun action packed syfy adventure comedy book, you could do worse than Hard Luck Hank: Screw the Galaxy by Steven Campbell. Hank is a good natured goon who lives on an obscure space station catering to crooks and other undesirables. He's a mutant who is able to heal himself from practically any trauma so he is the ideal negotiator/errand boy for interaction between the 100 or so crime families and the corrupt government because if you don't like what he has to say you can't just shoot him and make him stop. Although he prefers peaceful conflict resolutions, he's not above shooting people who need shooting always insulting them first with, "Eat suck, suckface!" Well, all of that is well and good until a couple of hostile alien robots come to town . . .

There are at least two sequels, Basketful of Crap and Prince of Suck, which I haven't read yet.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at May 31, 2015 11:43 AM (LImiJ)

168 Michael the Hobbit:

I LOVED "Till We Have Faces," and I think it would make an amazing bit of opera or musical theatre. Strong female lead, the great fight between Orual and Psyche, the flash of reality she sees for a moment, the bitterness, the turn at the end, the veiled woman. It's rich. Not much read, but fairly brilliant. (Oh, and it's a Christian repurposing a pagan myth, consciously and purposefully. Again, a complex set of facts the article's author missed entirely because she had a narrative to attend to.)

Posted by: Smallish Bees at May 31, 2015 11:45 AM (YPgXi)

169 I'm late to the book thread.
I have a question. I enjoyed Dean Koontz Odd Thomas books partly because they are so unapologetically conservative. Any recs for similar fantasy/horror books that lean right?

Posted by: @votermom at May 31, 2015 11:46 AM (cbfNE)

170 >>I know! We could put them at the bottom of the page. We could call them "footnotes".

Sophie Kinsella (chick lit author) wrote a book that has all sorts of hilarious comments included in the foootnotes (after the main character comments on how she never reads footnotes) - think is was "I've Got Your Number."

Posted by: Lizzy at May 31, 2015 11:46 AM (q6kiT)

171 I am deficient in my C. S. Lewis reading although the Sunday book thread has been greatly helpful in this. I believe I will go move the Space Trilogy to the first page of my Kindle contents - sounds like I'm really missing out on something important.

Many thanks to OM and all the morons for the wonderful suggestions every week.

Posted by: Tonestaple at May 31, 2015 11:48 AM (jAHuk)

172 Not sure if I ever want to see this on stage or as a movie - Kafka On the Shore
http://tinyurl.com/qa42umx

The real deal breaker is the Hegel quoting sex-workers I think.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 31, 2015 11:49 AM (ULEme)

173 tsrblke are there any good charter schools nearby?
Those are public , some are so so and some are gems.

Posted by: @votermom at May 31, 2015 11:54 AM (cbfNE)

174 Re: Coulter and Democrats' intentions

I recall reading in one JFK biography -- Johnny We Hardly Knew Ye, maybe -- that at the time of his death JFK was very focused on the issue of wealth and party identification. (ironic, I know).

Specifically, the phenomenon that concerned JFK was the tendency of many to switch from Democrats to Republicans as they progressed economically. What worried JFK was the fact that someone who had a decent paying job, owned a house and some stocks and maybe a small business found nothing for himself in the Democratic party v.1960's. JFK was focused on developing strategies to combat that phenomenon.

Voila! Less than two years into JFK's Arlington fertilization project Teddy came along and solved that problem once, and for all time! The Immigration Act of 1965 ensured there would always be a steady stream of poor people/new Democrats.

Coulter is very much on to something.

Posted by: Redolent at May 31, 2015 11:55 AM (uSM1W)

175 http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/05/04/id-rather-like-men-than-to-be-a-sad-puppy/

Ace, why are you promoting an author who is against awards for all not just those who are PC?

Posted by: Smileynh at May 31, 2015 11:55 AM (5vRRq)

176 I'm sure that someone mentioned it above, but Dorothy Sayers was an inkling and she was all woman. Maybe that eluded the feminist twit who wrote that abysmal article.

Posted by: Christopher Taylor at May 31, 2015 11:56 AM (39g3+)

177 OutsideTheCovers

Some books are heavier than others.

For various meanings of heavy.

Reading a hefty hardback at bedtime, one may wake up with a deep groove across the belly.

Posted by: Radd Dadd Upanishadd (Smythe) at May 31, 2015 11:58 AM (eauMe)

178 I believe that the idea of the Immigration Act of 1965 was to get a fresh wave of Democrat voters by increasing emigration from poorer countries, and decreasing it from European countries.
That said, I don't believe JFK or any other sane Democrat thought it would lead to what we have now. After all, the US had done a very good job of assimilating immigrants before. We also have to remember that European countries were in no position to send millions of their people to the US after WW2. So I'm guessing that many people figured emigration from the Third World made sense.
But I'm sure that by the '80's the Democrats (and Republicans) knew what was happening and let it go on until now and we are fucked because of that.

Posted by: JoeF. at May 31, 2015 12:07 PM (dWs2Q)

179 Because honestly I have no fucking clue how to raise a conservative girl in a postmodern, sex crazed progressive world.

Being Christian helps.

-
I watched an HBO documentary yesterday about the horrible Cheshire murders. They had two excuses for the perps, the police didn't do their job well and the parents of one forced him to arrend a conservative Christian church. It is a good documentary although extremely sad and it ends on On Demand tomorrow.

Posted by: The Great White Snark at May 31, 2015 12:10 PM (LImiJ)

180 If it takes about 20 years to write that many books, then that's only about $170K/yr.

Anyways, Scalzi mainly writes mildly entertaining fluff. If you want something much better, try John C Lewis. The Golden Oecuemene and Count To a Trillion series are far, far better than anything Scalzi's ever done, and Awake in the Night Land is just brilliant.

And if you want entertaining fluff done better, try anything by Larry Correia.

Posted by: TallDave at May 31, 2015 12:12 PM (74ZYB)

181 sorry, John C Wright, not Lewis

Posted by: TallDave at May 31, 2015 12:15 PM (74ZYB)

182 @175 Oregonmuse gives us the book thread, ace has the weekend off.

I wouldn't say Scalzi is being promoted here, though people can like his work regardless of his far left politics (I thought Redshirts was OK). Last week people said nice things about some Stephen King books and he's no fan of conservatives either.

Posted by: waelse1 at May 31, 2015 12:16 PM (Z8gDw)

183 #175 I'm surprised how many times I run into someone who thinks that ace does the book thread.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 12:18 PM (tiyBy)

184 #182 I even get comments at the book thread gmail address addressed to "ace".

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 12:24 PM (tiyBy)

185 Ace keeps threatening to read Moby Dick but it never happens. It's his great white whale.

Posted by: waelse1 at May 31, 2015 12:26 PM (Z8gDw)

186 *serves Oregon Muse a nice cup of tea with some scones*

Thou art being confused with greatness. Or an Eowk.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 31, 2015 12:27 PM (ULEme)

187 It's kind of like she's an ardent feminist who keeps a stash of
bodice-ripping romance novels underneath her bed that she reads on the
down low, when she thinks no one else is looking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQnIL-XPerQ

Posted by: Anachronda at May 31, 2015 12:34 PM (Orj1M)

188 Just finishing Neal Stephenson's Seveneves. Wonderful stuff....

Posted by: Buddha at May 31, 2015 12:38 PM (XrHO0)

189 No response on the Dish/Direct TV question I see.

Well hell, I tried.

Posted by: weirdflunkyonatablet at May 31, 2015 12:42 PM (pxMbm)

190 Just finishing Neal Stephenson's Seveneves. Wonderful stuff....

Posted by: Buddha at May 31, 2015 12:38 PM (XrHO0)

I was waiting for some feedback on this. Sounds like I have yet another book to purchase and put in the queue!

Posted by: Hrothgar at May 31, 2015 12:42 PM (ftVQq)

191 i thought THIS wqa the he-man woman haters club.

Posted by: steinmetz at May 31, 2015 12:44 PM (CrYC8)

192 No response on the Dish/Direct TV question I see.

Well hell, I tried.

Posted by: weirdflunkyonatablet at May 31, 2015 12:42 PM (pxMbm)

Had Direct for years and it has been pretty reliable but they don't upgrade your equipment unless you threaten to quit. Other than that, it works like a TV delivery service should unless there is really bad weather or lots of snow/ice on the dish.

Posted by: Hrothgar at May 31, 2015 12:46 PM (ftVQq)

193 Posted by: Hrothgar at May 31, 2015 12:46 PM (ftVQq)

Thanks. Don't think snow and ice will be a problem here but have heard about the stormy weather problem.

My cable absolutely sux. Don't know what to do but this is ridiculous.

Posted by: weirdflunkyonatablet at May 31, 2015 12:49 PM (pxMbm)

194 [124] I was talking with another person interested in books and writing, and her take was that modern readers don't read old books, and increasingly CAN'T read them. Nineteenth century prose is becoming inaccessible to them, and consequently nineteenth century ideas and attitudes as well.
I find myself wondering if this is a chicken-and-egg problem: are they unable to read old books because the schools dumb down the reading list, or are the schools bowing to harsh reality?

--------
Of course they are capable of reading old books if they have the motivation. Reading lists at schools are dumbed-down PC propaganda. It's up to the parents to introduce their children to classic books; schools aren't going to do it. They didn't even do it when I was in school, long ago.

Posted by: microcosme at May 31, 2015 12:55 PM (8QCtS)

195 My cable absolutely sux. Don't know what to do but this is ridiculous.

Posted by: weirdflunkyonatablet at May 31, 2015 12:49 PM (pxMbm)

I'd give DirecTV a try. SiL has Dish and she has had no problems either, so a price comparison would be in order. In my experience, the weather has got to be really heavy rain for a signal dropout, so it is a rare occurrence.

Posted by: Hrothgar at May 31, 2015 12:56 PM (ftVQq)

196 Greetings, rickl: (#164 at May 31, 2015 11:37 AM )

Exactly. As a printer who started off in the Linotype days and continued on to the MACwonderful ones, it kind of disappoints me that with all the digital and software capabilities available today, designers and publishers have decided to foist a less useful product off on their readers.

Posted by: 11B40 at May 31, 2015 12:56 PM (abx5/)

197 I've had Direct TV for years and like it. Only times it goes out is heavy rain or snow. Very good customer service - we had reception issues based on placement of the dish and they took care of it quickly.

Posted by: Lizzy at May 31, 2015 12:56 PM (q6kiT)

198 Posted by: microcosme at May 31, 2015 12:55 PM (8QCtS)

Those three syllble words are just too complex for our modern speshul snowflakes!

Posted by: Hrothgar at May 31, 2015 12:58 PM (ftVQq)

199 @188 Seveneves

Interesting. Reviews seem to be very positive or fairly negative. Not much middle ground.

Posted by: doug at May 31, 2015 01:07 PM (odJ0S)

200 Any experience/recommendations with Dish or Direct?

Any info would be appreciated.

If you move to an area where Mediacom is the cable provider you're well and truly screwed.

Posted by: weirdflunkyonatablet at May 31, 2015 11:12 AM (pxMbm)

Satellite signals are interrupted by snow, heavy rain, and trees the line of sight of your dish. The providers are just as manipulative as cable in terms of giving you lots of crappy channels (or duplicate versions of the same channel, in standard and HD) to make it seem like you have a vast number of viewing opportunities. And the channels themselves (this is not limited to satellite) have dumbed down their programming to the point where they aren't worth watching anyway. The decline and fall of the History Channel, which the last time I looked had nothing to do with actual, you know, history, is emblematic of this phenomenon.

A while ago I cancelled DirecTV and began relying exclusively on Amazon Fire TV (that is a streaming video service, not the high-end Kindle device with almost the same name), along with Hulu and Netflix. Saved about 75% on my monthly bill, and in fact my viewing options are considerably expanded. You do need a working cable or DSL connection, although from the router to the Fire TV device you can use WiFi.

Posted by: A. Guy at May 31, 2015 01:10 PM (1EJIj)

201 So Scalzi is getting special treats by TOR in
response to Sad Puppies ... Must be nice to bribe fellow travelers so
they stay allies.

Not really, considering what that type of action says about the character of both parties.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at May 31, 2015 11:35 AM (ULEme)

Not surprising; it's hard to have any credibility in criticizing authors who actually sell books if you haven't been able to sell your own.

Posted by: SDN at May 31, 2015 01:11 PM (Mjgz0)

202 If there's anything more macho than a writer...well, I just don't know what it is.

Posted by: Pajama Boy at May 31, 2015 09:03 AM (FcR7P)

Wh
at are you trying to thay?

Posted by: Art Buchwald at May 31, 2015 01:32 PM (zdw2Z)

203 I've been reading H. Paul Honsinger's "Man Of War" series and liking it so far, He appears to have successfully moved the Aubrey-Maturin partnership into space as David Weber did with Horatio Hornblower.

Posted by: SDN at May 31, 2015 01:32 PM (Mjgz0)

204 Headed to Australia later in the summer and would like to pick up a few books set there or by Australian authors. Have read quite a bit of history already, so open to anything interesting historically or a good murder mystery. Got hooked on the Inspector Rebus mysteries last summer when I went to Scotland. Thanks for any suggestions.

Posted by: Charlotte at May 31, 2015 01:52 PM (VRwlD)

205 Having just finished Hans Spidel's 'Invasion 1944' (a very good/revealing read re the allied invasion from the German perspective), this week I launched on 'The Last 100 Days'.

It is fascinating, if somewhat depressing, to read of Roosevelt's handling of inter-allied negotiations regarding the management of post-war Europe. In spite of experienced diplomats (especially Churchill's) repeated advice that Roosevelt NOT trust Stalin, Roosevelt maintained the pollyanna perspective that Stalin would be so grateful to Roosevelt that he would never lie, or become aggressive.

It also becomes clear that Roosevelt had very little understanding of European history and culture. In short, Roosevelt was a useful idiot.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 31, 2015 01:54 PM (F2IAQ)

206 Eowyn was always one of my favorites in LOTR, but the movie failed to have her say "Begone, foul dwimmerlaik" when she went after the Nazgul lord and so gravely disappointed me.

The whole exchange is perfect:

“Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, lord of carrion! Leave the dead in peace!"

A cold voice answered: 'Come not between the Nazgûl and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shriveled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye."

A sword rang as it was drawn. "Do what you will; but I will hinder it, if I may."

"Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!"

Then Merry heard of all sounds in that hour the strangest. It seemed that Dernhelm laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. "But no living man am I!”

Posted by: Grump928(C) at May 31, 2015 02:04 PM (rwI+c)

207 I have a first edition "Old Man's War" and I really liked the book, nice premise, but I stopped purchasing anything from Scalzi a long time ago..it's just so mundane. Other than "Old Man's War" he has written nothing of value and he has never written anything that is original in my opinion. All he really did was rip on other authors works and re-examine them from a different viewpoint. I hope he gets his money...TOR will be worse off financially in the long run.

Posted by: Budahmon at May 31, 2015 02:23 PM (vcSri)

208 Read "On Conan Doyle: Or the whole Art of Storytelling" by Michael Dirda. He starts with how he first learned about Sherlock Holmes stories (uncannily similar to my introduction). He goes on to Doyle's other genres and his contemporaries (worth the price of the book by itself). He ends with a discussion about the Baker Street Irregulars and how he was invited to join.

Like the other Dirda books I've read, this one is a delight. He has a new book coming out this summer and I'm looking forward to it. As one of the commenters on Amazon wrote, Dirda has "undiminished enthusiasm" for his subject and that enthusiasm is infectious.

Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2015 02:27 PM (FvdPb)

209 Just realized that next year is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Has anyone heard about new books or events about it?

Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2015 02:29 PM (FvdPb)

210 test

Posted by: Hrothgar at May 31, 2015 02:38 PM (ftVQq)

211
Darn it, now I have got to re-read LOTR in the beautiful new boxed gift set I was given for Christmas!

Posted by: Hrothgar at May 31, 2015 02:39 PM (ftVQq)

212 205--I agree and it's instructive to note that most Democrats ( and some Republicans) take the same approach to this day when dealing with enemies--or potential enemies.
"Oh if we just give them this or that, and show them how nice and reasonable we are, they'll be so grateful and LOVE us!"

Posted by: JoeF. at May 31, 2015 02:57 PM (E65fj)

213 206, Grump928, thanks! I get goosebumps just reading that. "No living man am I!"

Posted by: Tonestaple at May 31, 2015 03:25 PM (jAHuk)

214 Poor Hrothgar. I'm in the same boat except I'm going to buy it for Kindle as soon as I get my first paycheck in a couple of weeks. I have a hard-cover boxed set that I got when I was in high school, I think, but I don't want to read that in bed for fear of either sleeping on top of it or having a certain cat decide to chew on the corners of the cover.

Posted by: Tonestaple at May 31, 2015 03:29 PM (jAHuk)

215
http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=56916

Nice one, McGehee.

Posted by: Ira Weatheral, man of few words at May 31, 2015 03:33 PM (85ldL)

216 Hrothgar ... Enjoy the hard cover LOTR. It's worth risking that line on the stomach. As someone who has read the book each year since about 1965, I can't imagine reading it on an e-reader.

And yes, I miss some of the rich dialog that never made it into the movie. 'Foul dwimmerlaik' should be part of everyday speech, especially when addressing the Leftards.

Posted by: JTB at May 31, 2015 04:01 PM (FvdPb)

217 Boss Moss said, "Secretariat of State John Kerry broke his leg."

Best response ever. That's funny on, like, six levels.

Posted by: Smallish Bees at May 31, 2015 04:09 PM (yjhOG)

218 The only evil females in Tolkien's mythology were Ungoliant and Shelob.
Posted by: davidt at May 31, 2015 09:48 AM (uGrec)
*******************

And Shelob was so fierce that even the orcs feared her.

Posted by: Jess Spitballen at May 31, 2015 04:15 PM (TqyFL)

219 And Shelob was so fierce that even the orcs feared her.

Kind of like Moochelle, I guess...

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 04:18 PM (V8FLc)

220 Geeking out. Thuringwethil ("She of Hidden Shadow" in Sindarin) was Sauron's herald, probably a maia, and she took the form of a great bat-vampire. "Her great fingered wings were barbed at each joint's end with an iron claw."

Posted by: Smallish Bees at May 31, 2015 04:26 PM (yjhOG)

221 For Charlotte headed to Australia - Try Kate Grenville's "The Secret River," a novel set in colonial Australia. I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would.

Posted by: biancaneve at May 31, 2015 05:05 PM (HaVMa)

222 Kind of like Moochelle, I guess...
Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 04:18 PM (V8FLc)
****************

Shelob didn't bitch about her life.
Strong characters don't do that.

Posted by: Jess Spitballen at May 31, 2015 05:12 PM (TqyFL)

223 Shelob didn't bitch about her life.

Strong characters don't do that.

Posted by: Jess Spitballen at May 31, 2015 05:12 PM (TqyFL)

Shelob didn't expect the taxpayers to front her vacations either, she was pretty content to stay in her lair!

Posted by: Hrothgar at May 31, 2015 05:18 PM (ftVQq)

224 221
For Charlotte headed to Australia - Try Kate Grenville's "The Secret
River," a novel set in colonial Australia. I enjoyed it far more than I
thought I would.

Thanks for the suggestion biancaneve

Posted by: Charlotte at May 31, 2015 05:18 PM (VRwlD)

225 Soooo, in the face of a market very much in flux with indie rising they expect him to sell a minimum of between 300,000 and 500,000 thousand books? Are they insane?

Posted by: Ravenshrike at May 31, 2015 06:22 PM (kh1fp)

226 Wait, sorry, off by an order of magnitude. They expect him to sell between 3 and 5 million books?

Posted by: Ravenshrike at May 31, 2015 06:25 PM (kh1fp)

227 Can I just say? I loath the whole constuct of "Cis" anything and cringe whenever I come across it...

Posted by: Rodney C. Johnson at May 31, 2015 06:37 PM (M2oVh)

228 Tor, it seems to be where the stupid go.

Posted by: Rodney C. Johnson at May 31, 2015 06:38 PM (M2oVh)

229

Sparrowhawk series by Edward Cline -- probably mentioned here before, but it's new to me. Historical fiction set in a time leading up to the revolutionary war. Great characters and attention to detail regarding political climate leading up to the conflict. Eager to give the series to my grandsons when they are ready to digest what the books have to offer.

Posted by: MotherGoos3 at May 31, 2015 07:10 PM (WSlv+)

230

Sparrowhawk series by Edward Cline -- probably mentioned here before, but it's new to me. Historical fiction set in a time leading up to the revolutionary war. Great characters and attention to detail regarding political climate leading up to the conflict. Eager to give the series to my grandsons when they are ready to digest what the books have to offer.

Posted by: MotherGoos3 at May 31, 2015 07:10 PM (WSlv+)

231 Wait, sorry, off by an order of magnitude. They expect him to sell between 3 and 5 million books?

According to the article, Tor claims that Scalzi sells "a healthy five-figure number of his books every month," and also they think he hasn't even begun to reach his full potential audience.

So, 3-4 million books sold in 10 years sounds doable.

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 07:12 PM (V8FLc)

232 Available at Amamzon on kindle for .99 each. It's almost like robbery to get such great books at that price.

Posted by: MotherGoos3 at May 31, 2015 07:15 PM (WSlv+)

233 There is a federal law that prohibits immigrants from being naturalized if they are deemed to be "likely" to become a burden on the state (ie. welfare recipients).

Democrats have seen fit to ensure that immigrants that have, in fact, been in part or wholly dependent on welfare handouts since they first arrived here until they are naturalized are NOT "deemed" to be "likely" to become a burden on the state.

This is absurd, of course.

Seems to me, a few minor modifications to existing laws, and enforcement of the clear letter of existing laws, is all that is needed. Anyone that has ever received ANY state assistance of any kind should be prohibited from ever being naturalized.

Most welfare programs (of whatever name) already prohibit distributions to aliens, legal or illegal, but those prohibitions are routinely ignored (Obamacare being the most recent example). These prohibitions need to be universal. Absolutely ZERO handouts (all welfare programs, all "refundable tax credits", etc, regardless of how they are named) should ever be given to anyone that is not an actual citizen of these United States.

Posted by: Aarradin at May 31, 2015 07:34 PM (E1dWk)

234 52
Huh. Weird. Turns out trying to use an em-dash character blows up the comments server.

I'm just glad we don't have to use Baudot. Flexowriters are hard to come by these days.

Posted by: Anachronda at May 31, 2015 10:58 PM (o78gS)

235 I'm just glad we don't have to use Baudot. Flexowriters are hard to come by these days.
---------------

Just to show that the Book Thread has legs (it's now 13 hours old), I have to say that I *have* used a Flexowriter as a terminal. I won't even say how long ago...., oh yeah, and the attached paper tape reader too.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 31, 2015 11:05 PM (9mTYi)

236 Reading "The Wright Brothers" by David McCullough. Pretty good book...McCullough is always a great read and the Wright brothers deserve so much more than history gives them. Incredible, but eccentric brothers and geniuses. No formal college and had to create everything they needed to build their planes. Remarkable Americans.

Posted by: RGallegos at May 31, 2015 11:57 PM (49Jfq)

237 Just to show that the Book Thread has legs (it's now 13 hours old), I have to say that I *have* used a Flexowriter as a terminal. I won't even say how long ago...., oh yeah, and the attached paper tape reader too.

What's that you say, sonny?

I used to type FORTRAN statements out on punch cards using the old IBM Model 029 keypunch machine. Now get off my lawn. Kids these days...

Posted by: OregonMuse at May 31, 2015 11:58 PM (V8FLc)

238 A bit surprising to me that with all the high geek-cred Morons about, no one has noted that the first quote from that L. A. Times article about the Inklings is a direct parody of the opening lines of The Hobbit: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

And in total agreement with TallDave on John C. Wright - the Golden Oecumene series absolutely blew me away. Hadn't had the SF sense of scale and wonder kindled like that since the first reading of the Lensmen books, which is all the more astonishing in a series so "hard"/scientifically plausible. Wright did his homework, knows the craft of writing, and had a good story to tell.

Posted by: Fredegar Bolger at June 01, 2015 05:49 AM (EVvKk)

239 A bit surprising to me that with all the high geek-cred Morons about, no one has noted that the first quote from that L. A. Times article about the Inklings is a direct parody of the opening lines of The Hobbit

Good catch. I totally missed it.

I also forgot what a number of other morons pointed out, that one of the Inklings was Dorothy Sayers, making the article's claim that it was a men-only club even more foolish.

Posted by: OregonMuse at June 01, 2015 10:40 AM (V8FLc)

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