With a couple more substantive posts on the immediate horizon, here’s a Sunday morning helping of marginalia:
- I hope he went there for research purposes, but David Louis Edelman’s poking around at the Fox News website produced a very observant post.
- When we actually win one, the DOJ makes sure it provides some payback for those that help domestic spying efforts , Here’s the actual comment filed with the FCC, which parrots the telecommunications industry line.
- Scott Esposito has an idea I might “borrow” for a future post — a list of five authors he’s discovered this year. As for one of his authors, at the end of last year I asked the same question he asks, “Why did it take me so long to read [Cormac] McCarthy?”
- Speaking of authors, this week saw the shortlists for the Man Booker Prize (I read and enjoyed On Chesil Beach and picked up The Reluctant Fundamentalist after work Friday on sale at the local chain bookstore) and the Prix Aurora, the award given by the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (Blindsight is the only finalist I’ve read).
- While I certainly am personally biased, I think it’s at least worthwhile to ask questions like whether SF has a bias against Christianity. And while some might take it as evidence of bias, one of my favorite novels, Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow, has a Jesuit as the main character and directly addresses issues the discovery of alien life might present for the Christian faith. (Via.)
- As long as we’re being philosophical about SF, how about the philosophy of time travel. (Also via.)
- My blog post title for this quarter (or maybe the year): Does this make my vulva look fat?
Like Saint Theresa said: “If that’s how God treats His friends, it’s no wonder He’s got so few of them.”
Mary Doria Russell, Children of God
