A Worthy Quote from Borges
From “The Immortal,” by Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley: “I have noticed that in spite of religion, the conviction as to one’s own immortality is extraordinarily rare. Jews,…
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It All Starts with Sturgeon, sort of…
Science fiction took a big step toward modernity (actually postmodernity) with Theodore Sturgeon’s “Unite and Conquer,” which I read recently in the collection A Way Home. Within that story, the…
2010 – what I should have learned…
After finishing Our Man in Havana with relative alacrity, and the resultant satisfaction that comes from a really good book, I am forced to contemplate the time wasted with other…
We are all Morton Downey Jr.
Remember that girl, during the 2008 presidential election, who faked an attack from an ardent Obama supporter? She scratched a backward B on her cheek, as one might do if…
The end of “The End of the Affair”
The End of the Affair was simply a great book. I had avoided Graham Greene books up to this point. I do not know why since he is often associated…
Et tu, zombie?
In light of the recent zombie-related story posted a week back, I thought it might be a good time to look at the concept of the zombie in popular culture….
The Reivers – Read It!
I recently finished reading William Faulkner’s The Reivers. It was an excellent book, highly recommended. Some great passages stood out in my mind: “…if all the human race ever stops…
It’s all in a name…
I do not remember a time when the words “Skywalker” or “Alderaan” sounded nonsensical and silly. In fact, I don’t know if that time ever existed. They seem like perfectly…
Burgess’s Honey for the Bears
I recently finished reading Honey for the Bears, by Anthony Burgess. Of course his most famous work by far is A Clockwork Orange, although his other writing is highly regarded…
The Plague of “Even”
A devil’s bargain in word processing is the quick-find option. David Lodge foresaw this curse in Small World, when his character Frobisher found, through an old-tyme computer, his unwitting penchant…