Someone Help me put on this Redshirt: On Scalzi

I really liked reading this book.

I had read an earlier book by Scalzi, one of his first ones, and it was really close to another book that was a classic of the genre, so I was worried about someone being the kind of guy who was happy being successful as a derivative author.

But this book is derivative in a good way. It takes the Star Trek tradition of killing a minor character and both plays it for laughs and as an introspective look at the genre itself. It would be hard here to get into too much detail here and not give it away, but if you like the work of Vonnegut and Calvino, you’d be at home here.

The last third is a bit much though, since it takes the trope, turns it inside out, and looks at its desiccated corpse. What was once clever becomes sign-posted. 

It’s really good, just stop at page 230.

Two Quick Graphic Novel Looks 3.20.2017

Kindred

I had never read anything by Butler before. I was recommended the Parable of the Sower at one point several years back, bought it and after reading a couple of pages I put it down for something else.

Saying that, I’m not sure how accurate this adaptation is, and I give credit to Duffy and Jennings but this is her book in a way but they just walked in.

What this is is a very powerful book about the evils of slavery. Now, you don’t have to dig very deep to know that slavery was an evil institution, but something about the sci-fi / magical realism aspect of the time travelling protagonists makes the juxtaposition stronger because they are not of the world and thus have not accepted it as part of the unchangeable reality.  

Brief History of Everyday Objects

This would have been perfect a decade ago.

It was fun to read and not too deep.

It would have been perfect as a bathroom book. I loved those things, short attention span theatre for the time you just need something in front of you. I think 2008 and the release of the iPhone must have killed that. It would have been horrible going all-in on bathroom books in 2007. The Uncle John’s stock must have tanked.

But alas, it is 2017, so I read it straight through, which might not have been the best way. The stories are brief, and pass quickly from the mind as you move onto the next one.

On Manson's "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck"

Basically, this is like a Buddhism or stoicism repackages for today.

It is not bad. I took it up because I thought my self needed some help, but horrors, not self-help.

But it is not going to change my life. Makes you think. A bit. You too will die. And nothing matters.

But I already knew THAT. Convince the physiological process that drives my anxiety that, and we have a winner. Close, but so far away.