10/16/2012

Now that THAT'S sorted....

a
Quiz: What Kind of Liberal Are You?

My Liberal Identity

You are a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what's known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-centric thought reign supreme.

Take the quiz at
About.com Political Humor


Interestingly, I actually do consider myself relatively Jesus-centric — I guess just not the way they mean it.

10/15/2012

Some books are even better.

Sometimes, when I go back and reread a childhood favorite, I'm a bit disappointed. How could I not have seen the flatness of the characters, the plodding action, the misogyny, the triteness? (Although how a small child is supposed to recognize triteness when it's her first time reading about anything is beyond me — I'm reminded of Bernard Black's observation: "All children look surprised. Everything's new to them.")

However, I'm thrilled to find that the original Oz books — by L. Frank Baum, of course — are tiny miracles of arch, quietly hilarious social satire. Although the theory that they're political allegories of the party politics and bombast of the day has not been entirely persuasively argued, what is beyond question is the sly wink at the reader: You're reading this to your kid — and, in fact, the kid may even be a bit bored — but you can't keep a straight face, can you?

In fact, the Oz books didn't bore me at all when I was a child (although I think I tried them with Margaret a bit too soon). At the time, what I loved most of all was the world-building. It's elaborate and funny, and who cares about consistency and real-world principles of geography and sociology anyway? You need a desert for the plot, and lo! a desert. You need a swamp right next to it? Just put one there! It's all good! Magical "systems"? Why would you need a "system"? Magic is...well, magic!

A school friend had the whole set, and we read through them obsessively, maniacally, during fifth grade. That's a lot of world-building to enjoy!

These days I'm downloading them from Project Gutenberg (go here to get them for yourself) and reading them on an e-reader. I'm sad that the illustrations don't make it into the .epub files, but the stories are all still enormous fun (for the world-building and the social satire), and they're FREE. And you can always see at least some of the illustrations via Google Images.




10/09/2012

Michael Moorcock's New Worlds is launched — with a story by me!

It's been a pretty hectic month, driving all over the place and working frantically during those times I'm not actually behind the wheel. But I'm back in Pennsylvania, just in time to be greeted with the launch issue of the rebooted Michael Moorcock's New Worlds — in which I am extremely pleased to have a story!

You need to set up an account (click "register"), and then you can buy the issue. It's really cheap — £3, or about five of any of the three most common forms of dollar (US, CAN, or AUS — they're all about the same right now, aren't they?). Cheap! And packed with content! Three more stories, in addition to mine; features; reviews; interviews; artwork; op-ed pieces. Such a deal! The folks at the mag have worked tremendously hard for this long-awaited reboot, determined to produce a quality online publication. I hope you will check it out! (Unfortunately, no freebies — but at only £3, it's a bargain any way you look at it. Go! Click! Buy!)