I posted this originally at my other blog, BmoreinUtah.com, but since it’s a book review of sorts I thought I’d re-post here.
Anyone that’s been intrigued by our recent mission might want to check out Vegetarianism, by Colin Spencer. It’s a comprehensive history of the non-meat diet.
I really enjoyed his discussion of our early evolution, though the book bogged down as he described every historical religious sect and their dietary quirks. It’s a long, thick book, but it would be worth picking up just to read the introduction, the chapter introductions, and some of the good bits, like about the Renaissance.
I differ with Spencer on certain points, and unless you’ve already read a lot about the nutritional value of vegetables, his calling it the most healthy diet will not be well-enough explained for most stubborn meat eaters.
What I enjoyed most is his very even-handed approach. He notes that vegetarians have always claimed their diet makes them more peaceful and less barbaric, but that the recent example of Hitler has done away with that idea. He also points out when vegetarians (and others) of the past were malnourishing themselves through misunderstandings. Both of these facts made me trust him more as a writer.
The bold personalities that rebelled against society to become vegetarians throughout the ages were great characters, and I understand he’s got a shorter book focusing on them, which might be worth picking up for fun.
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Posted 09 April 2012
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Years back I used to produce my own T-shirts as self promotion. Though fun, the project eventually died because it turns out you need stuff to promote first. I turned off the self-promotion and focused on the writing, but ever since I’ve had the nagging urge to provide my fellow readers with better apparel options.
Luckily, I met Mark, an illustrator and T-shirt creator who had dreams of starting another T-shirt company. Together, our ideas have become reality. Introducing Dust Jacket Clothing. Rather than bother with self promotion, these shirts are designed to celebrate great books in a very stylish way. No need to be a frumpy book nerd any more.
OK, “shirts” is a bit misleading at this point, as we have only one design. More are coming, though, and that one design is so splendid we’re pretty confident you should check out the site anyway. Enjoy!
It’s been a long, long time since I posted a word of the day. Perhaps that’s because I haven’t been posting as much here (instead spending my time here). However, I should have one or two posts on things various and interesting and exciting coming up, so here’s a bit of vocabulary to warm you up:
Parvenu: from the French, it means one that has recently or suddenly risen to a position of wealth or power and does not yet have the prestige, dignity, or manner associated with it.
Great word, no? Without a true or equally evocative synonym (though the also French nouveau riche comes to mind). I think the recent lottery lunacy gives us a perfect example of what a parvenu would be. Certainly this lady doesn’t seem to have much in the way of dignity or manners.
My fortune cookie last night had this to say to me:
“Writing is a craft not an art”
Well, don’t you know a lot about writing, you cheap Chinese food give away.
Judging by the lack of posts here lately the title of my dear blog may seem a bit inaccurate, but I promise you it is not so.
Literature continues. Check out my favorite books, listed to the right. Quite a few are recent. As for me, recently I have been busy with that distraction they call life. I’m writing much more frequently at BmoreInUtah.com, mostly about my move to the wild west and how my fiancee and I are becoming more in this strange land than we ever were before. You should read it; it’s funny and it has pictures. I have never stopped writing fiction, however.
For the past three or four years I’ve been working on various large projects. A couple have proved akin to the Titanic, and have been carried by their weight to the bottom of the sea where they wait for James Cameron to revive them.
Some of the other pieces, however, are coming along nicely and in the next year or two I will be seeking representation for them or publishing electronically, depending on the project.
Keep reading and I’ll keep writing.
How is it that all kids everywhere play the “floor is lava” game?
What primal source inspires all children to leap around the house and toss islands of pillows into the center of the floor in order that they can transport themselves without touching the obviously molten floorboards beneath? Where did we all get this idea?
I finally realized why exactly I dislike this new trend of singing America the Beautiful at ball parks.
First: it lowers the significance of, and in some way disrespects, our national anthem to stand up and take our hats off for another song.
Secondly: no other country in the world needs to pause their sporting events to sing a song to make themselves feel better about their country. It’s embarrassing.
I came up with this idea myself for a science fiction story I was working on, except I didn’t have any of the functional details. I just assumed it would work somehow. Turns out it can! Amazing.
The newspaper articles that Joe had read about the upcoming Senate investigation into comic books always cited “escapism” among the litany of injurious consequences of their reading, and dwelled on the pernicious effect, on young minds, of satisfying the desire to escape. As if there could be any more noble or necessary service in life.
From Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which was phenomenal.
Kavalier and Clay amazed me for all the reasons it will amaze you, but it also spoke to me as a writer who is beginning to discover that writing often serves as an escape.
Strong senses of observation and empathy are necessary for writing, but they’re also pretty excellent at making one notice what a stupid and depressing world we can live in, at times. Creating a world on the page has become therapeutic.
I’ve begun to find that I still enjoy the “escapist” books I read when young. Particularly I’ve been enjoying Robert Louis Stevenson lately, and I’ve been wondering why it is so difficult to find new stories of adventure such as Stevenson wrote. I don’t know why, and I think we need more. Kavalier and Clay is a good start.
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Posted 06 September 2011
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Yeah yeah yeah, it’s been forever. Sue me.
I recently became very disappointed with science fiction writers when I read an article on robots learning language to describe their spatial surroundings. The article (a short, non-fiction one in Discover magazine) ended by saying that robots learning to build their own spatial awareness could be the first step in allowing them to navigate our environments better and act as servants or butlers.
Which is how robots are most often imagined in science fiction, to which I say: is that the best we can do? We write these stories about the most advanced mechanical system every created, indeed, we write about the creation of artificial life itself and all we can think for that created machine to do is make us coffee?
It’s not that hard to make coffee! What a phenomenal waste of technology, not to mention pretty lamentable lapse in imagination. To be fair, science fiction as a field is broad enough that someone, somewhere, has created a fictional robot to do just about everything. Still, science fiction writers are in some ways responsible for people’s ideas of robotics, and I don’t think I’m stretching to say that one of the most immediate images in the average person for a robot is that of a servant bringing us a snack (either that or the image of a war-bot killing people indiscriminately). This is sad, not only because we already do both of those things very well ourselves.
In real life, the highest calling for robots is currently doing things mankind cannot do, like exploring space or the deep ocean, tasks which require robotic traits, not human ones. The fact that we can build doohickeys to do these things is pretty phenomenal. Maybe because they already happen, though, they’re just less interesting to creators of fiction. Fine, OK, but science fiction writers, from here on out I expect your robots to at least be built to do things humans cannot do well. Say, balancing a national budget.
