Love Keeps Her in the Air
I still haven't made up my mind about Serenity. I love Joss Whedon. I hate Joss Whedon. The movie is a sell-out. The movie is a painful goodbye. I want to die like Walsh, quickly during a moment of triumph. I want to die like Book, gathered with my friends in a fight to save my other friends. I can never watch an episode of Firefly again without feelings of bitter disappointment at what could have been. I can not stop watching episodes of Firefly because it is the best fucking spaceship show ever. Goddamn it, what is it about these characters?
Mostly, though, I want to stab out the eyes of all Fox TV executives for not letting me spend seven years with these people, as it should have been.
In the meantime, here's what else has been on my mind:
The Russians have made a deal with a Canadian golf club manufacturer to have a cosmonaut perform an EVA and hit an instrumented golf ball off the ISS and into orbit. Supposedly, this will commemorate the 35th anniversary of Alan Shepard's tee-off on the moon during Apollo 14, but there are a number of reasons why this kind of prank works better on the moon than in orbit. NASA, meanwhile, live up to their reputation as a bunch of pussies who got caught screwing around on the job (and killing their co-workers), but are now playing it so safe that it's an open question how much longer the U.S. will have a space program.
Last week, William F. Buckley, the founder of modern conservatism and its flagship hackrag, The National Review, wrote a surprisingly frank editorial on how "the American objective in Iraq has failed." Buckley's comments bear a striking resemblance to comments made earlier on the war by Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean. Glenn Greenwald offers an enlightening comparison of the political fallout.
For many years, I tried to be this man. That I didn't so much fail as never even fall into the same categories (as human, artist, intellect, or activist) says (I hope) more about his qualities than my lack thereof. Anyway, reading this essay helped me realize that we did share a love of cheesy Atari games, The Clash, non-academics, and pissing ourselves.
On a more somber note, I just learned of the death of Octavia Butler, one of the most innovative and disturbing authors of SF. A pioneer in more ways than one, her work represents the best of speculative fiction: intriguing portraits of humans in the future, with all our unfinished notions of politics, sexuality, gender, and warfare confronting frightening and heartbreaking aliens who seem to know us better than we know ourselves. Butler showed how disturbingly easy it was for these aliens to gain the upper hand on those of us who refuse to think about where we might be headed and those of us who neglect our capacity for salvation or redemption. I recommend her Xenogenesis series in particular: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago.
Coming soon: the completion of my comics list and Oscar picks. If I don't post these in the next few days, I never will.
Mostly, though, I want to stab out the eyes of all Fox TV executives for not letting me spend seven years with these people, as it should have been.
In the meantime, here's what else has been on my mind:
The Russians have made a deal with a Canadian golf club manufacturer to have a cosmonaut perform an EVA and hit an instrumented golf ball off the ISS and into orbit. Supposedly, this will commemorate the 35th anniversary of Alan Shepard's tee-off on the moon during Apollo 14, but there are a number of reasons why this kind of prank works better on the moon than in orbit. NASA, meanwhile, live up to their reputation as a bunch of pussies who got caught screwing around on the job (and killing their co-workers), but are now playing it so safe that it's an open question how much longer the U.S. will have a space program.
Last week, William F. Buckley, the founder of modern conservatism and its flagship hackrag, The National Review, wrote a surprisingly frank editorial on how "the American objective in Iraq has failed." Buckley's comments bear a striking resemblance to comments made earlier on the war by Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean. Glenn Greenwald offers an enlightening comparison of the political fallout.
For many years, I tried to be this man. That I didn't so much fail as never even fall into the same categories (as human, artist, intellect, or activist) says (I hope) more about his qualities than my lack thereof. Anyway, reading this essay helped me realize that we did share a love of cheesy Atari games, The Clash, non-academics, and pissing ourselves.
On a more somber note, I just learned of the death of Octavia Butler, one of the most innovative and disturbing authors of SF. A pioneer in more ways than one, her work represents the best of speculative fiction: intriguing portraits of humans in the future, with all our unfinished notions of politics, sexuality, gender, and warfare confronting frightening and heartbreaking aliens who seem to know us better than we know ourselves. Butler showed how disturbingly easy it was for these aliens to gain the upper hand on those of us who refuse to think about where we might be headed and those of us who neglect our capacity for salvation or redemption. I recommend her Xenogenesis series in particular: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago.
Coming soon: the completion of my comics list and Oscar picks. If I don't post these in the next few days, I never will.
posted by Chazzbot at 12:04 PM
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