Archive for July 2006
Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates
Upon reading about Tom Robbins’ uncertainty about writing again, I have dutifully returned to his novels after several years absence. This one is described as a fast-paced CIA adventure story with comic overtones. That would be most unfair: Robbins is a gifted wordsmith who defies definition with ferocity and elegance.
Cell
Leave it to Stephen King to tell a harrowing zombie story and feature the most miserable of contemporary technological devices— the cellular phone— as the apocalyptic catalyst. It’s really all over… isn’t it? This is a triumphant story of horror for a new age.
On the Cultural Effect of Intrinsic Technologies
I spoke with my friends this week about television. Not the latest plot developments in our favorite shows—although we do quite a bit of that, too. No, this was about the object itself: the television.
I explained that I have an uncle who enjoys restoring old radios and televisions—he particularly enjoys working on the ones that […]Toughest Indian in the World
Sherman Alexie’s second collection of short stories is not a collection of stories about the Indian Condition; it is a collection of stories about Indians— urban and reservation, street fighters and yuppies, husbands and wives.
Tales of the City
The first volume in Armistead Maupin’s series of novels centering around the quirky house— and its even quirkier residents— at 28 Barbary Lane. If there were another city where I would like to live, San Francisco would be it.
On Substance
Whirl and I have been going through our belongings—paraphernalia, equipment, gear, goods we have collected. We have lived in our current home for a little over two years now. Before we moved we culled and sorted a slightly different menagerie of items. We separated it into categories: trash, donations, gifts, keepers. The goal was to […]
Darwin’s Blade
Dan Simmons’ takes the Internet’s Darwin Awards and combines them with urban legends and a touch of his own skill at storytelling to weave an exciting suspense story filled with dark gallows’ humor.
