Month: June 2006

Beyond the Far Horizon

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Science fiction has always been one of my favorite literary genres. If memory serves I went from the “Dick and Jane” books to juvenile sci-fi without much transition. It helped that this was the 1960’s, and everyone thought science fiction was something that was pretty necessary in order to get people ready for the Space Age future that was coming at warp speed.

It was obvious by the 1970’s that the future wasn’t about to arrive, or at least the one envisioned seemed to fall by the wayside. There were some big names in the business back then, like Asimov and Bradbury, but science fiction had mostly lost its way. In 1968 the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey showed everyone a false but brilliant glimpse into a universe where people lived on the Moon and traveled around in bright, clean commercial spaceships. Less than ten years later and the best anyone could do was a story about some hick farm boy who gains magic powers. Don’t get me wrong, I love Star Wars and think it is one of the best movies ever. But I don’t think anyone can reasonably claim that it is a thoughtful and mature film. Science Fiction as literature had slipped back into sci-fi as juvenile entertainment.

But then James Baen came along.

He didn’t write the stuff himself, working instead as an editor. He would buy and publish the work of some of my favorite authors, almost single handedly pulling the business out of a boring swamp of dreadful hack writing by giving some extremely talented people the chance to get paid for doing what they did best. After Jim Baen got started you could take a science fiction novel up to the checkout counter in the bookstore and not be afraid that the pretty co-ed behind the cash register would laugh at you.

Those of us who enjoy science fiction owe Jim Baen a debt that is so big it’s tough to even acknowledge the whole of it. We’re never going to get the chance because he died yesterday.

Click on that last link and you’ll find a eulogy written by Jim’s buddy David Drake. It’s a fitting tribute to the man who saved our sense of wonder.

(Cross posted at Hell in a Handbasket.)

Keller Provides Fodder

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Since it seems pointless to deal with comments such as Billy’s (ah, yes, everything is about Rove & if not that elections – what a small prism through which to view the world), I wandered through other blogs. And found a certain kind of pleasure in two of the best: Iowahawk discovers a letter and Lileks writes a screed. As usual, both are witty & incisive. Thanks.

Quote of the Day

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Nobody brought up in post-war England can fail to be aware of the educated derision that has been directed at our national loyalty by those whose freedom to criticize would have been extinguished years ago, had the English not been prepared to die for their country. The loyalty that people need in their daily lives, and which they affirm in their unconsidered and spontaneous social actions, is now habitually ridiculed or even demonized by the dominant media and the education system. National history is taught as a tale of shame and degradation. The art, literature and religion of our nation have been more or less excised from the curriculum, and folkways, local traditions and national ceremonies are routinely rubbished.

Roger Scruton, speech to the Vlaams Belang party of Belgium. (Note Scruton’s discussion of “oikophobia” is very similar to John Fonte’s discussion of “tranzis”.)

UPDATE: Helen Szamuely sends along this paper by Kenneth Minogue entitled The Fate of Britain’s National Interest, which she likes better than the Scruton piece.

Source Boycott of the Times

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Via Instapundit comes word that House members are circulating a letter asking that the House revoke the New York Times’s press credentials. I think I have a better idea. Politicians and other interviewees should simply refuse to answer any questions from Times reporters on any subject. Unlike a more traditional boycott where the consumers refuse to purchase the target’s products, this boycott would cut the Times off from its sources of information.

Let the Times try to do real reporting on political matters when a large number of major politicians will not talk to them.