Okay, I think the folks at Extra Credits got it wrong with this one in a really big way. Gollum didn’t redeem himself. That’s the entire point. Redemption is an important and very Christian theme of Lord of the Rings, but so is the problem of evil. Several comments on the video point this out:… Continue reading Extra Sci-Fi S3E4: The Return of the King
Tag: Thoughts and Reflections
Extra Sci-Fi S3E3: The Two Towers
This episode of Extra Sci-Fi got me to thinking about a speech that Orson Scott Card gave when he visited BYU back in 2007. He said a bunch of interesting things that have stuck with me over the years, including (to paraphrase) “conservatism is the new counterculture.” He was probably ten to fifteen years before… Continue reading Extra Sci-Fi S3E3: The Two Towers
Pros and Cons: Print Books vs. Ebooks vs. Audiobooks
One of the long-term things I want to do is build a home library. Last weekend, I started cataloging my books and putting together plans for how to do that. I’m sure I’ll be posting more about that in the future, but the big question at the start of it was this: What are the… Continue reading Pros and Cons: Print Books vs. Ebooks vs. Audiobooks
Larry Correia on Sensitivity Readers
Larry Correia just came out with another highly entertaining rant, this time on sensitivity readers. In case you don’t know, “sensitivity readers” are people that publishers hire to go through an unpublished manuscript to make sure that there’s nothing that could offend any marginalized groups. Larry sums it up quite well: A Sensitivity Reader is… Continue reading Larry Correia on Sensitivity Readers
And you call yourself a writer??
So I got into another online political debate on a writer’s forum last month. Shocking, I know. This one started with a discussion of political correctness and an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, and quickly devolved into an argument about corporate censorship, gun control, Trump, and every other controversial issue in politics. Needless… Continue reading And you call yourself a writer??
Extra Sci-Fi S3E1: Tolkien and Herbert, the World Builders
So I really enjoyed the first two seasons of Extra Sci-Fi, and since they’ve just started up with season three, I’d like to do a blog series where I react to the episodes. From the first episode, it looks like the main focus of this season is on Lord of the Rings and Dune, two… Continue reading Extra Sci-Fi S3E1: Tolkien and Herbert, the World Builders
Politically incorrect thoughts on intersectional authorship
I’m subscribed to six or seven short story podcasts, and I’ve noticed a trend on them recently. Before they start the story, they introduce the author by first listing all of the intersectional minority identities that the author qualifies for, like “queer,” “transgender,” “immigrant,” “disabled,” “person of color,” etc. Whenever story starts off like this,… Continue reading Politically incorrect thoughts on intersectional authorship
Would you kill baby Hitler?
So the March for Life happened recently, and Ben Shapiro did a live show where he used a thought experiment about going back in a time machine to kill baby Hitler to make a pro-life argument. His argument was that you shouldn’t kill baby Hitler; instead, you should raise baby Hitler in a more loving… Continue reading Would you kill baby Hitler?
A Change in Direction
This is going to be a rather long post. I’ll preface it with some demographic trends among my generation, then tie that in with my situation and how I got here. From there, we’ll see where it goes. I was born in the early 80s, which technically makes me a Millennial, though it doesn’t always… Continue reading A Change in Direction
Motatseba, or how to bag a wife—literally (Blast from the Past: April 2012)
With the rise of #MeToo, I thought it would be interesting to revisit this old post from my time in the Republic of Georgia. Here in the US, we seem to be in the process of completely reworking the societal norms for how men and woman interact in the public sphere. On one extreme, we… Continue reading Motatseba, or how to bag a wife—literally (Blast from the Past: April 2012)