Whenever I play any game in the Legend of Zelda series, I find myself getting a lot jumpier. Like, I’ll keep thinking I’m seeing things out of the corners of my eyes, or, when I go to bed at night, I can’t shake the feeling that something might be right…
We seem to have a strong intuition that part of what makes us human is our ability to die. Witness the countless stories in which the villains’ goal is to live forever, or in which a character demonstrates his or her essential humanity by giving up the opportunity to do…
I try to post blogs only about works that make me feel something strongly, whether that something is outrage or admiration, melancholy or joy. Today, I’ve decided to go with “joy”. And that means… math!
After last week’s big old long post about criticism, I figured I’d like to get back in the not-tl;dr-post game. But what to write about? Then I remembered: c’est l’Hallowe’en! Everyone knows that Hallowe’en is a time to dress up, get candy, and have fun. There’s no greater moral to…
What is constructive criticism, and where does it overstep the boundary between “criticism” and “attack”? I’m interested because of this. Let me first make clear that I don’t care one way or the other about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. I read the first book, didn’t like it at all, and…
I love a murder mystery, no matter how cheesy the plot, how stock the characters, or how many times strangers with guilty pasts naively accept a mysterious invitation to an isolated manor house and then decide to split up and search the place when it becomes clear that one of…
I know, I know – you’ve waited since last week with bated breath. (Well, if you had, literally, you’d be dead – maybe half-bated breath? Occasionally bated breath?) So, without further ado…
I can tell you’re shivering with anticipation. Well, you already know I love most things by Diana Wynne Jones, so it should come as no surprise that I enjoyed these. After enjoying House of Many Ways so much, I thought I’d reread all of DWJ’s work, especially the ones that…
But first – yay for friends visiting and for visiting friends. My friend Christina visited Toronto from Texas this week, and now I’m in Ottawa, able to visit other friends. Thanks, Christina, for making it out to Toronto, and thanks, Ottawa people, for hanging out :) Right. Free speech. I’ve…
I’m not sure why I’ve never really enjoyed the work of Isaac Asimov – or at least, his science fiction. (He also wrote mystery stories about the Black Widowers and their waiter, Henry, which I liked to read in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.) Foundation never really did it for me;…