Greg S > Recent Status Updates

I barely know their names. such a dramatic first chapter: “This couldn’t be happening.”

“Belief has no value in itself that I can see. Its value increases as it is useful, diminishes as it is replaced by knowledge, and goes negative when it’s noxious. In ordinary life, the need for it diminishes as the quantity and quality of knowledge increase.”

“I find it extremely hard to talk about people I loved who have died. I can’t now make a proper tribute to that complex and beautiful woman, or say more than that I miss her friendship in every way.”

“Envy, of course, in the first place. I am envious of people who hire a servant with perfect assurance of righteousness. I envy self-confidence even as I dislike it. Envy coexists only too easily with righteous disapproval. Indeed perhaps the two nasty creatures live off each other.”

“Children…by necessity, irresponsible, and irresponsibility in them…is part of their charm... into adulthood it becomes a dire practical and ethical failing. Uncontrolled spontaneity wastes itself. Ignorance isn’t wisdom. Innocence is wisdom only of the spirit. We can and do all learn from children…but “become as little children” is a spiritual counsel, not an intellectual, practical, or ethical one.”

“The sentence itself, its use and popularity, bothers me even more. Indifference to what words actually say; willingness to accept a vapid truism as a useful, even revelatory concept; carelessness about where a supposed quotation comes from—that’s all part of what I like least about the Internet. A “blah blah blah, who cares, information is what I want it to be” attitude—“

“…inevitable stories that imitate electronic games, a more alarming instance of adult control…the Catwings go through “a portal” into the middle of… battles and the slaughter of enemies, monsters, etc…. Evidently this is the only story the child knows. It’s scary to see a mind trapped in an endless repetition of violent acts without meaning or resolution, only escalation to keep the stimulus going.”

“Large, general questions about meaning, etc., can only be answered with generalities, which make me uncomfortable, because it is so hard to be honest when you generalize. If you skip over all the details, how can you tell if you’re being honest or not?”

“Respect has often been overenforced and almost universally misplaced (the poor must respect the rich, all women must respect all men, etc.).

But when applied in moderation and with judgment, the social requirement of respectful behavior to others, by repressing aggression and requiring self-control, makes room for understanding. It creates a space where appreciation and affection can grow.”

Paul Starkey and I have similar thoughts. I have also calculated how long it would take to slow down a craft traveling close to the speed of light.

Celia Corral-Vasquez and I have similar sensibilities.

Yes, I also enjoyed Django Unchained.

It’d be weird if the Judge pointed him in the right direction.

James would need both arms. Also, Hopkins is strangely passive

Author does that thing where characters are clear headed during blinding pain.

Sammy, Katie…author doesn’t give female characters more than one chapter. Classic Women in refrigerators trope.

Interesting that the author chose melodrama to get out of his own trap.

Probably more fun if I had ever read Huckleberry Finn.

“Another Tide,” by Will Greatwich

Author struggles to absolve the protagonists that they wrote.

The author says he’s an unjust victim of his own decision. Bizarre

Nope.

Alice talks about others much more than about herself.

A sense of propriety is not “Innate.” Your Patriarchy is showing.

Peter would be interesting if the author didn’t make him kick puppies so much.

This book is suddenly a drawing-room drama.

…wait. She makes the same guess each and every time no matter whichever word is revealed? No matter how many times she gets it wrong, she makes the same guess…again?

I’m praying that Alice will open a book instead of insulting herself over and over again.

This “Dictionary “ games is just Apples to Apples.

Alice, or author, would be surprised to know that children are great and terrible liars. I’ve never met bigger liars than children. In fact, children delight in lies and falsehoods, in deceptions and shenanigans.