A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

Science Fiction

  • Earthbound and down

    Also from the Atlantic–a primer on Battlestar Galactica (may contain spoilers for the uninitiated). The anecdote about Dirk Benedict, who played the original series’ “Starbuck” (and “Face” on the A-Team!), being outraged that the character was re-imagined as a woman is pretty funny. I’m really looking forward to the new season starting this Friday (or Read more

  • The dark side, indeed

    I had a vague recollection of this from my childhood, but Andrew Sullivan posted a link to this clip the other day and I was reminded how truly, truly awful 1978’s Star Wars Holiday Special (amazingly, featuring the majority of the film’s cast, not to mention the likes of Bea Arthur, Art Carney, and Harvey Read more

  • Blogs of Christmas past

    Since content will likely be light this coming week, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to offer up some representative posts from the previous four Decembers since I started blogging, as a kind of retrospective. (Note: some of these originally appeared on my first blog, “Verbum Ipsum,” but have been imported to WP; Read more

  • Calling all Trekkies

    I’m more of a casual Star Trek fan than a hardcore Trekkie (sorry, Trekker), but this Entertainment Weekly article makes J.J. Abram’s (of Lost fame) upcoming reboot of the franchise sound somewhat promising. I thought this in particular was interesting: Abrams says he was also drawn to the project because he believed in — and Read more

  • I Am Legend, human extinction, and theodicy

    We watched this the other night and I liked it quite a bit more than I expected. I think using CGI zombies was a mistake, but other than that it was a taut sci-fi/horror thriller with some interesting themes (the fate of humanity, providence, the nature of heroism, etc.). Will Smith nicely toned down his Read more

  • The price of not having cable

    One week later, and I’m still waiting for the Sci Fi Channel to post the Battlestar Galactica (sort of) season finale to their website (which, by all accounts, was mind-blowing). Grumble. Read more

  • Eddie Izzard + Legos + Star Wars = hi-larious

    A friend sent this to me (warning: some salty language): Read more

  • October reading notes

    A smattering of theology, philosophy, and even some fiction this month: The Environment and Christian Ethics by Michael Northcott. This is part of Cambridge University Press’s “New Studies in Christian Ethics” series. Northcott is (at least at the time of this book’s publication) a lecturer in theology at the University of Edinburgh. This text is Read more

  • Aliens without sin

    Recently I’ve been reading A Case of Conscience by James Blish. This is a science fiction novel written in the 50s about a Jesuit priest/biologist studying a race of reptillian anthropoids on a distant planet. They have a seemingly perfect ethical society without friction or conflict, but also utterly destitute of religion or any sense Read more

  • Transhumanism

    The fact that some people’s idea of utopia involves “uploading” your personality into a computer and living forever frankly gives me the creeps. (I also am not sure it’s even a coherent idea. In what sense would that be me rather than just a Max Headroom-style copy of me?) I have no idea how many Read more