What I'm Reading this Week

Monday, 4 November 2002

My good friend Zeppo Bakunin has lent me the second and third books in Julian May's Rampart Worlds, so I've left Monsieur Le Madelaine to continue his agonising at the court in Arras while I polish them off. I'm sure that when I get around to starting on Proust's master work A la Recherche de Temps Perdu Zeppo is going to turn up the doorstep with Robert Jordan's complete Wheel of Time series tucked under his arm. Assuming of course that Jordan has finished the series by then. I doubt that's likely, given the propensity of so-called fantasy writers to keep plugging away at their interminable epics long after the creative spark has turned into a bloody cinder. Assuming that there ever was much of a creative spark in the first place. And while we're on the subject of the sort of literature that really ought to be sold by the kilo, I've long thought that it was a mercy to science fiction fans everywhere that the grim reaper got to Frank Herbert before he could write any more appalling Dune sequels.

Zeppo was also kind enough to E-Mail me this the other day. I don't know the origins or the copyright status of the image but it's a fine example of an American statesman in the role of public intellectual - the finest I've seen since Dan Quayle taught millions of American school children the correct spelling of the word "potatoe".