The Last Colony by John Scalzi.
Tor Science Fiction, 2007.
320 pages.
“Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.”
— Commissioner Pravin Lal of the Peacekeepers,
Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri.
Posts filed in Quote of the day
An attempt at establishing an institution. Not a very successful one, though, as I don’t always have the time to find a nice little quote to post, but I try to do so every day that I have access to a computer and the Internet.
The Last Colony by John Scalzi
Status report, Western Europe ca 700CE
“Culturally Latin Christendom, like a ruined family that could no longer maintain its old dwelling, came to live in a few rooms in the cellar.”
— F.B. Artz,
as quoted in Torbjørn L. Knutsen’s A History of International Relations Theory, p. 22.
Inheritance
“The nineteenth century’s legacy to the twentieth century’s social scientists resembles an old house inherited from a rich aunt: worn, overdecorated, cluttered, but probably salvageable.”
— Charles Tilly,
as quoted in Torbjørn L. Knutsen’s A History of International Relations Theory.
Comforting
“The Rock is attached to play the villain, a likable enough actor who was seems genetically designed specifically to be in comic book movies. It’s not a bad role, either. If you take away almost everything ridiculous that doesn’t work about Captain Marvel, you have his antithesis and mortal enemy, Black Adam. Not to worry, [...]
Rock Star
Rock Star is the movie about the young Chris (Mark Wahlberg), who idolates the Heavy Metal band Steel Dragon and sings in a Steel Dragon tribute band (from whence the immortal comment “We’re not a cover band, we’re a tribute band!” arises). The first half or so of the movie portrays Chris’ day to day [...]
Is there anything more fun that an academic insult?
“I en klasse for seg er Christian Meier. I Res Publica amissa. Eine Studie zur Verfassung und Geschichte der späten römischen Republik, Wiesbaden 1966, finner han at bruk av valgforbund er sjeldnere enn factio-skolen (Taylor, Scullard og Ronald Syme) har hevdet. For øvrig er boka preget av total mangel på kildekritikk idet moralistiske utsagn fra [...]
Atheists <3 Averröes (or ibn Rushd, if you prefer)
“In the Christian intellectual environment of the thirteenth century, apparent conflicts between argumentation in natural philosophy and argumentation in matter sof theological doctrine became exceptionally acute. The newly introduced writings of from the ancients — Greek philosophy and science, accompanied by Arabic and Hebrew commentary — rigorously set forth propositions alien to fundamental dicta of [...]
A Message from the Lost Son: Why I Love Heraclius
“The Persians were applying inexorable pressure on what remained of the empire. Heraclius was faced with a stark choice: he could either wait for the Persian grip to tighten, fighting a series of rearguard actions which offered little chance for ultimate success, or he could throw caution to the wind and take battle to the [...]
Without Hitch’s art, this isn’t a tenth of as great as it could be
“That said, I think I know who might have released those files.”
“Who?”
“My evil half-brother, Loki. A messenger from Asgard came to warn me that he escaped from his bonds again and journeyed to Midgard to do everything he could to –”
“Thor, please.”
“What?”
“Just shut up.”
[Whispering, as Cap turns his back and leaves:] “You go to church [...]
An elitist yet fascinating hypothesis
“Medan [mannspanelet] drøftar feminiseringa av samfunnet over kaffikoppen, er ein type ung mann, som mannspanelet er kjemisk reinsa for, på full fart inn i sammfunnet. Han du ser med flagrande svart dress i Dagens Næringsliv, som raider på tysdagen, hedger på torsdagen, shorter på fredagen, snorter på laurdagen og speler poker på søndagen. Resten av [...]
Everyone needs a hobby
“Some people play tennis. I erode the human soul.”
— Tycho,
Penny Arcade.
I fucking hate the Frankfurt School
“The aim of jazz is the mechanical reproduction of a regressive moment, a castration symbolism. ‘Give up your masculinity, let yourself be castrated,’ the eunuchlike sound of the jazz band both mocks and proclaims, ‘and you will be rewarded, accepted into a fraternity which shares the mystery of impotence with you, a mystery revealed at [...]
Optimism
“All would be well; unthinkable otherwise! Problems ignored were problems defeated! Here was the sensible philosophy; a man would go mad trying to repair each deficiency of the Universe!”
— King Audry of Dahaut,
Jack Vance’s Madouc, page 398.
Our hope
“But we will not be around in 500 years to see how our predictions have fared; we can only hope that historians of that future time will be understanding of our inability to guess how things would turn out and why.”
— Laurie Bauer in the conclusion of the discussion of the chances of a [...]
“Global English” is rubbish
“Given the stress that is laid on spelling by prescriptivists, and the existence of so many dictionaries which provide standard spellings for English words, it is perhaps surprising that there should be any variation in spelling within standard varieties. But there is. Some of this variation is variation between varieties. More often, though, there us [...]
The mission
“The Poet does not flee from reality; she expands it in her flight.”
— Olaf Bull,
(my translation).
So true
“I have profound admiration for myself. Is this ‘vanity’? The point is debatable.”
— Twisk the Fairy,
Lyonesse III: Madouc, by Jack Vance, page 635.
Security precautions
“We stood in the center of a football field-size dome that the Consu had constructed not an hour before. Of course, we humans could not be allowed to touch Consu ground, or be anywhere a Consu might tread; upon our arrival, automated machines created the dome in a region of Consu space long quarantined to [...]
Scalzi likes Sandman
“The three other new guys, Watson, Gaiman and McKean, all got the same treatment [...]“
— Narration,
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi.
How to interpret a peculiar request
“‘Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed …’
(from Shakespeare’s will)
The bed we loved in was a spinning world
of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas
where we would dive for pearls. My lover’s words
were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses
on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme
to his, now echo, assonance; his [...]
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