Jhereg

But it's been so long I'm unsure. May need to re-read. Darn.

I think about Freedom and Necessity every time I eat a plain baked potato.

I think about it every time I encounter an example of the Hegelian dialectic.

Now, I don't understand the Hegelian dialectic. I don't think. But I do think I got the book. So why did they have to keep mentioning it like it was important? Would I love it if I could only grok Hegel? Or why the dialectic needed a name?

Thesis -> antithesis -> synthesis...is there more to it than that?

I honestly don't remember that in the book, but I read it not too long after taking a history of europe in the 19th c. class, and constant mentioning of Hegel probably seemed very natural, then.

Whatever it was, it was either something I completely failed to get, or something so incredibly ingrained in my late 20c self that I failed to see why it had to be brought up all the time.

:: wildly slings his mono-filament sword to and fro, creating a zone of protection around the radiance of Spider Robinson's name::

Sure, he is ridiculously enamored of Heinlein. Sure, the Key West of his imagination is augmented by way too much cannabis. This can all be trumped by a single word:

Stardance.

I liked the Callahan stories when they were just independent stories, When he started turning them into more novel like things, he lost me. I really dug Night of Power.

I know I read Stardance, but I don't remember much about it.

Brokedown, Issola, Paarfi, the rest of the Vladiad EXCEPT Teckla, Agyar, Sun Moon & Stars (which I remember liking a lot when I read it at 13, but I think I read a special "Children's" version with just the fairy tale), Gypsy, To Reign in Hell, Freedom & Necessity, [big gap], Cowboy Feng, Teckla. I kind of hate Teckla. It's just so depressing.

Brust himself says about Cowboy Feng:

Not one of my better efforts, I think, but there are bits of it I like. It started out to be funny, developed a serious side, and I was never able to get the elements to blend the way I wanted them to. Grumble grumble. It's always pleasant to run into someone who liked this book; it means that I can still do all right when I'm not on my game.

Stardance should be taught in high school. KristenT, are you listening? How about you, kat?

While you are at it, show American History X, Apt Pupil, and Swing Kids.

Make them understand the dynamic at work in these films.

I really dug Night of Power...

Oh, no. Just, uh-uh.

-t, perhaps you should hook up with ita. We are not compatible, except for the Brust thing.

On further reflection, i really dug parts of Night of Power. The idea of being "spotless", which was totally abandoned, is what stuck with me. That and the drinking of whiskey with an eye on the clock to calibrate the drunkenness. That seemed like wisdom when I was in college...

t /poorly concealed heartbreak

Hold in abeyance all judgments. -t has plucked out the soul of Night of Power, choosing the best bits for display.

-t, if I say "God is an Iron", what Spider Robinson book do you reply?