I think the world, generally, just needs more Tommy and Tuppence. I actually love then more than I love Nick and Nora, actually.

Me too! It probably helps being exposed to them at a young age.

Not Matt, but:

And I know they're, jeez, 70 years old, so I do understand that, and viewed in that light they're amazingly modern.

I'm a big fan of CL Moore, too (read "Shambleau" and the first two Jirel stories for the SF Feminist lit class I took in college), and this is what really struck me about them. "Shambleau," especially, is amazingly modern, considering it was written in, what, 1936? I really think Moore was at least 10-15 years ahead of her time in her style.

I like to think that the female writer in the ST:DS9 ep "Beyond the Stars" was based on her, or at least women like her--ones who had to hide their gender behind pseudonyms and androgynous pennames, but who had talent to spare. (James Tiptree, Jr., aka Alice Sheldon, was remarkably talented, even though most of her stories/books end up being strident feminist tracts--"Houston, We Have a Problem" was the one I read for that class, and most of us students had serious issues with her anti-male attitude.)

I really think Moore was at least 10-15 years ahead of her time in her style.

At least. And in the '40s, she and Henry Kuttner (her husband) had what may have been the truest partnership in all of literature.

I was really lucky about ten years ago when I was in the midst of a "hit every Friends of the Local Library Book Sale" phase (six weekends in a row roaming Lake County, looking for collectible books really cheap). I didn't get to the Lake Zurich library until around 3:00 on Saturday afternoon, and sure enough, the selection was definitely picked over by then. But, while scanning the general fiction table, I quite literally squealed in excitement when I saw the long-out-of-print Best of CL Moore collection I'd been searching for since that college lit class. One dollar later, I was a very happy bookaholic!

Cindy, I would love to hear your reaction to Marilynne Robinson's essay on liberal Christianity in this month's Harper's.

Is it online, Corwood? I went to harpers.org and didn't find it, but I've only had a cup of coffee. Google is being similarly stingey with the love.

It doesn't look like it's online yet. Harpers.org still has last month's cover up on the current issue page (way to keep current, guys!), and I can't seem to find it elsewhere, either. Definitely worth a read, although this issue isn't one of the standouts elsewhere.

Thanks. I'll keep an eye out for it. It sounds like it could be similar to other Robinson pieces I can find on line. I haven't looked at them in-depth, but I suspect I'm going to be nodding in agreement at least as often as I'm thinking, "But no, wait..." Theologically speaking, I'm actually pretty conservative, but how I think that should play out leaves me somewhat of an orphan in all sorts of arenas.

Hey, that's why I want to hear your perspective.

New Pynchon book in the works.