I read
Biohazard
on the plane last night. It's a nonfiction book by a former Soviet bioweapons scientist named Ken Alibek (actually Kan Alibekov), who was possibly the highest-ranking Kazakh in the Soviet military. Anyway, he defected to the US in about 92 and wrote this fascinating history of his involvement with the Soviet bioweapons industry and his experience with it. What I found most interesting is that the USSR was
absolutely convinced
the US had an ongoing bioweapons program, and their program was intended to counter ours. Alibek finally left when he became convinced that this was untrue, after a tour of US sites in 1991.
It's an easy read -- I read the whole thing on the plane last night -- and rather unsettling, because Alibek isn't convinced the threat of bioweapons is gone even if the Soviet union is. Fascinating stuff.
Wow, that's a blow to the literary world.
Very sad news. That obituary is very strange though--the precis of Notes on Camp is dreadful, and as for 'In conversation, she comfortably used words such as "polyphonic" and "surreptitiously."'--um, who doesn't?
I haven't gotten a lot of use out of "dramaturg" recently.
I don't know that there's actually a need to use "polyphonic" when speaking, but "surreptitiously?" C'mon. Not big on "dramaturg" but I do like "anthropomorphize."
Well, if you're talking about music, "polyphonic" is pretty essential. Heck, I think it's on the label of the cheap keyboard I bought my son for Christmas.
I like "apotropaic" although I can never remember what it means. It just trips down the tongue and does a full somersault.
Yeah, well, when I talk about music, I tend to use words like "groovy" and "cool." I'm sure that ages me, but oh well.....
My BF used to BE a dramaturg, so that word does come up.
