I really, really liked this book by Botswana/South African writer Bessie Head - When Rain Clouds Gather. I picked it up for research purposes (didn’t help much there - the village life described is too poor for my purpose), but it really is a delightful story. Almost no conflict, and way too much telling, but a wonderful, sweet, simple, non-judgmental voice. So much more enjoyable than the world-weary dreariness of V.S. Naipaul. Some sections read almost like Trollope in Africa. And, though race was everywhere in the book, it was also nowhere. Many very interesting insights for someone like me who knows nothing about village life in Africa.
From Jonathan Chait at the New Republic.
Money quote:
“If liberals could be persuaded that tax cuts would actually increase living standards for all Americans, they would embrace them. (This is why nearly all liberals believe that some level of tax rate, be it 50 or 70 or 90 percent, becomes counterproductive.) If conservatives came to believe that tax cuts failed to increase economic growth, most would still support them anyway, because they enhance freedom. As Milton Friedman once put it, “[E]conomic freedom is an end in itself.””
Tim Egan is my new favorite columnist. Read his latest here.
Why is it so many American holiday and children’s movies have endings that reek of false sentimentality? I have nothing against sentimentality - I weep at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life and A Charlie Brown Christmas. But those are movies where most of the people involved actually believed in the sentiment they created. The people who made Elf and the Jim Carrey version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas don’t.
And it shows.
I thought the first half was hilarious. I love crazy Will Ferrell. But then they had to have the message, and reform the scrooge figure, and it was all just going through the motions without any of the spontaneous sweetness of the beginning. It was false, and it was dull, and it showed.
Bah, humbug.
Probably going to run out of writing gas today or tomorrow. Too many holiday things to do. Wrapping. Baking cookies. Last minute shopping.
It’s exhausting, but I love the family part of the holidays. I’ve been lucky: I like spending time with my family. No grumbling holiday scrooginess here
The new movie, that is. As usual, I’m half a year behind.
Really, really stupid, but really really fun. Just like the original.
A few good photos here.
How can you not like a sport with a competitor named Makuakai Rothman?
As I’ve said before, I’m no fan of Paul Krugman. But he absolutely gets it right today. This bill isn’t perfect, but it’s much better than nothing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/opinion/18krugman.html?ref=todayspaper
Money quote:
“Bear in mind also the lessons of history: social insurance programs tend to start out highly imperfect and incomplete, but get better and more comprehensive as the years go by. Thus Social Security originally had huge gaps in coverage — and a majority of African-Americans, in particular, fell through those gaps. But it was improved over time, and it’s now the bedrock of retirement stability for the vast majority of Americans.”
The same was true of civil rights legislation in the ’50s. As LBJ famously said to Hubert Humphrey when the latter was complaining about an initial proposal being too weak (I think it was Humphrey), “You have to start somewhere.”
My latest SFNovelists post was noticed by IO9. With cover art and all. Cool. Check it out here.
My latest post, Write What You Like, is up at SFNovelists.
