Random Thoughts, Part 29: I've got 928 thoughts, but not being random ain't one of them

My Random Thoughts series has been running so long I'm starting to worry it's not really random. Oh, well. I did take a few months off from posting them, but that only means I have a few months of thoughts to post. And some memes and other stuff to look at just to keep it all a bit random. And now I've reached the milstone of 928 thoughts! What makes that a milestone? Nothing, really. It's just random. Enjoy!

 

Random Thoughts, Part 28: Super Sized and Super Random

 

Dear reader, I have been remiss. I have not posted in my Random Thoughts series in almost seven months. I have been doing a lot of random thinking since then. And I have collected even more random funny images. So without further ado, enjoy this Super Sized and Super Random collection of my Random Thoughts!

2025 Hugo Novels, Part 1: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

It's that time of year again: I'm reading the Hugo nominees! This year I'm lucky to be once again attending Worldcon (this year in Seattle), so I will not only be voting, but I plan to attend the ceremony in person.

As has become tradition, I've waited way too long to get started, but the good news is that I'm halfway through the novels. So, here's what I thought so far about The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher. I will review the other three novels soon in Part 2, and, of course, there are novellas and many more categories as well. Stay tuned!

Birthday Report: 2023

 

Every year I've had this blog, I've written a little something for my birthday. And this year is no different!

But aren't birthdays for kids? First of all, why should kids have all the fun? If being an adult requires draining life of all fun, wonder, and joy so you can pay bills and work until you die, well, then, what's the point of that?

I've always liked the message of Ferris Bueller's Day Off (yes, I am that old!): "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." And birthdays are great days to do that!

Movie and TV Mini-Reviews: The Boogeyman, Yellowjackets, Star Trek: Picard, Beavis & Butt-Head, and More

As the prophecy of a recent post foretold, I'm back with some short reviews of movies and TV I've been watching lately. I'm including The Boogeyman, Yellowjackets, Star Trek: Picard, Beavis & Butt-Head, John Wick 4, Sinister, Insidious, and X. These reviews get weirdly impressionistic, so if you're looking for elaborate plot summaries and the like, you may be disappointed. Just the mood I'm in these days, I guess. Enjoy!

Christmas Horror 2022

 

As has become something of a tradition in recent years, I tried to watch a few Christmas horror movies recently. Some people love classics like White Christmas. Some love comedies like Scrooged (I'll watch it soon...). Others mount complex legal arguments for and against the proposition that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Many delve into that vast vanilla land of Hallmark and its imitators. 

But lately it has seemed to me that the perfect genre for the solstice-adjacent holiday season is horror.

It's not that I hate Christmas. Really, I don't. It's fine. It can be fun, although not as fun as Halloween. I like the quiet darkness of solstice time, but I find that we kind of just overdo the whole thing these days, at least here in the US. 

I'm not sure the traditional Christmas story that forms the core of Christianity ever made much sense to me. And the rampant capitalist commercialization of the season, the pressure to have a perfect experience and spend money we don't have on gifts that few of us really need, cheesy versions of the same nine Christmas songs ... all of that really does horrify me, I guess.

So I think Christmas horror movies appeal to me as a way to deal with my conflicted feelings about this holiday season. See also Weird Al's magnificent, "The Night Santa Went Crazy" and "Christmas at Ground Zero."

Or maybe it's just fun and funny to mix a jolly holiday with some blood and guts?

Here's what was on my agenda this year: Violent Night, Christmas Bloody Christmas, Don't Open Till Christmas, Await Further Instructions, and A Nasty Piece of Work.

Violent Night (2022)

What if you could solve the is-Die Hard-a-Christmas-movie? debate by remaking Die Hard, only with David Harbour as a burnt-out Santa instead of John McClane and John Leguizamo at his Leguizamiest instead of Hans Gruber? That's kind of what happened here, only with a dash of Home Alone and plenty of delightful horror kills. I went to see this at the theater with a friend who appreciates over-the-top horror as much as I do. We were both entertained.

Violent Night may not win any Oscars, but I think it will be making a lot of present and future lists of bonkers fun Christmas horror movies.

Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022)

What if The Terminator were a Christmas movie? Okay, that's not exactly what's going on in this movie, but there is a robot Santa made from a repurposed military death bot. Our main character, Tori, is a record store owner who just wants to get drunk and meet up with her Tinder date on Christmas Eve, but her employee convinces her to hang out with him instead, which includes a visit to their friends' toy store, which has one of the Robo-Santas. And wouldn't you know it? Santa-tron 2000 goes on a homicidal rampage around the small town, leaving Tori to take up the mantle of Final Girl.

This is a fun one, too. I maybe got a bit more character background scenes than I wanted in a movie about a murderous Santa-bot, but once The Sant-inator shows up and the kills get more and more ridiculous, I was having a great time. I caught this one on Shudder.

Don't Open Till Christmas (1984)

I saw this one on Shudder's Joe Bob's Ghoultide Get-Together, which is always an educational way to watch a movie like this. Although now I'm not sure what I mean by "like this"? Rambling movies about the seedy side of London with a serial killer murdering anyone in a Santa suit, one victim while patronizing a stripper booth?

It makes a little more sense when Joe Bob Briggs explains how this movie came about, but it's still the kind of thing where you have to just relax and enjoy some amusing horror nonsense.

Await Further Instructions (2018)

Another British entry on Shudder! But a really different kind. Whatever Don't Open Till Christmas may be, Await Further Instructions could easily be classified as science fiction horror, which is my favorite kind of horror! A somewhat miserable middle-class British family is meeting for Christmas. After some tension (including racist family members), the house is encased in a mysterious material with no possible escape. Then messages begin to appear on the TV screen, including, of course, "Await Further Instructions."

How far will the family go to follow the directions? What's going on? Along the way there are deeper themes about issues like xenophobia, toxic masculinity, and cycles of abuse. And an ending that I appreciated.

A Nasty Piece of Work (2019)

A Nasty Piece of Work is an entry in Hulu's Into the Dark film series (which I find hit-or-miss, but mostly fine). What if Office Space were a Christmas movie with a dash of Christmas Vacation? Okay, that's not what this movie is. It's weirdly the closest anything on this list comes to a Hallmark movie. The protagonist (who kinda looks like the guy from Office Space) is ambitious but hates his asshole boss, played by Julian Sands (who looks like Julian Sands).

His boss invites him and his wife to a special dinner on Christmas Eve (or thereabouts, I can't remember). The protagonist's rival at work (played by Ted from Schitt's Creek) and his wife are also there. And if you think that's awkward, wait until the boss's wife shows up after he explains in detail the rifles hanging on the wall...

Is it the best movie I've seen? Or even the best on this post? Maybe not. But it may offer a bit of catharsis for people who've endured a few too many Hallmark Christmas movies.

So that's it for now. I may watch a few more holiday horror movies. Maybe my old favorite Scrooged (which may be a horror movie just as Dickens's A Christmas Carol is maybe some kind of science fiction horror featuring time travel and ghosts).

But above all, dear reader, I wish you and those you love the best possible paths through life and this heartwarming horror we call the holidays. Happy holidays to all and to all a fright night!

Wandering Through Another Mid-40's Birthday

 

Here I am continuing to wander through my mid-40's. That's right, it's time for my annual birthday post!

Thanksgiving Horrors: "That's Not Cranberry Sauce"

 

Last year I decided to watch some Thanksgiving horror movies (read about it here!). This year I decided to make it a tradition. I re-watched one of last year's films (Blood Rage), watched a sequel to one of last year's films (Thankskilling 3), revisited an old favorite (Addams Family Values), and found a new film partially filmed in the city where I live (The Last Thanksgiving).

Apologies to those outside the US, this is going to be focused on US Thanksgiving. But I hope everyone reading this is staying safe and doing their part to avoid spreading COVID whether they observed US Thanksgiving this week or not.

Hugo Ballot 2021: Novels and Novellas

 

My 2021 Hugo ballot continues (see short stories and novelettes here) with novellas and the most high-profile category: novels. You can see the full list of finalists here.

As I've mentioned before, I've been voting for the Hugos for several years, and I rely on my Three Principles of Hugo Voting (but maybe not exclusively: I've been consistently inconsistent in the past and it would be inconsistent to change that now).

You'd think extending the deadline to November instead of the usual late summer time would help, but then you'd be underestimating my powers of procrastination and how busy a time November is in my academic calendar. I think I did pretty well this year considering how many categories there are. I was even more down-to-the-wire than usual this year, but it would be a full job in itself just reading all that stuff, so I'm not going too hard on myself.

So without further ado, here's how I voted!

Twelve Nights of Christmas Horror Movies, Part Two

 

In "Twelve Nights of Christmas Horror Movies, Part One" I discussed a bunch of Christmas horror movies. And now I'm going to discuss a bunch more!

I ended up watching more than 12 movies, but I liked the title, so what are you gonna do? Besides, sometimes I watched more than one per night. Maybe you will, too.

Solipsists, Useless Kings, and Lazy Guns: Against a Dark Background by Iain M. Banks

 

Longtime readers of this blog (or anyone who talks to me about science fiction for five minutes) may remember that I'm a huge fan of Iain M. Banks's Culture series (find out why in "Death and Utopia: Reflections on the Culture").

Against a Dark Background is not a Culture novel. It's neither quite as fun nor as deep as the Culture books, but it has its moments. Even a sub-par Iain M. Banks novel is above average science fiction.

But like Feersum Endjinn and The Algebraist, Against a Dark Background not set in the Culture universe (or at least not within the galactic territory traversed by the Culture). The Algebraist is probably my favorite of Banks's non-Culture SF, but Against a Dark Background has its share of Banksian brilliance.

Pandemic Journal, Part 10

My pandemic journal has reached Part 10 here at the end of June 2020 (see the previous entry here). I have more memes, of course, including a few random ones that aren't immediately related to current events. Enjoy!

"Politics by Means of Literary Analysis": A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Recently I was talking to a friend who has been reading the Dune series, and I noted that you don't see many books that try to emulate Frank Herbert's Dune. The Dune books are weird and work in a way that wouldn't work for any other author. Most classics spawn lots of imitators or even their own sub-genres. While you see a lot of space operas out there, none of them have come close to being much like Dune in the last 55 years.

It's not that I was looking for a Dune rip-off (nobody should really want that). But I was excited to read Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire because it sounded like it might be jumping somewhere near Dune space with a far future space empire filled with a melange of cultural influences. It even has epigraphs from historical documents before each chapter. And as I suspect is the case with many Dune fans, having a glossary at the end makes me roughly 37% more excited to read any science fiction book.

Then I saw the blurbs on the inside cover comparing it to Ann Leckie or Yoon Ha Lee. These are also apt given the space empires in both authors' works, especially with one particular idea that's very similar to an idea Lee uses in Ninefox Gambit.

While one could make those comparisons, in the end A Memory Called Empire is its own thing. And this is a wonderful thing. Once I realized this was not an imitator or merely a riff on old themes, I could let the book speak for itself and appreciate it for the unique work that it is. This is the first of the Hugo Best Novel nominees I've read this year, and I have a hard time believing any of the other nominees will come close to beating it.

Mini-Reviews of Unlikely TV Comedies for Pandemic Relief

What We Do in the Shadows

This pandemic is many things--horrifying, demoralizing, anxiety-provoking--but humorous is not one of them. Yet I've been finding solace as of late in TV comedies that find humor in unlikely situations. In fact, this is why I love comedy: in a universe hell-bent on killing us after heartbreak and suffering, sometimes laughing is the deepest, most appropriate response possible.

As I said in a post back in 2015,

In the face of the terrible things going on in the world that can easily drive us to depression and despair, humor is one of the few things that can keep us sane. It might also reveal something profound about the human condition.

So, here are my mini-reviews of unlikely TV comedies for pandemic relief: What We Do in the Shadows, Avenue 5, The Midnight Gospel, GLOW, Barry, Future Man, and Upload.

Pandemic Journal, Part Seven (Now With More Memes!)

I've done it. I changed the name of this series to "Pandemic Journal" as threatened in the previous entry. We're on to Part Seven, which covers some of what I've been thinking about April 18-May 9, 2020. Also, this part is chock-full of even more memes that have amused me recently. Enjoy!

Weird Retail: Stay Crazy by Erica L. Satifka

Yeah, things are weird and scary right now, but I'm still reading books. And I'm still reviewing them. Stay Crazy by Erica L. Satifka was just what I needed right now.

I purchased the book from the author at Worldcon in 2016, and I wish I had read it sooner. Maybe in another dimension some other version of me did. Or maybe it's good that I waited until I needed a funny, weirdly-compelling book to read in this dimension.

Random Thoughts, Part 8

Made at: https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/

My series of posts on my random thoughts continues to roll randomly along... Now get ready for Part 8!

147. I don’t really feel like I fit into the discipline of philosophy, but it’s not so bad because I’ve never really felt like I fit in anywhere else, either.

148. Nostalgia both distorts the past and limits the present.

149. You’re supposed to become more of a morning person as you get older, but in the last 20 years I’ve gone from “I’d rather not do this in the morning, but I will be there” to “I am unavailable before noon.”

150. There seem to be two main responses to attempts to make philosophy curricula more inclusive: “Cool, let’s try it!” versus “I don’t know, is that really philosophy?”

151. I like arguments and discussions, but most of what happens these days is bickering, which is a great deal more exhausting and pointless.

152. I’m tired of bickering. I’m tired of conversation as combat. I’d rather have real arguments.

153. Bickering looks like argument, but it is a simulacrum of argument.

154. There must be a test to tell the difference between fighting the good fight and being pointlessly combative, but I’m not always sure what it is. Maybe it’s this: is the other person a potential ally or are you making a point for the sake of an audience?

155. When did it become cool to hate things?

156. Something in a society has gone deeply wrong when it becomes possible for many people in that society to sincerely believe that caring about other people is unnatural or irrational.

157. A possible definition of philosophy: Philosophers are people who spend the most time thinking about the things most normal people think about the least.

158. Alternatively--Philosophers: We think about stuff so you don’t have to!

159. I figured out something that bothers me about the way many people interact offline but especially online these days: a lack of self-deprecation. There is plenty of giving other people shit for the purposes of raising one’s self-estimation, but little of this shit is reserved for oneself. But what do I know? I’m not very observant.

160. I think in some cases a lack of self-deprecating humor indicates a much deeper character flaw. It shows that a person is incapable or unwilling to reflect on their own limitations and fallibilities; they don’t see themselves from a comedic distance, which often demonstrates a lack of empathy or ability to imagine others’ perspectives.

161. Someone mentioned this already, but I keep seeing it happen that in recent years parts of the American left have become more like the problematic parts of the right: a persecution complex, with-me-or-against-me dichotomies, go-for-the-jugular straw man arguments, repetition of manufactured attack points, jokes/memes that are more mean than funny, the idea that not changing one’s opinions over time is somehow inherently a good thing, approaching all discussions as combat… But all of this is combined with a thoroughly leftist tendency to eat one’s own, so the left failed to learn the one actually useful lesson from the right: the value of putting aside minor differences for the sake of gaining greater political power.

162. Some enduring mysteries of the universe:

Why is it so hard for some people to use their turn signals?

How do people get ear buds to stay in their ears?

Why don’t students do the reading?

Why are some foods considered breakfast foods?

163. Maybe things have always been like this, but it seems that these days many people adopt a sort of non-intellectual fideism about all of their beliefs, not just religious ones: they just kind of have their beliefs, come what may. Because of this, the penchant of philosophers (especially philosophy teachers) to ask what your beliefs mean and how we could know they are right is likely to sound like complete nonsense—you possess beliefs, you don’t examine them!

164. I feel this is a possibility too easily ignored: maybe everybody is wrong, even me.

165. A strange trend in conspiracy theories in recent years: “It appears that many other people like a politician I don’t like. A malevolent conspiracy is the only possible way to explain this appearance.”

166. How much of our notions of popularity and related ideas (electability, etc.) are based on the small and non-representative sample of “people I know on social media”?

167. Getting a PhD keeps you young: it gives you the student loan debt, income, and career stage of a much younger person.

168. One of the sad things about the last several years of American politics is that the list of people I can’t really talk to about politics now includes many people I mostly agree with.

169. Politics and economics are two areas of human activity in which people think they are being rational, but are often based on unfounded assumptions, sloppy conjectures, and wishful thinking. What’s weirdest to me, though, is that anyone thinks economics is more rational than politics.

170. Righteous indignation is not always the correct response to disagreement.

171. You can tell a lot about philosophers by what they think the besetting sin of philosophy is. For me it is dogmatism, which I guess maybe explains my fondness for skepticism.

172. How much human misery is caused by convincing ourselves we know things we in fact have no business claiming to know?

173. “Western philosophy” is not a natural kind.

174. I’m partially colorblind, have no eye for design, and am almost completely fashion-blind. These things may not be unrelated.

175. The sad thing about the lack of trying to take another person’s perspective that seems common these days isn’t that people are incapable of doing it, but that they don’t even seem to want to try.

176. I’m not a very good skeptic. I have lots of opinions. But sometimes my skeptical tendencies stop me from sharing them too widely or too forcefully.

177. A bit of skeptical therapy for election seasons: Nobody actually knows what the results of an election are going to be before it happens. “Electability” doesn’t really mean anything, and it says more about the people using the label than the person it applies to. Using past elections to predict future elections would require more understanding of what happened in the past than most of us possess. A general sense of foreboding doom may be unavoidable for various psychological reasons, but it shouldn’t be based on knowledge of future events that none of us possess.

On the Need to Fall Silent

“Thereupon, Gārgī Vācaknavī fell silent.”-- Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 3.6

I’m currently teaching a class called “Ancient Women Philosophers: India and Greece,” which is interesting for many reasons. I’ll get to some of those reasons in another post.

In this post I want to talk about the sage Gārgī Vācaknavī, who is one of the few women to appear in the Upaniṣads. I’m particularly interested in why she fell silent, and what I think we might learn from this today.

Disco Turing: Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

I really, really loved Catherynne M. Valente's Space Opera, a sort of Douglas Adams-style take on the Eurovision Song Contest.  I'm not sure if this book is entirely groundbreaking or whether it deserves a Hugo Award and it has its share of problems (for example, it's all just a bit too much sometimes), but I just might give it my #1 spot for the Hugo Awards because I love humorous science fiction and I think the universe might be a better place if we had more of it.

TV Roundup, Part 2: Russian Doll, Castle Rock, American Horror Story: Apocalypse

In "TV Roundup, Part 1" I discussed The Expanse, The Haunting of Hill House, and Future Man.  Here in Part 2, I'll discuss Russian Doll, Castle Rock, and American Horror Story: Apocalypse!