Monday, December 30, 2002

Misc. I've told everyone who will listen about Philip Pullman's excellent, lovely, and thoughtful trilogy, His Dark Materials.  The final book in the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass, was the first children's book to win the prestigious Whitbred Prize, and although I would certainly have loved these books as a much younger person, my current 35-year-old self loved them as well. I cannot say enough fine things about these novels. Philip Pullman writes here about honoring the story - I wish all writers thought this way, and would thereby produce more things I find fine and worthwhile. Oh, and my favorite literary critic, James Wood, will publish his first novel, The Book Against God, next month.  I really enjoyed Mr. Woods' dismantling of Zadie Smith's writing style in this review. Although I am at times convinced that George W. Bush has set out to destroy the world, I can't help but find it rather funny that the administration is railing about North Korea's desire to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty - I mean, this from an administration who has withdrawn from the ABM treaty, the Kyoto accord, and the ICC in just two short years.  3:32:39 PM