Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Vegan yet?
If Fast Food Nation didn't change your mind about eating meat, and you're ignoring the news that products from cloned animals will soon be available at your local supermarket, try reading Mark Bittman's article in the NYT (Jan. 27th, 2008) - "Rethinking the Meat Guzzler." This from a chef who's not even vegetarian, let alone vegan...quite amazing...
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Kurt Vonnegut
Two interesting things Kurt Vonnegut once wrote (among many)-
"I tend to think of human beings as huge, rubbery test tubes, with chemical reactions seething inside." -Breakfast of Champions
"Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why." -Slaughter House - Five
So I know KV, like a lot of science fiction writers, viewed humans as an expendable, anomalous life form...we take ourselves and our place in the universe way too seriously and all that...considering the scale of the universe we ARE desperately (and comically) self-important...still he manages to be satirical and compassionate at the same time. So, now that's he's died, I've finally decided to read all his books. How wretched is that?
I want to know if he really could see in 4 dimensions and why, after all he went through, in Dresden and recognizing the futility of everything...why he wasn't simply contemptuous of everything human. Why he still cared and still thought we should continue with the little experiment we're involved in down here. And on top of that he's incredibly funny. Maybe the ridiculousness of all this is the only thing that really makes it worthwhile.
"I tend to think of human beings as huge, rubbery test tubes, with chemical reactions seething inside." -Breakfast of Champions
"Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why." -Slaughter House - Five
So I know KV, like a lot of science fiction writers, viewed humans as an expendable, anomalous life form...we take ourselves and our place in the universe way too seriously and all that...considering the scale of the universe we ARE desperately (and comically) self-important...still he manages to be satirical and compassionate at the same time. So, now that's he's died, I've finally decided to read all his books. How wretched is that?
I want to know if he really could see in 4 dimensions and why, after all he went through, in Dresden and recognizing the futility of everything...why he wasn't simply contemptuous of everything human. Why he still cared and still thought we should continue with the little experiment we're involved in down here. And on top of that he's incredibly funny. Maybe the ridiculousness of all this is the only thing that really makes it worthwhile.
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