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On advertisements and trains.
May. 12th, 2008 08:05 amEvery time I see the 'Are you clear enough to be a child protective specialist?' ads, I think of Scientology and I wonder how long until Internet Group Anonymous figures this out, too.
Today has me on a new NJTransit schedule. I should have checked it before leaving the house. Oh well. If I have time, I'll pick up a copy at my transfer. About to get to Penn Station, so off to the Drafts folder.
Now I have nothing to read, unless I reread the pulp that I didn't manage to return on Saturday. Specifically, it's one of the Kris Longknife books, 'Audacious'. It is thoroughly Escapist gung-ho military sci-fi. Lately, however, it has become even more jingoistic than I previously thought possible. For instance, the main people are all in the group of planets called the United Sentients. Anyone who isn't in the military is presented as craven and unprepared for when excrement hits the turbine. While our lead is a princess, her planet has a constitutional monarchy, with a parliament. Even though we're in the far-flung future, where Earth is a nearly isolationist power center, and our Princess is from the galaxy's Rim, people still get 20th Century cultural references—the Marines even sing the American Marine's Hymn, which, in case you've not heard it, makes reference to the "halls of Montezuma" and the "shores of Tripoli" in the first stanza. Recall that all those things are dozens of thousands of light-years away from these Marines. Oh, and all the various fighting men and women in this book are all witty and eloquent, while civilians are all shallow and often caught speechless.
But as I said before, it's nice, escapist pulp.
Today has me on a new NJTransit schedule. I should have checked it before leaving the house. Oh well. If I have time, I'll pick up a copy at my transfer. About to get to Penn Station, so off to the Drafts folder.
Now I have nothing to read, unless I reread the pulp that I didn't manage to return on Saturday. Specifically, it's one of the Kris Longknife books, 'Audacious'. It is thoroughly Escapist gung-ho military sci-fi. Lately, however, it has become even more jingoistic than I previously thought possible. For instance, the main people are all in the group of planets called the United Sentients. Anyone who isn't in the military is presented as craven and unprepared for when excrement hits the turbine. While our lead is a princess, her planet has a constitutional monarchy, with a parliament. Even though we're in the far-flung future, where Earth is a nearly isolationist power center, and our Princess is from the galaxy's Rim, people still get 20th Century cultural references—the Marines even sing the American Marine's Hymn, which, in case you've not heard it, makes reference to the "halls of Montezuma" and the "shores of Tripoli" in the first stanza. Recall that all those things are dozens of thousands of light-years away from these Marines. Oh, and all the various fighting men and women in this book are all witty and eloquent, while civilians are all shallow and often caught speechless.
But as I said before, it's nice, escapist pulp.
