The Coming of Dawn

Haven’t touched this place in what seems forever. Of course, that can be blamed on the various responsibilities and antiresponsibilities that have assailed me these past weeks, not the least of which are 1. Final exams, 2. Immensely therapeutic S. Korea trip, 3. Excessive amounts of slacking, book-store raiding, and restaurant-going, and 4. a millstone around the metaphorical neck that has prevented me from exercising my itchy typist’s fingers till today, where I realized that I must do something to keep this place afloat. I must not reach the point where entire months are not represented in archives.

Shockingly, NS is approaching like a trainwreck – I used to think, when I was but a little lad, that by the time I reached 18 there would be Assault Robots and Mecha Tanks and Giant Killer Machines that would render mass conscription obsolete (and therefore liberate me to pursue more worthy things like cinema-going and learning how to paint). As the magic 2008 approached and the latest developments in robotics became increasingly limited to wheeled Mars explorers and talking mannequins, I lost whatever fragile and tenuous hope had gripped my heart. Now, fatalistically, I await the dread date, trying to keep an open mind and failing miserably.

In other news, I must watch The Golden Compass . The Catholic League’s attempted boycott of the film is achieving the reverse of the intended effect. It’s promoting the film and the books! Once again the policy of trying to restrict free access to media and information has shown itself to be the misguided and irrational futility that it has always been. From book burnings of the Nazi era, to the banning of books in school libraries (okay, maybe those examples are a little extreme, but they’re in the same vein) – such Fahrenheit 911-ish actions have never led to anything but the literary emancipation of the books themselves. The Catholic League is happily shooting itself in the foot. Hurrah for Mr. Pullman.

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