The Turtle Creeps Before the Workday Starts
There was a turtle at the bus stop today. It was just turtlin' around... turtle, turtle, turtle. I wanted to take it home and make it Captain Turtlebeard of Bathtub Oceania, but I had to board the bus and head off to school. Sadly, turtle wasn't at the bus stop when I got home.
I gave my students quizzes today. A large portion of them think that tan(f(x)) is "tan" multiplied by f(x), which makes me wonder who let them out of precal.
Y'know, I don't post here much. I have more ideas than I ever write out... partly because I get ideas when I'm not in a position to write. Today I finally remembered something topical: books I've read recently.
Sometime over the summer, I finally made it all the way through Frank Herbert's Dune. I've seen enough people geek out over Dune, so I figured I may as well try finishing the damn book. I mean, maybe the first time I got bored with it was a fluke.
Dune was a damn weird book. Herbert gets props for strangeness, blending psychology and ecology of all things. By my reckoning, Dune is at heart a fantasy novel, so it features the typical fantasy conventions: Chosen One, Crusty Old Man (mentor to the protagonist), and "prophecy."
Prophecy plots, as predictable as they are, can still make for interesting stories, but Herbert does one better by making the prophecy the result of centuries of manipulation. It's only a prophecy to the characters that don't know about the background mechaniations. That's cool. I can appreciate that.
Chosen One? Hey, it's classic. But when Herbert decided Paul should go IDDQD IDKFA, I silently wished for STFU GTFO. For fuck's sake, has his own special powers, does he really need Bene Gesserit powers, Bene Gesserit combat skills, Fremen combat skills, his grandfather's leadership skills, AND training by Idaho and Halleck on top of that? Shit, when Luke went aboard the Death Star II he was a fledgeling Jedi Knight with two dead crusty old men behind him and all he had on his side was an inkling that Vader might betray Palpatine. When Neo rescued Morpheus, he had the barest minimum l33t skillz; he was practically still a script kiddie. When Ash fought the evil dead, he had a chainsaw for a hand, a bad attitude, AND he wasn't even Chosen. And when Connor MacLeod fought The Kurgan, he had a shitty career ahead of him AND it was the 80s! What the fuck, Herbert? Couldn't come up with anything better than a Gary Stu?
Additionally: reading Asimov's Foundation immediately after Dune made me think Herbert borrowed a lot from Asimov. Foundation I found more enjoyable as well.
I gave my students quizzes today. A large portion of them think that tan(f(x)) is "tan" multiplied by f(x), which makes me wonder who let them out of precal.
Y'know, I don't post here much. I have more ideas than I ever write out... partly because I get ideas when I'm not in a position to write. Today I finally remembered something topical: books I've read recently.
Sometime over the summer, I finally made it all the way through Frank Herbert's Dune. I've seen enough people geek out over Dune, so I figured I may as well try finishing the damn book. I mean, maybe the first time I got bored with it was a fluke.
Dune was a damn weird book. Herbert gets props for strangeness, blending psychology and ecology of all things. By my reckoning, Dune is at heart a fantasy novel, so it features the typical fantasy conventions: Chosen One, Crusty Old Man (mentor to the protagonist), and "prophecy."
Prophecy plots, as predictable as they are, can still make for interesting stories, but Herbert does one better by making the prophecy the result of centuries of manipulation. It's only a prophecy to the characters that don't know about the background mechaniations. That's cool. I can appreciate that.
Chosen One? Hey, it's classic. But when Herbert decided Paul should go IDDQD IDKFA, I silently wished for STFU GTFO. For fuck's sake, has his own special powers, does he really need Bene Gesserit powers, Bene Gesserit combat skills, Fremen combat skills, his grandfather's leadership skills, AND training by Idaho and Halleck on top of that? Shit, when Luke went aboard the Death Star II he was a fledgeling Jedi Knight with two dead crusty old men behind him and all he had on his side was an inkling that Vader might betray Palpatine. When Neo rescued Morpheus, he had the barest minimum l33t skillz; he was practically still a script kiddie. When Ash fought the evil dead, he had a chainsaw for a hand, a bad attitude, AND he wasn't even Chosen. And when Connor MacLeod fought The Kurgan, he had a shitty career ahead of him AND it was the 80s! What the fuck, Herbert? Couldn't come up with anything better than a Gary Stu?
Additionally: reading Asimov's Foundation immediately after Dune made me think Herbert borrowed a lot from Asimov. Foundation I found more enjoyable as well.