CM > Recent Status Updates

"Tongtong's Summer" is a heartwarming story that is only lightly science fiction, in the sense that the tech seems pretty close to modern tech. it's an optimistic view of how people can use technology to care for an be more present in each other's lives. and i thought the child-centered POV was very well executed and fit the story.

wild to me that the authors have no issue saying "Newton's physics is challenged by modern physics, but is still valuable as a foundation and context in history," but also are like "lmao wasn't it cracked when the church said stuff about science," as if church-framed understandings of the world weren't to Newton what Newtonian physics is to them???

"Kepler did great astronomy, but science did not guide his contemporary worldview. [...] he considered the planets to be pushed along their orbits by angels, and as a sideline he drew horoscopes, in which he likely believed." my guys, you are SO CLOSE to getting it!!! science, faith, and intuition are not, in fact, mutually exclusive!!!!

lmao love when physicists have zero concept of there being other fields of study which would be relevant in conversation with the physics. also, the derision for the study of consciousness is very odd, as if that's not also a science???

i'm really struck by the linking of faith-backgrounds to ad-strategy. it of course makes brilliant sense, but i would never have made the logical jump from how pulpit training or familiarity with iconography would then lead to success in advertising. really interesting stuff, and suggests a modern challenge - in a more religiously illiterate contemporary world, how to build the ability to "read" advertising?

i really like the stronger association of The Magician with faith here, and the theological elements of an alchemical master. the imago dei vibe, and a more explicit sense that this creative energy and power is Good and blessed.

so, a fifth of the way into the book, and we still haven't even a hint, a whiff, of the plot...

well, i got through the prologue/introduction, and i'm not optimistic about this one. that the author became aware of an empathy gap online after mildly criticizing extrajudicial murder by police a) is the whitest thing ever, and b) suggests the author is woefully out of her depth in approaching this subject.