Parameters of the Experiment What are the real-life situations I’ve been involved in, where the reality of falsehood impacts violently with the potential for honesty? So far I’ve seen two issues, which have appeared repeatedly and in varying forms. One of them got me started on this line of thought, as it was very obvious…
Originally posted January 2004 Thanks to Bob, Lou, George, Eric, & Ian, who helped make this a better article. I also extend an (admittedly somewhat grudging) ‘thank you’ to life in general — were I not exposed to the bad as well as the good, I would not be able to try constantly to improve…
Originally posted April 2004 Thanks to George for making this a better review, as he always does. Books of historical fiction are based, in varying amounts, on the reality of the past. However, the lack of good record keeping, coupled with the problem of information conservation, has left us more often with mysteries than fact….
Book review originally posted June 2004 With thanks to Guthrum, oddly enough, who showed me loving horror didn’t mean you were one. ;-) King has actually written two books here. One is a surprisingly candid review of his memories of childhood and young adulthood. The other is about the craft of writing, and it is…
Originally written December 2003: more of a grumble than usual… As you probably don’t know, by profession I am a web site designer. I take pride in my work, as I assume most competent craftspeople do. However, recently I’ve had the most incredible frustration in my job — on this very web site! — due…
Originally written in the late 1990’s for a “Popular Culture” Anthropology class. In her book Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature, Janice A. Radway explores the apparent fascination of romantic fiction to many women, and examines the needs this literary genre fulfills for its readers. Our required reading was the Introduction and the…
Continuing from yesterday… Kakou Korakos I certainly agree with you that women are often societally trained to be too passive. Myself, I believe the answer is to quit training them to do that, rather than just nudging “nice guys” to be more assertive. I also agree that being the major decision-maker in a relationship is…
Continuing from yesterday… Replies Erin (Brace yourself, Erin: I’m going to gush a little. *coughcough* Ahem. ;) ) Thank goodness for folks like you, who don’t just think things through before acting — but try their best to pass that on to friends and children! Heh. All gushing aside, I’ve really enjoyed reading your calmly…
Continuing from yesterday… “Whatcha gonna do / When they come for you?” So why exactly does a bad boy seem to “get” more women? Leaving aside the repugnant assumptions inherent in that query (which would be an article in itself), the simple answer seems to be they’re self-centered and arrogant enough to simply keep propositioning…
I was going to simply reply to the comments I received concerning the Firestarter titled Why Do We Ask Why Women Seem to Prefer Bad Boys to Nice Guys? However, I realized I had no way of notifying these kind individuals that I immensely appreciated their feedback, and had replied to them. Further, I wanted…