(Hat tip: TV Smith )

SF authors are more often Mormons than any other faith persuasion, and religious themes (usually Judeo-Christian) often provide the backdrop to SF/Fantasy writings. But Chris Schluep, assistant editor at Del Rey, warns against reading too much into the genre:

"It's no secret science fiction is fond of dealing with big ideas—and religion is certainly a big idea so I guess it will always have a place in works of science fiction," he wrote in an e-mail interview. "But to suggest that science fiction is dominated by the Judeo-Christian theme is like saying all music sounds like Britney Spears or the Backstreet Boys. It may seem like that is the case sometimes, but the statement is still untrue."

[Read more in the article Other Worlds, Suffused With Religion]

Adherents.com has a link to Science Fiction/Fantasy Writers and their religious orientation (and a whole lot of interesting religion stats). Pretty impressive list, and although it is not exhaustive (obviously), the compiler admits that Sikh and Buddhist authors are very rare. Check it out here.

Saul Bellow 1915~2005                                                                                      Saul Bellow was one of my favourite writers and I remember how utterly fascinated I was by his books I read every one I could lay my hands on. Beginning with Herzog, I moved on to Dangling Man, Adventures of Augie March, Henderson the Rain King, Mr Sammler's Planet, Humboldt's Gift, Mosby's Memoirs, Him With His Foot in the Mouth, Dean's December, and more recently, Ravelstein.  His books were always cerebral, with a melancholic streak typical of weary intellectuals who wrestle with despair.  Saul Bellow had a gift, an acuity of sight that saw nobility in a world fast fading into the night.  There will never be another writer quite like him. 

THERE ARE 44 MILLION CHILD LABOURERS IN INDIA

You can learn more facts such as this in the book by Jessica Williams (another impulse buy!). The point about child labourers in India hit me because of OM's presentation about the Dalits (untouchables, at the bottom of the caste system) of India, in church the other day. The presentation was primarily to inform our people about the disadvantaged and oppressed but I don't know in what way we may have been challenged to broaden hearts and minds. Those of us who live in the city have so much going for us; the extent to which we allow ourselves to think less about our wants and needs and to think more about what moves God's heart is the beginning of personal transformation.

Vishal Mangalwadi, who once studied under Francis Schaeffer is also one of India's foremost Christian intellectuals and activists. Interestingly, he wrote, "For two centuries Christians have spent their resources on educating the upper castes, many of whom are now opposing -- if not persecuting -- Christians in India and propagating Hinduism in the West." In a strongly worded critique, Mangalwadi went on to say that, "The Western church has not preached equality in India." 

Visit the OM India site about work among the Dalits, to give them a social, spiritual and political voice intheir own country.

To learn about individuals, foundations and organisations helping India's Dalits, visit Dalit Freedom Network.

His style has evolved some since his Pop Art heyday and his most recent works are a swirl of sensuous, throbbing lines and intertwined bodies in positions that could well be influenced by the Karma Sutra. His famous Andy Warhol piece is on display here, (Ib is after all the Warhol of Malaysia) and he’s as socially conscious as ever, with works about the Bandit Queen, and another on 9/11. Bought a book about the artist and the museum, and had the man autograph it personally.

What irony. An old photo of our two boys
appeared in the papers today. Half-page in the Sunday Star tabloid! Taken 5
years ago when we were interviewed for an article on homeschooling, it’s now
used to illustrate a story about the tyranny of  homework. 

A homeschooler once quipped that parents of
children in conventional schools must believe in homeschooling - after all they
spend so much time coaching and helping their kids with their school
assignments at home.  In the report, one
mother claims that she spends 3 hours after dinner every night going through
her daughters’ schoolwork. 

Ethan and Elliot (15 and 13 now) who do not
have any idea about our Malaysian homework culture – like, copying questions AND
answers from workbooks, rewriting ‘nicely’ a teacher’s notes, etc
– are shaking
their heads in disgust seeing their picture accompany a story on
homework.  Is that weird or what? “Shouldn’t they pay us for
using our photo?” asked Elliot. 

On the other hand, homeschoolers aren’t
exactly twiddling their thumbs all day. Our boys use Sonlight. If you want to know
anything about the curriculum, I’ll tell you – but only if you don’t mind
picking up your jaw off the floor when I’m finished.

The difference is, they have a lot more fun learning. And a lot more time to ‘waste’ on stuff like reading, music,
swimming, Scrabble and LOTR Risk, writing their blogs (here and here), picking up the house, watering
the plants, helping with Mom’s groceries, visiting my Dad at the hospital, and
oh, just getting on my nerves now and then. 

Say, why do you think some parents insist
on telling us homeschoolers that we’re missing out on the “real world”?  

You're Cat's Cradle!
by Kurt Vonnegut
You
believe quite firmly that free will deserted you long ago and faraway.
As a result, it's hard to take responsibility for anything. Even though
you show great potential as a leader of a small 3rd world country, the
choices are all made ahead of time. You're rather fond of games
involving string. Your fear of nuclear weaponry is trumped only by your
fear of ice.
Take the Book Quizat the Blue Pyramid.

Haha.
If  I were a book, that's who I would be - Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle! 
I missed Vonnegut when he was yesteryear's literary flavour. But I do
remember Nick Nolte in the movie adaptation of  Vonnegut's Mother Night, a sad tale about an American German collaborator during WW2. Now that I'm piqued, I'll have to check Cat's Cradle out.

I finished Michael Connelly’s The Poet.
It’s the second Connelly I’ve read and he doesn’t disappoint. Solid
police procedural, and a fairly intriguing plot written in a sparse
style common in American crime genre. The book had me hooked and I
finally came to the last page at almost 4 am.

Unlike
Connelly's Harry Bosch series, the hero this time is Jack McEvoy, a
crime reporter who turns sleuth when his twin brother is found dead
from a supposedly self-inflicted wound. You have the usual red herring
tossed early into the game but the final twist was a twist too many.

Keeping
your aces out of sight is fine, but the tale ended on
an anti-climax - which has given Connelly an excuse to bring the
Poet back in a new Bosch thriller (The Narrows, which I haven't read but I will, eventually).

But The Poet is the easier read compared to Philip Kerr’s A Philosophical Investigation. A blogger wrote that life’s too short to be spent on books that do not satisfy. If they don’t grip you, give it up and move on, she said. And believe me, I have been tempted to give up on Philip Kerr.

A Philosphical Investigation
has a clever premise with a literary/philosophical bent; the reader who
keeps company with Plato, Socrates, and above all Wittgenstein (from
whom Kerr borrowed the title of this book), will find the story er,
intellectually stimulating. Sometime in the near future, genetic
profiling becomes the norm and a serial killer decides to do society a
favour by bumping off similarly tainted individuals.

The
philosophy of Wittgenstein (who once declared himself Bertrand
Russell’s superior) provides the canvas for an exploration of mental
states, language and symbolism, etc, which to my mind makes for an
unsatisfactory mystery of the whodunit type. Police Chief
Inspector Isadora ‘Jake’ Jakowicz jumps through the requisite hoops to
get her man while readers are entertained to a dialectic on logic and
reality. Not for anyone who’s looking for a less taxing diversion.

But
there are interesting thoughts on philosophy and crime detection here
which as a professor tells Jake, are similar disciplines: both "detection and philosophy promote the idea that something can be known."
At the heart of each endeavour is a search for clues that must fit
together, and a questioning of assumptions and presuppositions, for
truth to be revealed.

Nestle USA has been ordered to pay teacher and ex-model Russell
Christoff US$15.6 million! Why? For using Christoff's image on their instant coffee label without permission [story here]. As someone who's in advertising, I've had a couple of  scares in my career so that's a lesson worth repeating: never forget the Talent Release form.  I can almost hear some heads rolling off the chopping block at Nestle. Ouch!