Book Review: The Truman Prophecy (2015), Excerpt #3

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Brian Wright

From Part 2: Toto: Curtain #2: Linchpin

“A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Excerpt from The Truman Prophecy,
due for publication 12/25/15.]

________________________________ 3Q_2015

Neil wishes he’d never seen that damned DVD.

“Architects and Engineers” for chrissakes!

And he, a highly prized one… by the Rocket Men.

“So what’s it going to be, Mr. Hansen?” asked the company’s special agent. “Do we have a deal?”

A deal? Continue reading →

Book Review: The Truman Prophecy (2015), Excerpt #1

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Brian Wright

From chapter ‘Curtain 1: Golden Rules’

[Excerpt from The Truman Prophecy,
due for publication 12/25/15.]

The three of them set up the second Monday in December, once more at the Indie Coffee Shop.

Chance noted, “How fitting that the name of this place matches a shortening of the name of our life form dawning: Independent?”

“I like the abbreviation ‘the I’s,’ better,” said Sean.

“The I’s have it… 🙂 ,” chided Katie.

“Good stuff,” remarked Chance. “We’re already going straight to the core of the Big Picture I’ve been striving for, and what I wanted to discuss today…

“… namely, my novel and all my related work presents the central idea of ‘the Independent’ as a new being rising from the ashes of the Collective, declaring its presence and withdrawing it from the old life form.”

“And by doing so, ending it [the old form],” furthered Katie. “Until now our liberty colleagues been more or less beating around the bush… so many grappling with the strings and chains… rather simply than casting them under foot and walking to the light.” Continue reading →

Book Review: John Adams

Posted on October 16, 2015 by Brian Wright

The founding father of founding fathers
by David McCullough
Review by Brian Wright

2001, Simon and Schuster, 656 pages

“But all the provisions that He [God] has made for the gratification of our senses… are much inferior to the provision, the wonderful provision that he has made for the gratification of our nobler powers of intelligence and reason. He has given us reason to find out the truth, and the real design and true end of our existence.”
— diary of John Adams ca. 1756

John Adams (1735-1826) is probably the most underrated thinker and actor participating in the birth of our nation, the birth of practical liberty (for society at large for the first time in history). The simple truth: were it not for Adam’s fierce determination and hard intellectual work of persuasion at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, 1776, independence from England would not have been declared, much less achieved. Continue reading →

Book Review: Always Postpone Meetings with Time-Wasting Morons (1992)

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Brian Wright

by Scott Adams

The cartoons of Scott Adams became popular in the downsizing decade of the 1990s. This particular book was originally published in 1992, and focuses much more on the cosmic sarcasm and interaction between Dilbert and his dog, Dogbert. Most people associate Dilbert with a coterie of office workers and the foibles of office life that many who have worked a white collar job back then identify with. [Some mistakenly think Dilbert was the inspiration for Office Space, but that movie was based on a character Milton created by Mike Judge.]

So how do you review a book of cartoons?

First, let’s ask about the general condition of political humor and satire these days. When I was a young adult, primetime in the 1970s newspaper cartoons were still in vogue. We had Peanuts, in Detroit Guindon was popular, I remember Cathy, Arlo and Janis, many others, then into the 1980s, Calvin and Hobbes, Bloom County, The Far Side by Gary Larson. And those are only off the top of my head, ones I tried to read regularly, real time. It was great. Then there was television talk-show humor, Johnny Carson, and cerebral ones like Dick Cavett, who often did political stuff. Continue reading →

Book Review: God and Philosophy (1966)

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Brian Wright

An audit of the case for Christian theism
by Antony Flew

In the course of my own intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual development, the issue of the Christian god—or God, if you prefer (conceding the initial cap as a means of indicating its monotheistic nature)—has been central. Partly because I was raised to believe in God and then partly because my libertarian political convictions emerged so strongly during my late teens… and they revolved about the writings of Ayn Rand (a quintessential atheist). [You can read Nathaniel Branden’s short column in the May 1962 Objectivist newsletter, which I’ve uploaded here as a jpeg file, which gives perhaps the most concise demolition of the logic behind the concept of God, at least as a ‘first cause.’]

God and Philosophy was one of the key books that I read on the subject of theism vs. atheism in the early 70s. Along with the classic out-of-print tome by Homer W. Smith, Man and His Gods (1952)—and I had heard of George Smith’s The Case Against God a few years later, as well—G&P gave pretty much the whole picture of why the concept of God (AS DEFINED BY THE CONVENTION OF THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER) is a nonstarter. The parenthetical phrase is extremely important, it’s the definition of terms that is necessary before any fruitful argument or discussion can follow. So the standard definition of God that Flew stipulates is as follows: Continue reading →

Book Review: The Deep Blue Good-By (1964)

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Brian Wright

by John D. MacDonald
Classic Travis McGee tale with language for the ages

1964 (renewal 1992) , Ballantine Books, 273 pages

For some reason there’s a gap in my reading history for John D. MacDonald’s fine fiction, especially the hugely popular Travis McGee mystery crime novels. So you can’t call me an expert witness in this case, but a friendly one on this his first in the Travis McGee series.

I had read something in the series before—I think it was the Pale Gray one (the Travis McGee titles always contain a color)—but did not remember what an astute judge of character ol’ Trav is… and how he teeters so on the edge of cynicism when it comes to sociological observations.

For example, in the Deep Blue Good-By, after Travis assesses his soon-to-be client—”The world had done its best to subdue and humble her, but the edge of her good tough spirit showed through.”—he launches into a broad internal diatribe on the world as he knows it: Continue reading →

Book Review: A Tan and Sandy Silence (1971)

Posted on September 18, 2015 by Brian Wright

Middle of the pack, lesser Travis, but good enuf
by John D. MacDonald

Frankly I don’t remember the plot too well on this one. Travis does reflect quite a bit on life and love, but these philosophical passages did not seem central as in so many others in the series. The plot involves a search for a missing person, a woman with whom Travis has had a relationship long ago… which ended amiably.

I would have to say this novel, which I believe is number 13 out of 21, reveals the beginnings of Travis’s anxiety over slowing down with age. As a salvage expert, McGee has made a career from helping people in distress. But in so doing—and not being a man of conventional methods—he runs into considerable danger and damage. Indeed it’s somewhat of a conventional ending to witness McGee suffering broken bones, cuts, gunshot wounds, knife stabbings, and even beatings. His adversaries are practically as physical as he is and sleazy cunning. Continue reading →