Hi Doug, and happy new year, if a couple of days late.
Well, the novel does sound farfetched, what with those artificial lightning bolts
to create flash flooding in the Southwest, etc, the review at _The New Yorker_
has more of the book's details. It's odd though that Crichton uses the idea that
the country has to be kept in a 'state of fear' about global warming while
portraying global warming as nonsense. Such bad times, I think, black water,
black year. I was just reading about Powell defending 350 million as more than
enough in aid, among other searing headlines.
Here's a piece written on Susan Sontag
http://newyorker.com/talk/content/?050110ta_talk_acocella
from which one can take some courage, and sorry for sounding so pessimistic,
reading the news tends to do that, creating something of a slump, and I am
sicker than the proverbial dog with a cold, though at least no longer burning up,
ha
all best,
Rebecca
---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 09:17:21 -0700
>From: Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: sf global warming
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>Well I sure can't trust H Sterling Burnett if he thinks Crihton is a
>good writer. It's been a long time, but my memory tells me that
>'wooden' would be high praise.
>
>I really doubt that a few environmental scientists could find the money
>to launch a conspiracy of the type the novel seems to present. And snow
>in Dallas may indeed be a sign of global warming, & the wild changes
>that it will bring about....
>
>Doug
>On 2-Jan-05, at 4:41 PM, Rebecca Seiferle wrote:
>
>> Here's a couple of links taking different looks at Crichton's new
>> bestseller -State
>> of Fear_, there's also a good review at _The New Yorker_ but I'm just
>> including
>> the links for these two opposing views, interesting though, the
>> suggestion of a
>> corporate turn toward fiction as propaganda?
>>
>> http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_288429.html
>>
>> http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_287992.html
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Rebecca
>>
>>
>
>
>Douglas Barbour
>Department of English
>University of Alberta
>Edmonton Alberta T6G 2E5 Canada
>(780) 436 3320
>http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
>
>Although they are
>
>Only breath, words
>which I command
>are immortal
>
> Sappho (Mary Barnard trans)
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