whedon

Wednesday various

  • Anybody need a cool jewelery box? I actually own these books. (Though a little part of me cringes at thought of any such book mutilation.)
  • Speaking of books, word on the “new” Vladimir Nabokov “novel,” The Original of Laura, isn’t exactly good [via], suggesting that it’s at best a curio for Nabokov scholars. But at least we have these neat re-imagined covers for all (well, mostly all) of his other books. [via]

    Man, it’s been way too long since I’ve read any Nabokov.

  • So yeah, Dollhouse was canceled, and I don’t think anybody is exactly surprised. I still think the show was some of Joss Whedon’s best and worst work, capable of some truly brilliant and startling moments, but also never really comfortable in its own skin or sure of exactly what kind of show it wanted to be. There’s a lot I love about it, but I won’t mourn it the same way I did Firefly (and to a lesser extent Angel), and I’ve long been resigned to its many flaws and limited chances for survival.

    • Speaking of Dollhouse, here’s an interesting look at the role of neuroscience in the Whedonverse that somehow manages to mention all his shows except for the one where people’s brains are erased and rewired on a regular basis. [via

  • And finally, Neil Gaiman on A.A. Milne and Kenneth Grahame:

    I once read an essay by A.A. Milne telling people that, of course they knew Kenneth Grahame’s work, he wrote The Golden Age and Dream Days, everybody had read them, but he also did this amazing book called The Wind in the Willows that nobody had ever heard of. And then Milne wrote a play called Toad of Toad Hall, which was a big hit and made The Wind in The Willows famous and read, and, eventually, one of the good classics (being a book that people continue to read and remember with pleasure), while The Golden Age and Dream Days, Grahame’s beautiful, gentle tales of Victorian childhood, are long forgotten.

    If there is a moral, or a lesson to be learned from all this, I do not know what it is.

Thursday various

  • Giant Crack in Africa Will Create a New Ocean. Of course, it’ll be in a million years or so, but still. [via]
  • I’ve been impressed with Geist ever since Heather got me a subscription to the magazine — to the point that I didn’t think twice about renewing my subscription, even as I let my New Yorker subscription lapse again. I like the magazine not least as physical object, so I was a little dubious about the idea of a digital edition. But I think this has a certain goofy charm; it certainly replicates the turning of magazine pages better than the typical e-reader. Check it out — and maybe even consider subscribing!
  • I’ll admit, when I DVR a television show, I usually fast-forward through the commercials. Isn’t that the purpose for which the technology was first marketed? Apparently, I’m in a very small majority: nearly half of all DVR users don’t skip the ads. [via]
  • Now that he’s been elected New Jersey’s governor, I think Monty Python definitely should sue Chris Christie. [via]
  • And finally, though you’ve probably seen this all over the place, Joss Whedon’s open letter to The Terminator owners. That’s four zeroes after the one!