Summer 2013

"This is Water" is a 2005 commencement speech by David Foster Wallace (video, transcript).  Wallace's argument is that a liberal arts education is valuable because it teaches you how to think, which helps you notice your default state of being so that you can act with understanding of it rather than acting like a fish who doesn't know what water is (thus, "this is water").  It was an interesting discussion, but I think that it ultimately misses the point.

Suppose you have a generation of kids who don't know much about civil liberties or programming, and you want them to be excited about security technology, journalism, and the American constitution.  Take a 17 year old hacker for a protagonist, pit him against an overbearing Department of Homeland Security, talk about the history of San Francisco and some social movements, throw in a little romance, and you get "Little Brother."

"Dust: An Elysian Tail" (yes, I spelled "Tail" correctly, and no I still don't know why) is a fun, quick, and pretty action RPG.  

The protagonist is Dust, a hero with amnesia who must save the world from an evil army.  So, the plot is nothing new.  And while some games, like Bastion, have such a strong auditory and graphical narrative that greatness wolud shine through even with an unoriginal plot (not that Bastion is unoriginal), the narrative in "Dust" seems a bit hokey.

'"Alloy of Law" follows up about 300 years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy.  I enjoyed it overall.  It's a much quicker read than the previous Mistborn books, it's less philosophical, and it's more focused.  

It still has interesting tidbits, though.  One exchange discusses trust: