Brian Trent dot com

A muggy week but an exciting one… and not just because of the new Bond movie trailer. I received a phone call Monday from an acquisitions fellow at the McGraw-Hill publishing company. They are one of the bigger publishers of textbooks in the world. Back in 2004, The Humanist published an article I wrote on how civil liberties are being systematically reduced by the two-punch assault of government and corporate entities. From Walmart stitching RFID chips into their products to the government pushing the REAL ID card and PATRIOT ACT, some core freedoms are being stolen.

The article was well-received and is still responsible for a good percentage of mail I get (both the good and bad.) It was even required reading for the National Debate on civil liberties conducted by H. W. Wilson.

So this guy from McGraw Hill wants to republish the article in an upcoming anthology. A little negotiation, and the deal was signed.

Even more exciting is that one of my articles was accepted for publication at Strange Horizons!

They are a cutting-edge, award-winning magazine of science-fiction and speculation. I’ve been trying to break in for a while now… so I’m absolutely delighted! My piece is entitled “Lost Chance: Greek and Chinese Philosophy’s Unrealized Romance.” (Yes, the title is a tad wordy.) A few months ago I had been reading an old college philosophy book, and I noticed the intriguing parallel between when Greek philosophy was at its height and Chinese philosophy was also attaining a dazzling metaphysical zenith. I wondered how history might have unfolded differently if the two Golden Ages of philosophy had had the chance to interact. This is the thesis of Lost Chance and you can read it here.

My girlfriend Donna and I are making our way through all of Alfred Hitchcock’s films. There is an immediacy in his directorial technique which is very engaging. While I agree that Psycho is probably his most accomplished work, I have always loved Vertigo. Also on my favorites list is North by Northwest, Saboteur, and The Birds. Rear Window is refreshing in the way it makes use of an extremely small set (though Hitchcock’s movie Lifeboat has the all-time Hollywood record… as well as the cleverest Hitchcock cameo ever!)

I understand that they are remaking The Birds, with Naomi Watts starring. I am not a fan of sequels, prequels, remakes, or reboots. Fact is, I can only think of six films which ever produced a sequel as-good-or-better than the original, and in the remake department the list is even shorter: Three. So we’ll see…

Ok, some random thoughts on July 3:

* Franz Kafka was born on July 3 in 1883. Seven years later on the same day, July 3 is again immortalized when Idaho becomes the 43rd state of the union and immediately cranks out my favorite source of Vitamin C — the potato.

* The potato, of course, was already immortalized by the Irish Potato Famine which ended in 1852, the same year that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

* Stowe died on July 1 in Hartford Connecticut, about a half hour from my house. Hartford was the location of one of the deadliest fires in U.S. History — on July 6, 1944 — in what is known as the Hartford Circus Fire. That same year, George Stephen Morrison graduated from Flight School in Pensacola, Florida. George is best known for having a son named Jim.

* And that son — Jim Morrison — died on July 3, 1971, eighty-eight years after Kafka was born on the same day.

Of course, 88 is the year that Roman poet Valerius Flaccus died. Flaccus wrote a Latin version of The Argonautica, which was the basis of the movie Jason and the Argonauts showcasing the special effects of one of my heroes, Ray Harryhausen. And how old will Ray be next June?

88.

Watching this Week: Strange Days, Aliens, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Big Trouble in Little China.

Reading this Week: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

Random Fact:

151 years before they were discovered, author Jonathan Swift wrote in Gulliver’s Travels that the planet Mars had two moons, and even gave their correct distances from the main planet. He was also extremely close on the exact rotational orbit of the moon Phobos. No one can explain how he figured this.

Quote of the day:

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
– Thomas Paine