"What are your intentions, B.W.?"

This is where I gather my thoughts about what's going on out there. I'm thinking of just posting every Monday at 13 o'clock, but something tells me as I gain momentum I won't be able to hold back that long. For now, it seems like a good goal.

Tinkering with the design, I'm pleased to have found a way to incorporate my three favorite futurist books into the top of the page. Montag, of course, is the troubled fireman of Ray Bradbury's classic "Fahrenheit 451." I love some of Bradbury's other works better, but there's no questioning the power of his world where people have asked the government to burn their books to make everyone happier. Much like the Senate of George Lucas' First Galactic Empire, where liberty dies to the sound of cheering and applause. (The quote is from Matthew Stover's very nice novelization of the movie.)

The subheading is from the first sentence of George Orwell's "1984," when all the clocks were striking thirteen. Better than "451" or just about any other dystopian novel, Orwell's classic predicts the world we live in today -- he just was about 20 years off in the "when" of it.

Last but not least, You gotta have Simon Jester around to provide a reference to obert Heinlein's "The Moon is A Harsh Mistress," with its great depiction of life in more or less libertarian or even anarchist society. "1984" and "Moon is a Harsh Mistress" are among those rarest of books, the ones I revisit from time to time.
I find a good way to introduce myself to people is to give them lists ... my favorite books, favorite movies, favorite TV shows, favorite musicians. The characters in Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity" are always throwing lists at each other. I felt very at home in that book.