E. J. Brill, according to Wikipedia, is "a Dutch international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, Netherlands. With offices in Leiden, Boston, Paderborn and Singapore, Brill today publishes 275 journals and around 1200 new books and reference works each year." I've known its hefty, … [Read more...]
“War of the Worlds” – Steven Spielberg’s Version
"At the sight of the sea, Mrs. Elphinstone ... gave way to panic. She had never been out of England before, she would rather die than trust herself friendless in a foreign country, and so forth. She seemed, poor woman, to imagine that the French and the Martians might prove very similar. ... Her … [Read more...]
Clever But Empty – A Review of “The Vast of Night” (Amazon Studios)
"Now what was that all about?" --Overheard in a movie theater at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey; ca. 1970 Which was more or less my reaction to 2001 until, several weeks later, a friend explained the film to me and I understood that it not only made sense but was intellectually provocative, … [Read more...]
UFO Moon, “Miracle of the Sun” – When the Sky Turns Strange
"He says the sun came out last night. He says it sang to him." --"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) Of course it wasn't really the sun. The sun, considered as an astronomical body, doesn't do that kind of thing. So when the nodding, grinning, half-crazy old man announces at the end … [Read more...]
The Roswell Bookshelf – Kevin Randle, “Roswell in the 21st Century” (Part 2)
Kevin D. Randle, Roswell in the 21st Century. Naples, FL: Speaking Volumes, 2016. (For part 1 of this post, click here.) Suppose a man you don't know very well--you didn't know him at all, actually, until he sat down next to you at the counter of a crowded diner and the two of you fell to … [Read more...]
