Monday

Miscellaneous Rambling

The Tiny House Movement. I'd heard of tiny houses, but I didn't realize they'd become a movement. Tom Woods interviewed one of the pioneers earlier this month. A small house is one that is, well, small: Under 1,000 square feet, some as small as 80 square feet. But also efficient: every square foot is used. And often illegal: zoning codes require big houses. That latter point is, ironically, helping to drive people to the small house movement. * * * * * * * I started thinking this weekend about media that puts me in a bad mood. There are certain websites and even topics for discussion that make me irritable, and it's not necessarily because I disagree with the person. Drudge, for instance, is a libertarian, but he bums me out. Mark Shea is a devout Catholic, but he makes me tired. Tom Wood is a libertarian and I'm in a good mood when I leave one of his works. John Zmirak is a devout Catholic, and he leaves me laughing. I'm assuming there are a lot of factors at play. Drudge, for instance, has obviously developed gloom as his schtick, just as Zmirak has developed humor as his. But I think there's more to it. I think the phenomenon of "priming" plays into it, as does the "receptionist phenomenon," which is my term to describe how it is that callers can tell whether a business' receptionist is smiling or not (only the real pros can conceal a frown from coming across the telephone line, I'm told). Like I said, I just started thinking about this issue over the past weekend so I don't have a whole lot of insight, but it did get me thinking about this blog's title and slogan. * * * * * * * I didn't know MIT published Technology Review and I'd never heard of "science fiction legend" Gene Wolfe, but I enjoyed this part of the magazine's interview with him:

Which writers have most influenced you?

It's a difficult question. My first editor, Damon Knight, asked me the same thing when I was just starting out, and I told him my chief influences were G.”†K. Chesterton and Marks' [Standard] Handbook for [Mechanical] Engineers. And that's still about as good an answer as I can give. I've been impressed with a lot of people–with Kipling, for example; with Dickens–but I don't think I've been greatly influenced by them.

What struck you about Chesterton?

His charm; his willingness to follow an argument wherever it led.

I don't know whether I'm more edified that Mr. Wolfe was influenced by Chesterton or that a writer from MIT asked a follow-up question about GKC that seems to assume that all his readers know who he is.