Great book. That was my first Tim Powers book as well. The Drawing of the Dark is another really good one. I also really liked his sort of loose trilogy The Fault Line series. The first two books are pretty much standalone but the third book is a sequel to both.

If you haven't read it already, Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series is amazing. Saladin Ahmed's Throne of the Crescent Moon is also very good.

Which Tim Powers novel?

There's always the art vs artist debate, but regardless of where someone falls on that divide, there's a big difference between appreciating the quality of the art produced by an awful person and continuing to collaborate with said person. I would never fault someone for appreciating a film made by Polanski, but…

It's not valid. It's based on unsupported supposition.

I'm trying to grasp the reasoning here. Are you saying that since false rape accusations are largely non-existent, there will be more of them?

The music industry has shown a general willingness to work with all sorts of terrible people.

I'm also thinking that based on the negative publicity alone, they would want to just go ahead and release her from her contract at this point. I understand they rightly assume they have a lot more money to make from her, but from a PR standpoint, they should probably just grant her a release.

The idea of the "perfect" language was such a fascinating one to me. Baudolino was so much fun in part because every philosophical or investigative endeavor they undertook in the novel was based on these various biblical assumptions they had to shape their theories according to.

I'll have to see if I can dig it up. It was probably written back in 2004. I think I was applying Deleuze and Guatari's idea of the rhizome to it.

It was my second. I started with Name of the Rose but Foucault's Pendulum was much more aligned with my interests, not that I didn't enjoy Rose. Baudolino was another favorite.

I quite enjoyed Baudolino.

This really sucks. I was a big fan of both his theory work and his literary efforts. My first academic conference presentation was on Foucault's Pendulum.

It's the children who are wrong.

They started in Albuquerque, but like Microsoft, they left us.

God only knows what I'd do without you asking that question.

Beautiful eulogy.

I've never really had anyone I'd consider a celebrity look alike. When I used to weigh a lot more people told me I looked a little like Chris Elliot, which of course was very flattering. I've also had people tell me I sound like Seth Rogen or Red Green.

I already played myself on tv for years. Why recast?

Of course I think it's a problem but I can also think other issues are also a problem. More often than not I don't think at all about Chris Brown but this was an article that raises clvalid criticisms of him. I've also spoken out in any number of forums about the horrors of systemic and pervasive racism, particularly…