No, there are no Platypi in China. Well, at least Platypi aren't native to China. So I'm down to my last paper. This one is on the Chinese response to European colonialism. I've been reading bios of Chinese reformers, revolutionaries, and treatises by Qing loyalists. Guess where the lion's share of my books are coming from? They're coming from Biola's library. The books evacuated from Biola's Chinese seminary are a snapshot of an age of intense turmoil and transition in China. Someone needs to do a serious scholarly study of that collection. It would actually be a meaningful contribution to the historical field. I guess Biola would have to find someone who speaks French and Chinese to get started though. French is as far as I've gotten and Latin and Greek have to come next. The Platypus speaks French. You can ask him about it the next time you see him...
I needed a break from A Treasury of Modern Fantasy (too many authors and too many styles coming in too fast) so I decided to turn back to an author whose work I've enjoyed exploring: Robert E. Howard. This time, however, I decided to skip over Howard's famous Conan yarns and instead take a look at one of his earlier creations, Solomon Kane. The idea of a puritan occult detective was too intriguing to pass up. I have the whole collection of Kane's tales and I do intend to blog them all. Right now, my little literary detour has only encompassed the first two short stories so I'm going to record my thoughts on them right away and get back to the rest as I have time. Skulls in the Stars Solomon Kane makes his debut with this classic bit of English Gothic including a haunted moor, a vengeful ghost, and a solitary miser. Howard's Kane fits the portrait of the archetypal puritan: grim, principled, metaphysical, with an iron sense of right and wrong. I h...
Comments
Platypi. Ah.
Good to read your deep thoughts sir.
Heh, and you didn't *have* to actually use this blog to sign up for the Flinters one. You could have just deleted it after you got the invite.
But hey, you have an audience, and you seem to be having fun, so by all means, continue!