Marvin Gaye died in 1984. His biggest song, "Let's Get It On," was released in 1973. And in November 2024, the song got an official video. The animated video is full of sexual symbolism without being explicit. (via Boing Boing)

On his final journey through Asia, Thomas Merton found some peace in the dialectic between refusing the world and loving it - by Drew Calvert Read at Aeon

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Lilo & Stitch visual development by Jim Martin

Now, I expect everyone is going to be gearing up to resist authoritarianism, to protect themselves, to stand up for the scapegoats Trumpism will be attacking. But protecting your mental health is important too. Depression, despair, and a sense of doom are counter-productive, and sometimes you have to recharge your spirit.

One way is re-reading good books, and I thought I’d share some of my favorites. That is, the criterion here isn’t “best books ever” or “mind-blowers.” It’s “stuff I re-read a lot.” Most of these I’ve mentioned previously, deal with it. I should also note, there’s plenty of books I would re-read if they were, you know, on my bookshelves.

Non-fiction

King Solomon’s Ring, Konrad Lorenz. What I’m reading now, in fact. All about animal behavior from one of the scientists who pioneered the field… with a frequent loss of dignity which he gleefully chronicles.

QED, Richard Feynman. More basic science: the field of quantum electrodynamics, which explains everything in the universe except for the nuclear forces and gravity, and which is both one of the best-supported theories in physics, and its most counter-intuitive.

Labyrinths of Reason, William Poundstone. A book of paradoxes, what they tell us and what they imply about how well we can understand the universe.

Aspects of the Novel, E.M. Forster. A laid-back but brilliant analysis of the components of fiction. It’s a hundred years but only a couple of the chapters seem out of date.

A Collection of Essays, George Orwell. Some of this touches on heavy politics, but that of 75 years ago, which is a useful corrective to present-day worries. As a literary critic, I don’t know anyone else who can simultaneously probe the problematic aspects of a writer (e.g. Rudyard Kipling) and identify what they still have of lasting value. And in politics he’s equally perceptive; he never lets his socialism overrun his humanism.

Lost Japan, Alex Kerr; Geisha, Liza Dalby. These are not travel books, they’re by participant-observers, and cover aspects of Japan few outsiders will see.

Science writers whose books you should always grab, to read or re-read: Mary Roach, Olivia Judson, Natalie Angier.

I’ve talked about Colin McEvedy’s atlases perhaps too much, but there’s nothing like them for getting or reviewing the main currents of history.

Fiction

The Anubis Gates, Tim Powers. The best time travel novel ever.

The Book of Ratings, Lore Sjoberg. Lore is re-issuing this, so go get it. Candy for the brain.

Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome. Three 19th century Londoners spend two weeks lazing their way up the Thames. Hijinks ensue.

A Rage in Harlem, Chester Himes. A very earnest man falls for a scam, and that’s only about the fourth-worst thing that happens to him in the next few days. Funny and also brutal.

Comics

Planetary, Warren Ellis & John Cassaday. Loving homages/reinterpretations of pop culture, with an overarching and somehow very satisfying story.

Stupid, Stupid Rat-tails, Tom Sniegowski, Jeff Smith, & Stan Sakai. Bone is great, but this is the one I come back to. Sniegowski (the writer here, not Smith) writes like a flaid: he gets just the right mixture of whimsy, scariness, and a background snarkiness.

Monkey Food, Ellen Forney. Life as a kid with her hippie parents in the 70s.

Making Comics, Scott McCloud. McCloud perfected his technique in this, the third of his books on comics, in several senses.

La Tour (The Tower), Schuiten & Peeters. One of the best of French comics: gorgeous art, an intriguing story. More of a Borgesian fable than a story.

The Long Tomorrow, O’Bannon & Moebius. Moebius’s art is always spectacular, but he needs a good scenarist, and he has one here. The Incal (with Jodorowsky) is good too. On his own Moebius tends toward that Heavy Metal heavy irony, though Escale sur Pharagonescia works.

I can never read too much Pogo, Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, Mafalda, Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend, and Kurtzman-era Mad.

I feel like I should plug my Women in Comics page; many of those artists I’d happily read more of, I just haven’t been able to afford buying comics as I used to.

APOD: 2024 November 6 – Comet Tsuchinshan Atlas over the Dolomites Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas is now headed back to the outer Solar System. The massive dusty snowball put on quite a show during its trip near the Sun, resulting in many impressive pictures from planet Earth during October. The featured image was taken in mid-October and shows a defining visual feature of the comet -- its impressive anti-tail. The image captures Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) with impressively long dust and ion tails pointing up and away from the Sun, while the strong anti-tail -- composed of more massive dust particles -- trails the comet and points down and (nearly) toward the recently-set Sun. In the foreground is village of Tai di Cadore, Italy, with the tremendous Dolomite Mountains in the background. Another comet, C/2024 S1 (ATLAS), once a candidate to rival Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas in brightness, broke up last week during its close approach to our Sun.