Category Archives: Religiousity

The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson

By terje | Published: November 10, 2008
1954. 274 pages. Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks. Paperback. Skafloc, kidnapped when he was a child and raised by the elves, received the sword Thyrfing as a naming day present from the Aesir. This was considered a perverse gift by most, as the sword has been broken by Thor to prevent it from being used to cut the roots of Yggdrasil [...]
Also posted in Collections, Literature, Medieval stuff, Norse stuff, Poetry, Recommendations, Review, Speculative fiction | 16 Comments

A TV Dante

By terje | Published: September 24, 2008
My sister is one of the most important students at NTNU’s Department of Nordistics (or whatever) and Literature, primarily through her role as founder of the departemental body responsible for arranging events related to the relevant field of study (primarily Nordic linguistics and literature, as well as literature in general). Yesterday, she had arrange a [...]
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The definition of preaching to the choir

By terje | Published: May 7, 2008
You need to have flashplayer enabled to view this YouTube video Seriously, I don’t know why these people bother. I mean, I agree with much of what the guy said, but jeez, does he honestly believe he is going to win many religious people over by antagonising them? Is this rational behaviour? And what’s up with the islamophobia of these prominent atheists? (On a concluding note, I’d like [...]
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Some things I suspect I believe to be true

By terje | Published: April 22, 2008
About eighteen months ago now, I realised I’m a materialist; I believe that everything in this world is matter, that there is no such thing as spirit, that what others might perceive as “spirit” can be explained materially. And for some thirteen, fourteen months, my Christian flatmate Håvard has challenged me on this. To him there [...]
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Atheists <3 Averröes (or ibn Rushd, if you prefer)

By terje | Published: March 28, 2008
“In the Christian intellectual environment of the thirteenth century, apparent conflicts between argumentation in natural philosophy and argumentation in matter sof theological doctrine became exceptionally acute. The newly introduced writings of from the ancients — Greek philosophy and science, accompanied by Arabic and Hebrew commentary — rigorously set forth propositions alien to fundamental dicta of [...]
Also posted in A Praise Chorus, Awe, Failed attempts at subtility, Glee, Gloating, Goosebumps!, History, Irony, New Heroes, Quote of the day, Revelations, Yay!, lol | Leave a comment

Midnight Nation

By terje | Published: December 16, 2007
“Feel the misery of the world, David Grey. For one second, I’m going to open your mind to the song of pain, the song I have been forced to hear every day and every night to the last syllable of recorded time. For just one, fleeting second, David, feel the totality of the suffering and pain [...]
Also posted in Babylon 5, Comics, Quotes, Recommendations, Review, Speculative fiction | Leave a comment

The Dragon Waiting, by John M. Ford

By terje | Published: December 8, 2007
First published in 1983, this edition (365 pages, Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks) in 2002. Winner of the World Fantasy Award in 1984. In Wales, the boy Hywel rescues a wizard, and travels to the City — Byzantium — with him to become his apprentice. In Byzantine Burgundy, an old imperial family arrives as governors, and their eldest son — Dimitrius [...]
Also posted in Ambiguity, Annoyance, Awe, Goosebumps!, History, Language, Literature, Politics, Potential, Recommendations, Review, Royalism, Speculative fiction | Leave a comment

Dogma

By terje | Published: December 8, 2007
Watched Kevin Smith’s Dogma again, for the thrid time or so, last weekend. I was hardly as enthusiastic as I was the first time I watched it, but that was three years ago, so I take this simply as a sign that I have matured somewhat. And also of me having watched it before, of [...]
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Security precautions

By terje | Published: December 8, 2007
“We stood in the center of a football field-size dome that the Consu had constructed not an hour before. Of course, we humans could not be allowed to touch Consu ground, or be anywhere a Consu might tread; upon our arrival, automated machines created the dome in a region of Consu space long quarantined to [...]
Also posted in Literature, Lotta, Paranoia, Quote of the day, Recommendations, Speculative fiction, Weird stuff, Whoa, lol | Leave a comment

Angel: After the Fall

By terje | Published: November 26, 2007
This one took me somewhat by surprise. I’d heard that it was scheduled for release on 29 November, and then, last Thursday, Loki exclaims at me that this was some seriously good stuff. I, naturally, become flabbergasted, run home from downtown Trondheim (I was shopping for Christmas and November-Me presents when I got his message), [...]
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