the Oversoul

[ironymaiden]

okay, i'm sort of pleased that we have a presidential candidate who is a science fiction fan. i'm disappointed that his favorite book is Battlefield Earth, but baby steps...

of course, if he could tell fiction from reality, that would be good too.

Mitt Romney making a commencement speech this weekend:
"In France, for instance, I'm told that marriage is now frequently contracted in seven-year terms where either party may move on when their term is up. How shallow and how different from the Europe of the past."

i immediately started searching for more info on this arrangement, which must have happened since i last took a French culture class. it sounded awfully fishy.

um, not France, outer space. thanks for embarrassing fen (and Mormons) everywhere. (i'm used to being an embarrassed American.)

Comments

[gaelfarce.livejournal.com]

I thought he was qouting Heinlien's 'line marriages' or some other craziness.

[weezlgrrrl.livejournal.com]

Well, he DID say "I'm told." He just didn't say who told him. Perhaps it was the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

I'm deeply disturbed by a Mormon liking a book by the Daddy Scientologist. What if they merge freaky ideologies? The world will be run by guys who wear funny underwear AND clutch electrified tin cans! RUN AWAY!

[refractednotion.livejournal.com]

The Church of Latter Day Thetans? At least the tithing won't change much either way.

[thegreymouser.livejournal.com]

Canadian politics is so dull.

[buhrger]

?!?!?
bigfoot!!!

[matt-ruff.livejournal.com]

Maybe he's confusing the French with the Iranians. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikah_Mutah)

[steve98052.livejournal.com]

Compare Romney's odd taste in literature with Bush's choice, as described in an article linked by your link: It's The Stranger (http://steve98052.livejournal.com/57943.html). No, not the Seattle alternative newspaper. The novel by Albert Camus, where the hero gets in a fight with Arabs, meets one of them later and murders them, and can't find a reason to express remorse, not even to avoid execution. (That's the article's summary; I haven't read it.)

In the Romney article, I loved the description of Battlefield Earth's badness: "The movie, which starred John Travolta, is what therapists show to the producers of Ishtar and Glitter to help them feel good." (Although that's about the movie, the article is equally merciless about the book.) I suppose if conventional counseling were not against Scientology doctrine, Travolta's therapist could show him Offscreen, which I had the misfortune of seeing last week (my review (http://steve98052.livejournal.com/54150.html)).