December 2006
3 posts
2 tags
James Wood on Sam Harris
The excellent literary critic and novelist James Wood has explored religion in all three of his books: The Broken Estate; The Book Against God; and The Irresponsible Self. In a forthcoming New Republic essay called “The Celestial Teapot,” ostensibly a review of Sam Harris’ Letter to a Christian Nation, he begins by writing of his own turn away from religion:
I have not...
1 tag
Strawberries & Peas: Evolution at Work
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, which I’m reading now:
As an example of how would-be plant hitchhikers attract animals, consider wild strawberries. When strawberry seeds are still young and not yet ready to be planted, the surrounding fruit is green, sour, and hard. When the seeds finally mature, the berries turn red, sweet, and...