At Patheos: NRA: Unnecessary secrets

Fred Clark has posted a new post, NRA: Unnecessary secrets, at Patheos.com.

This week Fred writes about pp. 4-7 of Nicolae: The Rise of Antichrist

Excerpt:

I’m not criticizing Jerry Jenkins here. We’ve tracked his strange obsession with telephony for more than 900 pages now, and that’s still kind of hilarious, but I do have genuine sympathy for his plight in beginning a series of a dozen “near-future” novels in 1995. Jenkins probably should have known more about cell phones than he did when he started writing that first book, but basically he wrote one book every year from 1995 through 2007 — a period in which commonplace technology changed dramatically. In 1995, Google was nonexistent. In 2007, it was indispensable.

That would have been a challenge even for a skilled writer who cared about what he was doing. Jenkins had to figure out how to adapt to these changes as the series and technology both progressed. His approach seems to have been just to incorporate the new technology into the story as though it had always been a part of the world of these books. As this passage shows, that doesn’t always work seamlessly, but I’m willing to cut him some slack on this point. No matter how long it takes him to finish A Song of Ice and Fire, this isn’t a problem that George R.R. Martin will ever have to face.

[Fred Clark, NRA: Unnecessary secrets, June 1, 2012, posted at Patheos.com]


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Comments

[Firedrake]

This is rather reminiscent of the traditional MI5 justification for regarding homosexuals as security risks. If you are found out, you will lose your job; therefore you can be blackmailed about it; therefore, you are a security risk, and if you are found out you will lose your job.

(These days they don't mind you being gay, as long as you're thoroughly out - in other words, exposure isn't something that can be held over you. Which seems fair enough.)

OK, Rayford is actually being brave here - possibly for the first time in one of these books. In spite of the very real danger he's in, he's keeping his vow to snark off at everyone unsaved he meets.

[Coleslaw]

I know, Firedrake. Even as a young teen, I could see the holes in that logic. It's as if the people who made the rules could not wrap their heads around the possibility that people might be perfectly open about their sexuality if their jobs were not at risk.

[cjmr]

Hmmm...Patheos appears to be broken right now.

[Mmy]

Yeah, all the blogs seem to be down for them.

[chris the cynic]

Wrote some fiction based on this, the whole thing is at Stealing Commas, here is an excerpt:

Chloe had been the first to spot the men. Their guns were visible, but it was difficult to tell if they were wearing uniforms or army surplus stock, or much of anything besides the fact they were armed. They'd clearly taken an interest in the Steeles' Lincoln. Rayford tried to avoid them but abandoned cars littered the streets and soon he was stuck.

One of the men came running and was soon at Raford's window. The gun had already been passed off to Amanda so that if it was needed she could fire while Ray provided distraction.

The man was shouting something but it was impossible to make out through the window. Rayford cautiously lowered it, and the man's voice came into focus