Expected the laughs, but not the tears. Damn, I love Existential Fiction, science-based or otherwise.

Speaking of which, just finished Death Sentences by Kawamata Chiaki. Also very much at the intersection of artistic creation and meaning of life. How can you not like a book that has both Marcel Duchamp and a Martian mercenary as characters?

I’ve read a lot of criticism lately of modern writing being “downbeat” with “passive” characters, mostly from editors with rallying cries for optimism! and action! Both of these works capture the bewildering complexity of living, while avoiding maudlin answers, hopelessness, and passivity.

Now to steal everything I can from them…