Books and TV and Richard Dawkins (the asshole)

[effex]

* I've finished Quentin Crisp's The Naked Civil Servant, James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son, and am halfway through Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Reviews of the first two will be along when my brain starts working again (I've been trying to write them since Thursday and have nothing but a blank, mocking GoogleDoc to show for it).

* I've also finished Season 2 of Parks and Recreation, which means I have no more excuses about starting my scifi_fest fic (Parks and Rec IN SPAAAACE), and I'm caught up with Sanctuary (I still love this stupid show), Tiger & Bunny, and Blue Exorcist. The last couple episodes of S2 of Fringe and S1 of The Wire are waiting for me on my harddrive, but I've got a weird mental block about finishing both.

* Tiger & Bunny makes me sad - it's not a bad show but it's failed pretty hard in a couple of places and generally isn't living up to its potential. What happened to the show the first few episodes promised me?

* Blue Exorcist, on the other hand, is exactly the ridiculous shonen candy fest it introduced itself as. I adore it (and Rin - I love Rin so much).

*~*

In Other News: Richard Dawkins is a privileged ass. I mean, he's been a privileged ass for a long time, but the skeptic community has finally noticed. Sort of. No one seems to be pointing out his rampant Islamophobia ('a man known for defending women against religious oppression' my ass, holy shit) and the general tone is apologetic (not just on Bad Astronomy, either).

In related Other News: I've cut PZ Myers' Pharyngula from my blogroll in response to, yes, rampant Islamophobia. This brings the number of atheist/skeptic blogs I read down to zero - good job, western atheist blogosphere.

(I keep asking this, but) Anyone know if a half-way decent atheist/skeptic blog has popped up in the last couple of months? There's a major void here.

Comments

[muccamukk]

Ew, Dawkins. Though I had a difficult time reading those pages too for the "He may be right about those evil Muslims, but he shouldn't be mean to white women" vibe.

I remember when Chris Hedges published about the problems with the Christian Right in the US, a bunch of New Atheists jump up to tell him he was exactly right. He wrote his next book about how New Atheist Islamophobia was just as bad or worse that NeoCon Christian Islamophobia. Hedges may be yet another straight white American dude, but at least he's talked to Muslim women in his life.

[effex]

[nods] The way he's being praised as a champion of Muslim women while there's a quote right there that lays out how 'respectful' he actually is (Muslima? Really?) is difficult to read. Especially from skeptics, what with the vaunted ability to cut through crap and see reality.

I'll have to track down that Chris Hedges book.

[muccamukk]

Book's called: When Atheism Becomes Religion: America's New Fundamentalists, and it comes with a couple warnings. Hedges is Christian though he doesn't believe in organised religion, and he respects the right for skeptics and atheists to believe what they like. He's also kind of a grouch, and can come of as slightly patronising. He is very well read though, and the book is interesting.