Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife—chopping off what’s incomplete and saying: ‘Now, it’s complete because it’s ended here.’ Dune, Collected Sayings of Maud’Dib by the Princess Irulan I first read most of the Dune saga in high school and arrived at college in Oregon eager, naïvely, to meet its author. A classmate from theContinue reading “Frank Herbert”
Author Archives: protectivearts
Gene Wolfe
Although I would not call myself a science-fiction aficionado, two of my favorite authors are Frank Herbert and Gene Wolfe. Two days after my father died, Wolfe followed (April 14, 2019), two lights dimming together, oddly twinned in my memory. Wolfe’s obituaries appeared in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and The New Yorker. Wolfe’sContinue reading “Gene Wolfe”
The Spanish Inquisition
The abstract is all I have access to: Empirical evidence on contemporary torture is sparse. The archives of the Spanish Inquisition provide a detailed historical source of quantitative and qualitative information about interrogational torture. The inquisition tortured brutally and systematically, willing to torment all who it deemed as withholding evidence. This torture yielded information thatContinue reading “The Spanish Inquisition”
Protective Arts 