Morning roundup …

… courtesy of Dave Lull:

… Richard Powers’ novel Orfeo, reviewed.

In Orfeo, the specter of the music is different. “God,” Els says, nonplussed, to the feds. “You think I nerve-gassed my dog.” Sensing this, his mind trains on threats of the security state: electronic surveillance, Patriot Act provisions such as “hold until cleared” like endless fermatas, a vivid memory of the Waco siege with “Innocent children … burnt to death by American law enforcement agents.” All of this, and a whole life in music, come to the surface while he runs.

… The Last Word Goes to Scribblers in the Margins.

Flyleaf and title-page signatures are comforting but they don't compare with the battles for and in the margins: "Pure b.s. if you think abt it," for instance, likely from a student unimpressed by a Pulitzer winner's (truly dull, in fact) poetry. Or "Does anybody actually know wtf this means?" (written beside the words "objective correlative").

… An Appreciation of Ian G. Barbour (1923-2013).

Ian was instrumental in taking questions from the long-standing relationship between science and religion -- questions about the origin and future of the universe, the age of the Earth, the unfolding of life, or the nature of science -- and reframing these in the language of modern science and in the idiom of contemporary theology.

… A Conversation with Verlyn Klinkenborg on the Craft of Academic Writing.

There's craft involved in academic writing?