Quentin's Weeknotes 12/08/18-12/14/18

This week:

• I finally finished reading all 110 stories of Ann and Jeff Vandermeer’s anthology “The Weird." My verdict is that it was absolutely fascinating and worth it for anyone with a passing interesting in the history and global scope of weird science fiction and fantasy. At 1100+ double-columned pages, it was quite a journey to get through, and I didn’t love everything in it, but I appreciated getting exposed to fantastic writers outside of the standard familiar American canon.
• I didn’t watch George H.W. Bush’s funeral, but I did read Matt Taibbi’s excoriating profile of Bush’s pettiness, cynicism and violence. Growing up in the 80s, I have distant memories of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, but my memory of Bush’s presidency is tarred by the Gulf War, which utterly terrified me at age 10, and for which Bush never really paid any price. It was nice to see someone pop the bubble of hagiography and rose-colored glasses.