Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Station Identification


Speaking of good books, here's another Sherman Alexie; this time a it's collection of short stories (with a couple of poems), War Dances.

A representative passage:

A bonnethead shark in Omaha, Nebraska, conceived and gave birth to a baby that soon died. But this mother shark had never shared water with a male. Scientists were puzzled. So they performed a DNA test and discovered the dead baby only had its mother's DNA. Yes, that bonnethead shark had given virgin birth. Do you think this is amazing? Well, it's not. Dozens of species of insects give virgin birth. And Komodo dragons--yeah, those big lizards give virgin birth, too. Jeez, one human gives virgin birth and that jump-starts one of the world's great religions. But when a Komodo dragon gives virgin birth, do you know what it's thinking? It's thinking, This is Tuesday, right? I think this is Tuesday. What am I going to do on Wednesday?

This is Ich Bin Ein Oberliner.