Larry Wall, God, Lois McMaster Bujold

Part of what got me thinking about my last post is that I'm suffering a little crisis over Larry Wall. I'm really admiring his spirit. For instance, I like his way of expressing his Christianity.

As if that weren't enough, he's into The Lois, as quoted here:

Note how we still periodically hear the phrase "serious literature". This is literature that is supposedly about Real Life. Let me tell you something. The most serious literature I've ever read is by Lois McMaster Bujold. Any of you read her? It's also the funniest literature I've ever read. It's also space opera. "Genre fiction," sneers the Modernist. Meaning it follows certain conventions. So what? Nobody in the world can mix gravity and levity the way Bujold does in her Vorkosigan books. It's oh so definitely about real life. So what if it follows space opera conventions. Sonnets follow certain conventions too, but I don't see them getting sneered at much these days. Certainly they were always called "serious".

How long till Bujold becomes required reading in high school? Far too long, in my opinion. Horrors. We wouldn't want our students actually enjoying what they read. It's not--it's not Real Life.

As if the Lord of the Flies is real life. Feh.

Yes, I'm a Lois fan, too. I once drove hundreds of miles to an SF con purely because she would be there...

So, anyway. Yaaaay, Larry. But there's no getting around this: I prefer Python. Perl is great, Ruby is great - all dynamic languages contribute to each others' success, I think, because the prominence and respect won by each rubs off the others, so we can get our necktie-level blessing. But, when it comes down to what I use, I can't write anything else these days without wishing it were Python.