Madsen Pirie

The widely-respected and very popular Samizdata blog seems to have heaped praise on me last week in several pieces.  I guess I can live with that.  They mostly liked the point I made to Brighton University about how our side prefers to compare the present with the past rather than with a hypothetical and imagined future.  They also praised me for speaking to audiences of young people and trying to present a coherent and attractive case for liberty.  And there was a great review of “Children of the Night,” a science fiction novel for young adults I published in 2007.  I did not consciously put any of my philosophy into that book, but it seems to have permeated it in ways I did not realize at the time.  I try to write stories that are full of action and excitement, and in which my young protagonists face difficulties and dangers by drawing on strength of character.  SF is by its nature usually individualistic.  You don’t look for government to solve problems; you do it yourself.  The one book that did bring out some of my philosophical attitudes was “Tree Boy,” and the message there was not all that controversial, as one reviewer spotted.  Hey well, I’m about to start writing my seventh….

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