The Law of Internet Invocation

January 6th, 2009 by Potato

John Scalzi wrote about the Law of Internet Invocation 5 years ago, nearly to the day. It states simply “If you name them, they will come.” Through the magic of trackbacks and Google, it is far more likely that someone on the internet will find out that you’re talking about them and drop in for a visit. This can take reviewers by surprise since you don’t often expect or intend to invoke someone by talking about them, though this was the accepted pattern of devilry through the ages. Now it has come true for me a second time, as Jon Chevreau has appeared to accuse me of not reading all the way to the end when I reviewed Findependence Day.

I can see where there might be some confusion. I said the story was not great, which some would take to be a nice, obtuse way of saying it was terrible. It wasn’t — it was not great, as in just okay. It was decent, and as I said, worked very well as edutainment. But bored high school English students of the future are not going to be forced to write essays on the relationship between Jamie and his shrew-like wife Sheena, or exploring the role of Theo as a father figure in their Findependence Day unit sandwiched between MacBeth and The Mote In God’s Eye. Conversely, Twilight touched on some matters regarding the magic of compound interest, but I won’t be recommending that book as educational in the slightest.

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