What Color Shirt Again?

If you've read John Scalzi, his sense of humor is a mite offbeat. I've proceeded from some of his earlier novels set in a universe where you can still enlist in Earth's military by having yourself downloaded into a genetically grown body (beginning with Old Man's War) and in his latest offering, the 2012 novel Redshirts (ISBN 9780765334794), he uses his characters in the Universal Union to attack the convention most associated with that title. In the original Star Trek series, the personnel wearing said color shirts would be introduced and often die within the same episode.

Makes it somewhat ironic that from The Next Generation onwards – and that's just on TV, in the movies the trend began with The Wrath of Khan five years earlier – red is the color of command uniforms. But in Redshirts, some of the non-command personnel are figuring out the chances of their dying on an away mission, especially when accompanied by a commanding officer, are high, higher than statistically they should be for a vessel the size of the Universal Union flagship Intrepid. And the answer to why that is, in one character's words, “recursive and meta”.

But enough about me reading this. And if you ever want to share some words from my own books – I posted a photo of me earlier with the eleven that I've written and released – that struck you like I'm doing here with Redshirts (giving John Scalzi credit I hope, as it's unlikely a free-use alternative is available), please feel free to. Just be sure to credit your sources, I say in my English teacher voice.

Now open those hailing frequencies! David

“It's not your fault, Lucius,” West said. “You didn't tell him to fire his pulse gun. You didn't tell him to run.”
“Not my fault,” [Captain] Abernathy agreed. “But my responsibility.” (15)

“ 'Hide' isn't a word we like to use,” Carraway said. “ 'Perform alternative tasks' is the preferred term.” (66)

When you're the heir to the third largest fortune in the history of the universe, you learn to question people's motivations. (70)

In his head, Jenkins answered. Every battle is designed for maximum drama, he said. This is what happens when the Narrative takes over. Things quit making sense. The laws of physics take a coffee break. People stop thinking logically and start thinking dramatically. (107)

“Yes, and I have training dealing with existential questions,” Dahl said. “The way I'm dealing with it right now is this: I don't care whether I really exist or don't, whether I'm real or fictional. What I want right now is to be the person who decides my own fate.” (167)

You know what the most logical answer is.

Now you have to ask yourself if you believe it. (270)

The Jenna Situation, as you recalled it now, had been fraught with naughtiness. (280)

Samantha smiles again. “I'm not mopey,” she says.

“Yes you are,” Eleanor says. “Or maudlin, which is the slightly more socially respectable version.” (301)

Monogamy sucks when you can't exercise the privilege. (302)