Happy Birthday, Chris!
February 17, 2005
1:40 p.m., MT
Music: Queen, A Kind of Magic
It slipped out during a conversation earlier that today is Chris Sciabarra's birthday. I can't let a dear friend's birthday pass without mention ... especially since Chris is a very special friend to me. I first met him back in 1998, when Lobo and I put on VirtualCon 1 -- an online convention featuring live interviews with libertarian writers (fiction and non-fiction), a chat room, and more. I'll admit I was a bit intimidated by the prospect of interviewing Chris; I'd read enough of his works to know how smart he is; and I knew enough about what academics (and Objectivists) tend to be like that I was concerned that the interview -- my first interview ever, if I remember correctly -- was not going to get VC1 off to a good start. (Never mind the huge technical challenges -- this was in 1998, remember -- and the fact that I had a three-month-old baby intermittently chewing on very sensitive body parts throughout the con.)

Chris and I hit it off immediately. He was fun, and funny, and able to explain a lot of his ideas, often presented in dense prose, in comprehensible English. I hated ending the conversation. We remained in touch, and when Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand was in pre-production, he sent me the galleys to review. (I think I have the review in the bowels of this machine somewhere ... Ah! Yes, I do, but it'll take some work to get it into shape to publish here.) Chris is one of the few Randian individuals I've met who seems to have embraced the best of Rand's ideas -- his cheerful optimism is always a welcome thing, and always strikes me as deep and genuine.

Despite both of us being insanely busy in differing ways, and my moving away from Objectivism and Rand to explore other pro-freedom ideas, we've kept in touch. We've griped to each other, confided in each other, and cheered each other up. Seeing his eddress in my inbox always brings a smile to my face. We aren't "best buds", but we have some kind of unique, casual-but-deep connection that we both cherish. I hope that if I ever go to New York state again I'll be able to meet him in person, and give him a long, warm squeeze in person. Happy birthday and all the best, sweetie!

Sunni

Replies: 3 individuals have opined

On Monday, February 21st, Sunni said:

Now, Scott, that was just plain cruel ... talk up an interesting guy like that, and leave a girl to do her own Googling!

I did find his site, though: Supernatural Law. Looks very interesting. Thanks!

On Sunday, February 20th, Scott Bieser said:

Sunni, we haven't met yet but I hear you have a strong personal charisma that likely charmes these crusty curmudgeons enough to make cream-puffs out of 'em.



Speaking of unusually personable Randians, I met a cartoonist a couple of years ago who might fit that description.

His name is Batton Lash and he is author-artist of a unique set of stories, featuring the characters "Wolff & Byrd, Attorneys for the Supernatural."

Batton's started writing single-page stories with these characters for a Broooklyn lawyers' association newsletter. After he moved to the West Coast he began writing longer stories and self-publishing them as comic-books and now graphic novels.

You won't see strong Objectivist or libertarian themes in his stories, but the stories are essentially dramas in whcih the characters must make ethical choices -- and I think most libertarians would appreciate the situations and the consequences of those choices.

I discovered Batton's Rand influence at a San Diego Comic-Con a couple of years back, where we both wound up in the audience at a program reviewing the career of Steve Ditko. (Who some know is a hard-core Objectivist and was also the co-creator of Spider-Man back in 1961.)

Batton is a charming and friendly fellow, knows Rand lore well but also has a well-developed sense of humor. And his comics are very entertaining.

On Thursday, February 17th, Chris Matthew Sciabarra said:

You are so sweet... thank you, my dearest!

Mucho hugssssssss,
Chris