Never drink wine and surf the web. Or do, but then accept the consequence that you’ll forget your train of thought.

I … somehow … came across this 2000 interview with “fantasy” writer Barry Hughart, who published three out of a planned seven books about Master Li, a dirty old intellectual spiritual detective from an ancient China that never existed. Get this, though, these books don’t contain white people at all. Strange, isn’t it? Aren’t fantasies of imperial China all about white people stepping in and showing the decadent orientals the light?

Anyhoo, I had no real point with all of this except to create more Barry Hughart fans. Go read the three Master Li books, enjoy, and then write him letters asking him to write more.