Via the Infinite summer roundup, Infinite Detox has a post about the novel’s treatment of my favorite supporting character, whose title I have shamelessly stolen: The problem I have is that from a dramatic standpoint, the wave of Pemulis-bashing that gathers force on p. 774 and crests in endnote 332 isn’t convincing to me. For… Continue reading The Endnoting of Michael Pemulis
Category: Books
David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest [Library of Babel]
I finished re-reading Infinite Jest this week. I’m a few weeks ahead of the Infinite Summer crowd, which is a little frustrating, because I really want to see what they say about the later bits, but they won’t get there for a while yet. Anyway, this is a tough book to summarize, because it’s both… Continue reading David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest [Library of Babel]
Karl Schroeder, The Sunless Countries [Library of Babel]
Jo Walton has a very nice review of Karl Schroeder’s Permanence over at Tor.com, which contains a terrific summary of what makes Schroeder great: The problem with talking about Permanence (2002), or any of Schroeder’s work really, is that it’s too easy to get caught up in talking about the wonderful ideas and backgrounds and… Continue reading Karl Schroeder, The Sunless Countries [Library of Babel]
Hooray for Tom Doherty
Tor Books founder and publisher Tom Doherty is one of the several Guests of Honor Who Aren’t Neil Gaiman at this year’s worldcon, and as such there was a panel titled “Locus interviews Tom Doherty.” Which might better have been titled “Tom Doherty Tells Cool Stories About His Career in Publishing, with Occasional Prompting from… Continue reading Hooray for Tom Doherty
Worldcon Miscellany
The “Philosophy of Science” panel I moderated was surprisingly well-attended, and got some decent discussion going. Kate took notes, at least for a while, and I’ll post a link if she writes it up on LiveJournal. The “Knights who Say Fuck” panel was in a very remote room that was much too small to contain… Continue reading Worldcon Miscellany
Worldcon Talk: How to Effectively Talk About Science to Non-Scientists
My talk was Friday morning at 10am, on the title given above. This wasn’t my choice– when I volunteered to be on programming, I said some general areas that I’d be willing to talk about, and left it at that. Somebody else made up the title and description for the talk, which made it very… Continue reading Worldcon Talk: How to Effectively Talk About Science to Non-Scientists
Where I’ll Be at Worldcon
The Worldcon program has been posted, but only as a giant, confusing PDF. I was getting cross-eyed trying to figure things out, so I ended up creating my own blank grid sheets, and making notes on those. The following is a by-no-means comprehensive list of things I think look interesting enough to attend. There are… Continue reading Where I’ll Be at Worldcon
Philosophy of Science (Fiction)
As previously noted, I will be on programming at the upcoming Worldcon in Montreal, including moderating a panel at 10am Saturday with the following title and description: The Philosophy of Science To what extent does SF explore the meaning of science for scientists and create the ideas that our culture has of science? Panelists: Greer… Continue reading Philosophy of Science (Fiction)
Make the Hugos Better
Worldcon is less than two weeks off, which means that it’s time once again for the SF part of blogdom to explode with complaints about the quality of the nominees. There are some reasonable reactions, but it’s mostly slightly over-the-top broadsides. It’s worth emphasizing again that the source of the problem is also the solution… Continue reading Make the Hugos Better
Infinite Jest: Who’s Telling This Story?
There are a lot of things about Infinite Jest that are easier to understand than most people seem to believe. I’ve never had a problem seeing a plot in it, for example, though a bunch of people don’t see it. One thing that I’ve never been entirely sure of, though, is just who is narrating… Continue reading Infinite Jest: Who’s Telling This Story?