There is a fairly prominent strain of SF fandom which vehemently rejects all but the most superficial forms of literary analysis. This mostly seems to be due to bad experiences with English Lit classes in high school and/or college, at least based on the long rants they used to uncork on Usenet, back in the… Continue reading A Literary Theory
Category: SF
Hugo Voting
Just a reminder, if you’re someone who’s eligible to vote for this year’s Hugo Awards, the deadline to do so is tomorrow. Of course, you probably already know that– they sent out reminder emails last night. They want me to vote so badly, in fact, that I got four reminder emails last night, two with… Continue reading Hugo Voting
Infinite Jest: My Favorite Footnote
The Infinite Summer people got me to start re-reading Infinite Jest, but I’m not really going to attempt to hold to their proposed reading schedule. Not because I find it hard to find time to read, but because I have trouble putting it down to go to sleep, let alone in order to keep pace… Continue reading Infinite Jest: My Favorite Footnote
The Limits of Elven Vision
Kate’s Tolkien re-read has reached Rohan, and her latest re-read post includes a reference to a comment I made about Legolas’s improbable visual acuity: Re: Legolas seeing the Riders: I have since been advised by the resident physicist that the size of a pupil is a limiting factor on the resolution possible–if I understood properly,… Continue reading The Limits of Elven Vision
Inflatable Space Elevator, Eh
(Alternate post title: “Hey to James Nicoll”) Via John Dupuis, our clever neighbors to the North has come up with a possible (partial) alternative to rockets: “For decades, scientists have been grappling to find a more efficient means of getting payloads into space,” says Brendan Quine (right), professor of space physics and engineering in York’s… Continue reading Inflatable Space Elevator, Eh
New Adventures in Retail
Over at Tor.com, they’ve unveiled the new Tor.com store, enabling you to buy your books via your favorite SF publisher. It’s pretty bare-bones at the moment, so the most worthwhile feature is probably the special picks feature, where they collect together lists of books recommended by their most popular bloggers. Such as, for example, Kate’s… Continue reading New Adventures in Retail
Hugo Nominees: Longer Short Fiction
A little while ago, I griped about the Short Story nominees for this year’s Hugo Awards. I’ve now finished the nominees in the Novella and Novelette categories, so I thought I’d comment on them as well. As a general matter, I’d just about be willing to contribute money toward a fund to buy supporting memberships… Continue reading Hugo Nominees: Longer Short Fiction
Wanted: Better Hugo Nominees
I’m eligible to vote for the Hugos this year, as a paid-up member of Anticipation. As such, I got the free packet of nominated works that they put together for the voters, and have started working my way through the short fiction (I’ve read all the novel nominees that I’m going to). Whether you’re eligible… Continue reading Wanted: Better Hugo Nominees
Good Science Books for Kids
The proprietor of Good Mom, Bad Mom emails to point out a post spinning off Monday’s Goldilocks post. A good thing she did, as Technorati has collapsed into utter uselessness, at least for finding people who link to my posts. Her post quotes an unnamed correspondent, who writes: My two daughters are both compulsive readers,… Continue reading Good Science Books for Kids
Tobias Buckell Is Outnumbered…
…what with his wife, Emily, giving birth to twins. It sounds like he’s pretty happy with this state of affairs, though. Go leave him a congratulatory comment. Or, better yet, go buy one of his books— they’re great fun for you to read, and will help keep Toby supplied with the vast number of diapers… Continue reading Tobias Buckell Is Outnumbered…