Monthly Archives: August 2015

Ken MacLeod on Science Fiction

Posted on 12 August 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Terrific essay by Ken MacLeod, at a site called OpenDemocracy/Transformation, which is called Science fiction: taking science personally. I say it’s terrific because it expresses my own thoughts that science fiction is mainly a way of thinking about the world. … Continue reading →

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James Morrow, THE MADONNA AND THE STARSHIP

Posted on 10 August 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

James Morrow’s short novel The Madonna and the Starship is one of a handful of short novels or long novellas released by San Francisco-based Tachyon Publications in the past couple years, others including two Nancy Kress titles that both won … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Fermi Paradox; books by Brian Attebery and Frank Wilczek; Religious suppression; Religious fantasy

Posted on 10 August 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

NY Times, Dennis Overbye: The Flip Side of Optimism About Life on Other Planets. (The print version was titled “A Case for Why We’re Alone”.) A consideration of the “Fermi paradox”: why, if by reasonable estimates there are likely millions … Continue reading →

Posted in Conservative Resistance, Cosmology, Narrative, Physics | Comments Off on Links and Comments: Fermi Paradox; books by Brian Attebery and Frank Wilczek; Religious suppression; Religious fantasy

The Lottery and Jim and Mary G

Posted on 9 August 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I reread Shirley Jackson famous/infamous short story “The Lottery” this morning (you can find the full text here) and was struck by this passage, about 2/3 the way through: “They do say,” Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who … Continue reading →

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Stephen King, REVIVAL

Posted on 7 August 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

I enjoy Stephen King’s novels, but he writes too many of them (one or two every year) for me to keep up with all of them, and so I tend to get to only every third or fourth book, whenever … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Biblical Literalism; the Manhattan Option; the excessive optimism of 2001; Neil de Grasse Tyson explains everything

Posted on 3 August 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Adam Lee: So Wrong For So Long: On Liberal Biblical Reinterpretation Lee discusses the cognitive dissonance of those who espouse progressive social views while maintaining fealty to their Biblical-based religions. They rely on relativistic interpretation of scripture, as if the … Continue reading →

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