Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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Meta
Category Archives: Narrative
Links and Comments: Science, Reality Bubbles, and Stories
The most interesting one is at the bottom. \\ Scientific American: To Understand How Science Denial Works, Look to History, subtitled, “The same tactics used to cast doubt on the dangers of smoking and climate change are now being used … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Narrative, Science
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Links and Comments: Against Trump; Roe v. Wade and Personal Choices; Scientists and Stories
Sunday’s NYT Opinion section — typically 10 or 12 pages — was devoted entirely to spelling out (yet again!) why Trump is such an awful president: End Our National Crisis, subtitled “The Case Against Donald Trump.” One section of which … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Narrative, Politics, Science
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Link and Comments: Cory Doctorow on Story
Slate: Cory Doctorow: The Dangers of Cynical Sci-Fi Disaster Stories, subtitled, I’m changing how I write fiction—for the benefit of the real world. The essay is on occasion of the publication of Doctorow’s latest novel, Attack Surface, a follow-up to … Continue reading
Posted in Narrative, Psychology
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Jonathan Gottschall: THE STORYTELLING ANIMAL: How Stories Make Us Human
Here’s a nonfiction book from 2012 that I just read this past month. It’s one of three or four books I have (another is called HOUSTON, WE HAVE A NARRATIVE: WHY SCIENCE NEEDS STORY) that are about the idea of … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Narrative
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Links and Comments: Nature and Human Brains; Science Fiction and Mental Resiliency
Scientific American, Caleb A. Scharf: A Failure of Imagination, subtitled, “Nature does not have to play fair with our puny human brains.” A favorite theme of mine: how there’s more to the universe than humans are aware of; how there … Continue reading
Posted in Cosmology, MInd, Narrative, science fiction
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Links and Comments: Secrets of Success, the 2010s, Gibson’s future, History v. Narratives
Here are a few items from recent papers. 1) Nicholas Kristof: The Four Secrets of Success. Which are: 1. Take a class in economics and in statistics 2. Connect to a cause larger than yourself. 3. Make out. 4. Escape … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Culture, Economics, Narrative
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David Brooks on Myths vs. Parables
New York Times columnist David Brooks runs hot and cold with me; ostensibly a conservative, he’s too inclined to dismiss new ideas in favor of sanctified values, for my taste, yet he does read widely and responds to many new … Continue reading
Posted in Narrative, Social Progress
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Links and Comments: Storytelling; Religious Fundamentalism and Fake News; the Attraction of Conspiracy Theories
Time magazine, December 5, 2017, Jeffrey Kluger: How Telling Stories Makes Us Human [S]torytelling is a powerful means of fostering social cooperation and teaching social norms, and it pays valuable dividends to the storytellers themselves, improving their chances of being … Continue reading
Posted in Narrative, Psychology, Religion
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Links and Comments: Fake News and the Narrative Bias
Tuesday’s New York Times Science Section has an article by Benedict Carey called How Fiction Becomes Fact on Social Media (it was posted several days ago online). Among the endless stories about fake news and books about the human mental … Continue reading
Posted in Narrative
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Conservative Story-Telling
One of my themes here is about the nature of story-telling, how the human bias to understand things in terms of narrative is more widespread than we recognize, and how that tendency can blind us to an understanding of the … Continue reading
Posted in Conservative Resistance, Narrative
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