Category Archives: science fiction

Proper Ways of Thinking: Women Without Men

Posted on 18 June 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

NYT, Pamela Paul, 21 June 2022: She Wrote a Dystopian Novel. What Happened Next Was Pretty Dystopian.

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Aesthetics: The Starship Enterprise

Posted on 12 June 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

I was quite struck some years ago, 2104 it must have been, by an analysis of the design of the original starship Enterprise that showed how it relied heavily on the “Golden Ratio,” the artistic proportion of 1.618. And how … Continue reading →

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Declinists and Decadence: TV/Movies? Science Fiction?

Posted on 23 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Quillette, Kevin Mims, 20 May 2022: Undiminished by Decadence Subtitle: “I grew up in the 1960s and ’70s and I’m happy to report that, for the most part, television and mainstream cinema today are orders of magnitude better than they … Continue reading →

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LQCs: Science Fiction, Christian Fantasy, and Part B

Posted on 13 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Washington Post, Michael Dirda, 10 Jan 2022: Science fiction — please, let’s not call it ‘sci-fi’ — is more than just a reaction to the present

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LQCs: KSR; Conservative History

Posted on 11 May 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

NYT, Alexandra Alter, 11 May 2022: A Sci-Fi Writer Returns to Earth: ‘The Real Story is the One Facing Us.’, subtitled: “Kim Stanley Robinson, one of the most acclaimed living science fiction writers, is done with deep space narratives. His … Continue reading →

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LQCs: News, Propaganda, Ideologies, and a Modern Wise Man

Posted on 25 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

First, two items that follow-up the last item in yesterday’s post. Following, a modern wise one about ideologies.

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Globalization, Wokeness, and Trek

Posted on 8 April 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

New York Times, David Brooks, 8 April 2022: Globalization Is Over. The Global Culture Wars Have Begun.

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Arthur C. Clarke, RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA (1973)

Posted on 13 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

This was Clarke’s first novel after “returning” to writing novels after the break of nearly a decade collaborating with Stanley Kubrick on the book and film 2001: A Space Odyssey. (His previous major novel had been A Fall of Moondust … Continue reading →

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L&Cs: Yet Another All-Time Novel List

Posted on 12 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Just discovered, at 4:45pm, that I don’t have time for anything substantial this evening; we’re having guests within half an hour. (Was going to write up Clarke’s RAMA. Maybe tomorrow.) So here’s a kind of link and comment I don’t … Continue reading →

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Daniel Keyes: FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON (1966)

Posted on 11 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s the next part of the batch of brief reviews of SF novels that I began last week. I’m now thinking, though, that with more substantial books like this one I’ll just cover one book per post — back to … Continue reading →

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