James Patrick Kelly’s “Mr. Boy” + 5

Posted on Sunday 21 August 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

This week’s novella covered by the Facebook Group reading Gardner Dozois’s big anthology first discussed here is “Mr. Boy,” by James Patrick Kelly, first published in the June 1990 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction.

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Quick Infrastructure Note

Posted on Saturday 20 August 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

No substantial post today; the afternoon got away from me, then we had a birthday dinner in Alameda for Y. However I did spend part of the day reformatting and updating the Short fiction reviews page, and will continue with that tomorrow.

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Conservatives Against Change, Even as the Planet Burns

Posted on Friday 19 August 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

NYT, Paul Krugman, 15 Aug 2022: Why Republicans Turned Against the Environment

In 1990 Congress passed an amendment to the Clean Air Act of 1970, among other things taking action against acid rain, urban smog and ozone.

The legislation was highly successful, greatly reducing pollution at far lower cost than business interest groups had predicted. I sometimes see people trying to use acid rain as an example of environmental alarmism — hey, it was a big issue in the 1980s, but now hardly anyone talks about it. But the reason we don’t talk about it is that policy largely solved the problem.

What’s really striking from today’s perspective, however, is the fact that the 1990 legislation passed Congress with overwhelming, bipartisan majorities.

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Governance v. Scripture

Posted on Thursday 18 August 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

John Scalzi is a popular science fiction writer (though alas one of those writers who remains most famous for their first book, in his case Old Man’s War from 2005, though I’m sure he, and critics, would say he’s written many novels since just as good or better) who is also a very astute commentator, about many things including politics. He runs a blog with daily posts, many given over to less famous writers promoting their latest books (which is very nice of him), and only occasionally discussing politics. Scalzi lives in Ohio, a red state with some notorious policies, but doesn’t let that bother him. He holds strong opinions but comes across as reasonable and mind-mannered, quite unlike the in-your-face attitude of David Brin. Here are some comments from his post two days ago:

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Those Who Would Return Us to the Dark Ages

Posted on Wednesday 17 August 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

The theme of my post two days ago — about the similarity, albeit to differing degrees, between the attack on Salman Rushdie, and the attacks on education and democracy by today’s political right in the US — is the theme of today’s Morning Heresy blog.

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Sfadb.com on Wikipedia

Posted on Tuesday 16 August 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

I’ve been pondering (by request) the future of Locus (magazine and website) in recent weeks, as well as my sfadb.com site. And in browsing around the web for research today, checking Wikipedia’s entry on Locus Magazine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locus_(magazine)) I saw references to Locus Online, the Locus Awards, and even my own Science Fiction Awards Database! The latter page is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_Fiction_Awards_Database. I hadn’t known there was a Wikipedia page for that until today

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Matters of Degree

Posted on Monday 15 August 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Between the attack on Salman Rushdie, and book banners in the US. Both motivated by religion and ideology to suppress the thoughts of others.

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Joe Haldeman’s “The Hemingway Hoax” + 3

Posted on Sunday 14 August 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

“The Hemingway Hoax,” by Joe Haldeman, first published in April 1990, is the third story in the big Gardner Dozois anthology being perused by the Facebook reading group I’m following. (See previous Sundays’ posts.)

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Non-representative Legislatures

Posted on Saturday 13 August 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Ten days ago in this post, in the aftermath of the Kansas vote supporting protections for abortion, I wondered this:

So what are the justifications of Republican politicians who keep passing or trying to pass restrictions on abortion, when the majority of residents in even a red state like Kansas oppose such restrictions? Who do these politicians think they’re representing? Well, they’re representing those who *elected* them of course. Which… suggests something is wonky with the election system. And it’s not some kind of fraud leading Democrats to win. It’s some kind of malfunction in the election system that is leading Republicans to be elected in disproportionate numbers. What that might be? Hmm, gerrymandering?

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Today’s Headlines and Backlogged Links

Posted on Friday 12 August 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

The Atlantic, Tom McTague, 12 Aug 2022: What America’s Great Unwinding Would Mean for the World, subtitled, “The conundrum facing America’s allies is how to cope with a great imperial power in decline that is still a great imperial power.”

I will read this closely and comment later. Meanwhile for today, links I’ve collected today and in the past two or three weeks, with minimal comments.

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