Wow, November has been a quiet month around here. But any of you who've been university students can understand why, I'm sure.
Åka has kindly pointed out two posts from Auxiliary Memory, the blog of James Wallace Harris. In Defining Science Fiction he attempts that notoriously slippery task and describes science fiction as a belief system, much like religion. Interestingly, though, while he is an atheist who prefers sci-fi to religion, he doesn't mean this in a triumphalistic way. Actually he's somewhat ambivalent about it, feeling that science fiction can lead a person away from reality just as much as a religion can. In the previous post, The Children of Science Fiction, he mused about the way reading science fiction can shape a person's worldview: Åka contributed some comments to that one. These are profound questions (I personally think there's more overlap or synthesis between systems) but frankly I don't feel I have the spare brain cells to wrestle with them right now - or perhaps I should say wrestle with again, right now.
Lately when I haven't been reading about literate medieval heretics, politics, or Guatemalan atrocities, I've been privileging comic books over science fiction or fantasy. It's really astonishing how many comics you can read when you should be doing homework. It's also amazing how many trade-paperback comics you can get from the Winnipeg Public Library system, too. (Libraries = cheap as free!) One great source of recommendations (besides Holy Heroes!! of course) has been Say It Backwards, a blog devoted to all things Superman. Check out this post on the ten most important stories for understanding what Superman's all about. Also the best Superman stories since 1985.
When I do get around to reading science fiction again, Anathem is at the top of my list. Here's Gabriel's glowing review, subtitled "all books should be about monks that live inside a giant clock." Right on, brother. Just don't forget the space princesses.
PS: Here's some fascinating news. Black holes are not scary things that are trying to kill us, but are in fact a stabilizing force on galaxies. "The powerful black holes at the center of massive galaxies and galaxy clusters act as hearts to the systems."
Other news: An eleven-thousand-year old temple has been discovered! Paging Indiana Jones!
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Speculative newspaper
This qualifies as speculative fiction: as you may have heard, a 'special edition' of the New York Times was released yesterday. Hundreds of thousands of copies were handed out in New York and Los Angeles, and an online version has been put up. Readers were astonished to discover that American troops would be pulling out of Iraq immediately, that the "United States National Health Insurance Act" had been passed, and so forth.
Of course, none of these things are actually true - at least, not yet. The paper and website were put out by a large alliance of activists, spearheaded by those infamous pranksters The Yes Men (I believe Gawker.com was the first to offer evidence of this). The fake Times is something like the Google News good news page, except that it offers (indirectly) more concrete proposals as to how the changes described might actually be achieved (usually grassroots organizing is involved.)
To tie this speculative newspaper into the theme of this blog, here's an article with a religious connection:
American Evangelical Churches Announce New Policy of Sanctuary for Iraqi Refugees
The author? One "W. Wilberforce!" Well, William Wilberforce, the devout Evangelical politician, is long dead, but his fame as a mighty and tireless campaigner for abolition, animal welfare, and other social causes still lives on. I imagine most of the by-lines in the newspaper are of this nature. One public statement about the special edition came from a "Bertha Suttner," who is also a long-dead activist.
The "ads" in the online version are also worth a close inspection: apparently ExxonMobil is adopting bold new environmental and social policies, American Apparel is unionizing its half-naked waifish models, and GM is bringing back its electric car, the EV1. I particularly liked the ad for a dermatologist who is putting aside his 'superficial services' in order to collect donations for rebuilding Iraqi schools. The slogans: "Be beautiful on the inside as well as on the outside!!!" and "Now you can have... A BEAUTIFUL CLEAR CONSCIENCE."
Of course, none of these things are actually true - at least, not yet. The paper and website were put out by a large alliance of activists, spearheaded by those infamous pranksters The Yes Men (I believe Gawker.com was the first to offer evidence of this). The fake Times is something like the Google News good news page, except that it offers (indirectly) more concrete proposals as to how the changes described might actually be achieved (usually grassroots organizing is involved.)
To tie this speculative newspaper into the theme of this blog, here's an article with a religious connection:
American Evangelical Churches Announce New Policy of Sanctuary for Iraqi Refugees
The author? One "W. Wilberforce!" Well, William Wilberforce, the devout Evangelical politician, is long dead, but his fame as a mighty and tireless campaigner for abolition, animal welfare, and other social causes still lives on. I imagine most of the by-lines in the newspaper are of this nature. One public statement about the special edition came from a "Bertha Suttner," who is also a long-dead activist.
The "ads" in the online version are also worth a close inspection: apparently ExxonMobil is adopting bold new environmental and social policies, American Apparel is unionizing its half-naked waifish models, and GM is bringing back its electric car, the EV1. I particularly liked the ad for a dermatologist who is putting aside his 'superficial services' in order to collect donations for rebuilding Iraqi schools. The slogans: "Be beautiful on the inside as well as on the outside!!!" and "Now you can have... A BEAUTIFUL CLEAR CONSCIENCE."
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