Non-Fiction
This Whole Idea
Ron Paul quotes: This whole idea that the whole Muslim world is responsible for this and they’re attacking us because we’re free and prosperous, that is just not true. This whole idea that we have to be in 130 countries and 900 bases . . . is an old-fashioned idea.
The Seven Basic Plots
I wrote this the other day, intending to polish it later, but on further examination of the SBP book, I don’t feel the book is worth the investment. Here, therefore, is an unfinished polemic. . In 2004 Christopher Booker, a British journalist, published The Seven Basic Plots, a book that purports to show that all … Continue reading
Unter Klaus und Dunkelnacht.
The stone room with your bed is brightly lit and the two doors have heavy bars. The buzzing scent of kerosene cuts through smoke and must. You don’t want to leave the room, but you have a task to do before you can go to bed. Continue reading
Random Thoughts on Star Wars Story-telling
Protagonists If George Lucas is to be believed, all six Star Wars movies comprise a single story: “The Tragedy of Darth Vader.” Indeed, the addition of three prequel movies substantially devoted to Vader does shift the series’s center of gravity away from Luke. Apparently, those Luke-Vader duels in Empire and Jedi were not primarily … Continue reading
“Good Ambiguity” and “Bad Ambiguity”
Christopher Nolan gave an interview in Wired where he touched on the issue of ambiguity in fiction (http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/11/pl_inception_nolan/). He said: “I’ve always believed that if you make a film with ambiguity, it needs to be based on a sincere interpretation. If it’s not, then it will contradict itself, or it will be somehow insubstantial and end … Continue reading
Make brains! Make Brains! or, The Laser of Life and Thought
Planetary atmosphere are entropy pumps. The surface of a atmosphere-clad planet is out of thermodynamic equilibrium, providing an inversion of available free energy, in the same way that a laser works through pumping a population inversion of metastable states. Life can be approximated as a classical refrigerator, using the locally available disequilibrium to pump out … Continue reading
Story Analysis: “Erosion” by Ian Creasey
Note: As part of my own personal effort to try to plot better, I plan to try to do some plot analyses of SF stories, mostly those published in Year’s Best collections. “Erosion” by Ian Creasey, from Year’s Best SF 15, Hartwell and Cramer, eds. (2010) Summary: in the 22nd century, Earth is (still) … Continue reading