In Defence of Tribalism
Tribalism goes to the core of who we are as human beings, and what we need to feel human. Yet modern society, by design, is anti-tribal. As Sebastian Junger argues in his excellent book, Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging: …
Rutger Remembered
Electric, terrifying, charismatic, complex. Roy Batty was everything a cyberpunk antagonist should be: morally ambiguous, ultra-violent, flawed, philosophical. And if there’s a difference between cyberpunk protagonist and antagonist, well, those differences are too small to contemplate here. 
Roy Batty embodied …
The Midwich Cuckoos: How a 1950s science fiction novel predicted modern political culture
The premise of John Wyndham’s 1957 science fiction novel, The Midwich Cuckoos, is this: a species of parasitic aliens infect all the women of Midwich, Winshine. The women become pregnant, simultaneously, and give birth to children who seem normal in …
Star Wars Re-Watched: Attack of the Pedants
I recently watched Star Wars with my son. He’s seven; this was his first time. I’m a touch older, I’ve probably watched it 30 times, though the last was more than a decade ago.
Rather than talk about the experience …
Inequality and Literature – The Brahmin Left vs The Merchant Right
You will know the name Thomas Piketty via his seminal book on inequality, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Like Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, Piketty’s was a best-selling work read by almost no-one.
Here’s the gist. …
The Glory of You: Social Media and the End of Interiority
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
Kurt Vonnegut
In 1977 JG Ballard prophesied:
Every home will be transformed into its own TV studio. We’ll all be simultaneously actor, …
Kim Stanley Robinson is Wrong About Something
I’m a long-time fan of Kim Stanley Robinson. I believe his relentless focus on climate change, and the quality of the story-telling that goes along with it, has made his books not only worthy, but important. His work serves …
News: I’ve signed with legendary SF/F agent, John Jarrold
Somewhere in the fugue induced by the final stages of my doctorate – there’ve been times I’ve not been sure of the day or month I’m in – I acquired a new literary agent. And a damned good one, at …
Academy Award Predictions (and Bets)
The main downside that comes with betting on the Oscars is the subsequent desire to watch the damn thing. Three tedious hours of self-congratulation from the richest and most beautiful people on earth (with occasional lashings of purported victimhood, such …
The Hugos: Putting the World into WorldCon
It’s time to put the world into WorldCon. Time to include geography and national culture in the definition of diversity. Past time.
This here is just a discussion in good faith. Remember those? There’s no outrage; no political side. All …