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Art of the Future
One problem I’ve been thinking about recently is how to handle the art of the future. I don’t think it’s done well. How can it be done better? Imagine that you’re an art historian in the year 1900. Can you predict the art of today? Certainly, if you were to take such a person, and… — read more
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The Limits of Language
For a while now, I have been thinking about the way that I write. This is mostly because I think I am a mediocre writer, and I would like to be a better one. One interesting dimension of this is that people write in ways that are mechanically different. People who paid attention during English… — read more
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5 Haikus on an Alien Planet
Hazy moons shine down On our rockets and rovers. New life–a new place. — read more
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Next Big First
In April of this year, Artemis II set a new record for the distance from the Earth by a crewed spacecraft. This was covered, not only by space and scientific publications, but by mainstream print, TV, and news outlets, and when Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen were in space, they were… — read more
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Society of Mind and Artificial Consciousness
Recently, I have been reading a good deal of science fiction from different eras. Artificial intelligence and artificial personhood have been common topics of discussion for decades and a significant portion of the genre has revolved around these issues. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I recently read the short story Dolly which hinges… — read more
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Review of No-Frills Book: Science Fiction
I was recently gifted a copy of No Frills Book: Science Fiction, Complete with Everything: Aliens, Giant Ants, Space Cadets, Robots, One Plucky Girl. [their punctuation] which is a hell of a title. It’s a very strange, generic looking book, it’s less than 60 pages, its writing style is appropriately no-frills, and it took me… — read more
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The Art of Painting like a Landlord
I recently moved out of a cheap and rather terrible apartment, and as a part of this process, my roommate and I worked hard to cover up the evidence of the damage we had done to the apartment in vain hopes of getting our security deposit back. As a part of this, we had to… — read more
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Retrocausal Literary Analysis: 2004 vs 2012
This post is a follow up to two past posts of mine, an explanation of the idea of retrocausal criticism and a book review, so I would recommend reading those if you haven’t read them yet. I recently finished Science Fiction: The Best of 2004, edited by Karen Haber and Jonathan Strahan, and I enjoyed… — read more
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The Shape of the Future in The Year’s Best SF 17
I’ve been doing the Bradbury challenge, both versions, and as a part of that I’ve been reading a lot of sci-fi short stories. I picked up a copy of the anthology Year’s Best SF 17, which was published in 2012 and edited by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. The lineup includes some authors who… — read more
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Discarding Forms – A Short Story
I felt it at the same time as everyone else, that one night in June. The knowledge appeared in the back of my mind. I was alone when I felt it, in my apartment. I was washing dishes, and there were soap suds all over my hands, and I dropped a plate in the sink… — read more
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J. E. Landau 