Monthly Archives: March 2022

Daniel Keyes: FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON (1966)

Posted on Friday 11 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s the next part of the batch of brief reviews of SF novels that I began last week. I’m now thinking, though, that with more substantial books like this one I’ll just cover one book per post — back to … Continue reading →

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About Changing SF Book Lengths and Formats

Posted on Thursday 10 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Some more SF history, here in drafty first draft; first written last October, cleaned up a bit here. My target for essays like these are the very casual consumers of science fiction books and movies, and even some sophisticated current … Continue reading →

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LQCs: Existential Problems

Posted on Wednesday 9 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

There are real, existential problems that humanity needs to worry about.

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L&Cs: The Limits of Human Intelligence; Disinformation and the Media

Posted on Tuesday 8 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Is there a limitation to human intelligence and understanding of reality, bound by our tendency to believe magical things for the sake of tribal unity? And how do people understand reality when governments seeking to maintain power are in control … Continue reading →

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Movie Notes: Belfast; Licorice Pizza

Posted on Monday 7 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Having given up on visiting movie theaters any time in the near future, we’ve been catching up on Oscar Best Picture nominees in the past couple weeks via Amazon Prime, at $19.99 a movie. Weekend before last, Belfast; yesterday, Licorice … Continue reading →

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LQCs: Narratives and Reality, about San Francisco, Convoluted Conspiracy Theories, and the Invasion of Ukraine

Posted on Sunday 6 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

How narratives overtake reality.

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Emeryville Marina Park

Posted on Saturday 5 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Today’s walk was along another one of those several peninsulas that stick out into the Bay from the Berkeley shoreline, this one the southernmost, technically in Emeryville (famous for being the location of Pixar).

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SF Impressions: Chambers, Kowal, McGuire

Posted on Friday 4 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

As I mentioned early last week, I think I’ll start posting short reviews, or impressions, of recent SF novels I’ve read, every month or two, in groups. This is supposedly a blog mostly about science fiction, after all! These won’t … Continue reading →

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LQCs: Back in Time, to a Perfect Past

Posted on Thursday 3 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

It’s been a couple days since President Biden’s State of the Union address — in which he spoke forcefully about many things, but avoided topics that would strain attention spans, e.g. climate change — and I’ve been fascinated since then … Continue reading →

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David Deutsch, THE FABRIC OF REALITY

Posted on Wednesday 2 March 2022 by Mark R. Kelly

Subtitled: The Science of Parallel Universes—and Its Implications. Published Aug. 1997 by Allen Lane, Penguin Press. 390pp, of which 24pp are bibliography and index. Here is a book that took me a year and a half to read, but was … Continue reading →

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