Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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Meta
Category Archives: science fiction
SF as Luddite Literature?
Today’s counter-intuitive notion is from novelist and long-time Locus columnist Cory Doctorow. This essay is in the January 2022 issue, and posted (for free) online, here: Locus, Cory Doctorow, posted 3 Jan 2022: Science Fiction is a Luddite Literature
Posted in Human Progress, science fiction, Technology
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Don’t Look Up, 2
Follow-up to previous post: about the film Don’t Look Up. So, I give the film a thumbs-up, even though it’s uneven. It follows through on its premise. It effectively parodies the denialist nature of the anti-vaxx crowd, with a crucial … Continue reading
Posted in Films, science fiction
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Not at This Year’s Worldcon, Again
This weekend is this year’s World Science Fiction Convention, in Washington D.C., and again I am not attending, as I have not attended any conventions at all since when Worldcon was near me, in San Jose, in 2018. Tonight, beginning … Continue reading
Posted in Personal history, science fiction
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Ls&Cs: The Fiction Novel
About how language changes, how some cultural assumptions are common among some but unknown by others, and how some people don’t know any of the things that anyone reading this blog know. With my own personal experiences of such matters, … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Isaac Asimov, Notes For, science fiction
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Ls&Cs: Writers’ Blogs; The Secret in the Diary
I should have established that the context for yesterday’s piece about Republicans and Democrats was not about partisanship, but as another example of a counter-intuitive notion, how things have changed over the decades and centuries, so that what might seem … Continue reading
Posted in Links, Personal history, Science, science fiction
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Links & Comments & Thoughts for the Day & Endpiece: 3 Dec 21
Thought for the day: All the Christmas carols, all the movies about Santa, and so on, are *fan fiction*. Another thought for the day: I haven’t seen anyone point out that the reason Covid variants keep appearing, and then spreading … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, Conservative Resistance, science fiction
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Ursula K. Le Guin: THE DISPOSSESSED (1974)
I (re)read this a year and a half ago, and took notes, now condensed a bit here. And I’ll add it to the Reviews/SF directory page. Le Guin is best known for THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS in 1969, but … Continue reading
Posted in Book Notes, science fiction
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SF L&Cs: About SF and Politics; with an Endpiece
Here’s the second SF link of the three I mentioned several days ago. I don’t have an opinion about this piece yet, since I haven’t read it; I noted it as the fairly uncommon item in the general media that … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, science fiction
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SF L&Cs: The Danger of Books
Today the Bay Area cousins had a mid-afternoon “pie party” at one of their places in Foster City along the canal. An occasion to bring left-over pies from Thanksgiving? No; everyone brought fresh, even home-made pies, and other food as … Continue reading
Posted in Children, Conservative Resistance, science fiction
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SF Ls&Cs: Mary Shelley and Science Fiction
I should be more conscientious about posting about science fiction on this blog, which the subtitle at the top at least *implies* is a central theme. So I have three SF topics lined up, posting one today.
Posted in Notes For, science fiction
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