Category Archives: Writing & Publishing

Members of Science Fiction here on Substack will find TWO new goodies…a script preview of the upcoming essay on Carl Sagan’s CONTACT, and 25% off the new PKD Made Me Do It merch. Link and code after the paywall. Essay on Wednesday. Maybe.

Have friends and acquaintances recently stopped talking to you? Are you losing out on job application after job application? Do even the unpopular people avoid you at parties? It might be because you’re Zardoz Ignorant For any self-respecting scifi nerd not understanding the true genius of John Boorman’s ZARDOZ is basically social suicide The ScienceContinue reading “Are you Zardoz ignorant?”

How to tell what kind of scifi nerd you are using Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 : A Space Odyssey MAINSTREAM SCIFI NERDYou think Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 : A Space Odyssey is the greatest scifi movie ever made *because* of the rockets but *despite* the last act which is “indulgent piffle” ELITE SCIFI NERDYou think Stanley Kubrick’sContinue reading “The 2001 Test”

There is an energy field created by all living things. It isn’t something we invented. It’s observable. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It connects us to the living, and to the dead. It is what gives us our power. It is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends space and time. ItContinue reading “The Force of Love”

Cavill must be an Astartes He won’t be. He’ll be an Inquistor or Rogue Trader or something But that’s pussying out No Astartes, no Warhammer Warhammer, and by extension the multi-billion dollar business that is Games Workshop, only exists because of SPACE MARINES Yes, GW…borrowed…lots of parts from Heinlein, Herbert and others But the AstartesContinue reading “Cavill MUST become an Astartes”

ConsumerismCorporatismCapitalism The three C’s of modern civilization Today it’s becoming obvious to many people that modernity is dead. Consumerism is turning our planet into a junk heap. Corporatism has become a new despotism. And Capitalism has bought our politics so we have no mechanism to make change. But all of this was much less clearContinue reading “The origin of “future sports””

The universe is a relentless mechanical system running on automatic in which we struggle for a brief moment before being destroyed by forces that do not even know we exist. Merry Xmas.

Can we make the Culture…real? Since completing the feature length doco Hippies With Guns : The Culture of Iain M Banks I’ve been planning a commentary to follow up debating if we can make the Culture real Left wing politics has always been animated by the belief that “a better world is possible” which meansContinue reading “Can we make the Culture…real?”