Utah: The Science Fiction State

Woah:

Whatever the reason, Utah has some of the nation's most prolific producers and ravenous readers of science fiction and fantasy, known in the book world as "speculative fiction."
[...]
Many science-fiction and fantasy authors in Utah are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- which may seem paradoxical, since Mormons are known for being pragmatic and conservative. [...]"Philosophically, one reason that Mormons do so well in science fiction is that, I think, science fiction is one of the genres people are writing in that has the highest ethical standard. . . . There are codes and rules and honor that I think fits well with a believing people," Adams said. Mormons also believe in a "premortal existence" and an afterlife, and that this is not the only world God will ever create. "A lot of things that seem fanciful to other people don't seem so out of the ordinary to the LDS," Adams said. "As a Mormon, it's not hard to believe in something you can't see and hear and touch right now."

(Of course, every time I read the word 'Mormons', I mentally insert '...are from Mars, Dad, we've had it checked,' afterwards.)

Things Done

OK. So I see y'all managed to get through the weekend without another wild posting spree, but in the meantime I'm sure you're all dying to know - how much of my list did I get through?

• I saw Jeremy Hardy vs the Israeli Army.( Read more... )


• I finished Singularity Sky (short version: This is your Edinburgh Festival ON DRUGS and IN SPACE. But with spies. And plot twists.), wrote a review, and submitted it to Diverse Books. I didn’t finish The Master And Margarita, but I did get closer to doing so.


• I did finish the article for flyingsauce, and have emailed it to him.


• TV-wise, I watched the last three episodes of Firefly, the pilot (first aired this time last year) of Jeremiah) and the first two episodes of Dead Like Me. I'd have watched more of DLM, but (a) turns out all the files are .avis, which means I can't watch them on the DVD player (boo!), and (b) turns out I don't have the necessary codec for the third episode. I thought I'd downloaded every codec ever by this point, but apparently not. Anyway, thoughts: ( Read more... )

As to the other items on the list – well, I’ve started making enquiries on the shower front, and since my parents are coming over for dinner on Tuesday, I can pump my dad (travel guru that he is) for information about how easy it’s likely to be to get to and from Cheltenham. Meanwhile, I also acquired the necessary paperwork for a library card, and bought a new photo album. I must have a dozen developed films lying around that need permanent storage.