Marginalia

[coalescent]

There's a pretty high friends-list overlap here, so most of you will have seen this, but Geneva has an excellent review of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

An interview with Peter Crowther, he of PS Publishing fame, can be found at s1ingularity: "But perhaps the main difference will be that [Postscripts] will feature all of the different genre strands -- horror, fantasy, SF and crime/suspense." And it's coming out quarterly, from a small-but-high-quality publisher...It's the genre answer to Granta! Maybe. In more depressing news, there'll be no more of those nice square four-in-one anthologies (Futures, Infinities, Cities, etc), because they didn't sell enough copies. I blame you for that. Yes, all of you.

I didn't realise that every single anniversary (give or take) has its own designation. 4th anniversary is your books anniversary, apparently...

This Saturday, Radio 4, 8pm: Weird Science, a history of science fiction on the radio, featuring Brian Aldiss. In related Aldiss news he was on the today program this morning talking about the OED's SF citations project. The interview was notable for a period of stream-of-conciousness mumbling of various sf words.

Dear sweet god, the creationists are building a theme park.

Two articles for despotliz (and anyone else who's interested): one about Neal Stephenson and the Baroque Cycle, and one about Al Reynolds and the Inhibitors novels (or whatever the umbrella term for that sequence is).

Iain M Banks' next novel has gained a title: Algebraist. Marginally catchier than 'SF Novel', I suppose.

A really interesting short story at Strange Horizons: 'Tetrarchs', by Alan DeNiro (one of the Ratbastards). Matthew Cheney writes about the story here.

Comments

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

Surely that should be "Algebratist"... oh well.
I've never heard the word either.

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

Which one was the Al Reynolds short you didn't like?

[dsky.livejournal.com]

It boggles the mind how far some people will go to avoid having their children educated...

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Googlefight declares algebraist the winner, in a knockout. I've never heard either word, but I assume it's meant to mean 'one who studies/teaches algebra', or similar.

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

'Galactic North' - notes are about half-way down. But everything else I've read by him has been great.

[ajp.livejournal.com]

Dear sweet god, the creationists are building a theme park.

That's really very disturbing. How can anyone still believe a theory that was conclusivly debunked OVER 100 YEARS AGO?

It's just plain wrong, and inflicting the lies on impressionalable children is even worse. :-(

It is..

[mattia.livejournal.com]

...but how is this really news? I've heard of creationist theme parks for a good long while now. Many years. And always run by loon young earth creationists at that.

Re: It is..

[ajp.livejournal.com]

Perhaps so - but some things are worth reminding people about.

Re: It is..

[mattia.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree. It's a never-fading source of extreme annoyance verging on rage here. If I'm in the mood to get pissed off, I type 'creationism' in google.

Re: It is..

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

I currently have Darwin's Children to fall back on. Not the greatest book in the world by any means but hey, when it comes to putting the smack down on the creationists it's up there with the best of 'em. ;-)

Re: It is..

[mattia.livejournal.com]

This is Greg Bear, yes?

Hmmm....might have to buy it...JUST BECAUSE OF THE SMACKDOWN.

Re: It is..

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

Greg Bear, yes. Worth picking up secondhand, not so much firsthand, I would say.

[(Anonymous)]

4th anniversary is your books anniversary

Or, alternatively, flowers, according to the link.

(Imagines Niall getting flowers instead of books on 4th anniversary and going apeshit ...)

Al Reynolds and the Inhibitors

Hello Glastonbury! Sounds like some kind of swing jazz/blues outfit to me.

Also, i'm thinking 'Algebrite'; 'algebra' comes from an arabic root, and if people who follow Shia are Shiite, then people who follow algebra are algebrite. NotObJokeLink (http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22weapons%20of%20maths%20instruction%22).

-- Tom