Marginalia

[coalescent]

Haven't done one of these for a while but hey, no time like the present:

Article in the Guardian about models of cognition and the portrayal of the mind in literature here:

Free indirect style, that fusing of third-person narrative with depictions of first-person consciousness, means that writers can state their characters' thoughts explicitly, as though they were utterances of speech, without having to describe their shape or character. Modern novelists' fondness for first-person storytelling, brilliantly exemplified in the embedded narratives of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, has often served as an excuse for writers merely to render thought, rather than getting to grips with its dynamics and complex simultaneities. For all their limitations, metaphors of mind give writers a handle on the ineffable qualities of cognition. When thought becomes no more than unspoken speech, fiction's gleaming reputation as a mirror of human consciousness will inevitably begin to tarnish.

Also links to this neato metaphor of mind databank. [via tom]

Interesting discussion of what 'hard fantasy' means (and what it should mean) in megmccarron's journal here. David Moles asks what bad hard fantasy would be.

The US cover for River of Gods. Pretty, but not, I think, quite as good for the book as either of the UK covers.

In other cover art news, Locus online has an extensive directory (read: large page) of 2005 cover art. Good resource for awards etc.

The official talking squids in outer space webpage. With a Stephen Baxter story, obviously.

And finally: The Periodic Table of Dessert. Yum. [via grahamsleight]