Category: literature
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Of the Making of Books there Is No End?
I grew up in a fairly conservative religious community that abhorred study and praised ignorance, in a way. From this assumption folks would often quote in my general direction of the making of books there is no end. They believed along what Asimov said of many Americans: that my ignorance is as good as anyone…
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AT Sayre Interview
Thanks to AT SAYRE for joining us for this wide-ranging interview and to his publisher for making it possible for you, the reader, to download the book directly from this site: links for that will be nested throughout the piece. The piece will be broken up into early years, philosophy, and then will go into…
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Gabriel Kellman Interview
Lancelot Schaubert — Thanks for joining us, Gabriel Kellman. How’d you get into speculative fiction? Gabriel Kellman — Well, I was a vividly imaginative kid, so I spent a large chunk of my childhood with my brain in other universes. I also read a lot as a kid, and most of it was fantasy or sci-fi, so…
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Socratic Dialog Verses Narrative Dialog
There’s a distinction between Socratic dialog and narrative dialog in recorded debates and stories respectively. I hope to show that when both are perfected, the distinction is erased. Often, my narrative dialog will fall flat when it rises to a Socratic register. And often my Socratic dialogs will feel hollow when they simply serve a…
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The Dark Tower by Stephen King — Meaning + Review
So after a long, long time I finally finished The Dark Tower by Stephen King and rather than write a lengthy review, I want to reflect a bit on the meaning of the piece. I’ll say for starters that I really enjoyed watching King stick the landing, a landing I won’t spoil here. What I…
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Charles Beaumont, CS Lewis, Isaac Asimov, Damon Knight, James Blish, and Frederik Pohl ALL Published in the same issue of MFSF
That’s right. Charles Beaumont, CS Lewis, Isaac Asimov, Damon Knight, James Blish, and Frederik Pohl ALL Published in the same issue of MFSF. Volume 10, No. 2: Here it is: Have fun.
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Free short stories : where do I find sites for short stories and essays?
Where do I go to find sites for short stories and essays? Free short stories are pretty easy to find on Gutenberg, but the truth is that sometimes you need a curated list rather than just a single search term wading through the public domain sludge. I’ve got you. Here’s the list of the best…
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The best really short stories
Talking through the Robert Sheckley stories made me ponder what the best really short stories might be. They’d need to be the sorts of things you could read in under 15 minutes, preferably in under 10. It would also be skewed towards what I myself have read, which admittedly is significantly less than some of…
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Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Because I was 8 years old when this site was created and because I’m professionally rather new to speculative fiction (I only recently discovered Alfred Bester and Robert Sheckley), I didn’t know about the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Here’s a look at what it feels like: So it’s just pages and pages of things I…
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Grantville Gazette IV edited by Eric Flint
This review will be short and sweet. I ordered Granville Gazette IV at the prompting of Kerryn and Bjorn Hasseler because of a story I was working on spec for the new 1632 magazine. I think the thing I want to say is that sometimes anthologies like this never quite find their true audience because…
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Book Burning in Fahrenheit 451 what is it about ?
For the first time, I read Ray Bradbury’s classic and I wanted to ponder book burning in Fahrenheit 451 what is it about ? This book isn’t about us, right? It’s about those other people who burn books. Because it’s the book-burning book, right? The one about the people who censor and ban and burn? …