Ken MacLeod's Blog, page 39

Speaking of which ...

I'm now on Twitter.

It's what all the young folks are doing these days

Charles Darwin is on a long sea voyage, and he has a blog. (Via.)

His latest news from the far side of the world is that the Brits have taken the Falklands.

Sunday revelations

Godless prophet PZ Myers has revealed that Lucy is actually married to her ostensible opponent in the cosmic struggle, Mr Deity. This explains a lot. PZ even has photographic evidence of his encounter with these two supernatural beings.

Elsewhere in the eternal conflict between good and evil, Tony Blair's chances of becoming President of the EU have increased. Thanks, Ireland! Don't say I didn't warn you.

Socially mediated

The Genomics Network is now on Twitter. Give it some love. I've just made a couple of tweets to it myself, one of them about an upcoming event in Glasgow, held in association with listings mag The Skinny, with the intriguing title 'Is Monogamy Deviant?' Be there or be square.

Another of my tweets points out that the Human Genre Project has some new pieces on it, so please have a look. I'd be interested in comments not just on the content of the site but also on its layout and general user-frie...

The Laboratory of Dr Latour, and Other Stories

The Social Sessions 01: The Laboratory of Doctor Latour, and Other Stories

Date: Wednesday 14 Oct 2009 17:30 - 19:30

Guests: Andrew J. Wilson (Writers' Bloc), Professor Steve Yearley (ESRC Genomics Forum), Dr Emma Frow (ESRC Genomics Forum), Dr Chris French (Lecturer in Microbial Biotechnology, University of Edinburgh)

Host: Ken Macleod, Writer in Residence, Genomics Forum

Organised by: Genomics Forum in partnership with Writers' Bloc and Transreal Fiction

Venue: Boardroom, ESRC Genomics Forum, 3...

' ... to re-forge the alloy that once made SF great.'

Late last year Geoff Ryman invited me to take part in an intriguing experiment: an anthology of science fiction short stories, each story written in consultation with an actual scientist and based on that scientist's current research. My own contribution was inspired Dr Richard Blake's work on the project known as the Virtual Physiological Human. My immediate vague notion of taking the usual SF approach to such humane, beneficial developments (how could this advance be grossly misused, and wh...

The Trease Project

Farah Mendlesohn is blogging her research and reading on the influential writer of children's historical fiction, Geoffrey Trease. Who he was:

Geoffrey Trease published his first historical novel for children, Bows Against the Barons in 1934. His last novel was published in 1997, in the year he died. I think it can be plausibly argued that he created the modern version of the historical novel for children, that lasted for most of the twentieth century, and he certainly helped to create a...

Let's talk about genes ...

This young man seems to have the mission of the Genomics forum well sussed. (Via.)

Skiffy skeptics

I suppose every job has its taxi driver question, and for SF writers it's: 'Do you believe in all that, then?'

'Believe in all what?'

'You know - little green men.' (Or flying saucers, or whatever.)

The first time this happened my lengthy explanation was trumped by the driver saying, 'I gave that Erich von Danniken a lift once.'

I've heard it said that SF fans tend to be more sceptical of UFOs and paranormal claims generally than most people, but in my teens I certainly wasn't, so it's cheering ...

Special weird things

Kim Stanley Robinson's claim that recent British SF is 'the best British literature of our time' and that 'three or four of the last 10 Booker prizes should have gone to science fiction novels the juries hadn't read' has received a received a prompt smack-down from John Mullan, Booker Prize judge and professor of English at University College London, who said that he

"was not aware of science fiction," arguing that science fiction has become a "self-enclosed world".

"When I was 18 it was a...