Eleanor Arnason's Blog, page 94

Report from the US Social Forum in Detroit

From an essay by Grace Lee Boggs in Common Dreams. The lady is 95 and still raising hell.

Over the intervening years (since the founding of the US) Americans of many different political persuasions have questioned whether these Founding Fathers should be revered as great sages. But as we enter the 21st century and the age of globalization, it is widely recognized that the representative democracy they devised in the 18th century falls far short of the governance we need. Not only is it unable ...

Astronomy Photo of the Day (from NASA)

What's happened to that moon of Saturn? Nothing -- Saturn's moon Rhea is just partly hidden behind Saturn's rings. In April, the robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn took this narrow-angle view looking across the Solar System's most famous rings. Rings visible in the foreground include the thin F ring on the outside and the much wider A and B rings just interior to it. Although it seems to be hovering over the rings, Saturn's moon Janus is actually far behind them. Janus is one...

Today

I went to the library and found a new Gene Wolfe novel that looks good. Went to a coffee shop and finished revising a story. Admired the Mississippi River. Got envelopes to mail out copies of "Mammoths of the Great Plains." Bought fancy salsa. Came home.

I Am Off To Write Today

Right after I finish this blog entry. My mood finally lifted.

The challenge in this world is -- how can we honestly see reality and not be depressed by it? It can be done. Howard Zinn is an example of someone who saw injustice and fought injustice his entire life and yet always seemed able to retain his optimism and good humor.

So, what is the secret? How does one fight segregation, war, injustice, poverty and bad art, and not get depressed?

Zinn has an essay on "The Optimism of Uncertainty" w...

Rat with Teddy

This photo is from Yves Smith's economic blog, which is a very good source of cute animal photos and dire economic news. I enjoy both. I especially enjoy cute photos of rats. So here is one.

Posting on Economics

I suspect my posts on economics are the least valuable posts I do.

Personal material -- including my experiences with unemployment -- is useful, because personal material is always important. That's what makes history: the diaries of farm wives, the letters back home to the old country.

What I write about writing and science fiction has some use, because I'm a science fiction writer.

While I am clearly interested in economics, I am not an expert. Why do I write about it? I'm trying to underst...

Being a Writer and a Public Intellectual

I feel I ought to apologize for so many posts. I will slow down when I feel better and can get back to exercise and writing.

There was a discussion on Crooked Timber on possible jobs for a young person in love with literature. Most of the posters said the job market for academics was terrible and it was a poor idea to get a PhD. It was an especially poor idea to go into debt for a PhD.

People suggested teaching in a public or private secondary school, teaching English as a second language in a...

Heinlein

This is something I posted on the blog Crooked Timber.

Thanks for the links to Kessel and Moorcock. I enjoyed the Moorcock essay a lot. It reminded me why I liked New Worlds so much. I think Kessel is wrong. I can still remember the night—rereading The Green Hills of Earth at the house of a friend of a friend in Altoona, PA circa 1970—when I realized what an awful writer Heinlein was.

The links mentioned were to an essay by John Kessel on Heinlein and one by Moorcook on the politics of sf and f...

The Visible Hand # 4

It's a good idea for individual companies to reduce expenses as much as possible. Lowers costs give them an advantage in the market. They can reduce prices or increase their profit margins.

Since labor costs are often a huge part of expenses, it makes sense for companies to break unions, cut benefits, speedup work, lay off US workers and move work to third world countries. However, if a lot of companies do this, then a lot of ordinary people, who are both workers and consumers, are short of m...

The Visible Hand # 3

I've been under the weather the past week, very discouraged by the behavior of Congress and then slightly ill. So I have been entertaining myself with the visible hand, rather than doing the things I normally do, such as exercise and write science fiction.

Another examples of how acting in one's own best interest does not benefit the economy...

It's a good idea for individuals to build up a savings account, or so we are told, and it sounds right to me. And it makes good sense for individuals t...