Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 244

Bad Bad Futures Which Didn’t Happen – The Serial Number Version

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The other day husband and I were in front of the computer that’s used as a TV, and he was looking at trailers (I think I was writing, but I might have been painting something.)   After about the third “science fiction” movie trailer, my husband said “Do they realize all these futures are essentially Maoist?  They all dress alike, they’re addressed by their rank in society, they have completely scripted lives?”

And I realized he’s right and it’s not just the dystopias, even.  In all imagined...

Bad Bad Futures (Which Didn’t Happen!) The Overpopulation Edition.

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One can’t read science fiction — old or new — without taking away the idea that “there are just too many darn people.”

Now part of this is because humans are really good at scaring themselves with numbers.  Starting with Malthus, and on through the early 70s, or so, everyone was plugging the growth numbers for the population since the beginning of the industrial age and extrapolating them ad infinitum.

Which, btw, by now would have us as some truly impossible number.

Of course Malthus — misa...

Vignettes And Books of All Sorts

[image error] Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike

So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.

We recommend that if you...

I’m Okay

I’m okay, truly, and I meant to post well before this.  But Havelock cat, who is very pretty and extremely fluffy had a poo incident in the night.  It got all over his fur and back legs.  Being Havelock, cleaning himself the normal cat way never occurred to him, so he dragged his butt all over the laundry room, the kitchen, the breakfast nook, the rest of the downstairs floor, the stairs and our bedroom.
We’ve bathed him and will shave his butt when he dries.  Right now we’re cleaning all the...

A Lack of Reading Comprehension

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Sorry this is late.  I was actually hoping younger son would make it back to help me haul books so I could post a list of paper books for sale.  (He says something about so busy, and finals and stuff.  So…. Tomorrow morning, for a couple of hours. Maybe. If it doesn’t snow.)

Anyway, while trying to figure that out, I came across a friend complaining about people who come to blogs and leave comments saying “I can’t believe you forgot this point” when the point is exactly the one you made IN T...

I’m Terribly Sorry

But I have some kind of stomach bug, and can’t seem to find my brain.  (And after being so late yesterday, too.  Sorry.)
I barely slept, so it’s not surprising.
I might try to do something later.  Sorry.

The Tragedy of the Squid Farms on Mars

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We’ve all heard about the tragedy of the commons.  The left apparently takes it as a reason for strong regulation, while the rest of us are out here waving our arms, screaming and going “no, no, no.  Regulation has a cost. The tragedy of the commons is not having well defined rights, like the right to property.”

(In fact we know that the more things are owned in common, or nebulously in any country, the more that country is likely to be a sh*thole.  For instance if things belong to the tribe...

Whispers

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Whispers, particularly malicious whispers against someone, are a terrible thing.  Anyone who has seen them to their work, winding around a workplace, a small town, or even a profession, an avocation, a political organization, knows how destructive they can be.

This is partly because human memory is not … reliable.  I did a post for PJ recently (hasn’t gone up yet or I’d link) about why it is a good idea to demand proof instead of running off and condemning people because someone’s testimony...

From Where You Dream

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You know in the past I’ve said that if you don’t believe in selling out you’re never going to make it.

I still stand largely by this.  A novel that’s published, a novel that sells is almost a collaboration between the writer and the person who buys it/reads it.

I was explaining this to a young artist friend the other day.  she’s, oh, a good twenty years younger than I, and she’s technically perfect, and she doesn’t understand why her complex, layered art, absolutely original, sells far less...

Going Fishing

Sorry, I’m not going to put a post up.  Yes, two excuse posts in a row are bad.

But I woke up in the morning, half asleep, reached for my thyroid meds and the water, took a swallow and… didn’t.  As best I can tell my throat was swollen shut.

Still feels very sore (though I took the tablets.)

It’s entirely possible it’s stress and auto-immune as yesterday’s work day was short-circuited by family news. (That’s not great either.)

If you guys want (and if I still feel ill) I’ll put up promo post...