Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 246

Standing By

The Iranian revolution has entered a grim and secret phase. Grim, because the news is of mass arrests, protests being smashed, demonstrators beaten. Secret, because the situation may be resolved--- or not--- by maneuvers within the Iranian power structure that are opaque to those of us in the West.Still, the cries of "Allah o akbar" are louder than ever at night. Three weeks ago, Iranians still

Art Film

Women as well as men, everyone watching this film will feel the dissolution of all their certainties, all their illusory grasp on the world... but after you fall into a brazen despair that the walls of reality have become toxic ice cream of a million flavors, you will gasp with a greater realization: that once the world is reduced, forever, to a kaleidoscope of whirling shapes, you are totally

Hostage Facility

All the thinking I've been doing about Iran in the last week has brought to mind something that I always thought was kind of obvious, which is that Iran talks big and swaggers rather a lot for a country that has a built-in on-off switch. By which I mean Kharg Island.Kharg Island lies about 25 nautical miles off the coast of Iran, and is the facility from which it ships the vast majority of its

Levy on Iran

Bernard-Henri Levy on Iran:Whatever happens from this point on, nothing will ever be the same in Tehran.Whatever happens, if the protest gains momentum or loses steam, if it ends up prevailing or if the regime succeeds in terrorizing it, he who should now only be called president-non-elect Ahmadinejad will only be an ersatz, illegitimate, weakened president.Whatever happens, whatever the result

Simple Ways

Simple ways to help Iranian free speech.

Another Long Day

Another long day trying to keep up with events in Iran.For those who wish to help Iranians and dissidents in other nations evade surveillance, check out the Tor Project. Originally a project of the U.S. Navy and now spun off into a freeware company, Tor--- strangely sharing a name with the largest US science fiction publisher--- bounces messages around a distributed network to evade deep packet

Outside Shot at an Oscar

The other day I found myself on the set of a low-budget film.In recent years I've become interested in video technology for the masses, and how nowadays you can not only make a YouTube video for the change you vacuum up from behind the cushions of the sofa, but an entire movie. I think the production budget of this feature was rather less than the cost of the single camera that was filming it.

Courage

I haven't been posting for a couple days because, well, I have this life. I have friends, family, and a freakin' job. All of this keeps getting in the way of my Internet!I realize this is overturning the natural order, but I'm all perverse that way.I've been following the Iranian revolution via the live blogs set up by Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic and Nico Pitney at the Huffington Post. I

Mystery Pic

I was looking through the photo archives yesterday and found this. Which brings us to today's puzzler. A genuine no-prize to the first person who tells me what this is. And--- just for the record--- "a leftover piece of Sixties psychedelia" is not the correct answer.

Another Ringing Endorsement

Bev Vincent likes my book! I don’t say this lightly: This is Not a Game by Walter Jon Williams is one of the best novels I’ve read recently. The online store is open.