How Low Can You Go?
Scifi movies are usually the realm of big-budget blockbusters – think of Avatar, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars. But can you make a credible/entertaining science fiction movie on a low budget?
A Gift
A new Ted Chiang story always feels like a gift from the universe. Even better, “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” is available both as a fancy book/art object and as a free online version!
Author’s Cut
The director’s cut is a familiar term in the world of film, but an equivalent “author’s cut” in the realm of books is not a widespread notion. Why might that be?
Hammering Away at the Here and Now
Let’s say you’re the newly-sentient internet. How would you decipher the meaning of all the bits and bytes whizzing past you? And what about the real world outside your electronic realm?
Noir, With Feelings
Some types of stories are so familiar that the only way to tell your own version of, say, a detective yarn is to find an interesting new angle. Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series makes the title character a wizard who solves supernatural crimes in Chicago. Additionally, Harry has […]
A Matter of Human Agency
Let’s say you’ve just invented a time machine. Your hand is on the dial, ready to master the energies of the fourth dimension. Depending on when you’re living in the history of the universe, this might be science fiction or just the latest invention. Spaceships, atomic bombs, the […]
The Cultural Gutter 