Jennifer pursues evil AIs in a tiny Universe. I sat through Jennifer Lopez’s new Netflix movie Atlas the other night. Atlas is what I call generic low-IQ science fiction. It sports many sci-fi elements: evil AIs, good AIs, warm heroines (Jennifer is way too old to be considered hot), robots, spaceships, space marines, explosions, and … Continue reading Tiny Universe Syndrome
Category: Reviews
A Note Regarding the Contents of the Total Library
In Jorge Luis Borges’s 1939 essay The Total Library, we catch our first glimpse of the Library of Babel. Borges, like many writers and artists, kept revisiting favorite themes. The Total Library of 1939 is best considered a Library of Babel construction site. The foundation crews are busy excavating whatever esoteric material will support the … Continue reading A Note Regarding the Contents of the Total Library
My Three-Body Problem
I have a three-body problem. Today, while wandering in our local Barnes & Noble, I spotted, for the nth time, a boxed set edition of Cixin Liu’s Three-Body Problem (TBP). Once again, I resisted the urge to snatch the books off the shelf, pony up whatever B&N was asking, and ferry TBP home for a … Continue reading My Three-Body Problem
Frankenstein Weather
In my old age, I’ve picked up a nasty habit: a fondness for literary biographies. Recently, I’ve enjoyed books about Keats, Shelley, Byron, Blake, Twain, Orwell, Tagore, Joyce, and others. It’s a strange affliction — utterly without rational basis, lacking the danger of street drugs, but like drugs delivering peculiar damaging delights. Last night, while … Continue reading Frankenstein Weather
Generation Ship: Review
I grew up reading hard science fiction. Some of my favorite authors were Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Larry Niven, Frank Herbert, and Jerry Pournelle. All these writers created technically plausible stories with heavy doses of science. I’ve always held that science fiction needs some actual science to distinguish it from … Continue reading Generation Ship: Review
Ok Boomer K-TV
I was into South Korean TV long before BTS and the gen-whatever teeny boppers. One of the first TV shows I reviewed on this blog, Faith, was a deliciously nonsensical time-traveling South Korean rom-com martial arts fantasy. Yeah, it was that crazy. With advancing age and creeping Bidenesque dementia, my affection for South Korean TV has only increased. My latest K-TV … Continue reading Ok Boomer K-TV
ChatGPT Comments on this Blog
In 2022 reality once again asserted dominance over wishful-thinking naked apes. Governments everywhere gave up on COVID. The virus won, as many cynics said it would three years ago. We now live with COVID, as if we had a choice, and it will kill some of us from time to time. Our transition to low … Continue reading ChatGPT Comments on this Blog
The Hate U Give: Review
I picked up The Hate U Give, (THUG) because it was mentioned in a TopTenz banned books YouTube video. If you watch the video, you'll see that many great books and authors have been recently banned. George Orwell, Joseph Heller, Ray Bradbury, J. D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, and James Joyce, for Christ sake, were all … Continue reading The Hate U Give: Review
An Epiphany induced by reading Journey to the Edge of Reason
If you’re faced with undeniable evidence that Shakespeare was a racist, would you change your opinion about the play Othello? I’m in the habit of asking myself such hypotheticals; it helps me clothe my opinions in reason. Here's another one. If you learn that one of the greatest mathematicians in history was prone to conspiracy … Continue reading An Epiphany induced by reading Journey to the Edge of Reason
Trey and Kate: Review
This will be a completely biased review. I have a close relationship with the author so everything I say must be verified. Please buy Trey and Kate, read it, and make up your mind. With that caveat out of the way let's get started. Trey and Kate is a tale about an on and off … Continue reading Trey and Kate: Review
Analyze the Data not the Drivel 