So I’ve been following the Twitter saga with with moderate interest and have been evaluating what the speculative fiction world is likely to do. I’ve seen comments generally along the lines of, “I use it for my work, and if there was something else available, I’d use it.” That something else mostly being Mastodon which involves a bit of a learning curve, although a number of other sites are getting some attention.
Several authors I follow have created parallel profiles there and as a publication and media house I’ve thought about following my community and audience. We’ll see how all this plays out and perhaps it’s a lot to do about nothing. But, I have to take care of my tribe. So…come find me at @chiragrd@mastodon.social.
Any thoughts or comments in this space anyone?
On to this week’s goodies.
Deadly VR
The internet is a wonderful place, by which I mean it contains wonders - a completely anemic and unjudgmental statement. I came across this wonder which made me wonder why. As a speculative fiction writer, I do understand there's an interesting question here. But I think that question and ensuing discussions would have been fine confined to the academic. Not sure what building a killing gaming VR headset really accomplishes.
Translation State by Ann Leckie (Summer 2023)
When I picked up Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, I tore through that book and the rest of the trilogy in record time (for me). I'm not sure I recall doing the same with any other book. The premise and vision of her Imperial Radch Trilogy was beautifully architected and executed.
So even though this next book in the same universe comes out several months from now, I'm putting it in here. If any of you are so inclined, I highly recommend you do the same, and re-read the trilogy just for good measure.
Human emotion throughout history
Tochi Onyebuchi has a wonderful post on his site with a serious question, and one that I've been asking (though hardly as well as he put it):
Are emotions culturally and sociotemporally contextual? Or is anger in 2022, at its core, the same as anger in 2022 BCE?
He goes on to discuss and points to a couple of books that grapple with this. It's a serious discussion and one that has me thinking even more.