Apr 29
After Philip K. Dick got his first glimpse of Bladerunner (based on his “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”) he wrote this letter to the production company: October 11, 1981 Mr. Jeff Walker, The Ladd Company, 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, Calif. 91522. Dear Jeff, I happened to see the Channel 7 TV program “Hooray For …
Apr 23
This 1949 letter from Aldous Huxley to George Orwell is from Letters of Note. While these two authors shared a dystopic view, they disagreed on how it would be realized. Not to put too fine a point on it, Huxley feared the carrot while Orwell feared the stick. Wrightwood. Cal. 21 October, 1949 Dear …
Apr 21
Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction (University of Arizona Press) claims to be be first collection of science fiction stories, excerpts and poems by native people. And I think, that can’t be right, can it? But, God help us, it probably is. This book is long overdue. Indian Country Today says: Dillon, a professor …
Apr 21
For Earth Day, the Toronto Star asked 15 science fiction writers, including me, how we’d tackle climate change. To save some space, my answer was edited down. Here’s my full reply: The environment is something I watch on TV. Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, it’s a pristine world free of human interference. But it’s also …
Feb 28
In August, a blogger and book critic, acrackedmoon, reviewed an interview by speculative fiction writer R. Scott Bakker. She did so from a feminist angle and, from this perspective, found the fellow and his politics deficient. Six months later, the science fiction community has caught a case of the hysterics. For a chronology, I refer …
Feb 14
These illustrations are by Polish artist Daniel Mróz. According to Wikipedia – via Google translate: He illustrated, among others Cyberiada and Tales of robots by Stanislaw Lem. He made the illustrations to the works of Franz Kafka , Slawomir Mrozek ,Jules Verne. He created a technique mostly pen and ink drawing and collage. You can find a gallery of the work he did for Stansilaw Lem here. …
Jan 23
Although I’m not too big on leaving the house, I attended this talk by Robert J. Sawyer and William Gibson at the Toronto Reference Library. Aside from trips to the tailor and organizing my cupboards, This is the sort of thing I get excited about. I’ve been wanting to see these two in conversation for years. Reason …
Jan 07
Some of you might remember the Philip K. Dick robot that went missing. As a fan of science fiction and the strange, I posted about this weird incident back in 2006. Well, this creature has been rebuilt. Hanson Robotics just rebuilt the Philip K. Dick Android! To replace the android that we lost in 2005, …
Dec 09
I want to give you some background. Be patient. My reasoning will, I hope, become clear. Before I was published, I walked into Bakka Books and was recommended a novel by Minister Faust. Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad. I read it and cursed him out. It was the book I wished I …
