This Week in Google Alerts: more _Land Across_

Antonin Scriabin · 29 Dec 2013, 20:48 · from 2013-December.txt.gz

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From: kierkegaurdian at gmail.com (Antonin Scriabin)
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2013 15:48:24 -0500
Subject: (urth) This Week in Google Alerts: more _Land Across_
In-Reply-To: <F684CDF043654AC19EC8044751C55FC9@Rover>
References: <CAMwO0gwWqr1WGUcd0e_ZJw6XT4xfCwmhSe2EOWv6Au4=8m7NhA at mail.gmail.com>
	<F684CDF043654AC19EC8044751C55FC9@Rover>
Message-ID: <CAM0v-i5UX0L61UDvwDvQq-cSmyBE74ByKNqwFeV7ghRW-tGeYQ at mail.gmail.com>

The Singularity is a pretty popular trope in modern, mainstream sci-fi.
Charles Stross' "Accelerando" and Harrison's "Light" come to mind. I didn't
particularly care for either one, I think it makes for lazy writing. Tech
becomes magic, but characters aren't mystified, they are experts. It is
easy to explain away problems in the narrative.
On Dec 29, 2013 1:09 PM, "Gerry Quinn" <gerry at bindweed.com> wrote:

>
>
> From: Gwern Branwen
>
> http://jdbookreview.com/gene-wolfe-no-comparison/ interview:
>
> 'Gene Wolfe easily admits to being a supernatural being.  How else to
> explain his famous comment that editor Damon Knight, whose ORBIT series of
> anthologies helped launch Wolfe?s career, ?grew me from a bean???'
>
> Hmm, if we are to assume it was a black bean, it would not make him the
> nicest kind of supernatural being!  [I'm assuming that the story of the
> black beans cast into the sea in BotNS is meant to refer to the origin of
> Abaia, Erebus and the rest.]
>
> - Gerry Quinn
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