One of the categories here on the blog is Science Fiction, mainly because I read and watch a lot of it. Occasionally, someone wanting to get into the literary version of the genre asks me for recommendations on good initial books to start with. My recommendation often depends on the person, but I frequently suggest they try … Continue reading The success of John Scalzi’s descriptive minimalism
Tag: John Scalzi
Don’t Live For Your Obituary
I’ve often tried to articulate what Scalzi managed in the title, “Don’t Live For Your Obituary.” I would also add not to worry about those death bed regrets we always hear warnings about. We’ll spend a limited time on our death bed and a lot more time in our life. We should spend it doing what gives us satisfaction.
And, of course, even for those whom history does end up remembering, it will likely be history’s creation of a figure that meet’s future people’s needs, with only a hazy resemblance to the reality.
Via Nick Mamatas,this article about writer Colin Wilson, who passed away in the last week, which begins:
How dismayed the late Colin Wilson would have been if, through some of the occult powers in which he believed, he had been able to read his own obituaries.
The man whose first book The Outsider caused him to be lionised in 1956 by the literary greats of the day has been remembered in several blogs for his later novel Space Vampires, which inspired a famously trashy Hollywood film. In the broadsheets, the life of a self-proclaimed genius has been given the faintly amused treatment favoured by obituarists when dealing with a life of eccentricity or failed promise.
Yet there is sort of heroism in the way that Wilson, having been abandoned by those who once praised him, remained loyal to his own talent, living a life of writing, reading…
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Ancillary Justice: an excellent read
I just finished reading Ann Leckie's new novel, Ancillary Justice, after reading about it on John Scalzi's site. I found it one of the most absorbing books I've read in a while. If you enjoy space opera science fiction, with AIs, strange societies, and generally mind bending ideas, then you owe it to yourself to … Continue reading Ancillary Justice: an excellent read
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