Professor of Indefinite Studies
There’s a new blog in town, Science in My Fiction, devoted to getting science fiction and fantasy writers thinking about new developments in science. It’s been running for about a month, and there are some thought-provoking articles already.
My first contribution, on learning science, appeared today.
Please go take a look, and leave a comment on any post you find interesting. You’d make me and the whole staff very happy.
I mentioned in December the unpleasant experience that Dr. Peter Watts, a science fiction author and biologist, had when trying to leave the United States. Dr. Watts was harassed and beaten by the US Border Patrol, then charged with assault.
The case went to trial. The assault charges were dismissed, but Dr. Watts was still charged with a felony, “failure to comply.” You see, he made the mistake of asking what the officers were doing instead of immediately doing whatever they said. Remember, this is after being hit in the head and face a couple of times – I’d be confused too. Dr. Watts is taking it much more calmly than I would. (The whole story, in his words.) The story has been covered many places; I’d recommend this and this, and maybe this.
I’d also recommend staying away from the Port Huron media.
He stopped her hand as she reached for the bedside lamp, fingers biting into her wrist. “Leave it on.” She shrugged, though she preferred cloaking darkness. The relief in his eyes morphed into inky hunger. She gathered her long hennaed hair off her neck and turned her head away. His fingers smoothed the last tendrils from her scarred skin, sending a tremor of fear and desire down her spine. She closed her eyes; she could have that much privacy. After, he lay sated next to her, as relaxed as he ever got, and she dared to ask. “No, of course I’m not afraid of the dark. That would be foolish. It’s the monster under the bed.” Her friends would laugh when she told them that. She dozed then, lethargic from blood loss. She didn’t notice when he left, turning out the light, didn’t notice until cold clammy fingers gripped her ankle.
Elizabeth Blackwell wanted to go to medical school. She’d been reading medicine at home, but wanted proper training and formal education. She was rejected from all the first-rate schools, and most of the rest. Only one medical school even considered her application. When the Geneva Medical College received her application, the administration asked the students whether they’d be willing to work with her. The students thought it was a practical joke and agreed.
Not so, and when Elizabeth Blackwell showed up for school she met with a great deal of hostility. She was persistent, doing all the hands-on work along with the men in her class, and on 11 January 1849 Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to earn a medical degree.
Abolitionist, feminist, doctor – Elizabeth Blackwell was a woman of strong convictions and very ready to act on them. She wrote, taught, treated, advocated for what she believed in. And by becoming the first female doctor she led the way: by 2005 nearly half of all US medical school graduates were women.
You can learn more about Dr. Blackwell from the NIH here or here.
That’s right, it’s Ada Lovelace Day again. You can also read last year’s post.
Did they pass health care reform?
Despite the sparkly unicorns, it isn’t everything I wanted (where’s my public option???), but it gets rid of the most odious abuses in the current system: lifetime caps and pre-existing condition clauses.
Oh, and it saves the country money.
Edit: Couple of good links on the practical implications.
Five things make a post.
1. From Jim Wright at Stonekettle Station, Glenn Beck Killed My Father-In-Law. I’ve ranted about health care here before, but Jim does a much better job than I do. For one thing, his vocabulary and phrasing was honed by 20 years in the Navy. Do please read this.
2. Mars in 3D via Discovery News.
3. XKCD: geek humor, now with even more charts!
4. Oh, that explains it!
5. I have no thing five. I do have a large deadline that’s a month earlier than I thought, so I may (should) be scarce for the next couple of weeks. I’m also travelling a lot from late March through mid-April, so don’t panic if you don’t see much of me online, okay?
5a. It’s SPRING!
About a month ago I asked for advice on learning more about literary criticism, especially as pertains to science fiction. I promised I’d summarize the results.
Jess left a very good comment, discussing different forms of criticism and a few resources. She also pointed out the essay collection Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life, edited by Charles Baxter and Peter Turchi. I haven’t tracked it down yet, but it does look interesting.
I also asked an expert. Elizabeth Bear suggested John Clute and Joanna Russ as exemplars of the kind of SF criticism I was asking about. Another commenter on her blog reminded me of Jo Walton’s contributions to Tor.com. I read those regularly, but didn’t think to mention them. As a bonus, Jo and I seem to share similar taste in reading material, so I’ve already read many of the works discussed.
In the intervening time, I read The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of: How Science Fiction Conquered the World by Thomas Disch. Part history, part criticism, part anecdote; I enjoyed it, and learned some things about trends within the field that I’d dimly perceived but hadn’t understood. I didn’t realize until just now, getting the GoodReads link, that it had won a Hugo in 1999 — but I’m not surprised.
If you run across other interesting sources, please let me know.
Band OK Go wins the Internet.
(via Topless Robot)
Edit: Wired has an article on the making of this video, with videos of its own. It really was done in a single shot!
