Last week, I talked about how complexity is our true sticking point, not endless energy (from fusion or anywhere else). WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH COMPLEXITY? I'm struck by this question whenever I can fortify myself to dip into the news (see my article about outrage addiction). We talk about the energy crisis and oil and gas and fracking. Then we talk about climate change and CO2 emissions. Then we talk about the economy and inflation. Then we talk about a childcare crisis (at least in the US). And then we talk about our crumbling infrastructure and skyrocketing debt. And we do this like we are talking about different things. THEY ARE ALL THE SAME THING. How are they possibly the same thing? Let me explain, and in the process, hopefully, I can pull back the curtain and reveal the wizard behind our economy, and our governments, and our art, children, health, everything on earth, really. His name is Dan. But let's start at the beginning. DAN THE HYDROGEN … [Read more...] about How to Make Music & Babies with Sunshine
Friday Fiction
1 Reason Why Movies Should Not Have Vampires and Reporters
It's the pitch meeting for a Newspaper Movie, only it's an Urban Fantasy It's going to be Twilight meets All the Presidents Men! Exploring themes of freedom of the press, corruption, truth, and the undead. It's called All the President's Vampires where one intrepid reporter will get the tip of a lifetime from the ghost of Calvin Coolidge's pet raccoon Rebecca, which breaks the story that will take down a president. We open on a grizzled old reporter moving out of his DC brownstone because his wife is an angel, like literally, but it turns out even angels have a limit -- and being married to a fairy who can always detect the truth who went to journalism school is hers. That night, as he's guzzling beer at the local bar for journalists, (different than the pub for cops, the cafeteria for politicians, the steakhouse for lobbyists, the blood bank for vampires, and the morgue for zombies), he gets a tip through his anonymous email to meet a source in a parking … [Read more...] about 1 Reason Why Movies Should Not Have Vampires and Reporters
The Best Magical Libraries in Fiction
I love getting lost in a library. It is extra fun when I get lost in a library in a book. And the most fun is when I get lost in a magical library in a book. Here are the best ones. 1984, George Orwell Definitely not a favorite, but a HUGE influence. The Ministry for Truth, where "ignorance is strength" rocked my world as a sophomore in high school. It was really the first true dystopian novel I read and I had no idea such a thing was possible! Little did I know how relevant it would be. It was a WARNING, not an instruction manual! The Midnight Library, Matt Haig I read this recently, (the inspiration for this post, actually), and was surprised to see a true parable getting mainstream play. It's a clever book about regret, choices, and quantum physics. And like I said, it's just a straight-up, unapologetic parable. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. Time and Fate fall in love in a library for all stories beneath the earth. Also, there are bees. And the … [Read more...] about The Best Magical Libraries in Fiction
Lesson from Star Wars: How to Fail Spectacularly
MY FIRST BRUSH WITH SKYWALKERS I was 7 years old and wandered into the living room to see what my parents were watching... And froze. The scene playing out onscreen was unlike anything I had ever seen in my short life. It was Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi, and the only thought in my head was that they had discovered Sesame Street for grown-ups. (Which, given Yoda's antecedents, was truer than I realized.) I was transfixed. It was dynamic, tense, and shocking for a girl whose main media diet was Disney and PBS. I was hooked. ONCE A FAN GIRL I watched all of the films, over and over again, which at that point numbered three. (And have never gotten over the fact that I watched them out of order and never got the shock of Luke's Father.) I ditched school for the first and only time with friends from marching band to see the first prequel when it came out in theaters. I avoided the … [Read more...] about Lesson from Star Wars: How to Fail Spectacularly
The Perils of Advice from Fiction Characters
Photo: Theresa Mahler BEWARE THE AUTHOR PHILOSOPHERS (Though you can learn other things from authors like how to stay sane while doing a really weird job...) The primary purpose of entertainment is to entertain, but sometimes, especially in science fiction and fantasy, an author can't resist waxing philosophically. It’s a dangerous condition filled with aphorisms and sagely nodding heads. Fortunately, there’s only one science-fiction author who has worked their way into a full-blown religion: L. Ron Hubbard with his Scientology, so we all know how good of an idea THAT is. But even those authors who know they're writing fiction can't resist the perfect saying to be excerpted and printed on Etsy in a beautiful decorative frame. ADVICE I ONCE LOVED Here is some of the advice I have taken from various famous fictional accounts of life that have not stood the test of time. First, a caveat: I love these properties. They are great works … [Read more...] about The Perils of Advice from Fiction Characters
If Law and Order was an Epic Fantasy
Photo: Lucie Bluebird-Lexington Sometimes it's all in the genre... Obligatory Forward Three thousand years have passed since the dawn of the current age. Yet we have not exited the Renaissance, and the entire world got to the Renaissance at the exact same time. In another three thousand years, historians will know when the unraveling began, where the excesses of the moment grew too much and the Great Balancer of the world, lion, the Fates, (the synonym for some kind of God figure that’s never going to be expressly mentioned), will place his fulcrum and tip everything the other way. All to be unwound, unlearned, unknown. Like a seesaw, but epic. But we do not know yet where that fulcrum will go, and whether the boy, for it is always a boy, fated to move the very lever of time itself, will succeed. Because it’s always fated and never just something some woman somewhere just gets done. The “Random” Beginning On this day, a boy named Patrick, who in the way of his clan, … [Read more...] about If Law and Order was an Epic Fantasy