Connie Willis is my second favorite science fiction author, so I decided to read The Doomsday Book for the third time. Yes, I do read books more than once. I know that I’m in the minority in that respect. And yes, I… Read More ›
Books
Rendezvous with Rama
The late Arthur C. Clarke and the late Isaac Asimov used to have a running dispute, which they resolved by agreeing that Clarke would always say that Asimov was the second best science fiction writer in the world, and Asimov would… Read More ›
Intertwingled/“Hypertext in the Age of Trump”
Hypertext pioneer Mark Bernstein has just published Intertwingled, a collection of nine essays and one short story. No one could ever say that Bernstein is shy about expressing his opinions, so don’t expect some dry attempt at scientific “neutrality.” If you… Read More ›
Neal Stephenson’s Fall
Another thousand-page tome from the wonderful Neal Stephenson! Well, no, it’s actually only 880 pages — but that’s close enough. It’s still worth every minute (or should I say “every day”?) that it takes to read it. Basically, Fall: Dodge… Read More ›
(Before the alt-right) An Informal History of the Hugos: A Personal Look Back at the Hugo Awards, 1953–2000
White privilege and male privilege are alive and well in the Hugo awards, despite claims about “criminally overlooked” white males. All you have to do is look through the inestimable Jo Walton’s deeply annotated objective account of all the Hugo awards… Read More ›
Greek Script Hacking
Four weeks ago I reviewed two of the Script Hacking books: Korean and Arabic. Now I turn to a script that I actually know — one that I know thoroughly, in fact: I studied Greek for six years, starting in… Read More ›
Jiffy? Centijiffy? Decijiffy?
“I’ll be with you in a jiffy.” How long is a jiffy? What about a centijiffy? Before we get to the urgent question of how long a jiffy is, I want to comment on a surprising error (or is it… Read More ›
What Has Become of You
Academic settings… disturbed and/or disturbing people… why do I keep reading such novels? Well, we know why the academic settings appeal to me. As for the characters, that’s harder to analyze. I suppose I’d like to understand some of the… Read More ›
Loner
Take a look: he’s a nerdy Jewish kid from New Jersey, known as a “nice guy,” intellectually passionate but awkward in social situations. He’s starting his first day as a Harvard freshmen. How could I resist this 2016 novel by… Read More ›
Because Internet
Every language changes, as I occasionally have to remind my non-linguist friends when they complain about this or that. Some languages change more than others — English, for example, has changed much more quickly and more dramatically than, say, Icelandic… Read More ›
