Why science fiction should be taught, how to teach it, how to get a course approved and what resources are available to teachers and librarians: Secondary school teachers who want to teach a science fiction course or incorporate science fiction concepts into their courses can have their questions answered at this year's Campbell Conference at the University of Kansas.
Read full article on KC Infozine
Conference website

Subscribe to Mercury by Email

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Mercury Lynch!

Joe Hill is Stephen King's Son?!

I didn't know Joe Hill is Stephen King's son. From La Times: It was nice to find Joe Hill completely at ease talking about his father, Stephen King, during the science fiction/fantasy/horror panel Sunday morning. "He's my first reader," he said. "I've learned a lot from him." But, as he told the audience, he decided not to approach publishers as Joseph Hillstrom King (his given name) because "it would have been beneficial for me only in the short run."
Read full article

Subscribe to Mercury by Email

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Mercury Lynch!

New! Futuristic Motherhood is open for submissions again! If you missed the first deadline, please submit, you have until May 31st 2008

Futuristic Motherhood: Alternative Visions of Mothering is an anthology of speculative fiction stories about the future of motherhood.

Publication date: August 2008
Payment: On publication, writers will receive $100 plus 2 copies of the book
New: Submission Deadline: May 15th, 2008
New: Response by May 31st, 2008

Subscribe to Mercury by Email

This blog entry written by Trula Breckenridge. Thanks for visiting Mercury Lynch!

Barack Obama Voting Tuesday March 4th 2008

Cast my vote today in the Ohio primary, yay!



Barack Obama for President 2008

Subscribe to Mercury by Email

Definitions of Science Fiction

Here are some cool definitions of science fiction by various sci-fi authors listed on Definitions of Science Fiction.

Frederik Pohl
The future depicted in a good SF story ought to be in fact possible, or at least plausible. That means that the writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true...and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you.
The Shape of Things to Come and Why It Is Bad, SFC, December 1991

If anyone were to force me to make a thumbnail description of the differences between SF and fantasy, I think I would say that SF looks towards an imaginary future, while fantasy, by and large, looks towards an imaginary past. Both can be entertaining. Both can possibly be, perhaps sometimes actually are, even inspiring. But as we can't change the past, and can't avoid changing the future, only one of them can be real.
Pohlemic, SFC, May 1992

That's really what SF is all about, you know: the big reality that pervades the real world we live in: the reality of change. Science fiction is the very literature of change. In fact, it is the only such literature we have.
Pohlemic, SFC, May 1992

Does the story tell me something worth knowing, that I had not known before, about the relationship between man and technology? Does it enlighten me on some area of science where I had been in the dark? Does it open a new horizon for my thinking? Does it lead me to think new kinds of thoughts, that I would not otherwise perhaps have thought at all? Does it suggest possibilities about the alternative possible future courses my world can take? Does it illumunate events and trends of today, by showing me where they may lead tomorrow? Does it give me a fresh and objective point of view on my own world and culture, perhaps by letting me see it through the eyes of a different kind of creature entirely, from a planet light-years away?

These qualities are not only among those which make science fiction good, they are what make it unique. Be it never so beautifully written, a story is not a good science fiction story unless it rates high in these aspects. The content of the story is as valid a criterion as the style.

Read more

Subscribe to Mercury by Email

Skeptical Inquirer Magazine

Wow this old magazine looks very interesting. I will have to check out the back issues. One issue from 1996 includes:

Science Fiction, Skepticism, and Reality

Shades of Meaning: Science Fiction as a New Metric
Science fiction can, and should, be used to explore paranormal and fringe-science issues in compelling, meaningful ways.
Eugene R. Stewart

Scepticism and Science Fiction
Greg Bear
The Goulden Twig
Hal Clement
Science Fiction and Scientific Possibilities
Frederik Pohl
http://csicop.org/si/9609/

Subscribe to Mercury by Email

Marching Morons

The Marching Morons is one of my favorite sci-fi stories of all time:

"The Marching Morons" is a science fiction short story written by Cyril M. Kornbluth, originally published in Galaxy in April, 1951. It was included in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two after being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965.

The story is set hundreds of years in the future: the date is 7-B-936. John Barlow, a man from the past put into suspended animation by a freak accident, is revived in this future. The world seems mad to Barlow until Tinny-Peete explains the Problem of Population: due to a combination of intelligent people prudently not having children and excessive breeding by less intelligent people, the world is full of morons, with the exception of an elite few who work slavishly to keep order. Barlow, who was a shrewd conman in his day, has a solution to sell to the elite.
Read More

Subscribe to Mercury by Email

Got Answer via Omnishrine

You may recall my question on story I read once in Omni magazine about mutated vegetation on shipwrecked island. I asked on Omnishrine and got an answer, coolness:

Ballard, J.G.--DREAM CARGOES
A lowly seaman takes charge of an abandoned toxic waste ship and makes his way to a garbage island, where he meets and becomes lovers with a biologist. She's studying the new growths seeded and nurtured by the dumped wastes. He's evolving into something other than human from his exposure aboard the ship. Great classic Ballard.

Subscribe to Mercury by Email