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John Barnes' latest blog posts
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1:30 PM PDT, April 7, 2008
For those of you who really were interested in the whole statistical semiotics biz -- yes, I mean both of you -- as opposed to interested in whether or not Scott Thomas Beauchamp was or was not in an MFA program (he wasn't) -- I spend a little time describing a minor statistical semiotics project I did a few years back, what it says about the way that the printed word is being consumed, and what that implies about science fiction (another subject a few of you might be interested in).
Once again I conclude that things are different but not worse (my favorite conclusion), and once again I will undoubtedly be described as having said the world of science fiction is ending ... anyway, for those with some interest in statistical semiotics, reading protocols, science fiction, or killing time before getting on a bus, head on over to HelixSF and look for "The Well Bitten Hand," my regular column.
8:07 PM PST, February 19, 2008
I've had my head down (speculation about exactly where is not encouraged) on a large book-doctoring gig, so I've been slow about mentioning two things that may be of interest.
One, get on over to www.helixsf.com and read the fiction. That's the point of the thing, you know. Donate some money if you like the fiction (or if you enjoy the feeling of being abused, donate some money if you don't like the fiction). When you've read all that, you'll find the second episode of "The Well-Bitten Hand," my column over there, where I promulgate a trope (I think that's still legal here in Colorado, James Dobson notwithstanding) I call the Seventy-Five Years War and link it to some of the changes over the years in science fiction.
Two, Roger DeForest interviewed me for his dedicated hard SF site, and it's possible that I said something interesting there (interesting to someone other than me). Naturally he picked the most inflammatory quote he could find to run at the top, and removed a couple of qualifiers, because that's what any editor with half a brain does.
(Senator McCain: "I always enjoyed wearing a dress uniform, so it made it hard for me to understand why some soldiers don't"
....Pull quote: "I always enjoyed wearing a dress ... it made it hard for me." )
Anyway, the interview did quote me accurately, Roger is a good guy, and those of you who are just wondering what I'll say next, here it is:
http://www.hardsf.net/?mode=8&id=7
More soon I hope, but what I'm really hoping for is life to ease up a bit so I have time to do something other than what I do.
8:57 PM PDT, October 9, 2007
Lately there's been rumblings and noisemakings about whether science fiction is dead, whether genre in general is dead (the current culprit is supposed to be mainstream writers having taken over the tropes of genre fiction and used them brutally to death in less than a decade), and all that.
I say it's undead and there are still good reasons to read it.
The place I say that is in Helix SF, an online donation-supported quarterly which has just been kind enough to grant me a regular column, titled "The Well-Bitten Hand." You can find my first column -- about why sf is not quite alive but definitely still kicking and moving, and about why it's still well worth reading -- by going to the HelixSF home page.
Scroll down a bit and you'll see it listed among the regular features. But since the whole point of it is that there are still some very good reasons to read SF, don't fail to notice that there are some very good SF stories in Helix this quarter, by some new and interesting names, and they are absolutely stone cold FREE to read -- unless it occurs to you that you could click on that little box and make a donation, which will let Helix continue to actually PAY writers as well.
And if you need a reason to read good stories which are available free ... well, read my column.
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