So, I’m home from Mythmoot III, where yesterday I presented my paper on Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. Overall, I think it went pretty well. Twenty minutes always goes by fast. I spent a little too much time on the setup rather than my argument and examples, but I was at … [Read more…]
I’m always fascinated when seemingly different subjects of my academic focus intersect in unexpected ways, as happened to me recently with Ursula K. Le Guin and Benjamin De Casseres. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised: It may be that I am drawn to both subjects because I had already identified certain similarities subconsciously. However, the rising to consciousness of those … [Read more…]
So, my latest class at The Mythgard Institute is over. It was the second part of a two-part History of Science Fiction class, taught by the preeminent Dr. Amy H. Sturgis. Both semesters are now available as course packs from Mythgard. Anyway, I wrote my final paper on Ursula K. Le Guin’s excellent novel The … [Read more…]
As an attempt to offer a survey of (mostly 20th century) short science fiction, The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction is quite successful. Since with a book like this it’s almost impossible to make any significant assessment that doesn’t boil down to simply preference, I will simply list those stories I liked best out of … [Read more…]