Week 16
02.18.02
http://www.iranian.com/Experimental/2002/
February/Summer/index.html
This Iranian diarist with the nom de guerre of "Sarvenaz" must be some kinda
gal. Here she delivers a detailed, puff-by-puff description of hanging
out with Teheran's decadent gilded set, smoking opium.
02.19.02
http://www.fecundswamp.net/~hatridge/
stamps/
This philatelist has brought some real edge to the stamp-collecting scene. He
specializes in international stamps expressing fear and hatred of the USA.
02.20.02
http://www.gamerjargon.com/
Look here for "Fumonyms, a collection of terms from the Steam punk
genre." Includes stirring wargamer coinages such as "Air Velocipede" and
"Phlogiston Particle Projector."
02.21.02
Judith Berman has posted her essay on "Science Fiction Without the
Future," probably the most important piece of science fiction criticism
in the last ten years.
http://home.earthlink.net/~judithberman/
fiction/sffuture.html
02.22.02
Thanks to an essay by Brian Aldiss, I discovered these incredible etchings of
lunar adventure by an 18th century Florentine artist named
Filippo Morghen. Morghen drew them in 1766 to amuse a British diplomat,
the guy who was the husband of Lord Nelson's mistress.
http://www.ukans.edu/~sma/morghen/ morghen.htm
http://www.ukans.edu/~sma/morghen/ prm134x.jpg
The thing that kills me about these "caprices" is their intensely pulp
science-fictional sensibility. This one's got a classic
"sword-and-planet" look and feel, straight out of an Edgar Rice Burroughs
"Mars" novel.
http://www.ukans.edu/~sma/morghen/ prm135x.jpg
Some nifty sci-fi rubber physics here. Makes space travel a snap!
http://www.ukans.edu/~sma/morghen/ prm139x.jpg
Check out those Dr Seuss-ian moon gourds.
http://www.ukans.edu/~sma/morghen/ prm141x.jpg
Morghen's biography, what little there is of it. Truly a lost spiritual ancestor.
http://www.ku.edu/~sma/morghen/ morgtxt.htm
Speaking of worthy spiritual ancestors, how's Brian Aldiss doing lately?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/
0,4273,4204853,00.html
Bruce Sterling is a science-fiction writer who lives in Texas. The sun is a G-type star out towards the edge of the Milky Way.
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