There's a scene in John Wyndham's marvellous Chocky where the main character asks his father "Why does a cow stop?"

What he means by this is why does a cow's intelligence stop: why are cows smart enough to escape out of an open gate, but not smart enough to see that they could lift up the latch with their noses and escape whenever they want? Why ( Read more... )

steerpikelet can use your help! She's writing her special topic paper on the internet and the like in fiction (and especially science fiction, AFAICT), and needs booklisting. She describes it thusly: Under the general bracket of 'fiction in English,' I'm doing an extended essay all about how 20th/21st century literature uses t'internet as a narrative hook, and ( Read more... )

Another Important Idea That Everyone Should Know About ( Read more... )

For the fourth year running, I will be appearing in Two Shades of Blue's Edinburgh Fringe Show. This year we're doing a serious piece about Man's fundamental loneliness and the emptiness of an uncaring Universe called Paradox: Set Phasers to Pun. The character is apparently 'your typical Manly "oh look it's an alien, I shall have to remove my shirt ( Read more... )

This afternoon I was sitting in the postgrad club trying to do some of this work thing that people are always going on about, when they started playing Prince's ghastly song "1999". "When will they stop playing that thing?" I thought, "It's 2005, for goodness' sake ( Read more... )