Happyroach

This a CAT checkpoint. Show me the most recent cat image on your phone.

I'm pretty sure Anderson would have things to say about the current deluge isekai person's that completely change a world and get a harem.

Asian American woman in a down jacket standing next to a statue of Fredrick Douglass

Happy Birthday to Frederick Douglass who didn’t know his birthday because he was born into slavery so he chose February 14 as his birthday.

Smoking is generally bad for the health.

My. That is certainly a collection of words.

Humble Book Bundle: Charlie Jane Anders & Annalee Newitz by TOR Don’t miss this bundle of novels and story collections from acclaimed authors Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz! Pay what you want and support charity!

I'm stoked that the Humble Bundle of my and @annaleen.bsky.social's books from Tor has raised nearly $5000 for the TGI Justice Project and Miss Major/Alexander Lee Black Trans Cultural Center.

www.humblebundle.com/books/charli...

Let me tell you about when I went to the TGIJP's anniversary party

It is SO frustrating to see people treat him as "The Only Choice to Save the Democratic Party."

Oh wait, people also love the Nazi Tattoo Guy. Gah.

a blue dumpster is floating in a flooded area near a sign that says 5 ALT: a blue dumpster is floating in a flooded area near a sign that says 5

Gotta go, my ride is here

The question to ask then, is WHY are elves and dwarves and goblins so popular? I mean we're talking truly international appeal for decades.

And as far as besworded skeletons, people do seem to have severe nostalgia for Skeletor...

Let's not hide behind sophistry. Are you promoting Nazi tattoo guy?

And yet, you don't have to do fantasy at all:
Traveller
Cyberpunk 2020
James Bond 007/Classified
Battletech
Grey Ranks
Outgunned
Fiasco
Twilight 2000
Tales From the Loop
Kids on Bikes
Alice is Missing
World Wide Wrestling
Passion de Passiones

No elves. No dwarves. No wizards.

Or consider the magic in Ninefox Gambit, where a charge in a calendar's schedule of sacrifices can change the power dynamic of an entire interstellar empire. Or Amber, where shadowalking gives access to an infinite variety of parallel worlds.

It's not about balance per se, but writing ability.

Contrarywise, it doesn't have to break a story at all. Consider the magic in the Locked Tomb series, which is incredibly powerful and flexible, to the point where Necromancers are really weapons of mass destruction. There's no attempt to "balance" the magic there. And yet the story works perfectly.

Let's have politics free books like Foundation, Dune, and The Word for World is Forest

YouTube video by Lanang AKIRA - Kaneda's Theme

youtu.be/Nja0Obgg2gU?...

San Jose. There was one circling my neighborhood for a couple hours yesterday.

Helicopters are pretty ubiquitous. More to the point, flying cars would fall under the same physics and legal category as helicopters.

I was surprised to find out it was originally on Spanish. My partner looked at me and just just said they have news for me about "Feliz Navidad"...

I struggle to watch old sci-fi stories because they'll imagine incredible technologies or aliens... And social mores right out of the 1950s.

Take Forbidden Planet: incredible planetscapes, fascinating alien mysteries...and then you have a bunch of white guys leering at a swimming woman.

We do have flying cars. They're called helicopters.

After a point Cersei feels like the result of a male-gazy Checklist of Traits of a Bad Queen. "Let's see, what's next. Lesbian seduction? OK, I'll insert it here..."

I think people may appreciate its quaint, optimistic look at the future...

I miss Japanese trains.

Those recommendations strike me as kind of performative. As in they don't really expect a modern teen to read "Foundation", they're signaling that they're part of the True SF Fans group. The sort of people that do read Foundation.

And I remember how difficult it was to just get convention codes of conduct with teeth written in them, only a little over a decade ago.

So my major takeaway about Asimov is not just that he was a sex pest, but that he was able to be a sex pest because he had support and acceptance of his actions from the convention culture. He had a legion of enablers.

Why does that entail giving a pass to the creators' actions?

Note that we aren't discussing Asimov's art, but Asimov as a person, including people who were directly affected by him. But people like you keep bringing formalism in, as if that should have any bearing on the conversation. Why?

Heinlein had some weird, sexist views of women in his later novels. But as far as I can tell, he wasn't actually a sex pest in person. At least not that I've heard.

Do you make a habit of defending sex predators?

Having read Foundation decades ago, I'd say they are flat-out bullshitting about Foundation being breathless. I've read vacuum repair manuals that were more riveting than Foundation.