A few months ago, I met one of my wife's landscape architecture professors, Kate Smaby, at her retrospective. It turns out Kate is a huge sci-fi and speculative fiction fan, and thought that some of my lectures on how that interacts with imagined built environments might be useful for her classes. She invited me to … Continue reading Lecture on the Spectrum of the Imagination
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Difficulties with Genre
I’m currently finishing my dystopian novel, tentatively titled, Sibling Rebellions. When that now-magic word “dystopian” comes up in conversation, everyone says that’s their new favorite genre, and wants to know all about it. Which is good news for me. Some people assume that I’m following trends, and that I’m writing hoping for a hit. But … Continue reading Difficulties with Genre
20 Years of Dune 2000: Hunting and Seeking Oblivion
For those of you who don’t know me well, I have a confession to make: I’ve played the same video game for the last two decades. And not even a great game, defunct Westwood Studio’s Dune 2000. This RTS (real-time strategy) game is a remake of Dune II, which, in video game history, is probably … Continue reading 20 Years of Dune 2000: Hunting and Seeking Oblivion
Reaching the Edge of Dystopia: Blame! by Tsutomu Nihei
Nihei, 2016 Blame! is a magna series written and illustrated by Tsutomu Nihei, created between 1997-2003. I first heard about it in 2016, when a student taking my Western Utopias seminar wrote about it for a final paper. However, the student’s vague description of a dystopian, post-singularity world was well-shy of the deeper themes and … Continue reading Reaching the Edge of Dystopia: Blame! by Tsutomu Nihei
What We Could Learn from a Film Version of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian
This summer, I’m teaching an introductory reading course at UC Santa Cruz. One of the first assignments asks students to reflect on the last time a book fucked them up (not the actual assignment wording). The question is really three: when did a book move you to wonder by its aesthetics, or when did it … Continue reading What We Could Learn from a Film Version of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian
“To Pay the Piper”
When I was in my early twenties, I discovered this collection of James Blish stories. Pretty much all of them melted my brains. Especially the last story, “This Earth of Hours” which I still regard as a classic. The others in the collection are not as impressive, and many of them seem hopelessly obsessed with … Continue reading “To Pay the Piper”
Potential Novel Titles
My first book is done. But now comes the tricky part: coming up with an appropriate title. For the duration of the writing, I've been calling it Boy Privilege, which was inspired by The White Boy Shuffle, by Paul Beatty. However, not only is my book nothing like Beatty's (which is fucking brilliant) the character's … Continue reading Potential Novel Titles
Query Letter Draft
So, my novel is finally finished. By finished, I mean I'm now sending it out to agents; what changes will need to be made before publication remains to be seen. Below is my current query letter. If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it! I've tried to follow the guidelines I found on … Continue reading Query Letter Draft
Top Ten Upcoming Dystopias/Utopias
Classes ended for Cogswell College last week. It was kind of an insane semester, for obvious reasons, but my students adapted OK to an all-online format. On the last day of my Visions of Western Dystopias course, we discussed what dystopias and utopias we expect to see in the next five to ten years. The … Continue reading Top Ten Upcoming Dystopias/Utopias
Leonard Crosby 