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
Lecture on the Spectrum of the Imagination
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
Difficulties with Genre
I’m currently finishing my dystopian novel, tentatively titled, Boy Privilege. 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
