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The Elephant Man as Reality T.V.

A review of The Blind Men and the Elephant by Russell M. Griffin You would think that a novel investigating the inner life of a freak — indeed, the freak of freaks: Elephant Man — woul

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Rankled into Action, 2017

Happy New Year to all living beings! Live long and prosper. It’s been a troublesome and unpredictable 2016 — not that the clump of 365 consecutive days has any particular significance, but si

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Fallout from Quincy Adams: Readercon 2016

It’s strange to think about the fun-fest of Readercon — which it always turns out to be — as a hotbed of controversy where ripples of fallout will radiate outward for weeks and months after the event. On the other hand, science fiction fandom is a sort of canary in the coal mine of society at large. The feuds and alignments and banishments and rapprochements that swirl around fandom, punctuated by mass scrimmage events (also known as cons), are now inextricably linked to the culture wars raging around us. It wasn’t always this way. Long ago, in never never land, cons were communal freak-outs held by like-minded escapists as a sort of exhibitionist rebellion against the bleakness of mundane culture. A con was where your propellor beanie, flowing cape, Vulcan ears, and purple velvet bag-of-holding concealing a pint of scumble were perfectly normal, and you were surrounded by fellow fen celebrating the freedom to be weird.

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Redemption Song

Pondering the depths of guilt and despair, the criminal is led to the scene of a crime. His handlers are not brutal, they too are subdued; as if ashamed themselves, and feeling the general shame of