I’ve just read Cordwainer Smith’s Norstrilia for the first time in several decades. Smith was one of the Great Peculiars of science fiction, producing strong, intricate, highly wrought, highly weird stories that will never be mistaken for the work of anyone else. No one else had a mind like Smith. Sometimes one has the impression […]

Are you a cult leader? Do you have enemies that you feel must be punished for their crimes? There’s nothing that says “That crazy murder cult is after me!” like a rattlesnake in your enemy’s mailbox, but rounding up those snakes was always such a tiresome chore. But fear not! Save many hours of weary […]

From Miss Snark’s Blog (who got it from Tribe’s blog) , I steal the following exercise. Here are your instructions: 1. Grab the nearest book. 2. Open the book to page 123. 3. Find the fifth sentence. 4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions. 5. Don’t search around […]

From the scholar Tyellas we have a cross-referenced list of everything Tolkien said about elf sex. Orlando Bloom fans will not be happy.