This post is an article index, a collection of links to articles with a given theme, in this case the Elfland theme, which can with some fairness be described as a distinct project within this blog, although it does pertain to the fantasy genre,.
Wednesday 25 March 2015
Elfland Article Index
It's Wednesday again...
This post is an article index, a collection of links to articles with a given theme, in this case the Elfland theme, which can with some fairness be described as a distinct project within this blog, although it does pertain to the fantasy genre,.
This post is an article index, a collection of links to articles with a given theme, in this case the Elfland theme, which can with some fairness be described as a distinct project within this blog, although it does pertain to the fantasy genre,.
Wednesday 24 December 2014
Wednesday 16 October 2013
Possibilities in Space
It's Wednesday again...
Any good SF world must be understood as a possibility space. A universe which is characterized first and foremost by its physics:
By what is and isn't possible, and by how easy (or difficult) each of these non-impossible things are to do.
Once you have created the possibility space, you must extrapolate how the people in the world will exploit the possibilities. Because, you know, they're people. They are going to exploit it. Some of them, at least. That's what people are like.
I'll mostly be talking about science fiction in this post, but the principles I refer to are eminently applicable to fantasy as well.
Any good SF world must be understood as a possibility space. A universe which is characterized first and foremost by its physics:
By what is and isn't possible, and by how easy (or difficult) each of these non-impossible things are to do.
Once you have created the possibility space, you must extrapolate how the people in the world will exploit the possibilities. Because, you know, they're people. They are going to exploit it. Some of them, at least. That's what people are like.
I'll mostly be talking about science fiction in this post, but the principles I refer to are eminently applicable to fantasy as well.
Wednesday 25 September 2013
Update on Elfland article series
It's Wednesday again...
And I've decided to not let the slow progress of the final part of the Elfland article series, the bibliography (in 3 parts), prevent me from writing other blog posts.
I'm still determined to write those finishing articles for Elfland, but it's slow going, and I'm in the mood to allow myself to write other blog posts too, in parallel with working on the Bibliography articles.
Note, though, that I have in mind giving Nanowrimo a try this year, so there's absolutely no guarantee of more posts soon, whether Elfland or otherwise.
And I've decided to not let the slow progress of the final part of the Elfland article series, the bibliography (in 3 parts), prevent me from writing other blog posts.
I'm still determined to write those finishing articles for Elfland, but it's slow going, and I'm in the mood to allow myself to write other blog posts too, in parallel with working on the Bibliography articles.
Note, though, that I have in mind giving Nanowrimo a try this year, so there's absolutely no guarantee of more posts soon, whether Elfland or otherwise.
Peter Knutsen typed these letters
Wednesday 12 June 2013
Iain M. Banks
It's Wednesday again...
... and 3 days ago, one of my favourite SF authors, Iain M. Banks, died, age 59.
In this entry, I'll mostly talk about five of his science fiction novels, "Consider Phlebas", "Player of Games", "Use of Weapons", "Against a Dark Background" and "The Algebraist. The first three, as well as most of his later SF novels, take place in Banks' "Culture" universe, named after a humanoid post-scarcity communist utopia (although personally I'm more and more inclined to try to coin/promote the phrase post-maslowian, because "post-scarcity" gets very strong reactions from some people, and is also somewhat misleading).
If you just want to know where to start with his works, and want to read the rest of this blog at a later time, the standard recommendation, which I support, is to begin with either "Consider Phlebas" or "Player of Games" (the later available in a tolerable Danish translation).
... and 3 days ago, one of my favourite SF authors, Iain M. Banks, died, age 59.
In this entry, I'll mostly talk about five of his science fiction novels, "Consider Phlebas", "Player of Games", "Use of Weapons", "Against a Dark Background" and "The Algebraist. The first three, as well as most of his later SF novels, take place in Banks' "Culture" universe, named after a humanoid post-scarcity communist utopia (although personally I'm more and more inclined to try to coin/promote the phrase post-maslowian, because "post-scarcity" gets very strong reactions from some people, and is also somewhat misleading).
If you just want to know where to start with his works, and want to read the rest of this blog at a later time, the standard recommendation, which I support, is to begin with either "Consider Phlebas" or "Player of Games" (the later available in a tolerable Danish translation).
Wednesday 17 April 2013
SF vs Horror 2/2
It's Wednesday again...
In this entry, I'll talk more about why I don't think it's very useful to classify horror along with SF.
Wednesday 3 April 2013
Historicity: Welcome to Elfland 5/6
It's finally Wednesday again...
... this concludes my Welcome to Elfland article series, and will be followed by a bibliography post.
Wednesday 15 August 2012
Historicity: Welcome to Elfland 4/6
It's Wednesday again...
I think there'll be one more installment of this guide-to-Elfland, after this one, plus a bibliography of useful media. After that, I think I'll have covered all the bases of this subject.
Wednesday 1 August 2012
Historicity: Welcome to Elfland 3/6
It's Wednesday again...
This "introduction to medievality" article turned out to be quite long, so currently it has been split up into a series of four articles.
This "introduction to medievality" article turned out to be quite long, so currently it has been split up into a series of four articles.
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