Transhuman and Subhuman Part III: Whistle While You Work

Transhuman and Subhuman Part III: Whistle While You Work

The third essay in John C. Wright's Hugo-nominated collection Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth tackles the enduring question of why small animals help Snow White with her housework. Yes. It really does. The author formulates his answer in terms of Aristotelian metaphysics. No, I'm not kidding.…
May 11, 20151 Comment
Transhuman and Subhuman Part II: The Hobbit, or, The Desolation of Tolkien

Transhuman and Subhuman Part II: The Hobbit, or, The Desolation of Tolkien

"My wife had to stuff a wide handful of popcorn flavored food substitute into my face, in order to smother the broken, wretched burbling — shoot him … with … an elf arrow." —John C. Wright Newer blockbusters may have driven the second Hobbit movie from the popular consciousness, but…
May 4, 2015
Hugo Nominee Review: Transhuman and Subhuman Part I, Transhuman and Subhuman

Hugo Nominee Review: Transhuman and Subhuman Part I, Transhuman and Subhuman

The fine folks at Superversive SF have asked me to join them in reviewing this year's nominated works in the run up to the Hugos. It's hoped that these reviews will focus attention on the stories themselves so that Worldcon members can cast informed votes based on the works' merits. NB:…
April 30, 2015
Responses to Sad Puppies 3: The Five Stages of Grieving

Responses to Sad Puppies 3: The Five Stages of Grieving

The counseling profession identifies five stages of grieving. Someone who suffers a great loss will first deny what has happened, then feel anger (usually misdirected) and depression before attempting to deal with the situation through ultimately futile bargaining, before finally accepting the new circumstances. Examining reactions to the 2015 Hugo…
April 9, 2015
Congratulations to the 2015 Hugo Nominees

Congratulations to the 2015 Hugo Nominees

The official list of nominees for the 2015 Hugo Awards have been announced! I extend my sincerest congratulations to all of the nominees. And seeing so many luminaries who've toiled unrecognized for decades finally receive nominations restored some of my faith in the SF establishment. Shortly thereafter, calls from supposed…
April 6, 2015

SuperversiveSF Roundtable

SuperversiveSF and Sci Phi Journal editor Jason Rennie is hosting a contributor roundtable tomorrow at 10:30 AM EDT. Several authors of the superversive tales and articles featured in Mr. Rennie's projects have been invited--and a few Very Special Guests may show up as well. The roundtable will take place live on Google…
April 3, 2015

Brand vs. Platform

Legacy publishers now consider an author's platform to be the single most important criterion for deciding whether or not to offer a book contract. "Platform" is of course one of those nebulous terms that's mostly used to inflate the speaker's perceived importance, like "statistically significant" or "equality". Jane Friedman at…
March 27, 20153 Comments
Archaic Industries that Are Still in Business

Archaic Industries that Are Still in Business

The increasing speed of innovation was aptly summed up by John Lithgow's character from Interstellar: "...[I]t felt like they made something new everyday. Some gadget or idea. Like every day was Christmas." The tireless march of progress has certainly endowed us with an abundance of technological goodies. It has also…
March 4, 2015
John C. Wright on Geek Gab

John C. Wright on Geek Gab

Attention geeks! Superversive author John C. Wright will be joining the hosts of Geek Gab on Friday, March 27 at 9 PM EST for an hour of no-holds-barred nerdery. The show will stream live on YouTube, and we'll be taking questions from the audience comments. Hope to see you there! Update: COUNT…
February 27, 2015

Short Fiction Book Bomb

Larry Correia's Book Bomb for novellas on the Sad Puppy slate was a smashing success. Help the Mountain that Writes replicate last week's success; this time with novelettes and short stories. I'm a little late to the party this week, but Amazon seems to have implemented a delay in their…
February 26, 2015