Tuesday, September 13 2011
The Undiluted Promise of Comics as Vanguard for 21st Century Media
Sometimes, rarely, a work is so good (so well-conceived, so well-executed) that it simply breaks our traditional expectations of comics literature. And this breaking allows us to glimpse the true, rare promise of what the industry can achieve. Davids Lapham and Aja's Wolverine: Debt of Death is this work.
Tuesday, July 12 2011
Bought on the Fourth of July
With The Homeland Directive writer Robert Venditti offers a deep and meditative work on the nature of personhood in an era of mass marketing. Easily the equal of the illustrious works of John Reed or Jonathan Franzen, The Homeland Directive elevates both the political thriller genre and the comics medium.
Thursday, July 29 2010
Future Shock, Postmodern Nostalgia, and Uncanny Technologies
The speed of technological change is unprecedented. Author Anna Jane Grossman finds that it has imbued her "with a kind of odd nostalgia for right now.”
Wednesday, September 30 2009
The New American Spook Country
Spook Country is about America’s loss of innocence, its various ways of remembering the past, and an attempt to find a way of reconciling those memories with the present.
Sunday, December 2 2007
The Stories Industrial Designs Tell
The Dyson Airblade is launched in Sydney and the wild new world 21st century design writers must come to grips with.
Friday, November 16 2007
Olaf Stapledon: Of His Time, and Others
To sit and complain about the lack of credit Stapledon receives is to undermine the very principle for which he was writing about: mankind's yearning for community.
Tuesday, November 13 2007
After the Silicon Rush
In the 20-plus years since cyberpunk threw down a gauntlet to science fiction and stormed the cultural gates, its vision has been praised, criticized, absorbed, and integrated into the mainstream. Does post-cyberpunk have something new to offer?
Wednesday, October 24 2007
Spook Country by William Gibson
Apparently some critics look at Gibson's work and think, "Mmm, no coherent story, big reputation -- that must mean it's lit'rature!"
Tuesday, August 21 2007
Spook Country by William Gibson
Spook Country follows complex path of post-9/11 mentality.
