Science Fiction
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How Sci-Fi Inspired Conspiracy Theory April 29, 2024
In 1950, a U.S. Army psyops officer named Paul Linebarger used a pseudonym to publish a science-fiction story titled “Scanners Live in Vain” in a pulp magazine. It was about a man named Martel who works for the “deep state” in the far future as a mys...
The Unexpected Resurrection of Harlan Ellison April 26, 2024
In 1968, a notoriously caustic science fiction writer accused Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry of peddling “utopian bullshit.” In 1978, this same writer — in an introduction written for Doctor Who paperbacks — mocked Star Wars, decrying it as “adol...
Starship Troopers: Heinlein’s Classic Realism April 11, 2024
Robert Heinlein was one of the “big three” science fiction writers of his era. Along with Arthur C. Clark and Isaac Asimov, his prize-winning stories were hailed, and his critique of conventional norms, such as nonviolence and pacifism, captivated h...
Why 'Carrie' Is Still Scary April 08, 2024
There are two great origin stories in the history of horror fiction. The first took place in Switzerland in 1816, but it began with a volcanic eruption on the other side of the world. Ash from Mount Tambora wrapped the planet in shade, leading to “th...
Playing God with AI February 26, 2024
Good fiction, especially science fiction, can be prophetic, not because the writer has some mystical way of reading the future, but because, as Southern Catholic novelist Flannery O’Connor once wrote, “prophecy is a matter of seeing near things with ...
