Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that—in some ways, these post-apocalyptic stories have a serious slice of wish-fulfillment—the number of people is manageable and understandable. Ursula LeGuin’s the Lathe of Heaven was actually kind of explicit about this—the hero, whose dreams come true, wishes there weren’t so many…

Hee-hee. Some of them really don’t deserve the honor though. At the rate, they’re going, I think Pluto would run out features.

Yeah, that’s why I suggested giving Hillary a peak, while Norgay gets his range.

Oh, I love the names they’re coming up with on Pluto—I do hope they keep them—I kind of hope they name something Hillary so that particular dynamic duo can be commemorated together. Say Norgay gets the range and Hillary gets a peak, particularly as Hillary just seems to have been a truly decent person and SF fan.

As well she should. I hate going to the doctor, but my kid has her vaccinations. I watched both my mother and grandmother die of cancer—a vaccine that prevents a lethal cancer? What’s not to like?

Sigh.

Eh, most of those eggs aren’t fertile, so no, we’re not boiling their babies. Chickens can be kind of random about where they leave their eggs anyway.

Okay, it’s bigger than its Kuiper-belt buddies; it has a moon; it has an atmosphere and it’s geologically active. Oh, and it’s got a heart.

Yes, Lessing was one to challenge classifications—she sent out a book under a pseudonym just to show how hard it was for non-names to get a publisher. But, basically, it’s still easier to be a “serious” writer who dips into SF than begin as a genre writer and then be seen as a “serious” writer. It’s easier now…

That’s weird, but kind of brilliant—we’re all being watched, but we’re too busy eating and surfing the net to care.

I liked it as well—but I guess Butler preferred her other fiction. Anyway, consider yourself lucky, it’s no longer an easy book to find.

Yes, I’ve written novels and gotten an agent (I’ve published shorter pieces as well)—and I learned far more about novel writing from reading novels than I ever did from a writing class.

The Paper Bag Princess is simple and geared to younger readers. It will not show you how to write or construct at a high level of sophistication. I also think it’s fine to read something more than once. It’s fine to read a novel and not get all of it the first time. Also, one of the ways you learn to read layers in…

But the way you learn to write well includes reading people who write well—so literature is good and necessary. Particularly in the gung-ho schools, where the kids are so loaded up with work and extracurriculars that there’s very little time to read on one’s own.

No, it’s not. Huxley was a pretty wild character, himself. Brave New World is actually pretty funny—when I first read it, it seemed way more far out than 1984, but it’s actually come to seem like the more predictive book to me as years have passed. He wrote it long before the existence of in vitro fertilization,…

Yep. Also, mankind’s not getting through this without being profoundly altered. Oh, and good-bye planet Earth. The Patternmaster series is less tight, but also deals with the idea of mutation. You don’t get “Get out of jail, free” cards in Butler, which is what I love about her (that and the way she plays with…

Hold it, that one’s *Survivor*—the one book that Butler didn’t allow to be republished because she thought it was sort of lame her “Star Trek” novel is what she called it. If you have a copy, it’s worth a fair amount.

Unsettling’s a good word for Butler’s work. She was really tough and unsentimental—I love the way she challenges the reader’s comforting little fantasies about being heroic and saving the day by putting her protagonists in situations where they have to compromise and submit to what at first appears unthinkable.

It is good. I’m surprised though that Butler’s Kindred wasn’t listed as the book taught since it’s a standalone and one of the best books I know for getting across the dynamics of slavery

Though she wasn’t the only “serious” writer dipping into those waters. Handmaid’s Tale came out around the same time that Doris Lessing was writing her Canopus in Argos series.

I do think a lot of her attitude has a lot to do with her earlier experience in publishing—most SF was published by low-paying publishers and…

Atwood has always had a problem with endings—her books kind of peter out—Handmaid’s Tale is like that, so are others.