God DAMN I am liking this show! I find pretty much all of the characters interesting and most of them compelling. Rush is simply fascinating: he's so smart about science that he can't learn about himself (or any people, really). These seem like actual people reacting to the absurd situation they're in in ways they…

@James Valentine: Why would you make a dishwasher into a person? I wouldn't. But plenty of people would be fine having an artificial intelligence running their appliances in general (think The Computer from Star Trek). If that intelligence has an aspect of personhood, then we're right back where we started.

@James Valentine: I think you are glossing over some important points. "Your dish washer is not slavery, it's an appliance you purchased for the purpose of doing household labor. But it IS slavery the instant that that dish washer becomes a _person_. And the definition of personhood is far from straightforward, which…

@GeneralBattuta: No, it's NOT "feminist SF". That's my point entirely. It's just good storytelling. If your story is about humans, it's probably gonna have both genders in it. If you are writing a good story, your female characters should be, y'know, well-written.

@GeneralBattuta: I want good stories. I want good literature. I just get really annoyed when instead of "literature" I get "feminist sci-fi". Can't you just, y'know, write good stories which have good female characters? Similar to a comment I made on the "Monsters" review, I want my authors to be asking "What's the…

Ewwwwww... you got your identity politics all over my stories! How rude. Well, I guess I'll get a mop...

I spent today reading the whole archive. Holy crap, that's good squishy! The closest thing I've seen to it is "Bone", but it's definitely got it's own rock-hard sentiment and tone.

THANK you, Annalee! It's always dangerous to say that "The Emporer has no clothes!" or "Avatar was pretty hackneyed!" and it's gratifying to see someone else who's not afraid to quote Jay Sherman.

@kcmike: I understand what you're getting at but have a rather different interpretation: technology DOES change the game. The world with bow-and-arrow is a fundamentally different one to live in than the world without. It is only through the creation of movable type that chapbooks and primers could become cheap and…

@Pure87: You mean when horses overran civilization?

@angusm: Whew! And here I was worried we'd be overrun by pretentious, bespectacled music fans who acutally hate all music.

Yeah, that's great advice and all, but....

Oh please oh please oh please....

Great feature and the perfect choice for the first actor. Combs is one of my all-time favorites. Comparing the supremely smarmy Weyoun with the firey Schran and scheming Brunt really drives home his range.

@Jeb_Hoge: Eh, I try to use the metaphors and similes that will speak to my audience. That said, it pleases me inordinately to know that my random brain-firings find resonance in others. :)

Man, I knew Anakin would be on there, but where's Luke? Superpowered whineyness definitely runs in that family.

@kyosen: HOLY. CRAP. Sukat! - His eyes, uncovered!

@Davina Spafford Stuart: Which is pretty much what I said....

@rbeck: See above. And actually she starts out referring to the big scary brain as "He" until she rejects the label for "It".

@BioLady: See above.