This week, our editors recommend notable features and essays by Katie Barnes, Rachel Handler, Alex Hawkins, Lila Shapiro, and Raksha Vasudevan.
Science Fiction
Posted inEditor's Pick
Neal Stephenson Finally Takes on Global Warming
“His superscience this time isn’t a metaverse or a space colony. It’s engineering to address an imminent threat. After a few years of unrelenting wildfires, hurricanes, disease outbreaks, and other natural disasters linked directly or indirectly to climate change, the idea that the world’s preeminent technologists might take up the cause where policymakers seem to […]
Posted inArts & Culture, Culture, Highlight, Quote Posts, Quotes
‘We Told You So’: Revisiting the Bleak, Pandemic-Filled World of 12 Monkeys, 25 Years Later
“Gilliam does believe that the end of society may soon be upon us. The question for him is: What shape will the new one take?”
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Featured, Highlight, Quote Posts, Quotes
William Gibson on How Science Fiction Portrays Reality
“Every fiction about the future is like an ice-cream cone,” Gibson says, “melting as it moves into the future.”
Posted inBooks, History, Nonfiction, Story
In the Age of the Psychonauts
Three psycho-spiritual “events” of the 1970s — involving Philip K. Dick, Robert Anton Wilson, and Terence and Dennis McKenna — had a strange synchronicity.
Posted inBooks, Fiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story
‘If an Animal Talks, I’m Sold’: An Interview with Ann and Jeff Vandermeer
Ann and Jeff Vandermeer discuss talking animals, the weird/fantasy divide, and the ‘rate of fey’ as an organizing principle in their new anthology of classic fantasy.
Posted inEssays & Criticism, Featured, Nonfiction, Story
First Contact
Sarah Watts details how science fiction shaped her family, her religion, and her own self-image.
Posted inBooks, Fiction, History, Profiles & Interviews, Science & Nature, Story
Namwali Serpell on Doing the Responsible Thing — Writing an Irresponsible Novel
“I joke that this is the great Zambian novel you didn’t know you were waiting for.”
Posted inBooks, Fiction, Profiles & Interviews, Story
‘I Spent Two Years Researching Before I Wrote a Single Line’: Geeking Out With Marlon James
Man Booker winner Marlon James immersed himself in African myths and history, so he could use that world as a springboard for a new fantasy series.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books, Essays & Criticism, Science & Nature, Story
At the Very Least We Know the End of the World Will Have a Bright Side
Solarpunk, a new genre of science fiction, demands radical optimism of its writers and readers. It takes the apocalypse as given, but doesn’t assume the worst of people living through it.