One of the great parts of being a speculative fiction fan is watching reality catch up to and surpass one’s favorite authors’ imaginations — or just never take a step in that direction at all. As I’ve written before, I live in dread of the genetic-discrimination world of Gattaca, which I now fear may be

Posted here upon request from Daniel: Daniel A. Rabuzzi (’80, Folk & Myth major, Quincy House) announces that ChiZine/CZP (Toronto) has just published his second fantasy novel, The Indigo Pheasant, sequel to The Choir Boats (2009, also by CZP). Locus selected it as one of their “New & Notable Books” in November. Reviewers described the

Rolling Jubilee is about to kick off, billing itself as “a bailout of the people, by the people, for the people.” Other comments I’ve seen on this: Political Mojo post Nov 9 Slate Moneybox post Nov 9 Making Light post Nov 12 I like the idea, in some ways especially the “random acts of kindness”

A shout-out to HRSFAN Aaron J. Dinkin, linguist of the dialectological variety, who appeared as a Major Quoted Someone for Slate last month in an article on the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCVS aka NCS). The article is raising awareness of some recent (~our lifetime) re-jiggering of “linguistic turf” for short vowels (cat, cot, caught,

I owe Elisabeth a massive apology for some poorly considered writing of mine last winter. I’m really sorry: it was thoughtless of me not to ask you directly first. A standard apology probably would have sufficed had I given it when it came due, but that was seven months ago. And culpability, like Rumour, grows

I would like to announce that we have invited three new board members to join the HRSFANS board! Audrey Bennett is joining the board to fill our currently vacant seat. Ian Storey will be joining the board in November, when Kathy Zhang’s term ends. And Betsy Isaacson will be joining in January, to fill the

Oh, my. I no longer believe I die before Gattaca. This is frightening. The NYTimes article where I encountered this news has estimates from the study team that the technology could be available in as little as 3-5 years: whole-genome sequencing of a fetus based on only a maternal blood sample and a paternal saliva

Ah, summer — warm air, long days, and plenty of sunshine. How better to spend it than with like-minded science fiction, anime, and gaming fans? Here are some of the events we’re looking at this summer.   Are you planning on attending any of these, or others?  Let us know! June 6/29-7/2: AnimeExpo: Los Angeles, CA

Friday Alumni Central 4pm-10pm Ticknor Lounge; HRSFA History Scavenger Hunt begins Gather one, gather all, into the Ticknor Lounge!  Sign in to the reunion, drift around, meet alumni you knew or never knew.  Tell stories of HRSFA-way-back-when or HRSFA-last-year. This is a great time to begin the HRSFA History Scavenger Hunt.  Should you choose to

OK, so now I’ve had two humanities people tell me more or less categorically that non-fiction reading is not pleasure reading. (The first instance prompted much of what I’ve written here in the past year and a half; the second came initially as a comment on this weblog.) I would not have expected that particularly