-
Whatever happened to the CLFA?
Back in 2018, I discussed briefly the so-called “Conservative-Libertarian Fiction Alliance”. At that time, it seemed to be doing OK, unlike many of the other attempts to create a right-wing fannish organisation. I speculated at the time that maybe it was succeeding because it was a fairly low-key group mainly engaged in networking and book…
-
Rockets & Raytheon: Green Energy From Space?
Entitled “Space: The Crucial Frontier”, 1981 saw the release of a substantial report by the grandly named Citizens Advisory Council on National Space Policy. The council, chaired by Jerry Pournelle had coalesced from an earlier group advising the incoming Reagan administration’s transition team. The 1981 report would be the council’s first major public publication. “PREAMBLESpace…
-
Wrapping up a controversy
The drama and dogpiling around Marscon 2024 inviting Larry Correia as a guest of honour has reached a conclusion. “The MarsCon Board of Directors would like to officially welcome of Larry Correia as our Writer Guest of Honor for MarsCon 2024.We realize that when this was announced, there were heated discussions on our Facebook page.…
-
That other thing
So, in the midst of writing about a non-fiction book by Larry Correia, there was a whole other Correia drama going on in the world of science-fiction conventions. The full background is here at File 770 https://file770.com/the-culture-war-comes-to-marscon/ It’s a pretty messy conflict that has only become messier with claims that there are fake people making…
-
Twists…
The case of the romance author who faked her own death has taken a couple more twists. At least one of those twists feels like a psychic curse that we may have wished upon the world…the involvement of Declan Finn et al. On January 8 people interested in the case of Susan Meachen, an author…
-
Rockets & Raytheon: Tor, Baen and a Congressional Scandal
With Speakers of the House being in the news, today was an opportune moment to proceed with a long promised but undelivered installment of this ad-hoc series on rockets, right-wingers, strange ideas and fandom. When I was mapping out Debarkle in my head, I knew there would be a number of recurring characters. One character…
-
Rockets & Raytheon: Jack Parsons
In the previous post in this increasingly irregular series, I looked at the thread of esoteric thought within science fiction and how it worked syncretically with the genre’s apparent philosophical materialism and pro-technological stance. The idea in these essays is that there is something in particular about rockets that joins multiple separate topics: These connections…
-
Will the new Trump campaign fizzle out?
Donald Trump announced yesterday that he was running again for US President. The announcement was met with some scepticism across the political spectrum. There is an assumption that Trump’s influence is waning, particularly after the recent mid-term elections in which the GOP did relatively poorly and in which wackier candidates, in general, did badly (with…
Camestros Felapton
Two Time Hugo Award Finalist
Camestros Felapton 