Such a shame; I grew up on his music.
Posted in Entertainment, Other | Tagged artists, death, Lou Reed, music, RIP | Leave a Comment »
“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
By this definition, I spent the morning singing. Hope you did too.
Posted in Writing | Tagged Anne Lamott, creativity, Fiction, inspiration, Motivation, Thoughts, Writers, writing, yay | Leave a Comment »
It’s Monday, but that doesn’t mean there can’t be magic:
“Everybody has a secret world inside of them. All of the people of the world, I mean everybody. No matter how dull and boring they are on the outside, inside them they’ve all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds. Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands maybe.”
— Neil Gaiman
And as ruler of my very own imaginary worlds, I hereby abolish Mondays!
Posted in Likes | Tagged creativity, inspiration, Motivation, neil gaiman, quotes, Thoughts | 1 Comment »
I have a *lot* of envelopes to send out today, and among the many, many things I would like to know in this life, one question burns bright:
Why don’t envelopes have margarita-flavored glue?
Tell me that wouldn’t encourage snail mail:)
Posted in Other | Tagged flavors, fun, just saying, Thoughts | Leave a Comment »
As a followup to my last post on Reading for Generation Mars, I’d like to reference this piece by Becky Chambers at the Tor.com blog. She wrote it after meeting a (real! live!) astronaut and realizing that what she does is important to science and progress too, and not in an abstract way.
The fact is that if space exploration—in whatever form—is going to continue onward, it needs all the support we can muster. We need public outreach, like what the astronaut was doing, to be aware of the work that’s already being done, and to spark the next generation to follow in their footsteps. We need quality education, and a larger emphasis on scientific literacy, both in the classroom and beyond.
And we need science fiction. Now, more than ever.
We need to consider which futures are worth pursuing, which ideas we’ve outgrown, and what dangers (both practical and ethical) could be lurking along the way. Science fiction is the great thought experiment that addresses all of these things, and there is no branch of it that is not hugely relevant today. We need stories based around existing technologies, to help us determine our immediate actions. We need near-future stories that explore where our efforts might lead us in our lifetime. We need stories that take the long view, encouraging us to invest in better futures for distant generations. We need space operas, to remind us to be daring. We need apocalypses, to remind us to be cautious. We need realistic stories, and ridiculous stories, and everything in between, because all of these encourage us to dream (perhaps the ridiculous ones most especially). We need all of it.
I found this to be a really nice summary of so many of the reasons why fiction, and science fiction in particular, is important. Sure, it’s just one element in a matrix of education, outreach and exploration, but it’s in there.
Now I’m going to go write something:)
Posted in Likes, Science!, Writing | Tagged astronauts, awesome, Becky Chambers, creativity, inspiration, kids, Motivation, science, science fiction, sff, space, space exploration, writing | Leave a Comment »
This article by scientist Pascal Lee has a great point: reading helps kids turn dreams into reality. I just have one tiny bone to pick, and that has to do with the non/fiction divide:
“Let’s get ready for Mission: Mars and take our kids with us. Let’s start them on this journey with a non-fiction STEM book.”
I absolutely agree that Science, Technology, Engineering and Math learning and advancement requires books of the non-fiction variety. That’s right, actual facts are actually important. No question. I would add, though, that not only is it not bad if Generation Mars includes fiction on its reading list, doing so will help them with that first bit: having dreams. It’s also important to remember that much of the best science fiction is based on extrapolated science fact.*
“The best way to predict the future is to create it yourself.”
— Peter Diamandis
As Lee points out, Scholastic’s “Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life” motto is right on target, but why limit that reading? Non-fiction shows you how to build the path, fiction helps you decide where you want to go and imagine what it will be like when you get there.
I can’t wait to see where Generation Mars takes us.
* While “top X” lists are always arguable, they can be a great place to start. Check out this list of The Best Hard Science Fiction Books of all Time: Ten titles that inspired Technology Review to publish TRSF, its own collection of sci-fi stories.
Posted in Likes, Other, Science! | Tagged books, creativity, education, Fiction, Generation Mars, kids, Mars, Motivation, non-fiction, Pascal Lee, reading, reading list, science, science fiction, SETI, STEM | 1 Comment »
-
Recent Posts
She Said, He Said
-
-
Favorite Posts
Archives
Categories
It’s All So Random
What I’m Reading
You must be logged in to post a comment.