the age-old battles between good and evil, sf and fantasy, Mac and IBM....

Morning? Again? Already? *shuffles over to get the cafFiend stoked up and working*

A random dip into the LJ-verse gives us frankwu discussing "Wall-E," wherein he says:

The thing about fantasy and science fiction is that in fantasy stuff just happens - there are rules, but we never really know why the sword has the ability to sing, or how chanting particular words and sowing dragon's teeth into the ground raises up armies of living skeletons - but in science fiction, it's important to say HOW something happens.

Um. Am I alone I thinking that Frank, smart guy tho he is, is showing more his own bias than the reality of the fantasy genre? That a lot of fantasy is as well-grounded in the HOW of magic [not just the rules but who gets what abilities and why] as a lot of SF [since SF does not automatically and only mean Hard SF], is about the HOW of science? Because by his specific standards, the Cosa Nostradamus universe is one of SF, not fantasy. And while I'm all about ignoring genre limitations...

Or maybe I am writing SF. I mean, electricity? Bio-chemical reactions to magic-use? Magic-hackers? Artificially-created species and...hrm. And sentient curses, vengeful ghosts, loan-sharking dragons in the Appalachians, dryads and piskies in Central Park, and a bansidhe living in a stuffed horse?

Right. What the hell am I writing, anyway?*


Discuss. I'll be back later.

( [why it sometimes takes me a while to get to work. Beware the cat-dragon on its hoard!] )

*first person to say "science fantasy" gets kicked in the shins. That's a cop-out, IMO, and you might as well admit that it's all speculative fiction and the 'rules' of each genre are bullshit. Which is actually what I think, but shhhh, this is about your arguments, not mine....

various and sundy stare aghast....

Fabulous discussion going on in the previous post, folks. Keep it coming! Meanwhile, it [cautiously, cautiously] looks like I might make deadline after all. Shhhh, nobody tell my editor... (ah, she's off to RWA and won't be back until next Monday, anyway).


Random bits:

Money:
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- In tough economic times like these, reliance on credit cards tends to grow, as evidenced by the 7% annual rise in U.S. household credit-card debt in May. But it's in times like these that we should take more care than ever.

Politics: John McCain makes my head hurt. Really.

STEPHANOPOULOS: What is your position on gay adoption? You told the "New York Times" you were against it, even in cases where the children couldn't find another home. But then your staff backtracked a bit. What is your position?

MCCAIN: My position is, it's not the reason why I'm running for president of the United States. And I think that two parent families are best for America.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, what do you mean by that, it's not the reason you're running for president of the United States?

MCCAIN: Because I think -- well, I think that it's -- it is important for us to emphasize family values. But I think it's very important that we understand that we have other challenges, too.
I'm running for president of the United States, because I want to help with family values. And I think that family values are important, when we have two parent -- families that are of parents that are the traditional family.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But there are several hundred thousand children in the country who don't have a home. And if a gay couple wants to adopt them, what's wrong with that?

MCCAIN: I am for the values that two parent families, the traditional family represents.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, you're against gay adoption.

MCCAIN: I am for the values and principles that two parent families represent. And I also do point out that many of these decisions are made by the states, as we all know. And I will do everything I can to encourage adoption, to encourage all of the things that keeps families together, including educational opportunities, including a better economy, job creation. And I'm running for president, because I want to help families in America. And one of my positions is that I believe that family values and family traditions are preserved.

Aside from the WTF flip-flopping he's been doing on the topic -- "two-parent families?" Dude, daddy and daddy or mommy and mommy are two-parent families! You just endorsed gay parents over single parenting!


For the vamp-fans among us [you know who you are], a billboard spotted in NYC this weekend:

( pic beneath the cut )

And that's all I got. Time to hit some of that freelance, now.