Links for 2009-10-30

"If you're currently penning a fantasy novel centering on a pious zombie vampire from an alternate 19th century in which science/alchemy/the Bible has predicted the earth's impending doom, uh, please send it to me, because that could be awesome. More importantly, though, stop doing it."

"In 2005, we conducted our first survey to learn what teens react to in the marketplace and what influences their reading choices. By this past summer, so much had changed--the evolution of e-book readers, social networking, the economic recession--we knew it was time to launch another survey. What impact have these had on young readers? What turns today's teens on and off? Are they as digitally focused as we have been led to think they are?"

"At a redshift of eight, it's the most distant object ever discovered. This was light emitted around 13 billion years ago, when the Universe was less than one billion years old. And yet, looking at the spectrum of this one, it's still full of heavy elements!

Why?"

"I don't think it's any secret there's an Academy bias against scifi. This is not an open hostility (which wouldn't make sense considering how well the genre performs for studios and how many people a typical effects-laden scifi flick employs) but an assumption that science fiction, like fantasies, action movies and comedies, are "light" entertainments as opposed to dramas, historical epics and other such serious work. Any of the movies in the "light" categories have to work extra hard to even get on the Best Picture ballot, so taking home the big prize requires Herculean effort.

Fortunately, there is one closely-related model that gives an indication of what it might actually take for a science fictional Best Picture: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which took home the award in 2003. Fantasy, like scifi, is a genre that rarely climbed up into the Best Picture nomination slate. So what can scifi learn from the King?"

"Want to keep tuition down? Keep public universities accessible? Don't just yell "cut costs, get rid of waste" at the universities. Make sure your state legislature continues to support the university as well. The budget has to balance. If the state gives less, then that extra money has to come from somewhere!"