This is about an hour away from my farm, so this'll be a fun conversation, and yet another great opportunity to tell a lot of people about what a huge problem we have with unregulated commercialization of orbit. (Also I just redid my slides for my public talk next week, this is going in!)
@sundogplanets Just want to say that this thread has been one of the most epic I've read on Mastodon. Thank you so much for keeping everyone informed about this story!
I am a Nebula Award finalist, and the Nebula conference is this week. My book, THE INN AT THE AMETHYST LANTERN, is nominated for the Andre Norton Nebula Award for younger fiction (young adult in this case). So what's the book about? I've got you covered: https://jendiagammon.com/2024/03/18/about-the-inn-at-the-amethyst-lantern/
@jendiagammon For those looking at the post above, I just started reading "The Inn at the Amethyst Lantern" (finally) and it is a really a lot of fun! A very imaginative world with unique visuals. It has especially fantastic use of colors - I feel like the images in my mind are vividly painted as I read. I am a big #Solarpunk fan but this is my first #Lunarpunk work and I'm quite digging the vibe. Many more things to say but will save them for when I'm finished!
Folio from a quintet of the poet Amir Khusrau depicting the Sufi saint Nizamuddin Auliya of the Chishti order and three attendants, Delhi Sultanate period, c. 1450, NMAA, Smithsonian. Such a wonderful portrayal of image and text, evocation of poetry and mysticism.
Miniature of Nizamuddin Auliya being made during that time shows that he had a great status & following among the Delhi Sultans & the people.
@medievalindianhistory When I was teaching at a university in India, we used to take students to the neighbourhood around the dargah of Nizamuddin to do research projects. One of my favorite spots in Delhi....
Now that the last chicken has reached its new home, I can share this, which is all the chickens I've made. When I started my first chicken 3 months ago, I didn't realise I was going to make 6 in a very short time. Thank you all for humouring my obsession these past few months. I'm going to take a break now, but maybe I'll make another one if there's someone who really needs one.
In any discussion of degrowth there will be at least one white man who brings up “overpopulation” as if degrowth isn’t about letting us all live on the planet with a sustainable ecological footprint.
Then the white man gets mad when you (well, I) bring up the fact that his line of thinking naturally leads to doing at least one U.N. definition of genocide.
@maruey@MisuseCase I was listening to the In Our Time podcast on @BBCRadio4 about Bertolt Brecht and those conversations are PRECISELY what he wanted to happen among actors in his plays. In fact, for some of his more experimental works, the play was not the important thing but the process of creating it with the actors to raise consciousness.
@maruey@MisuseCase@BBCRadio4 One of the main points in Epic Theater (Brecht's theater technique) is to emphasize artificiality and constructed nature to make sure the audience and actors are less complacent, and that they go from the work with a new understanding of the world, and as a basis for action. So in Urinetown, you have actors breaking the fourth wall to address the audience, talking about how they are in a musical, etc...
@razumasu Probably right about the Lord of the Rings but I'm going to mention "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" but Susanna Clarke. I read it while recovering from pnumonia in college during my senior year. I read only that for one week. It was amazing. And an amazing experience to completely immerse myself in a single thing.
Currently on the BBC iPlayer: Ian Rankin investigates Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde”. Rankin traces the roots of this story, which stretch back to Stevenson's childhood. Grave-robbers, drugs & prostitution all play their part, as Rankin's journey takes him into the dark streets of the city that inspired the tale: Edinburgh.
Hotel lobbies are under appreciated places to work. Sarah and I went to the Fairmont in SF for a writing retreat. She's working on a novel. I'm working on a board letter and marketing announcement.
@coachtony Very true. One of the good ones in #Chicago is the Chicago Athletic Association - it has an attached hotel now. Amazing fireplaces, wood paneling, and you can just sit there for hours!
Happy one-year birthday to ANOTHER LIFE, my #solarpunk novella about reincarnation! @StelliformPress brought this to life one year ago today. Many thanks to everyone who has bought, read, or reviewed it!
A Spanish translation is coming soon from Crononauta, and a Catalan translation from SF Fábula. 🥳
@CountBinface And should we win today, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American Holiday. It will be the day when the nation of Britain declared in one voice "We WILL take out the trash!" - today, we celebrate our Bindependence Day!!" (cue swell of patriotic music)