There will necessarily be changes to the list of classics from time to time, and doubtless many factors must contribute to making a book a 'classic', but we should be able to come up with a rigorous definition that will endure. To do that, we need to understand what we're even trying to accomplish by categorizing something as 'classic.'
Reality-Proximal Storytelling
If we take the complete, whole-cloth invention of a new world as one extreme, and reality-proximal stories set firmly in our world as the other, then what I'm interested in talking about today is the middle ground.
A Stellar Post
The Parker solar probe, which perhaps we could call the opposite of New Horizons, will attempt to explore some of those mysteries, most significantly the origin of the solar wind.
A Quick Introduction to Blockchain
Blockchain is the concept underlying many of the “revolutionary” technologies that have gotten so much buzz in the past couple of years: cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the internet of things (IoT), even the metaverse.
Audience and Word Choice
For whom you are writing matters, and whether your story is enjoyed or not will depend almost as much upon who is reading it as on what you put into writing it.
Writing Resource: Uncle Orson’s Writing Class
I was poking around on Orson Scott Card's website recently and came across an archive of essays on writing called "Uncle Orson's Writing Class."
Educational Omission
Despite categorizing many of my posts as ‘educational content,’ I rarely set out to teach you something in a rigorous fashion; instead, I am usually attempting to explicate a specific concept or idea, without providing full context or progressing through an entire topic.
A Not Unactive Post About George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language”
Orwell's essay on "Politics and the English Language" is among my most oft-cited pieces on language and writing, and its lessons and criticisms are as valid today as they were in 1946.
Automatic Stories
Today’s post is not so much about the details of the technology, or pondering whether we will one day live in some kind of post-scarcity utopia in which our machine-slaves can solve all of our problems, generate optimal art, and fulfill our every whim in addition to freeing us from manual labor and rote tasks, as it is about reflecting on the nature of creativity and the process that we are really going through when we attempt to ‘create.’
Reflections on the Performative Nature of Language
When we consider the organic and evolving nature of language, it becomes clear that the medium in which we as writers work is at once both a static means of information storage, and a dynamic, independent artform allowing the author to engage in a unique interaction with each reader.
IGC Publishing 