Book Giveaway: The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett

Guess what? I have two copies of The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett to give away to two lucky readers in celebration of the upcoming trade paperback release.  I reviewed Ms. Bartlett's book some time back and loved it.  And, of course, if you don't know what the book is about, here is the synopsis:

Unrepentant book thief John Charles Gilkey has stolen a fortune in rare books from around the country. Yet unlike most thieves who steal for profit, Gilkey steals for love--the love of books. Perhaps equally obsessive is Ken Sanders, the self-appointed "bibliodick" who's driven to catch him. Following this eccentric cat-and-mouse chase with a mixture of suspense, insight and humor, Allison Hoover Bartlett plunges the reader deep into a rich world of fanatical book lust and considers what it is that makes some people stop at nothing to posses the titles they love.

Yes, the book is awesome, fascinating, and a bit of good fun.  Details for how to win are below:

The giveaway is only open to U.S. readers (sorry, this isn't my rule) and will close on my birthday:  October 6th, 2010.

To enter, you must do one of the following:

• Leave a comment on this thread telling me something about your most valuable book (personal or economic), OR
• Send me an email with the same thing.

Make sure I have a way to contact you to get your address.

You can earn additional entries by doing any of the following:

• Twitter about this giveaway.  Put @shaunduke in the message so I can track it.  (1 extra entry)
• Blog about this giveaway.  Leave a link in your comment.  (1 extra entry)
• Put this giveaway up on Digg, Stumbleupon, or some other social network.  Leave links in your comment.  (1 extra entry each).
• Review my blog on Amazon.com.  Let me know that you did in your comment.  (5 extra entries)
• Review The Skiffy and Fanty Show on iTunes.  Let me know that you did in your comment.  (5 extra entries)

That's it!  Simply enough, right?

Good luck!

Strange Keywords People Arrive Here Through

In the interest of humor, I present to you the oddest search terms/phrases that have led people to this blog at one point or another (with commentary):

Blog Tour Guest Post: A Humorous Script by Tia Nevitt

(Note:  Tia is giving away a copy of her new book, The Sevenfold Spell, to one lucky commenter!  All you need to do is leave a comment on this post.)

Thanks, Shaun, for being the only guy to host me on this blog tour. For previous installments, and to read all the excerpts from The Sevenfold Spell in order, pop over to Jenny Schwartz’s Acquiring Magic blog (you might have to scroll down) and hop along. Here is the complete schedule.

I wrote a script for a book trailer and I had a lot of fun with it. I got it perfected and ran it by my husband, who laughed in all the appropriate places. But then I realized that I had a problem. This funny script was

The Skiffy and Fanty Show #19 is Live!

The numbers keep getting bigger.  We're going to be at 50 episodes before long!  This week we talk about some big news in the SF/F film world and our criteria for great science fiction.  Plus, there's a fun question of the week at the end.  So tune in and enjoy!

Crimethink SF in Print (proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders)!

You all might remember that I had an essay published a few months ago in Crimethink:  Politics and Speculative Fiction.  You might also remember that I mentioned the upcoming print edition for charity purposes.  Well, that print edition is officially here, and it's only $6.99!  The best thing about it is that all proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders, which is a fantastic organization.

Copies are available here (or Amazon).  Please get a copy or two and help out.

Here's the cover image and some information about the book (the image is small right now because the only large image I can find is on Amazon, and you can't cut it out of their "Look Inside" feature.  I'm working on getting a bigger image for you all):

Crimethink contains essays by Jay Lake, Gary Westfahl, Deborah Walker, Nisi Shawl, Greg Beaty, Romie Stott, Lisa Agnew, Ross Hamilton, Jordan Humphreys, and myself.

Yes, the collection is awesome.  Yes, you have to buy it if you're my friend.  Yes, I will disown you if you don't, because it's not about me, but the folks at Doctors Without Borders.  Okay, so you don't have to buy it if you don't want to, but you could at least donate a few bucks to DWB.

Brief Thoughts on The Apex Book of World SF 2 (Table of Contents)

The fine folks over at Apex recently released the table of contents for their upcoming second book in the Apex Book of World SF series.  Before I throw in my thoughts, here is the list:

A. Lee Martinez's Marriage to the Internet (or Why the Internet is a Walking Contradiction of Good/Bad)

If you haven't seen it already, A. Lee Martinez has come out in defense of the Internet.  You see, folks are bashing the poor Internet, and someone needs to come out and say how good it really is, because, after all, the Internet is wonderful and it makes things all rainbows and flowers.

Okay, so that's an unfair look at things.  I'm being facetious, or attempting to be anyway.  A. Lee Martinez is right that there has been an inordinate amount of anti-Internet stuff lately.  Hell, there has been anti-Internet stuff flooding the, well, Internet for a while now.  See for yourself.  Even The Atlantic has provided some interesting thoughts on the "it's making us stupid" argument.  The thing is, there are probably truths and falsehoods on both sides of the argument.  There are real consequences for the changes the Internet has brought on us.  As a teacher (new though I am), I have seen what many of these changes look like:  there is an increased reluctance to "search on."  I wouldn't say that this is somehow making us dumber so much as making us progressively more ignorant.  That is a problem all on its own.

The only thing I take issue with in Martinez's post is this:

But for all its unpleasantness, stupidity, and absurdity, the internet has done the unimaginable. It has given nearly everyone a voice. (Except for the very poor, who always, always get screwed.) It has taken the ability to express yourself and made it such a common thing that we don’t realize how amazing it is. It’s allowed us to tap the collective knowledge of mankind without having to even leave our homes.

I find it amusing that this paragraph begins with what is not necessarily "good" by default, and then ends with an overwhelming positive. Yes, the Internet has completely changed how we share knowledge, and for all the bad things that the Internet does to us (I challenge the "stupid" assertion, though), the fact that it has made information, vital and trivial, instantly available to a much larger portion of the world's population than every before is a monumental feat. Yes, our world is still imperfect; the poor still do not have access to the Internet, even in the United States. But we're getting there. There will be a time when almost everyone will have access.  The more knowledge we have at our fingertips, the greater the possibility that we can be informed about the things that really matter.  The Internet, more or less, makes that possible.

The problem, though, is this idea that providing everyone with a public voice is somehow a good thing. I challenge this notion because we have seen the consequences of this in the book world. Anyone can say anything about a book these days. There are rarely consequences for what we say, except consequences that go in the opposite direction (poor sales, for example). The "expert" opinion seems to have been supplanted by the "amateur" one. There are certainly amateurs who have valuable things to say about a subject, but there are also seas of individuals who have nothing productive to add to the conversation, and yet still feel as though they should somehow be granted the same attention given to the adequate amateur or the "expert." I'm not suggesting that "experts" are always correct, or even always good at what they do. They get things wrong all the time, as do "amateurs." But they are right more often than the folks who write one line critiques on Amazon.com or incoherent blog posts about why *insert President here* is evil and should be impeached. Even positive critiques from these folks are meaningless in the long run.

So, I challenge this idea that providing a space for everyone to say whatever they want in public is inherently good. There are consequences: the quality of rhetoric drops drastically, false information is easy to spread, and so on. It's great that we have more voices, because diversity is always a good thing, but a limitless diversity is problematic.  The Internet, for all its wonders, has no way to deal with this.  It is powerless to what is eating it alive from the inside.  I don't think it will ever gain the power to do something about the problems it has created either.  I think we're stuck with them, for good and for bad.

Polarized Politics and How Republicans Can Earn My Vote

If the title didn't give it away, I'm stepping into politics again.  Paying attention to the news makes one intimately aware of just how polarized the political process in the United States has become; this isn't anything new, but it is something that I think we should be highlighting more and more when we try to talk about politics.  We're victims to it--the political process.  Even when we attempt (by "we" I mean a good portion of "everyone") to engage in "fair" politics, we inevitably are sucked into polarized rhetoric or thought processes:  namely, the "us vs. them" mentality that so defines American politics today.

But while I say the above with all seriousness, I do think there is a fundamental problem with viewing polarized politics as inherently negative.  The problem in the U.S. isn't necessarily that there is an unfair level of polarization which creates its two primary parties, but that the view of the political element here has been one that limits itself only to the "us vs. them" and not to the real question that needs to be asked:  if we must choose a side, which side is the one offering a solution?

Regardless of what we might think about the solutions proposed by Democrats, the fact of the

The Problem With "Great" Science Fiction

Twitter is abuzz today with an io9 article called "What are the ingredients for great science fiction?"  I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by this, since many of us in the SF community are constantly amused, obsessed, and/or perplexed by the attempt to define the "great" in the title.  On some level, it's probably good for us to be always conscious of the evaluative quality of what we read; after all, what we consider to be wondrous is inevitably what we will try to peddle to others, because, deep down, we want them to experience the same feeling, however unexplainable, that we did when reading a "great" book.

On another level, however, I think we often forget that the "great" in the title is both relative and problematic.  How do we define what is and is not a "great" SF book?  When it comes to literature--or any creative project, for that matter--there are no hard-set definitions; there can't be precisely because to provide perfect, exception-less definitions is to imply that literature cannot change, that it is hopelessly standardized into a set group of features and objects.  Science fiction can never be that.  We've had the arguments over what "is" and "is not" science fiction before, here

Haul of Books 2010: Stuff For Me v.24 (Derrida Edition)

I have a few more lovely books for school that I want to let you all know about, although it occurs to me that these may be of even less interest to most of you than they are to me, since they're not even genre-based.  But  who am I to say what you're all interested in, right?

This edition rounds up almost all of the remaining books for my schoolwork.  There are still a handful of lingering books here or there, which I'll throw up here in a future edition, but I won't know what those are for a few more weeks (my science fiction/utopia course has four weeks of "you'll all decide what we're reading").

Here's the image:

A Brief Linking to the Manifesto of No-Consequence

I'm contemplating whether I want to say something more about this fellow's counter-boycott against those who have condemned Elizabeth Moon over her recent comments on Islam (you can read what I've had to say about consumer activism in relation to literature here).  The level of hypocrisy, intellectual vacuity (the argument of no-consequence, specifically), and repetition of fallacious arguments is alarming, particularly considering that I've agreed with the author of the post in the past on issues related to what he calls the "fail community."  The fact that he can't separate the truly awful from the misunderstood or mistaken is mind boggling to me.

So, I'm going to throw the link to all of you for now.  Read the comments if you dare.  Maybe I'll talk about it.  There's certainly plenty to be said about the rhetoric being forced there, but I don't know if I have the stomach for it right now.  Elizabeth Moon's misguided and incredibly problematic rant is enough to swallow from the SF community at the moment.

What do you think?

Future Plans: A List

I've been thinking about things I'd like to do on this blog over the next few months (or year) and decided to write up a list for your perusal.  Some of these things are pretty much set in stone, and others are flexible.  If you have suggestions for things you'd like to see on this blog, please let me know.  I'm always open to suggestions, whether of the "we want more of that" or the "you haven't done this" variety.

Update:  I added some things to the list which I had previously forgotten.

Here's the list:

The Skiffy and Fanty Show #18 is Live!

We're back, again! Surprised? You shouldn't be, because it's a weekly show, after all. This week we bring back Torture Cinema for a second edition and talk about one of the most awful science fiction films ever made. There's also a little talk about new genre-movies hitting your local theater.

Prepare yourself. Bad things are about to happen to your brain...

You can find episode eighteen here. I hope you enjoy the episode. It's full of laughs!

The First Amendment: The Separation of Author and Work

There has been a lot of talk recently over the problem of the separation of an author from his or her work, and this has largely been so because of some rather alarming words written by Elizabeth Moon on Muslims and citizenship (in the U.S.).  Bloggers, such as Gav over at NextRead, among others, have wondered whether we should separate the author from the work, or whether what an author writes should always be read within the context of what they think on a personal level (which, oddly enough, is discovered through what they write).  My only problem with this discussion is that it avoids dealing with the other side of the divide; namely, the economic one and its relation to politics.  But we'll get to that second part in a minute.

In a lot of cases, it is easy to separate the author from the work, particularly when the author is channeling a particular kind of idea or character.  If an author is pro-gay rights, but writes a book

How to Ruin Your Political Book: Making Obviously Fallacious Arguments

No, I'm not talking about Glenn Beck or Bill O'Reilly or Ann Coulter or Sean Hannity or their democratic equivalents (Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddow, et al.).  In fact, this post is based on a book that is, I think, far less controversial than the usual fair from the authors I just mentioned--a book that, by all accounts, should be fairly easy to argue without being clouded by bias or political affiliation.  I'm talking about Lies the Government Told You:  Myth, Power, and Deception in American History by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano.  It's a book with an innocuous cover (friendly, might be the word--see the bottom of this post for more on the cover, which apparently comes in two versions) and a forward by Ron Paul, who, at least to me, is more reasonable than most politicians, especially if you base that only on the fact that he's one of the few politicians to have publicly stated that he thinks the fiasco over the "9/11 Mosque" is based on an innate desire by some to paint Islam with a broad brush.  The book's cover synopsis even paints it as a book that might be of interest to anyone who wants to understand the extensive history of our political system and its persistence to lie, without clear ties to any particular political slant:

John Scalzi Says "STFU" to People Who Say "I Don't Have Time to Write"

And you know what, Scalzi hits the nail on the head with this one:

This is why at this point in time I have really very little patience for people who say they want to write but then come up with all sorts of excuses as to why they don’t have the time. You know what, today is the day my friend Jay Lake goes into surgery to remove a huge chunk of his liver. After which he goes into chemo. For the third time in two years. Between chemo and everything else, he still does work for his day job. And when I last saw him, he was telling me about the novel he was just finishing up. Let me repeat that for you: Jay Lake has been fighting cancer and has had poison running through his system for two years, still does work for his day job and has written novels. So will you please just shut the fuck up about how hard it is for you to find the time and inspiration to write, and just do it or not.

The same logic also applies to "I don't have time to do my homework" and "I don't have time to eat healthy."  To the former, I have personal experience, being a teacher.  I've been tempted to bring all of my weekly work load with me every day I teach in hopes that someone will bring up that argument.  That way I can offload the 400 pages of theory I read every week, the reading I do in preparation for the days I teach, and the essays I have to read, grade, and so on, among other educational responsibilities.  Anyone who says they don't have the time to write (meaning that they don't write at all, not that they haven't a lot of time, but are still writing some) are either not all that interested in writing, or delusional, or both.

Like Mr. Scalzi said:  either do it or STFU.  If Jay Lake can do it, then so can you.

And if that's not inspiration enough, then please stop flooding the Interwebs with your cries for pity.

Meme: Book Title Communication

WrittenWyrdd has apparently started up a new book meme. Since I haven't done a meme in a while, I thought I'd do this one (it looked silly and fun). If you'd like to join in, feel free to leave a comment with a link to your version.

The challenge:

Complete the following sentences with book titles that you have read this year. Put the author of the book in parenthesis.

Simple enough, right?

I am: The Palm-wine Drinkard (Amos Tutuola)
I will never be: Harbinger (Jack Skillingstead)
I fear: The Left Hand of God (Paul Hoffman)
My best friend is: Ray in Reverse (Daniel Wallace)
What’s the weather like? This World We Live In... (Susan Beth Pfeffer)
Best Advice: Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)
I’ve never been to: The City of Saints and Madmen (Jeff VanderMeer)
Favorite form of transport: Flight (Kazu Kibuishi)
I’ll never fit in at: In the Castle in My Skin (George Lamming)
How I’d like to die: An Idle King (J. W. Benford)
You and your friends are: The Reapers Are the Angels (Alden Bell)
Thought for the day: Why Darwin Matters (Michael Shermer)
Your soul’s present condition: Irreligion (John Allen Paulos)

A few of those don't fit so well, but I did my best. Any thoughts?

Update (the following are folks who have added their own versions to their blogs)
The Mad Hatter's Bookshelf and Review

Emotional Attachment, Aging, and Books

A few days ago I had a conversation with a friend about book obsession.  Specifically, I was curious about Harry Potter and similar franchises, which developed a fanbase of obsessed kids and adults, all open about their excitement about the next book in the series.  I experienced the same obsession, as did a number of my friends, though to varying degrees.  To this day, I can't quite explain why that series drew me in.

The topic of book obsession came up because I was concerned (or, perhaps, curious) about the relative paucity of excited feelings about books released since the Harry Potter.  By "excited" I

The Skiffy and Fanty Show #17 is Live!

Another week, another episode (seventeen weeks, actually).  If you like science and/or hard science fiction, then episode 17 is right up your alley. Mike Brotherton joins us to talk about the intersection between science and science fiction, hard science fiction, and much more. There’s also a brief discussion from us on the Hugos, and a new question of the week in poll format!

Thanks to all of you who have been listening.  We hope you enjoy the 17th installment.

New Poll: Which eReader do you think is the best on the market today?

I've put up another poll for you all to vote on.  This time around, I want to know which eReader you think is the best available on the market today.  The list includes the Nook, the Kindle 3, the Sony Reader, the iPad, the Cruz Reader, the Kobo, and the various mobile devices folks are using to read books (such as the iPhone).

All you need to do is come onto the main site and look for the poll on the sidebar to the left (it's the third box down).  Voting requires nothing more than two clicks.

So, come on over and vote!

Haul of Books 2010: Stuff For Me v.23

It's about time I showed you all some of what I will be reading over the next few months.  This semester is probably one of the most difficult I have ever had.  Both of my courses are theory-oriented (one on the later works of Jacques Derrida, who some of you have probably heard of, and the other on utopia and science fiction), I have to practice for a Spanish exam, which I'm not close to being prepared for, I am teaching two classes, rather than one and a quarter, and I am finally working on my M.A. thesis, which I'll probably talk about on this blog at some point.  But at least the things I'm working on are things I enjoy.

So, all but one of the following books are for my utopia and science fiction course, which is probably pretty obvious when you see the titles.  Here's the image:

And here are the descriptions, from left to right, top to bottom (from Amazon.com or the back of the book):

Canonization and the Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction

(I'm a little late to the "party," but since I may be teaching a science fiction course in a year or two, and thus might consider the Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction as a possible required text, I figure it might be a good idea to throw in my thoughts on the non-controversy--in the sense that the folks I'll be citing aren't treating it as a controversy, and so neither will I.)

Last month, the fine folks of Wesleyan University Press released the Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction in hardcover and paperback.  I won't post the table of contents here due to its length, but I will provide a link.  The book also has an online teaching guide, which should make it clear that it is meant for the purposes of education, if such weren't already obvious by the fact that an academic/university publisher is behind its creation.  Overall, I think the anthology is a good one.  The stories within its pages are fairly varied,

Haul of Books 2010: Stuff For Me v.22

I have a few more hangovers from that Books-a-Million excursion from a few weeks ago.  Two of these books were purchased because I knew about them beforehand, and really wanted to have the chance to read them in the future (Shine and WWW:  Wake).  Then there's one impulse buy (Jacob's Ladder) and one subscription delivery (Popular Culture).

Here's the image:

My First Publication: "To Paint the Kingdom Red, Part One" in Residential Aliens!

You read that right.  I've had my first short story published in Residential Aliens.  The story has been split in half due to length, but the first part is currently available here.  Part two will be available in October.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go jump up and down like a lunatic for an hour.

Science Fiction Movies: The Neglected Field? Since When?

A few weeks ago, Michael Booth posted an article on the Denver Post's website about the movie Serenity (i.e. Firefly the Movie). In that article, he made two interconnected points: 1) that Serenity is a good introductory science fiction film for the younger generation, particularly young teenagers, and 2) that science fiction movies are a neglected field.  I don't disagree with the first of these points.  Serenity is a fantastic movie; it's an exciting space adventure full of fascinating ideas, plenty of excitment, and just the right amount of humor.  The second point, however, is one of the most ridiculous, if not downright ignorant, comments on science fiction I've seen in the last year.

Since when have science fiction movies been neglected?  Not in my lifetime, that's for sure, and before I started writing this post, I would have bet hard cash on that.  Now, I have hard evidence.

IMDB has a list of the top all-time box office earners in the United States (not adjusted for inflation, I think).  There are 466 movies on that list.  Of those 466, a total of 86 are science fiction movies.  107 are fantasy, although there is a lot of crossover between science fiction, fantasy, and horror, so the numbers swing slightly in multiple directions.  The point is that science fiction movies make up roughly 18.6% of the top 466 box office earners in the United States.  That might not sound like much, but you have to remember that there are many major genres (fantasy, horror, drama, action, comedy, etc.).  Making up 1/5th of IMDB's list is nothing to scoff at.  That's bloody incredible.

But it gets better.  You knew that, right?  It has to get better.  Of the top 20 movies on that list, exactly half are science fiction (though you might argue that one or two of them are something else).  Science fiction movies hold 3 of the top 5 spots (1st, 3rd, and 4th), and there are only two non-genre movies in the top twenty (Titanic at #2 and The Passion of the Christ at #15), since the rest are fantasy flicks.

Neglected my ass.  If science fiction movies are being neglected, then the entire movie industry is screwed.  If Booth were making the point that science fiction movies are neglected in academic circles, I might have more to agree with him about, but he's making an argument that is patently false.  Science fiction movies don't need you coercing children into watching them.  They're already watching them.  All they need is exactly what they're getting now:  attention.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show #16 is Live!

We're on the attack again.  This week we talk about eBooks, some of our good zombie friends, Suzanne Collins, and the new Battleship movie. It's a particularly humorous episode, though we're only trying to be funny half the time.

You can find episode sixteen here (or on iTunes).

Thanks for listening!

Haul of Books 2010: Stuff For Me v.21

Last month I went to Books-a-Million to use a coupon I received for being a member.  The cool thing about Books-a-Million is that they have so many good books for good prices, that it's almost impossible to not spend money while you're there.  That's why I only go every few months...

In any case, the following books are half of the books I bought while I was there.  The price tags are not the price I paid for all of these books, though.  Coupons are wonderful things!

Here goes:

A Blogger Interview from Of Blog of the Fallen

Larry over at OF Blog of the Fallen has posted a long list of questions for book bloggers.  I thought they were interesting enough to post about here, so that's what I'm doing.  Larry seems interested in getting a lot of responses, so if you are a blogger, whether about books or otherwise, you should participate.  Answer the questions on your blog and post your link in the comments.

(Note:  Apparently Larry posted these questions as a spoof of sorts.  I took it seriously when I wrote these answers, though, and so should you.)

Here goes:

Quick Announcement: Zoe Winters is Giving Away and Kindle

I just found out about this today, and unfortunately the contest ends tonight.  Zoe Winters is apparently giving away a Kindle 3 (3G).  It's fairly easy to enter, and obviously she's doing it to try to boost her sales for her new book, Blood Lust.  Hopefully she sees a spike.

In any case, you should enter the contest!

WISB-aversary: Four Years!

That's right.  As of today, The World in the Satin Bag is four years old!  The date snuck up on me, so I don't have anything planned.  However, I would like to point out some odd coincidences, which might hint to a conspiracy:

• 4 is also roughly the number of readers I have in hundreds via RSS.
• The number of posts I have published before this one is divisible by 4.
• 4 + half-of-4 equals the number for the day of my personal birthday, and when you add that number to 4, you end up with the number for the month.
• The 3rd is the day Britain and France declared war on Germany in 1939.
• Today is also the day in which a hurricane struck the Dominican Republic with 200 MPH winds, killing 8,000 (in 1930).
• It's also the day that the Viking 2 landed on Mars.
• And lastly, this is also the day that Iran's Parliament approved Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi as the first female minister.

What this means for all you conspiratorial types is that Britain, France, Mars, and Earth's Climate have been secretly planning to invade the Dominican Republic with Iranian women on my birthday (Oct. 6th).  Obviously the plan has been in the works for over 70 years.  We should all be scared.

Anywho.

Haul of Books 2010: Stuff For Me v.20

The University of Florida bookstore had a clearance sale a few weeks ago.  I discovered it via my superpower, which is kind of a Sixth Sense meets Spiderman meets Wolverine's nostrils.  The selection was somewhat limited--a lot of old textbooks and politics books--but there were a few books that were more to my liking.  All but one of the following books (Harmony is not one of them) is from that sale.  Hopefully they'll be of interest to you all.

So, here goes:

New Weird and Scifi Strange: Part Two -- Invented Genres and Moments More

(See my previous post on New Weird here.)

II.  Invented Genres and Moments More

A lot has been discussed in the last year about the "Scifi Strange" subgenre.  One of the few people talking about it is its creator, Jason Sanford--contrary to what Adam Callaway says here, Sanford is, in fact, coining a subgenre, even if his intentions are not tied to the political reasonings tied into the business of genre-making.  Sanford has made his case quite clear:  he considers Scifi Strange to be an extension of traditional science (and science fiction) to its logical breaking point; stories of this genre seem to take a page from the theoretical and pseudo-philosophical fields of science (quantum mechanics, theoretical physics, and so forth) and imagine where science, in general, might go when directed under the same forward-thinking mentality.  Understandably, many of the stories Sanford considers to be emblematic of the Scifi Strange genre reflect this quality (more of his thoughts on the subgenre can be found in this interview).  I, however, have a few issues with the discussion, which I will try to elucidate here.

A fundamental problem with "genres" seems, to me, to be that they are often poorly defined.  For overarching