Both books have made their desired impact on me.Īnd now here are a few more books that could knock you off your orbit. I’m smitten with the low-tech Jules Verne-iness of the concept.Īnd I’m very much into the tradition of sci-fi authors building on each other’s ideas, remixing them, and putting them in new contexts. I have no idea whether some previous book or movie test-drove this premise before, and I have no idea whether this method of communication would actually work. Pretty much the only thing the books have in common is the whole fiery text message to Mars conceit. Equilateral has more of a Fitzcarraldo-via-Merchant-Ivory vibe. Singer Distance feels like a recent, character-driven indie film in the vein of Safety Not Guaranteed or Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. It’s pretty much the crux of Equilateral, Philly author Ken Kalfus’ lovely 2013 novel about a Victorian scientist’s obsessive attempts to construct such a site despite harsh conditions and a great personal sacrifice. And so a centuries-long conversation begins with the unseen denizens of the Red Planet scrawling complicated math questions across their planet and the best minds on Earth struggling to work out the solution to send back.Īvid readers of niche-y, atmospheric, weapons-free sci-fi - there are dozens of us! - may recognize this business of sending messages to Mars via fiery trenches in the desert. In a startling turn of events, the Martians write back. It’s set in an alternate history in which humanity’s smartest scientists dig canals in the desert, fill them with gasoline, and light them on fire in an attempt to communicate with Mars. I’m also dreaming of starry skies thanks to a nifty new novel called Singer Distance by Ethan Chatagnier. (An app called Next Spaceflight sends me alerts. I watch as many rocket launch livestreams as I can. I’ve got bookmarks in several old pulp novels with comets and spaceships and aliens on the cover. It’s the science-fact version of a science-fiction idea dreamed up long ago, and I just love that kind of stuff. Choose your poison.I’ve got space on the brain, partly because I keep rewatching the stop-motion GIF of a NASA satellite slamming into a bumpy little asteroid in the hopes of bopping it off its orbit. (Although another related topic of conversation on this tip could be the ravages of the 1980s crack epidemic. We are entering the twilight of boomer rock gods, and now white millennials can lay claim to being the first generation since ‘Nam to experience higher death rates in early adulthood than Generation Xers. Even though most of us last week were fascinated once more by Bowie’s Thin White Duke-era diet of coke, milk and red peppers - and with the recent death of the Eagles’ Glenn Frey, the allure of rockers that shaped the 70s “denim-clad California cocaine-cowboy music culture” - let’s not romanticize the fact that drugs overdoses are kicking up the death rate of young, white American adults. Which is a shame, of course, because our celebrity culture thrives on a good go-crazy-do-drugs-have-breakdown-go-to-rehab-come-clean confessional front cover yarn. Narcan is actually pretty cool in the way it works and it’s effects are pretty instantaneous.”) (Related, but the Explain Like I’m Five sub-reddit discussion on this scene is hilarious, especially when an EMT weighs in with a fact check: “paramedics will usually push a drug called Narcan to counter the effect of opioids like heroin. All that lies beyond the looped frames is an adrenaline shot to the heart. The glitchy, radial blur is everything in this GIF.It’s a shiny, shiny rounded-brush blow-dry style hallmarked with Bettie Page bangs, and I know this because an xoJane beauty writer broke down all the smooth infusion, anti-frizz hair care products you need to shlep in order to make the look work. Beyond the 90s minimalism that gave us crisp, wide collared white shirts, cropped black flares and Chanel Vamp nail polish, the Mia Wallace haircut still holds up well.Mia Wallace, isn’t snorting coke - are three free associations on a memorable drug scene being augmented by an unnamed Tumblr user to great effect: Inspired by the above Giphy-categorized “drugs” GIF, a lift from Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction - spoiler: Uma Thurman’s bored mob wife, Mrs. But whatever they may be, surely they don’t top the above. It’s Monday, and you may or may not still be suffering for it, depending on your vice.
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