Simmons and the Century War
A while back, I linked to a speculative piece by author Dan Simmons. Simmons is, in my opinion, one of the best writers going. He effortlessly flits from grand scope sf to hardboiled detective novel to horror, leaving his distinctive mark on each. He's the real deal. In April, he imagined a time traveler from the future returning from a hindred years hence to inform the narrator of what nastiness awaits us, in the form of the century war, the 21st century's long war between the West and Islam.
He has posted a clueless-plus length expansion on the ideas he touched fictionally, thanks to the response (mostly negative, and nonsensical) that he recieved for the first one. It is very much worth reading. If you for some reason failed to read the fiction, that's here, and the essay can be found here. It'll be a while, but I'll wait. Read them. We'll discuss tomorrow.
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Dan Simmons was the keynote
Dan Simmons was the keynote speaker at the Pikes Peak Writers Conference. His delivery of a speech called "Reaching for the Rubber Chicken" was impeccably brilliant.
Listening to people like him only serves to make me want to be a successful writer all the more, which I'm sure is the reason why he was brought there in the first place.
Plus he's local. ;)
EDog
Simmons is brilliant, an
Simmons is brilliant, an excellent writer and essayist. Thanks for linking to a fine essay.
My only question is why Simmons would take the trouble to lay things out so clearly? Fiction writers generally prefer to allow a generous amount of enigma to reside in their work.
Anyone who reacted viscerally and vitriolically against his April message, would likely follow the same rote response to anything else he wrote along the same lines.
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Wow, the President of the PRC
Wow, the President of the PRC is commenting on Perfidy!