One More Reason the Aliens Might Be Avoiding Us
Mar. 13th, 2026 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
james_davis_nicoll
Is the current location of our Solar System the reason no one's coming to visit?
One More Reason the Aliens Might Be Avoiding Us
james_davis_nicollIs the current location of our Solar System the reason no one's coming to visit?
One More Reason the Aliens Might Be Avoiding Us
The Language of Liars by S L Huang
Mar. 13th, 2026 09:08 amjames_davis_nicoll
A linguist goes undercover to unravel a xenological puzzle whose answer is in plain view.
The Language of Liars by S L Huang
podcast friday
Mar. 13th, 2026 07:26 amsabotabby Let's take a little break from reality and talk about romantasy! Escapist tales of fucking fairies and immortal elves and nothing to do with politics whatsoever, right?
Okay you know whose blog you're reading here. Two new-to-me podcasts with great names, Ordinary Unhappiness and In Bed With the Right, did a crossover episode, "Romantasy, Fantasy, and Trauma." For someone who has never read a romantasy (but read a lot of the precursors) I'm kind of obsessed with it as a genre and even more obsessed with the discourse around it.
Disregarding the people whose opinions I don't care about, there are kind of two opposing takes on its appeal.
This is a fundamentally conservative genre that encourages women to become tradwives and relish in our own oppression.
This is actually a liberatory genre that allows women to explore their fantasies and traumas.
I don't think either side is fully right or wrong here, and that tension is worth exploring. This episode starts from two positions that many critics and admirers of the genre neglect: That women have agency, and that not everything women like is inherently feminist. From there it looks at where the romantasy boom came from, what its appeal is, and what it says about the psychology of its readers. I came away without a spicy take beyond that it turns out that a lot of the stories I wrote and never showed anyone when I was in my teens and twenties actually fit pretty neatly into the genre, which means that either BookTok girlies and I read a lot of the same books growing up, or there's something very deep in our culture that it speaks to, such that we reproduce the tropes unthinkingly.
I also find it interesting (not really discussed on this episode) that for all that the romance formula is reified into tropes and beats and commercial genre fiction is expected to at least somewhat engage with word counts and structure, romantasy really does appear to be an exception, and you can still write and sell stupidly long books in which nothing much happens, and no one complains about it. Dear Publishing Industry: Another world is possible.
Okay you know whose blog you're reading here. Two new-to-me podcasts with great names, Ordinary Unhappiness and In Bed With the Right, did a crossover episode, "Romantasy, Fantasy, and Trauma." For someone who has never read a romantasy (but read a lot of the precursors) I'm kind of obsessed with it as a genre and even more obsessed with the discourse around it.
Disregarding the people whose opinions I don't care about, there are kind of two opposing takes on its appeal.
This is a fundamentally conservative genre that encourages women to become tradwives and relish in our own oppression.
This is actually a liberatory genre that allows women to explore their fantasies and traumas.
I don't think either side is fully right or wrong here, and that tension is worth exploring. This episode starts from two positions that many critics and admirers of the genre neglect: That women have agency, and that not everything women like is inherently feminist. From there it looks at where the romantasy boom came from, what its appeal is, and what it says about the psychology of its readers. I came away without a spicy take beyond that it turns out that a lot of the stories I wrote and never showed anyone when I was in my teens and twenties actually fit pretty neatly into the genre, which means that either BookTok girlies and I read a lot of the same books growing up, or there's something very deep in our culture that it speaks to, such that we reproduce the tropes unthinkingly.
I also find it interesting (not really discussed on this episode) that for all that the romance formula is reified into tropes and beats and commercial genre fiction is expected to at least somewhat engage with word counts and structure, romantasy really does appear to be an exception, and you can still write and sell stupidly long books in which nothing much happens, and no one complains about it. Dear Publishing Industry: Another world is possible.
Landslide, by Veronique Day
Mar. 12th, 2026 12:59 pmrachelmanija
A French children's book in translation from 1961, in which five children are trapped in a cottage by a landslide.
14-year-old Laurent's family is concerned that he spends all his time reading and doing chemistry experiments, and isn't engaging with other people. So they dispatch him to stay with his younger brother and sister in a cottage only occupied by a 14-year-old girl and her younger brother, who are alone because her mother is having surgery. The idea is that Laurent will have to take care of the other kids, and this will make him come out of his shell more. His parents do leave him the out of being able to pack up his siblings and return to Paris if he really hates it.
I am honestly not sure if it was even vaguely normal in 60s France for five kids ages 14-5 to stay alone in a remote mountain cottage for ten days, or if this was just a literary convention. Anyway, Laurent unsurprisingly hates it and packs up his siblings to leave. But while they're on the train platform with the other kids, he has a change of heart and they all head back to the cottage. But they stop in the cottage of a family friend, who is out at the time.
It gets buried in a landslide! They're all trapped in pitch darkness! In an only vaguely familiar house! They can't use the stove because it already nearly suffocated them with carbon monoxide! Their only air is from a narrow shaft leading to a giant canyon! There's very little food! No one knows they're in trouble because one of the kids wrote ten postcards dated for every day of the vacation, then arranged with the post office to send one per day!
The kids having to do everything in total darkness for most of the book is a really cool twist on this sort of "trapped in a space" book. (One of my favorite moments is when enough dirt slides away that some light gets in, and they see that they've been half-starved in pitch darkness with two huge hams and a lantern hanging from the ceiling.) It has some cozy elements - they're trapped with goats, which they can milk but which also get into everything and poop everywhere, and one goat gives birth to twin kids - but gets desperate quickly when Laurent gets an infected cut and the main milking goat drowns in a flooded cellar. But it all ends up okay when they first signal with Morse code in a mirror (in a nice touch of realism, it takes a long time for anyone to figure out the message as the kids get some of the letters wrong, including signaling OSO instead of SOS) and then make and set off gunpowder!
Not an enduring classic, but an entertaining read.
Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson
Mar. 12th, 2026 09:10 amjames_davis_nicoll
John Brown's body lies a-moldering in a very different grave in a very different North America.
Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson
The Luminous Dead, by Caitlin Starling
Mar. 11th, 2026 03:53 pmrachelmanija
Gyre explores the tunnels of an alien world in a mechanical suit, her only connection to the outside world the voice of Em, her handler who she’s never met, who may or may not have her welfare in mind, and who definitely has boundary issues.
Gyre has less experience caving than she claimed, and caving is extremely difficult. There are sandworm-like creatures called Tunnelers that will kill multiple parties of cavers for unknown reasons, so cavers go in alone, unable to take off their suit for weeks on end, with their handler as their only link with the outside world. Em can literally take control of Gyre’s suit/body, can inject her with drugs, etc - and not only has little compunction about doing so, but won't tell Gyre what the actual purpose of the mission is.
Spoilers! ( Read more... )
This is a type of story I don’t see very often, in which there’s one main science fiction element – in this case, the mechanical caving suit – which is explored in depth and is essential to the story, and it’s also set on a (very lightly sketched-in) other planet. Generally the “one science fiction element” stories are set on Earth. Apart from the Tunnelers, this novel actually could take place on an Earth where the suit exists.
The Luminous Dead, like The Starving Saints, has a small cast of sapphic women and takes place almost entirely in the same claustrophobic space; if it was on TV, we’d call it a bottle episode. I normally like that sort of thing but unlike The Starving Saints, it outstays its welcome. It has about a novella’s worth of story, and while it’s very atmospheric and any given portion is well-written and interesting, considered alone, as a whole it’s very repetitive and over-long. I would mostly recommend it if you like complicated lesbians with bad boundaries.
Making music to the creatures of the wild
Mar. 11th, 2026 04:51 pmlaramieLove this. Back when i had a house in south Minneapolis, there was a little porch outside my bedroom where I could go out among the treetops when the weather was congenial. I liked to practice singing there with my mandolin. I'm no great musician, but that wasn't necessary for my audience of the birds and squirrels that would venture close to me while I made music. It's enough to share a sense of commonality -- not necessarily common humanity -- but a commonality of hearts living in a world where wind blows through trees and rain falls into streams -- where the world itself makes a music we all share.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/17z7aMN6TG/It's Wednesday, so I Thought of You
Mar. 11th, 2026 11:50 amlydamorehouse I keep intending to be better than a once-a-week blogger, but here we are on another Wednesday.
What am I doing with my life? Still much the same. I've added A-Ihsan mosque to the places I patrol, since, as discussed in previous posts, things drag on relentessly and so we are losing more and more volunteers. Very reasonably? As I told the folks at the Food Communists the other day, the only reason I'm still here is because I don't have a life to get back to!
I did intend to tell you all the story of the day I was stalked by a drone as I watched over school children getting off buses.
Image: A distant and blurry shot, but very clearly a drone.
It was maybe last Tuesday? But some time last week, I was at my usual spot waiting for the several buses that stop near my location to do their thing, when I noticed a drone buzzing around. I alerted dispatch and promised to try to get film or a still picture. Friends? I have now learned that it's a good thing that the resistance did not need me to be its archivist. This was the BEST shot I got despite the fact that at one point it hovered directly in front of me for several long seconds. Did I hit record? I thought I did! Instead, I was just pointing my phone at it. I now know that while I do have the presence of mind and wherewithal to have my camera pointed mostly in the right direction, I am, in fact, much more likely to take crystal clear video of the sidewalk than the clear and present threat. Sheesh.
In fact, I initally thought that all I got a picture of was something that looked like I took a picture of the sun. Luckily, I found this picture with a tiny dot on it that, once enlarged (like the picture above), you can clearly make out the shape of the drone.
Do I think it was ICE or the cops?
I can't say for sure.
There are hobbiests out there with a poor sense of where to fly these things, but the reason I stand at the corner I do is because there is a very large concentration of Somali families that live in the nearby apartments.Also? That moment it chose to drop low and hover directly above and slightly in front of me was weird. I can't explain it, but it definitely exuded threat. Maybe it was a hobbiest trying to make sure I got a good look and thus would know that it was NOT a threat, but it "stared" at me until I waved. Then it finally flew off, like it wanted me to know that we saw each other.
Our various rapid response groups try to keep track of drones, because people think they see a lot of drones--though usually at night. I am pretty confident that I can spot the difference between an airplane, a helicopter, and a drone even at night, but, when it's just lights in the dark, I wouldn't swear to it. This was broad daylight, and there is no mistaking this for anything else. My picture isn't great, but it's a picture of a drone. Who it belongs to? Uncertain. But it was in a vulnerable neighborhood and spent a lot of time circling me and the school bus drop-off area.
Otherwise, despite a few lulls and the Food Communists trying to figure out a sustainable schedule that doesn't exhaust its volunteers or its funds, I still spend an hour or two packing groceries pretty much every day that they're open and in operation. Food is still flying out the door. Food insecurity is real? But, also there are plenty of people who are still trying to recover from Metro Surge, wages lost because of it, etc.
I did manage to read a couple of things, though! Shawn needed me to go to the library pick up some Minnesota-centric cookbooks to be donated to the history center and, since I was there, I decided to peruse the manga section. I brought a bunch home. But, in the last couple of days I read A Man Who Defies the World of BL by Konkici (Volume 1) and My Oh My, Atami-kun by Tanuma Asa. Both are lightly humorous, the first largely being a send-up of all the yaoi tropes. I actually like My Oh My, Atami-kun better because... well, largely because I'm a tough sell on comedy, generally, and part of me felt like A Man Who Defies the World of BL was asking me to lean into the supposed hilarity of trying to avoid catching Teh Gay and so it ended up feeling a touch homophobic. This sense was made worse by watching the first episode of the live-action TV show by the same name. My Oh My, Atami-kun also plays into the stereotypes a bit, by having Atami being the kind of gay who is constantly falling in love at first sight. But, there's a lot more found family stuff that's taken very seriously and some really great straight + gay friendships that are continuing throughout (I read the first volume that I got from the library and then immediately tracked down everything that's on the pirate sites. Whcih, shame on me, but I liked it that much.)
My Thirsty Sword Lesbians game ended up being canceleld for the second time in as many months, but people were sick and some were travelling and had thought they could videocall in, but couldn't after all. Alas!
So, that's me. I'm just keepin' on keepin' on in the resistance and life. How's by you?
What am I doing with my life? Still much the same. I've added A-Ihsan mosque to the places I patrol, since, as discussed in previous posts, things drag on relentessly and so we are losing more and more volunteers. Very reasonably? As I told the folks at the Food Communists the other day, the only reason I'm still here is because I don't have a life to get back to!
I did intend to tell you all the story of the day I was stalked by a drone as I watched over school children getting off buses.
Image: A distant and blurry shot, but very clearly a drone.
It was maybe last Tuesday? But some time last week, I was at my usual spot waiting for the several buses that stop near my location to do their thing, when I noticed a drone buzzing around. I alerted dispatch and promised to try to get film or a still picture. Friends? I have now learned that it's a good thing that the resistance did not need me to be its archivist. This was the BEST shot I got despite the fact that at one point it hovered directly in front of me for several long seconds. Did I hit record? I thought I did! Instead, I was just pointing my phone at it. I now know that while I do have the presence of mind and wherewithal to have my camera pointed mostly in the right direction, I am, in fact, much more likely to take crystal clear video of the sidewalk than the clear and present threat. Sheesh.
In fact, I initally thought that all I got a picture of was something that looked like I took a picture of the sun. Luckily, I found this picture with a tiny dot on it that, once enlarged (like the picture above), you can clearly make out the shape of the drone.
Do I think it was ICE or the cops?
I can't say for sure.
There are hobbiests out there with a poor sense of where to fly these things, but the reason I stand at the corner I do is because there is a very large concentration of Somali families that live in the nearby apartments.Also? That moment it chose to drop low and hover directly above and slightly in front of me was weird. I can't explain it, but it definitely exuded threat. Maybe it was a hobbiest trying to make sure I got a good look and thus would know that it was NOT a threat, but it "stared" at me until I waved. Then it finally flew off, like it wanted me to know that we saw each other.
Our various rapid response groups try to keep track of drones, because people think they see a lot of drones--though usually at night. I am pretty confident that I can spot the difference between an airplane, a helicopter, and a drone even at night, but, when it's just lights in the dark, I wouldn't swear to it. This was broad daylight, and there is no mistaking this for anything else. My picture isn't great, but it's a picture of a drone. Who it belongs to? Uncertain. But it was in a vulnerable neighborhood and spent a lot of time circling me and the school bus drop-off area.
Otherwise, despite a few lulls and the Food Communists trying to figure out a sustainable schedule that doesn't exhaust its volunteers or its funds, I still spend an hour or two packing groceries pretty much every day that they're open and in operation. Food is still flying out the door. Food insecurity is real? But, also there are plenty of people who are still trying to recover from Metro Surge, wages lost because of it, etc.
I did manage to read a couple of things, though! Shawn needed me to go to the library pick up some Minnesota-centric cookbooks to be donated to the history center and, since I was there, I decided to peruse the manga section. I brought a bunch home. But, in the last couple of days I read A Man Who Defies the World of BL by Konkici (Volume 1) and My Oh My, Atami-kun by Tanuma Asa. Both are lightly humorous, the first largely being a send-up of all the yaoi tropes. I actually like My Oh My, Atami-kun better because... well, largely because I'm a tough sell on comedy, generally, and part of me felt like A Man Who Defies the World of BL was asking me to lean into the supposed hilarity of trying to avoid catching Teh Gay and so it ended up feeling a touch homophobic. This sense was made worse by watching the first episode of the live-action TV show by the same name. My Oh My, Atami-kun also plays into the stereotypes a bit, by having Atami being the kind of gay who is constantly falling in love at first sight. But, there's a lot more found family stuff that's taken very seriously and some really great straight + gay friendships that are continuing throughout (I read the first volume that I got from the library and then immediately tracked down everything that's on the pirate sites. Whcih, shame on me, but I liked it that much.)
My Thirsty Sword Lesbians game ended up being canceleld for the second time in as many months, but people were sick and some were travelling and had thought they could videocall in, but couldn't after all. Alas!
So, that's me. I'm just keepin' on keepin' on in the resistance and life. How's by you?
Seven Years of Darkness by You-Jeong Jeong (Translated by Chi-Young Kim)
Mar. 11th, 2026 09:01 amjames_davis_nicoll
Who is stalking the son of the man convicted for causing the Seryong Lake Disaster?
Seven Years of Darkness by You-Jeong Jeong (Translated by Chi-Young Kim)
Reading Wednesday
Mar. 11th, 2026 07:41 amsabotabby Just finished: Lullabies For Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill. Naturally, this was great, and surprisingly uplifting at the end. I don't have a lot to add after last week—if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.
Currently reading: Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge by Deidre Havrelock and Edward Kay. This is a kids' book about technologies and traditional knowledge systems used by pre-contact Indigenous peoples. I'm reading it for work but it's been on my radar for awhile. It's quite good and informative, if you can get past three things that I find cringe: 1) the kind of writing for children that includes lines like "Do you think you would enjoy being creative?", 2) a certain exuberant reiteration of "gosh, weren't Indigenous people SMART and RESOURCEFUL" as if they're not that now, and if we need to be constantly reassured, and 3) it's pretty American-centric, though it does mention Nations on the land currently known as Canada as well. But very useful overall, and the problems I find with it are largely centred around my own dislike of how books for children are written and fairly significant but subtle framing between the US and Canada as to how we talk about Indigenous civilizations and sovereignty.
Currently reading: Indigenous Ingenuity: A Celebration of Traditional North American Knowledge by Deidre Havrelock and Edward Kay. This is a kids' book about technologies and traditional knowledge systems used by pre-contact Indigenous peoples. I'm reading it for work but it's been on my radar for awhile. It's quite good and informative, if you can get past three things that I find cringe: 1) the kind of writing for children that includes lines like "Do you think you would enjoy being creative?", 2) a certain exuberant reiteration of "gosh, weren't Indigenous people SMART and RESOURCEFUL" as if they're not that now, and if we need to be constantly reassured, and 3) it's pretty American-centric, though it does mention Nations on the land currently known as Canada as well. But very useful overall, and the problems I find with it are largely centred around my own dislike of how books for children are written and fairly significant but subtle framing between the US and Canada as to how we talk about Indigenous civilizations and sovereignty.
This Insubstantial Pageant by Kate Story
Mar. 10th, 2026 08:54 amjames_davis_nicoll
Desperate passengers and crew escape their ailing starship, only to find an angry, vengeful oligarch waiting to greet them.
This Insubstantial Pageant by Kate Story
2026 Canada Roles Awards
Mar. 9th, 2026 08:29 pmjames_davis_nicoll
Canada Roles Awards seeks to celebrate the games and art created by the Canadian tabletop Roleplaying Game Industry.
2026 Canada Roles Awards
Hyperlocal news
Mar. 9th, 2026 02:09 pmmagenta
Franklin Avenue will be closed starting March 16. The way I know is that there is a sign on Franklin just west of Park, where a lot of people turn to go to 35W. Otherwise I would not know. I live just north of Franklin and I have no idea how I will go anywhere after that, whether any of the cross streets will be open, for example. There is a Hennepin County website but it says very little that is helpful, just that Nicollet and First Ave will remain open. The Metro Transit website shows the #2 bus, one of the major east-west routes, no longer runs between Lyndale and Chicago as of March 15th. No idea where people who live between the stops listed will use the bus. Also not clear what will happen to other routes that go on Franklin for a short distance, the #9 and #14. Will 3rd Ave be open, so that the #11 bus will continue to run? There is nothing on the Park Nicolet Blasidell Clinic website on what will happen to clinic access when Franklin is closed - the only way to get there is turn from Franklin on to Blasidell, which is one way going south.
As I understand it, when done, Franklin will be one lane in each direction, plus a turn lane. Right now, both lanes are bumper to bumper for several blocks during rush hour to and from the freeway. Going to one lane in each direction will make that worse. The project is going to create more traffic by the 35W/94 entrance.
There is little or no information for people in the area, And having no bus service for more than a mile and a half, for a year and a half, is reprehensible,
I yes, I know this was in the planning stages. I took a survey and said I thought it was a bad idea. But Hennepin does not seem to care about people in this neighborhood.
Bundle of Holding: Age of Ambition
Mar. 9th, 2026 02:00 pmjames_davis_nicoll
The corebook and 19 supplements for Tab Creation's tabletop fantasy roleplaying game Age of Ambition.
Bundle of Holding: Age of Ambition
Cheerful Tumblr nonsense
Mar. 8th, 2026 11:56 amsholioRecently I made:
• A gifset of Babylon 5 hugs
• A Londo & G'Kar text/image collage
Obviously these are wildly full of spoilers.
( A little nattering about giffing on Tumblr again )
• A gifset of Babylon 5 hugs
• A Londo & G'Kar text/image collage
Obviously these are wildly full of spoilers.
( A little nattering about giffing on Tumblr again )
short fiction rec: Morag and Seamus stories
Mar. 8th, 2026 01:35 pmjadelennoxI am enjoying this Clarkesworld subscription. Snail mail once a month full of stories! And my favorite part of the subscription has been the recurring Morag and Seamus stories by Fiona Moore (all free online). I believe it's every one of her Clarkesworld stories from "The Spoil Heap" on. The list on the site is reverse chronological, so if you want to read in order, scroll down to "The Spoil Heap" and read up from there.
While very different, they remind me in vibe of Naomi Kritzer's "The Year Without Sunshine". One of my difficulties with some hopepunk is that it can ignore hard truths—which, I admit, is sometimes what I want! But like "The Year Without Sunshine", the Morag and Seamus stories don't pretend mutual aid can create Abundance™️, or outcompete bad and selfish actors, or defeat natural disasters, or solve medical and ability needs, or create entire post-scarcity planets or large societies where goodness reigns. In fact, the Morag and Seamus stories specifically roll their eyes at people who think we can achieve fully automated luxury gay space communism.
They're just about people (and possibly robots) figuring their shit out, in myriad ways. Some are helpers and some aren't; some make family in all kind of ways; nobody's sure what the future holds. Helpers beget helpers, greed begets problems, the world moves on, Morag and Seamus grow potatoes in Wales.
Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (Heechee Saga, volume 2) by Frederik Pohl
Mar. 8th, 2026 10:01 amjames_davis_nicoll
The Heechee artifact could end hunger... if humans could somehow reach it.
Beyond the Blue Event Horizon (Heechee Saga, volume 2) by Frederik Pohl
Progress on the vidding catchup project on AO3
Mar. 7th, 2026 08:49 pmsholioThree more older vids crossposted to AO3 in the last few days:
Waking Up in Vegas (Greatest American Hero) from 2021 - original DW post with a brief show manifesto as well. (I don't think the Youtube links still work, however.)
Landsailor (Star Wars OT) from 2015 - original DW post from when I made this right after the new movie came out.
Odds Are (Lethal Weapon movies) from Festivids 2015 - original DW post and original Festivids post from back when the exchange was anonymously posted on DW by the mods rather than run through AO3.
I've been checking the embeds and download links as I go, but let me know if you notice anything not working.
Waking Up in Vegas (Greatest American Hero) from 2021 - original DW post with a brief show manifesto as well. (I don't think the Youtube links still work, however.)
Landsailor (Star Wars OT) from 2015 - original DW post from when I made this right after the new movie came out.
Odds Are (Lethal Weapon movies) from Festivids 2015 - original DW post and original Festivids post from back when the exchange was anonymously posted on DW by the mods rather than run through AO3.
I've been checking the embeds and download links as I go, but let me know if you notice anything not working.
ADHD with the knockout 🎉
Mar. 7th, 2026 07:14 pmjadelennoxI was writing up a navel-gazing post about grief (tl;dr turned out I think "oh MM would like that!" more often than I would have suspected) and it somehow spiraled into how I could make beautiful and accessible no-Javascript footnotes CSS given the Dreamwidth CSS restrictions. This resulted in me, among other things, reading the DW codebase to see all the CSS restrictions, and then finally after a couple of hours getting my perfect CSS, even though it's completely useless because it will only work when reading in my journal style.
(ETA: That's only because I'm being a perfectionist about placement for the purposes of this exercise, and DW doesn't allow absolute positioning in inline HTML.)
(Also even making this post resulted in me reading the code for Perl's Text::Markdown since I couldn't remember which code block syntax it used.
Hyperfixation FTW!
( CSS, FWIW )