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Category Archives: Short Stories
Fantasy versus Science Fiction
NB: Embedded below is a revelation about the origins of an important element in the Dune series for those who love Herbert’s books as much as I do. My contribution to Dune scholarship. I recently read an annotated list of … Continue reading →
Posted in Short Stories, Teaching Literature and Writing
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Tagged books, fantasy, fiction, reading, science-fiction
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7 Comments
Shiva at the DMV
[NB: This is from my as-yet unpublished novel Pagan Moon. All rights reserved. ] Wherein are intimated certain mysteries of the calculus generally skipped over in introductory courses. . . . The Main Chapel of the Living Word. An ancient man on the stage, but who? A … Continue reading →
What New English Teachers Should Know
A proposed undergraduate core curriculum for minimal preparation for future teachers of English: Course title, department(s), hours, and prerequisites Introduction to Theatre and Film, Theatre or Film Studies, 3 Contemporary Models of English Phonology and Syntax, Linguistics, 3 (PreR: 85 … Continue reading →
Criticism and the Common [sic] Core [sic]
The Common [sic] Core [sic] State [sic] Standards [sic] in ELA certainly are “common,” but in the pejorative sense of the word. They are received, vulgar, uninformed, base, mediocre, pedestrian. One would expect that people putting together a single set … Continue reading →
A Brief Explanation of Everything. You’re Welcome.
Doubtless the most interesting species in the “actual” universe is the Lilatian/s, or Latian/s for short, who are many and one. I’ll use the plural to refer to them going forward, but be aware that this is a mere … Continue reading →
Posted in Epistemology, Existentialism, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Religion, Short Stories
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2 Comments
Why Science Fiction Is Impossible: A Science Fiction Writer’s Confession
When I was still a child, I fell in love with Sci Fi. I stayed up nights devouring stories and then novels by Asimov and Heinlein, Clarke and Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. LeGuin, Poul Anderson, Frederick … Continue reading →
The Coring of U.S. K-12 ELA Curricula
My entire adult life has been spent sometimes as a writer and editor for various textbook companies and sometimes as a high-school teacher of English, Speech, Debate, Theatre, and Film. For much of my life, I ran a development company … Continue reading →
CENTCOM DX’s T’s KPIs
Being a lesson on muddying the waters to make them look deep. . . . “Management consultants steal your watch and then tell you what time it is.” –Martin Kihn “Let me speak, for a moment, from a 50,000-Foot-Perspective,” said … Continue reading →
He Sees You When You’re Sleeping, or Welcome to the Panopticon. A Report from the Near Future
The utter subjugation of the populace didn’t happen via secret police and mass executions as in Stalin’s Russia. No, it was much more subtle, occurring bit by bit, drip by drip, a boiled frog phenomenon. It all started, seemingly innocently, … Continue reading →
If This Isn’t Nice, What Is?
Back in 1969, fifty years before this now, Kurt Vonnegut is publishing Slaughterhouse-Five. (How exciting!) In 1984, I am watching the film version with my then girlfriend and wishing that we had our own geodesic dome on Tralfamadore just like … Continue reading →
Bob Shepherd | Praxis 