Get In On The Vote - Worlds of Speculative Fiction 2019

Last week, I created a video about our upcoming year of monthly talks in the Worlds of Speculative Fiction series.  We're going into year four, and in lining up the new authors I'm scheduled to discuss, I deliberately left three slots open so that I could get some input from my viewers, subscribers, supporters and other fans.  After listing the nine authors I'd already picked out (see below), I asked viewers to leave comments with their initial suggestions for authors to fill those three remaining slots.

Many people weighed in, and I picked the seven most suggested authors for a run-off vote, which is going on right now (and ends on Saturday).  If you'd like to get in on that vote, here's where you can cast your ballot.  It's between these authors:  Bram Stoker, Thomas Ligoti, Stephen Donaldson, Katherine Kurtz, Aldous Huxley, Robert Jordan, and R Scott. Bakker.

Each participant gets to vote for three of these authors, and the top three join the roster for 2019.  (My Patreon supporters get an extra vote as well.)  Voting will go on through Saturday, then I'll tally all the votes up, and officially announce who the three authors will be.

The nine other authors I've already picked out for 2019 are: Edgar Allen Poe, G.K. Chesterton, Mary Shelley, Lewis Carroll, Tanith Lee, Piers Anthony, Gordon Dickson, August Derleth, and Karl Edward Wagner.

I should mention two other things in passing.  The first is that, if you haven't seen the previous sessions in the talk series, I've placed them all in this playlist.  The second is that I've also created a free online course to house those videos and a host of other resources on those authors, their books, and the narrative worlds they created, which you can sign up for here.

Descartes And The Third Class of Person

Readers typically encounter Rene Descartes through one of two of his main works. It's either the Discourse on Method or the Meditations on First Philosophy.  Both provide some of the same outlines, insights, and even arguments central to Cartesian philosophy, but they do so in quite distinct manners.

In the Discourse - the one I focus upon here - Descartes begins by telling us the story of his own education, or more properly speaking, the narrative of his quest for knowledge that he could be certain about and thereby orient his life by.  This tale is in its broadest traits one we are all familiar with.  It furnishes the basic plot structure to many movies, shows, stories, and even songs in our own time.

A person starts out young, naive, and talented.  Endowed with a quick intellect, but not knowing much of anything at the start, he applies himself to the studies set before him by his teachers, and he excels.  But as he thinks over what he has learned, and as he compares it to what he learns through living and observing the world outside the school, worries and doubts begin to get their grips in him. 

This student has learned widely within, perhaps even mastered, what are acknowledged to be main subjects - domains of knowledge - but he comes to suspect and then realize that what he possesses does not amount to genuine knowledge.  It's not - to use the master-metaphor Descartes makes recourse to - a solid foundation upon which a lasting and secure edifice can be progressively constructed.

What then?  How will the hero of our story attain the object of his desire?  We typically telescope the narrative at this point - making it easier upon our students, or perhaps also ourselves - and move straightaway into the Cartesian method and the chain of arguments found in short form in the Discourse and in much greater depth within the Meditations.  Let's not do that here.

Worlds Of Speculative Fiction Lecture Series Renewed

Over the course of 2016, I've been providing a monthly lecture and discussion series, hosted by the Brookfield Public Library, focused on - and called - Worlds of Speculative Fiction: Philosophical Themes.  I proposed the idea originally as a way for me to get to engage in a bit of "guilty pleasure" reading, going back to classic science fiction and fantasy works I had enjoyed in my childhood, teens, or college years, and seeing what might be said from a philosophical perspective about the narrative worlds these authors had created.

We're now getting ready for the last installment of the series, focused on George R.R. Martin's voluminous and yet-unfinished Song of Ice and Fire, which will take place Thursday, December 8, 7:00 PM, and wrap up the series for the year.  I'm happy to report, however, that we've been renewed for another year of the series - 12 more monthly lecture and discussion sessions!

Here's the list of the 12 authors and literary universes slated for 2017:

• January – Phillip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld 
• February – Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet
• March – Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Galaxy
• April – Anne McCaffrey, World of Pern
• May – Orson Scott Card’s Enderverse
• June – Ian Banks’ Culture Series
• July – Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis Trilogy.
• August – H.P Lovecraft’s Universe of the Elder Gods
• September – William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy
• October – C. L. Moore’s Fantastic Worlds
• November – L. Sprague de Camp’s Worlds of the Compleat Enchanter
• December - Jorge Luis Borges’ Philosophical Universes

If you've missed any of the previous eleven sessions, and you'd like to watch the videorecordings, you're in luck - here's where you can find all the videos (I'm uploading the eleventh video as I write this).

So far, we've covered J.R.R. Tolkein, Mervyn Peake, C.S. Lewis, A.E. Van Vogt, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Ursula K. Leguin, Roger Zelazny, Michael Moorcock, and Philip K. Dick.  I'm hoping to do a bit of writing on each of these here in Orexis Dianoētikē in the coming year as well!

Worlds of Speculative Fiction - An Update

Earlier this year, I announced the start of a new public lecture series, called "Worlds of Speculative Fiction," partnering with the Brookfield Public Library.  I've still got the intention of engaging in some writing here about the philosophical themes in the authors and works that we've been focusing on - my involvement in a variety of other projects, and other commitments, have unfortunately precluded me from getting those posts finished and published (but I'll have some coming out in August, when the author I'll be focusing on in the lecture will be Ursula K. Leguin).

We've already held seven of the scheduled twelve lectures and discussions for 2016 - and there's a good chance that we'll continue the series with twelve more in 2017 (if we do, keep an eye out for a post soliciting suggestions about who I might tackle in the new year).  For those who - due to geography or time - haven't been able to attend, but are interested to see what we discussed, here's the videos in the series so far:

• Lecture 1: Introduction to the Series 
• Lecture 2: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Saga of Middle Earth
• Lecture 3: A.E. Van Vogt's World of Null-A 
• Lecture 4: C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy
• Lecture 5: Isaac Asimov's Foundations Galaxy
• Lecture 6: Frank Herbert's Dune Universe
• Lecture 7: Roger Zelazny's Amber and Chaos

We've got some heavy-hitters of science-fiction and fantasy lined up for discussion the coming months.  Ursula K. Leguin and her Hainish stories in August.  Then Michael Moorcock's Multiverse and his Eternal Champion in September, followed by the alternate America found in certain of Phillip K. Dick's novels in October.  November will focus on Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy, and we will round out the year in December by discussing George R.R. Martin's massive Song of Ice and Fire (what we've got of it so far!).

If there's sufficient interest down the line, we may consider putting together some online events oriented around the intersections between science fiction, fantasy, and philosophy as well, but that's something perhaps better discussed later on....

Understanding Anger - Lecture 2: Jewish Scriptures

Last Saturday, at the Kingston Library, we had a very well-attended second session of the new year-long monthly lecture series - Understanding Anger.  The previous session had focused on anger through the lens of Greek tragedy and epic.  This one looked at this prevalent and perennial passion through multiple perspectives afforded by another key source for Western thought and culture -- the Jewish Scriptures.

As always, there's many more people interested than can attend -- sometimes a factor of time, but most often of place -- so we video-recorded the session (you can watch the video here).  And as usual, although I came armed with many notes and a few handouts to structure the session, a number of digressions -- all quite interesting -- added some other elements to the discussions.