TIME Person of the Year Runner-Up: Tim Cook, the Technologist
He inherited the most valuable company in the world from one of the greatest innovators in history. In 2012 he made Apple his own.
Articles from Contributor
Beyond Good and Awful: Literary Value in the Age of the Amazon Review
It’s a basic but still weird fact about books that two people’s experiences of the same book can be radically different but equally valid.
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Comic-Con Royalty, Part Three: The Jester
Damian Hess has been recording and performing as MC Frontalot for 11 years now. When he started out the music he made didn’t have a name, so he named it himself: it’s called nerdcore. Frontalot raps about computers, video games, Dungeons and Dragons, superheroes, action movies, cartoons and other things beloved of the Comic-Con
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Comic-Con Royalty, Part Two: The King
Joss Whedon’s movies don’t make billions. His last foray into TV, Dollhouse, was canceled after two seasons. The one before that, Firefly, lasted only eleven (glorious, unforgettable) episodes. But more than any other writer or director working in Hollywood, he represents the authentic voice of the fan in the big-studio world, and more
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Comic-Con Royalty, Part One: The Queen
Today I was able to meet up with, seriatim, three artists who in different ways exemplify what Comic-Con is about. They are not the richest or most famous people at Comic-Con, but they are its royalty. If there is a soul within the heaving mass of hype and advertising that Comic-Con has become, they are it.
Royal Number One is Felicia
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Comic-Con Diary, Day Two: A Whole Bunch of Fantasy Writers Walk into a Bar; Also, Tintin!
So George R.R. Martin, Patrick Rothfuss, Christopher Paolini, Scott Westerfeld, David Anthony Durham and I walk into a bar.
No, seriously, we did. After the show floor closes at Comic-Con, big entertainment companies throw parties at bars all around the city. Mostly they’re the big movie and game companies — in the great Comic-Con …
Comic-Con Diary, Day 1: Fear and Branding in San Diego
Dateline: San Diego! Where every year countless hordes of “Trekkies” and “cosplayers” and other freaky “pocket protector” types descend on the convention center for what “some” have called “nerd Woodstock”…
OK. Now that’s taken care of.
The first thing you notice when you get close to Comic-Con is the creeping …
San Diego Comic-Con, Day Zero: Has the Nerd Bubble Burst?
When you’re a professional, when you’re going there for work, the sad truth is that you do not go to Comic-Con with a feeling of joy in your heart. You go with a weary sense of inevitability.
You’re not complaining, God knows! But Comic-Con is too big and sweaty and busy to really enjoy. And when you’re working — when you’re covering …
Paolo Bacigalupi: This is What It Takes to Write a Novel
Paolo Bacigalupi, in case you don’t know, is one of the most exciting SF writers working right now. His first novel The Windup Girl won both the Hugo and Nebula awards this year. It’s radical and amazing. It would be a good idea for you to read it.
Question: Are We Living In a New Golden Age for Fantasy?
Not long ago SFSignal asked a bunch of writers this question: what fantasy novel published in the last 10 years will stand the test of time?
I was one of the writers they asked. I said things. Things like this:
The past decade has been freakishly productive of fantasy masterpieces. I could pick half a dozen books, literally, which
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The Video Game Dialogue that Haunts My Subconscious
Whenever I do something spectacularly stupid or self-defeating, which is about every 8 seconds or so, I hear a little voice in the back of my head that says “IDIOT!”
It says it in this slow, growly voice, like a drunk leprechaun: ID-EE-YUT!
This is because I have spent many aggregate months of my life playing Myth and Myth 2, which …
Your Wednesday Morning Chill-Out Video: MGMT, “Congratulations”
The Awl described it as The Sheltering Sky set on Tatooine. I would’ve gone more with Eraserhead. Either way I felt strangely compelled.