Things worth reading #637

Richard Thieme's The Last Science Fiction Story.

Which isn't so much a science fiction story as a meditation on SF, society, information, culture, etc.

Why, exactly, have none of you bastards ever pointed me at it before?

In case you were wondering, the answer is yes

Cheers very much to heron61 who passed on this piece, by a fit, healthy, right-wing American, who was sceptical about water-boarding being torture.

So he tried it on himself.

You can read his write up here.

It's fascinating, seeing how he goes through the different levels of it, thinking "Ok, I can just about cope with this. I'll try the next bit and see what it's like."

His conclusion, by the way is "To experience it and understand it and then do it to another human being is to leave the realm of sanity and humanity forever. No question in my mind."

Just to link a third time, and emphasise that if you have any question as to whether it's torture, or just a bit of intermittently useful unpleasantness for retrieving handy information then you should be clicking here.

(Edit: Hadn't realised this had come from nancylebov, who got it from theweaselking, who are both on my friends list too, just on different filters I hadn't got to yet...)

Update

Ed came home from feeding Lizzie and Ari's cat, and we watched Dr Who: The Poseidon Adventure together.

Which was complete pantomime bollocks in ways that would have been great, if RTD could actually plot, as well as do emotion.

No problem at all with the over-the-topness, but he's got a real problem with telling things rather than showing, and with introducing the plot device in the scene it's needed in, rather than foreshadowing it earlier.
( spoilers )

After a writer pulls the solution to a problem out of thin air I cease to feel tension, because I know that _anything_ can happen, so I lose whatever vague suspension of disbelief was keeping me going. RTD clearly doesn't care about making his plots make sense, and so I don't care about watching them. Which leaves only the dialogue and emotional bits. Most of which were thankly fine and fun. But still...