communication – Speculating Canada: Canadian Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

February 20, 2016

Unsettled in Utopia

Unsettled in Utopia A review of Nalo Hopkinson’s “Midnight Robber” (Warner, 2000). By Derek Newman-Stille Nalo Hopkinson’s “Midnight Robber” is a narrative about home, memory, and communication. The planet Toussaint is settled by Caribbean people from earth who honour their history through events like Carnival and who remember the history of slavery in their tales. The travel to Toussaint is...

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June 10, 2015

Dangerous Diplomacies

A Review of J.A. McLachlan’s “The Occasional Diamond Thief” (Edge, 2015) By Derek Newman-Stille The Occasional Diamond Thief is a tale of things lost and things returned, all within the complex political world of interplanetary trade and cultural conflicts. Kia’s father has been haunted by a past that he has been rapidly forgetting in his dementia. So strongly is his...

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April 9, 2014

Hollow Signals

A review of Geoff Gander’s “White Noise” in AEscifi: The Canadian Science Fiction Review. By Derek Newman-Stille Our world is permeated with signals – radio waves, satellite transmissions… we are surrounded by sounds that only our electronic devices can hear. Geoff Gander’s “White Noise” pushes us into an electronic blackout, a loss of communication. After three days without radio or...

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October 9, 2013

Quote – Need Collective Stories

“People are losing touch with themselves and with each other. They need stories because they really are the only thing that brings us together. Gossip, anecdotes, jokes, stories – these are the things that we used to exchange with each other. It kept the lines of communication open, let us touch each other on a regular basis.” -Charles de...

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July 25, 2013

The In-Between Space

A Review of Lynda Williams’ The Courtesan Prince (Edge, 2005). By Derek Newman-Stille The Reetions and the Gelacks, two branches of the human race that were separated from Earth due to temporary losses of space travel. The Reetions developed from the first group of people to leave Earth and settle in a colony. Connections to Earth were lost, and they...

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May 28, 2013

Quote – Art About Opening Lines of Communication and Resisting Uncritical Media

‘That’s what art’s all about too… they’re all lines of communication. But they’re harder to keep open now because it’s so much easier for most people to relate to a TV set than it is to another person. They get all this data fed into them, but they don’t know what to do with it anymore. When they talk to...

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May 21, 2013

Creating Community in Isolation

A Review of Julie Czerneda’s Riders of the Storm (Daw, 2008) By Derek Newman-Stille Displacement is a factor that is prevalent in the lives of many people who have had to leave home for whatever reason. The finding of “home” is a nebulous, complex, and constantly changeable phenomena. Julie Czerneda explores the search for home in a foreign and confusing...

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May 1, 2013

Blood on the Starscape

A review of Peter Watts’ Blindsight (Tor, 2006) By Derek Newman-Stille Life itself is strange, odd, and unordinary. We try to create ideas of normalcy to impose order on the world around us and end up limiting our perception and understanding of that world. We categorise, we cut things that we don’t think should belong, and we butcher reality to...

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Tag: communication

Unsettled in Utopia

Dangerous Diplomacies

Hollow Signals

Quote – Need Collective Stories

The In-Between Space

Quote – Art About Opening Lines of Communication and Resisting Uncritical Media

Creating Community in Isolation

Blood on the Starscape