Science fiction is the literature of the present, and the present is the only era that we can hope to understand, because it's the only era that lets us check our observations and predictions against reality.
[...] The thing is, when all you've got is monks, every book takes on
the character of a monkish Bible. Once you invent the printing
press, all the books that are better-suited to movable type migrate
into that new form. What's left behind are those items
that are best suited to the old product…
[...] Almost all of us could be making more money elsewhere (though we may dream of earning a stephenkingload of money, and of course, no one would play the lotto if there were no winners). The primary incentive for writing has to be artistic satisfaction, egoboo, and a desire for posterity. Ebooks…
Writers can't ask readers not to interpret their work. You
can't enjoy a novel that you haven't interpreted — unless you
model the author's characters in your head, you can't care
about what they do and why they do it. And once readers model
a character, it's only natural that readers will take…
Copyright started with a dispute between Scottish and English
publishers, and the first copyright law, 1709's Statute of
Anne, conferred the exclusive right to publish new editions of a
book on the copyright holder. It was a fair competition statute,
and it was silent on the rights that the cop…
