Allan Dyen-ShapiroJun 10John and Don: Lessons for the FutureThe public phase of the Congressional hearings on the January 6th insurrection began yesterday. I saw a few clips and had to look away,...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroMay 9Counters and Typicals—Thoughts From The Candy HouseI'm midway through reading a book whose publication date I noted on social media the day it was announced. I never do that. Even with...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroMar 25GOPU Versus the God of EarthseedI finally got around to reading Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. They had been hanging out on my Kindle...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroDec 22, 2021A Letter to Joe ManchinHey, Joe. Allan here. Not one of your constituents, but we've got many West Virginia transplants living near me in Florida. I met one the...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroOct 2, 2021Hope Signifies Something Different to the Privileged and the MarginalizedMelvin Van Peebles' obituaries finally prompted me to watch the classic movie that started Black independent cinema in the 1970s, Sweet...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroSep 19, 2021Extending an Insight into Climate DenialismI am writing this during the "lunch break" on the last day of FIYAHCON. Reading my own story at the virtual "tea house" last night was a...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroSep 4, 2021Resisting the Urge to Get "Karbonned"Karbon allows the user's body to function in autopilot mode, performing all the routine tasks expected of them while leaving the person...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroJul 1, 2021Brave New Whopper (or Big Mac)In Margaret Atwood's dystopian science fiction novel Oryx and Crake, in a moment meant to spark revulsion, the protagonist chows down on...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroApr 11, 2021Decolonize Science, says the White Literature ProfessorsI recently had the opportunity to freeload at ICFA (International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts). By freeloading, I mean...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroMar 26, 2021This is What America Sounds Like"This is what America sounds like." I heard the line last weekend at a dinner theater that found a way to open near my home. All the...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroMar 12, 2021To Address the Climate Catastrophe, Americans Need to Break Abortion's Stranglehold on Politics.It's dropped off the headlines, but I would still maintain that the central fault line in US politics is over abortion. With the climate...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroFeb 20, 2021Travelers: David Wasn't The Mary Sue He Appeared To BeDavid was my favorite character from the Canadian-migrated-to-Netflix science-fiction TV show Travelers. He begins the show as Marcy's...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroDec 12, 2020Honorifics, Pen-Names, Handles, and Zoom IDsThe Wall Street Journal published an editorial recently, criticizing the new First Lady for continuing to go by Dr. Jill Biden rather...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroNov 7, 2020Pulling Back from the Brink of Fascism by Listening. And Eating Pizza.The analysts bemoan their epiphany that half of America was willing to vote for a man with fascist leanings. In their eyes, voting for a...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroNov 2, 2020Political Economy from Science Fiction WritersAlthough the pandemic has been awful in many ways and killed far too many—and I would never dare to minimize this tragedy—it has led to...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroOct 17, 2020Ignorance of the Canon: Plusses and MinusesI didn't start reading science fiction until I was in my late thirties. Sure, I'd encountered some of the classics in high school English...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroAug 10, 2020A 1987 Octavia Butler Story "Commenting" on Today's New York Times FeatureIdentity—it's who you are—partially born into, partly chosen, and in part forced upon you. It was the subject of two different stories I...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroJul 4, 2020OF PANGOLINS, RECOMBINATION, ACE2, FURIN, ENDANGERED SPECIES, RACISM, AND XENOPHOBIA"Kung flu," "the Chinese virus," "enormous evidence" that the coronavirus outbreak originated in a Chinese biotech lab—these phrases used...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroMay 27, 2020EXPERTISE, EMPATHY, AND VIRTUE SIGNALINGLike many of you who have been sheltering-in-place, with my now-virtual day job having settled down a bit, I've been catching up on TV...
Allan Dyen-ShapiroApr 18, 2020My Perspective on the Revelations from the CDCThe investigation, reported in this Washington Post article, has revealed what went wrong with testing for the coronavirus in the US. The...