Allan Dyen-Shapiro
Hope Signifies Something Different to the Privileged and the Marginalized
Melvin Van Peebles' obituaries finally prompted me to watch the classic movie that started Black independent cinema in the 1970s, Sweet...
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Allan Dyen-Shapiro
Science Fiction Author
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
Sep 19, 2021
Extending an Insight into Climate Denialism
I 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-Shapiro
Sep 4, 2021
Resisting 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-Shapiro
Jul 1, 2021
Brave 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-Shapiro
Apr 11, 2021
Decolonize Science, says the White Literature Professors
I recently had the opportunity to freeload at ICFA (International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts). By freeloading, I mean...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
Mar 26, 2021
This 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-Shapiro
Mar 12, 2021
To 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-Shapiro
Feb 20, 2021
Travelers: David Wasn't The Mary Sue He Appeared To Be
David was my favorite character from the Canadian-migrated-to-Netflix science-fiction TV show Travelers. He begins the show as Marcy's...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
Dec 12, 2020
Honorifics, Pen-Names, Handles, and Zoom IDs
The Wall Street Journal published an editorial recently, criticizing the new First Lady for continuing to go by Dr. Jill Biden rather...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
Nov 7, 2020
Pulling 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-Shapiro
Nov 2, 2020
Political Economy from Science Fiction Writers
Although 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-Shapiro
Oct 17, 2020
Ignorance of the Canon: Plusses and Minuses
I 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-Shapiro
Aug 10, 2020
A 1987 Octavia Butler Story "Commenting" on Today's New York Times Feature
Identity—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-Shapiro
Jul 4, 2020
OF 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-Shapiro
May 27, 2020
EXPERTISE, EMPATHY, AND VIRTUE SIGNALING
Like 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-Shapiro
Apr 18, 2020
My Perspective on the Revelations from the CDC
The investigation, reported in this Washington Post article, has revealed what went wrong with testing for the coronavirus in the US. The...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
Mar 14, 2020
Because of COVID-19, You Will Need to Euthanize Your Lab Animals. Well…
Science Magazine today came out with a news story about researchers having to shut down their labs because of COVID-19-related...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
Jan 2, 2020
Science Fiction and Green Politics in the 2020s and Beyond: Thoughts on Gibson’s The Peripheral
When I began writing science fiction just before the beginning of this last decade, I had a mission. It was related to the mission that...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
Dec 23, 2019
Mr. Robot as a Comment on Revolutions and Revolutionaries
With the Emmys this show has garnered, it’s safe to say I’m not alone is judging it the best science fiction television show in recent...
Allan Dyen-Shapiro
Dec 7, 2019
Shiny new tech to save us all! Sort of.
The flashy headline attracted my attention: a new energy source from rivers meeting the oceans. Blue membranes. I liked the name....
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