velcro city tourist board
a blog by Paul Graham Raven
science fiction / social theory / climate futures / infrastructure / utopian narratology / sometimes cats
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leaving spaces for her readers to fill: Diana Wynne Jones as worldbuilder
I have talked a fair bit recently about building futures (and ways of futuring) that are open, and it looks like I’m going to be talking about it a lot more in times to come. It’s an idea that I’m very committed to, but I’m also aware that it comes very much from the creative…
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14SEP23 / accessions
The department picked up DeLillo’s Underworld while wandering around the innegårdar of Malmö last weekend; Öppna Möllan is a sort of rudderless quasi-festival held at the start of every autumn, in which residents of the collective blocks of downtown Malmö open up their courtyards to passers-by and have a loppis (or yard-sale) to clear out…
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a tool, not a rule: thoughts on technique and worldbuilding
I’m off the the Netherlands next week, to give a couple of talks and run a workshop based on (among other things) the Magrathea Protocol essay. One of these events is public, so if you’re in or near Utrecht on Thursday 21st September (3pm to 5pm), why not come along and ask me awkward questions?…
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California Uber Alles Forever
Gillian Rose has some interesting thoughts on the promo art for the California Forever boondoggle utopian settlement project announced not long ago. Why use this visual style? Well, one thought is that there is one other recent proposal for a very large-scale urban redevelopment project which also promises to bring a green utopia to a…
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07SEP23 / accessions
A gift, mailed from Finland by an old colleague and ally of the institution, accompanied by a note saying “I wasn’t enjoying this, but I think it’s your sort of thing”. Time alone will prove whether they’re right—but they’ve been right a few times before.
Who is Paul Graham Raven?
“… who, with raving lips uttering things mirthless, unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over a thousand years with [his] voice, thanks to the god in [him].”