Article by Andrew Braverman; art by Anna Cain
The simulation hypothesis, long present in the annals of science fiction, took on a degree of academic credibility in 2003, when Oxford philosopher, Nick Bostrom, wrote a paper suggesting that members of an advanced civilization with tremendous computing power may well decide to run simulations of their ancestors.
Someone on a quest for immortality should not search 16th century Florida for the Fountain of Youth, but find a quiet room and write The Next Great Novel. The books of the literary canon will outlive not only the authors who wrote them, but the very societies that shaped them. Constantly reprinted and disseminated, classic novels are texts that have evolved into shared cultural experiences. Two complete strangers can find common ground by complaining about reading “The Scarlet Letter” in high school.
Beth looks like a perfectly average American mom. She works as a school librarian and frets about the gaps in their literary fiction collection. Her guilty pleasures include dark chocolate and Welsh tea. She enjoys reading Jane Austen and travel literature. She describes herself as normal, even boring.
Also, Beth spent most of her childhood inside a Christian cult called the Shepherding Movement.
That a subtle numerological code in C.S. Lewis’s “The Magician’s Nephew” gave precise instructions on how to enter Narnia.
That Queen Latifah had relinquished her throne to follow her passion for acting.
That I would find an intact velociraptor skeleton if I dug enough holes in the background.
That Anon was an incredibly prolific author who, like Madonna, Michelangelo and Bono, had decided to go by only one name.
Lori Kennedy liked tea parties and animals. She was a grown woman who thought Easy Bake Ovens were cool, and she could fly a powered parachute. Blake Ruff was easygoing, tall with a receding hairline, from a wealthy Texan family. The two met at the Northwest Bible Church in Dallas in 2003 and fell in love.
One caveat: Lori refused to divulge any information about her past.
For every show that ends up on television, dozens get dropped somewhere along the way. Sometimes a network will order a few episodes, but then decide that a show doesn’t tonally match the rest of their season lineup. Sometimes a show has the perfect cast, but can’t live down a sub-par pilot episode. Sometimes a stellar pitch never even gets out of the boardroom. So in honor of the “Almost” issue, look back at some of the best, worst and weirdest TV shows that almost got made. Consider yourself warned.
Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read, seaspawn and seawrack, the nearing tide, that rusty boot. Snotgreen, bluesilver, rust: coloured signs. Limits of the diaphane. But he adds: in bodies. Then he was aware of them bodies before of them coloured. How? By knocking his sconce against them, sure. Go easy. Bald he was and a millionaire, maestro di color che sanno. Limit of the diaphane in. Why in? Diaphane, adiaphane. If you can put your five fingers through it it is a gate, if not a door. Shut your eyes and see.
The ten most successful movies of 2014 have something in common: none are original stories. Two are based on books, five on Marvel comics. The 16th top grossing movie of the year, “Interstellar,” is the first on the list that isn’t a sequel or a prequel, isn’t a live action version of an animated classic, isn’t adapted from a comic.
