JP Babb
LightNews LightNews
jpbabb.bsky.social
JP Babb
@jpbabb.bsky.social
29 followers 24 following 93 posts
I am an SF author and academic, currently pursuing a PhD in science and technology studies in Toronto. My research interests include science fiction, epistemology, and the history of cosmology, among others.
Posts Replies Media Videos
jpbabb.bsky.social
This, by far, is my favourite review of Reality's End:
#Canada #Booksky #Books #Fantasy #Physics
Amazon Review by Benjamin Tippett: 1. it takes place in canada, but not that canada that mediocre writers talk about where they name drop places you have been. our canada, with our weird idiosyncratic denial of the contradictions that make us a nation. a nation which exists only as a means to enable exploitation of people and place, and yet somehow has grown a culture in spite of itself. a nation which is built around a half-spoken promise, a nation of marginalia. somehow this piece of speculative fiction uses this thorough and three dimensional understanding of us as a people as an unexamined premise and a setting for this fantasy story. everyone in this story is maximally unglamorous and a nerd. Babb does not need to say it, because you know in your bones that everyone in this story has a comb-over and a pea-soup-green parka and walks around in sorell skidoo boots. it captures our home as a place which does not feel forced. SETTING THIS STORY IN CANADA DOES NOT FEEL FORCED. and that’s probably one of the finest feats of strength i’ve seen from an author of speculative fiction. margaret atwood couldn’t pull it off. i don’t know why anyone else would even try. 2. this story is about physicists, and the author understands both physics and physicists in a way which emphasizes both their heroic self-aggrandizing natures, and their absurd uselessness. the physics in this book are quite good. no notes. 3. this book is about fairy incursion. we’ve seen charlie strauss try it. we’ve seen terry pratchett try it. their novels were fun. but this one is more fun because it takes place in canada: a country where the constitution is just a bunch of agreements people have stapled together, and hasn’t even been ratified. a country where people strongly believe in the rule of law, but also where no one quite knows what that means and where politicians who try to nail it down get PUNISHED. ours is a country whose devotion to the rule of law, but not the word of law; and whose endless desire to keep talking about it without reaching a conclusion is ANATHEMA to the baroque rules of the fae. 4. Babb knows how to structure a good , winding story. it is exciting to read, and interesting.
October 16, 2025 at 10:56 PM
jpbabb.bsky.social
So. Back to Cow Tools. Here we're faced with anthropomorphised cow wearing an unreadable expression, standing in front of a wooden bench on which rest an assortment of crude implements; a barn is visible in the background. Our question needs to be: What narrative is implied by this panel?
October 6, 2025 at 1:30 AM
jpbabb.bsky.social
First of all, when talking about The Far Side, it's important to note that it's power lies in implying an entire narrative with a single panel. It is sequential art without the sequence. Like this one: 2/
Anthropomorphic mammoths engage in couples' ballroom dancing with stereotypical cavemen in front of a bonfire. Members of the two parties wear a range of facial expressions: anxiety, suspicion, anger, fear, and others. In the lower foreground, two cavemen reassure a terrified-looking third, presumably in anticipation of his asking a woolly mammoth to dance; and indeed, there is a mammoth in the background, clutching its forepaws together as in anticipation. A caption below reads: "Tomorrow, they would be mortal enemies. But on the eve of the great hunt, feelings were put aside for the traditional Mammoth Dance."
October 6, 2025 at 1:30 AM
jpbabb.bsky.social
So buckle up, everyone; I'm a real academic, and I'm about to explicate one of the greatest works of art of the 20th century: #CowTools, by #GaryLarson! #TheFarSide #ComicsStudies [Note: a version of this essay previously appeared on my Tumblr blog] 1/
Far Side cartoon of an anthropomorphic cow standing behind a workbench, on which are arrayed a number of crude implements. The cow wears and unreadable expression, her eyes depicted as a single, near-horizontal slit. A barn is visible in the background. A caption below reads "Cow Tools"
October 6, 2025 at 1:30 AM