23.9.09

 

Mr. Penumbra’s Twenty-Four-Hour Book Store


William Gibson stopped setting his novels in the future, saying that the present had caught up with science fiction. Another illustration is this intriguing fantasy from Escape Pod, written by Robin Sloan and read by Stephen Eley. The story originated in a misread twitter, and was published on a blog, and adapted for this podcast.
Mr. Penumbra has a database, believe it or not. The books aren’t shelved according to title or subject (do they even have subjects?) so the database is crucial. It runs on an old Mac Plus, but I copied it onto my laptop and, over the course of a few customer-free nights, mapped it onto a 3D model of the store. (If this sounds impressive to you, you’re over 30.)
I was intrigued by the author's vision of the Google campus.

And while I'm at it, let me heartily commend Escape Pod itself, my favorite thing to listen to while doing the ironing. I'm slowly working through their back catalogue of two hundred stories.


 

Peter Landin obituary


Olivier Danvy delivered a lovely memorial to Peter Landin at this year's ICFP, but it was light on some of Landin's politics. Richard Bornat penned this excellent remembrance for the Guardian.

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