Following up on Spencer Ackerman’s critique of Imperial strategy at the Battle of Hoth, Wired magazine has posted a symposium on the battle with commentary from six defense policy experts. I myself commented on Ackerman’s article here. I’m not entirely convinced by the symposium participants who argue that Darth Vader actually had a good strategy […]
Archive | Science Fiction/Fantasy
The Catholic Church and Science Fiction
Co-blogger Sasha Volokh asks for examples of Catholic science fiction. As with the debate over Jewish fantasy literature a couple years ago, a lot depends on the definition of the relevant field. But even under a pretty narrow definition, there are many, many examples. One of my personal favorites is Frank Herbert’s Dune series, where […]
Criticizing Darth Vader’s Strategy at the Battle of Hoth
In this Wired magazine article [HT: Instapundit], Spencer Ackerman gives a detailed critique of Darth Vader’s strategy at the Battle of Hoth. Presented with a golden opportunity to wipe out the rebels once and for all, Vader let them slip through his fingers: How did the Galactic Empire ever cement its hold on the Star […]
White House Says We Won’t Build the Death Star
By Kenneth Anderson on January 12, 2013 7:41 am in Popular Culture, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Space Law
The Obama White House knew, of course, that creating a web-based system for ordinary citizens to call on the government to do something, and promising a response if 25,000 people or more sign an online petition within 30 days, would inevitably produce some silliness. There’s a reason we’re not a direct democracy, no matter how […]
Review of Peter Jackson’s First Hobbit Movie
I watched Peter Jackson’s first Hobbit movie tonight. Most previous reviews have ranged from lukewarm to mostly negative. All I can say is that I strongly disagree. Peter Jackson has done a great job of capturing the atmosphere and themes of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book. And the actors playing the key characters – Bilbo Baggins, Thorin […]
Ancient D&D 20-sided Die in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
It turns out that the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a 20 sided Dungeons and Dragons die made in ancient Egypt: The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns what may be the world’s oldest d20 die. It’s made out of serpentine and looks to be in remarkably good shape for its age. The die is a […]
Will Superman Become a Super-blogger?
CNN reports that Superman has quit his long-time job working for the mainstream media, and may well take up blogging: Add Superman to the list of reporters leaving the newspaper business behind. In the comic book series’ latest issue, which went on sale Wednesday, an outraged Clark Kent quits his job at The Daily Planet […]
Darth Vader and the Contracts Clause
One of my few pedagogical innovations as a constitutional law professor is using Darth Vader’s “alteration” of his agreement with Lando Calrissian in the The Empire Strikes Back to illustrate the importance of the Contracts Clause, which forbids state laws that “impair the obligation of contracts.” A government that can renege on its contracts not […]
Star Trek and the Law
This recent post has an interesting list of legal citations to Star Trek. Unfortunately, however, the author inexplicably omitted Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s discussion of Vulcans in the oral argument for last year’s video games case.
Libertarianism and Science Fiction
Many leading science fiction and fantasy writers have been libertarians, or at least significantly influenced by libertarian ideas. The late Ray Bradbury, who passed away last week, was one well-known example. In this short article published in Prometheus, the journal of the Libertarian Futurist Society, I try to explain why science fiction is so much […]
Ray Bradbury, RIP
Legendary science fiction writer Ray Bradbury passed away on Tuesday. Orson Scott Card – a famous science fiction writer himself – has an interesting tribute here. Bradbury was not one of my personal favorite science fiction writers. But there is no doubt that his books are among the most iconic in the genre, especially Fahrenheit […]
Stanley Fish on The Hunger Games
Big-name literary scholar Stanley Fish has an interesting column on The Hunger Games, the popular series of science fiction novels by Suzanne Collins which has recently been made into a highly successful movie: A couple of weeks ago my daughter visited from California. She brought with her the first volume of Suzanne Collins’s “The Hunger […]
Podcast on the Politics of The Hunger Games
The Institute for Humane Studies has put up a podcast I recently did for them on the politics of The Hunger Games, the popular science fiction book series by Suzanne Collins, which has been recently made into a hit movie. I previously blogged about political issues in The Hunger Games here, here, and here. Many […]
Racial Casting in The Hunger Games
CNN has recently posted two articles about fans who are angry that black actors have been cast in three important roles in The Hunger Games movie: Cinna, Rue, and Thresh (see here and here). On the merits of this dispute, I think it’s clear that the objecting fans are in the wrong. As CNN points […]
Review of the Hunger Games Movie
My wife and I saw the Hunger Games last night. I described the core plot of the Suzanne Collins book series on which the movie is based here: In the far future, what’s left of a post-apocalyptic United States is ruled by a tyrannical central government (the “Capitol”) that oppresses and exploits twelve subordinate districts. […]