Sci-fi so foolish?
FAMED CANADIAN SCI-FI author Margaret Atwood has spent the last few weeks conducting interviews in support of her new seminal work, In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination. Sparking new debate on the state of Canadian literature and the place of science fiction as a literary genre, Atwood’s novel contains several essays that focus on serious sci-fi theory. Is Atwood’s new book another example of why sci-fi should be taken seriously, or a poor attempt to legitimize a pulp genre?
Here kitty, kitty
FOR ANY RESIDENT of Edmonton, seeing a dozen cats or so roaming around in a pack is no new thing. The Alberta capital has long been plagued with a major cat problem; it is estimated that over 40,000 strays call Edmonton’s alleys home. One group, the Little Cats Lost Society, is attempting to remedy the issue one pretty kitty at a time. Run mainly by its two co-founders, the society traps feral cats in the area, vaccinates and neuters them, and then returns them to the wild. This approach is in stark contrast to that of the local government, which lends traps to area residents and has them drop off their booty to either be euthanized or put up for adoption, their fate being decided at the discretion of the animal control centre staff. Is the city’s approach a better, more permanent solution, or should the society be supported for their more humane efforts to rectify the raging cat problem?
Is there anybody out there?
THIS PAST WEEK, NASA launched its largest rover yet into space. The Curiosity, which is reportedly the size of a small van, is scheduled to land on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012. This latest mission to Mars is expected to bring back answers to the one major question about the red planet that has plagued us all since the rise of sci-fi fiction: Does it harbour any alien life? While the mission is being touted as one of the greatest accomplishments in American space study, there has been little mentioned about the Canadian-made sensor that will be at the heart of the analysis and possible detection of any life. Has the Canadian Space Agency become the victim of a raw deal in terms of their involvement in the Curiosity program, or is the NASA initiative at the heart of this mission simply more important?
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—Jaclyn Lytle
