(1) FUTURE TENSE. The new Future Tense Fiction story for August 2025 is “The Middle,” by Erin K. Wagner.

The story is about a haute cuisine restaurant in a near-future Atlantic City that introduces “Su-Chef,” a supposedly cutting-edge kitchen robot, touching off a strike among the human restaurant workers. The story unfolds against the backdrop of climate change and disrupted supply chains for food items, even for high-end restaurants.

Art/science scholar Christy Spackman has written a response essay, “Can Flavor Make Scientific Sense?”

…The sensory standardization and technological precision that underlie the twentieth-century miracle of food that tastes the same and can be packaged and shipped thousands of miles differ drastically—at least on the surface—from foods found in high-end restaurant kitchens. Or at least it did until the culinary movement known as molecular gastronomy, modernist cuisine, or experimental cooking took off. In what may seem like a strange reversal, fine-dining chefs adopted the insights and technologies that made fast-food chicken nuggets possible and employed these approaches to create foods that defy traditional narratives….

(2) TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCES. NPR has posted its reader survey of “23 books that shaped you in high school”.

…This summer, we asked you to tell us about the books you read in high school that profoundly affected you. It turns out you had a lot to share. More than 1,100 of you wrote back to tell us about the formative texts you were assigned as teens….

The list comes with this caveat —

…We’re sharing your thoughts here. This list reflects a time when fewer female authors and writers of color were being published and assigned in high schools — and many of you expressed hope that today’s syllabuses are more varied and diverse….

SFF is represented on the list by 1984, Slaughterhouse Five, Lord of the Rings, and Brave New World, plus perpetual favorite –

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Lauren Gradowski, 35, of Glen Burnie, Md., has taught Ray Bradbury’s 1953 novel for a decade. It takes place in a future America where books are prohibited. “With every passing year, I become more and more alarmed at how quickly our society has begun to mimic the dystopia it depicts,” Gradowski writes. “The book shows us how easily a society slips into apathy and contempt for critical thinking. … Our kids need to understand the risks, the price that we pay if we let this sort of world become normalized. … They already live in the early stages of Bradbury’s dystopia. They at least deserve the chance to realize where things will end if they lean into it without question.”

(3) PORTER MEDICAL UPDATE. Andrew Porter’s brother Stephen Silverberg reports: “Surgery successful. Tear repaired and he’s recuperating. Still in the hospital and will probably be until early or midweek.”

(4) MOOMIN PICTURE BUSINESS. “Moomins Enter the Cuteness Pantheon, With Help From Gen Z” – link bypasses the New York Times paywall.

The Moomin family — Moominpappa, Moominmamma and Moomintroll — live in Moominvalley, where they welcome all friends, visitors and vagrants for adventures and sweet treats.

Lately, though, the milk-white hippo-esque characters created by the Finnish author and artist Tove Jansson, have taken over the central branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. With huge, friendly eyes and protruding, snuffly snouts, they peer from balconies and dance across giant pink and green floor displays.

On a recent summer afternoon, Meera Sastry, who was visiting from Los Angeles, stopped by to see the exhibit on the recommendation of a college friend.

“I remember Moomins growing up, from online — I was big into Tumblr,” said Ms. Sastry, 23, pausing to admire a photograph of Ms. Jansson by the Finnish coast. “Of course they were cute, like Sanrio characters. But I liked that they were also anxious, and had little narratives.” Ms. Sastry hadn’t read any of the nine books featuring the characters, she admitted: “I’ll have to get on that.”…

… When the library announced the exhibition on Instagram, said Linda E. Johnson, the president and chief executive of the Brooklyn Public Library, it became the account’s highest-performing post to date….

(5) SFWA UPDATE ON ANTHROPIC LAWSUIT. SFWA President Kate Ristau shared with members what they know about the settlement of the class-action lawsuit against Anthropic.

…The class-action lawsuit against Anthropic that SFWA supported through an amicus brief reached a preliminary settlement. Michael Capobianco, my fellow Commissioner with Authors Coalition, and I met with the lawyers from Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP representing authors in this case. 

The basic argument in this class-action lawsuit is that Anthropic infringed on author copyrights. 

Instead of going to court, Anthropic has agreed to a settlement. 

This a big victory for authors (in what is expected to be the first of many lawsuits).  

What does this mean?

• We don’t have all the details yet. The judge ordered a lightning quick agreement process on the settlement, which will be negotiated and filed by Friday, September 5.
• At that point, we will be able to share more details about the settlement amount and who will ultimately be a legal or beneficial owner of the class in this settlement. 

Why is SFWA emailing you about this?

As an organization representing authors and creators like you, SFWA participated in supporting this lawsuit before the court. 

• We signed onto an amicus brief in favor of the class-action lawsuit and gave our feedback on the class and the proposed suit. 
• We met with Authors Coalition member groups and attorneys to work through how to contact authors who are owed money. 
• We met again with lawyers yesterday to discuss the proposed settlement. 

What’s next?

The class still needs to be finalized. SFWA is working with the attorneys (as we discussed here) to collect author information, so that authors can receive notice if the court approves this settlement.

If you receive notice, you will have 90 days to choose to:

• Participate in the class
• Participate and object
• Not participate

If you have friends or colleagues who are not part of SFWA and may be impacted by this lawsuit, we encourage you to share this website with them:https://www.lieffcabraser.com/anthropic-author-contact/

The sooner they get in contact, the better.

If you are receiving this email, you will also be receiving information about the lawsuit from Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP in the following weeks. We encourage you to follow up. 

After the settlement is finalized, we will update you on the full details. 

(6) ALIEN Q&A. “’If ever there’s a movie where I got everything right, it was ‘Alien’: How Oscar winner Roger Christian made ‘Alien: Earth’ feel like a classic” – a Space.com interview.

… Noted Lucasfilm editor and author J.W. Rinzler, who was a personal friend of Christian’s and wrote “The Making of Alien,” considers these two projects to be “one of the greatest back-to-back Hollywood design accomplishments ever.” On “Alien,” Christian prowled British junkyards for scrap aviation parts, old jet engines, PVC piping, and sewer drain pipes for his unique set artistry and was present right beside Scott for the entire UK-based shoot outside London.

“‘Alien’ in some ways was similar to ‘Star Wars.’ It was essentially the first R-rated science fiction movie. They cut $600,000 out of our budget and where does that go? Off the art department because there were no stars in it. The moment I was asked to go they’d already built the wooden structure on two stages at Shepperton. I was on ‘The Life of Brian’ and couldn’t do ‘Alien,’ but it got cancelled and I was in London sitting the producer’s office when the phone rang and it was Ridley. He said, ‘Get your a$$ down here to Shepperton.’

“That was because I knew how to work this kind of grungy used world. Michael Seymour who did his commercials wasn’t a science fiction designer. As soon as I walked in the office they gave me the script. Around the wall were six Giger paintings and I thought, God, with Ridley’s eye I knew what he was going to do.”…

(7) TAKE A GANDER AT SANDERSON’S GRANDER GARRETS. [Item by David Doering.] Here are a couple of pics of Brandon Sanderson’s newest abode under construction . The Utah Valley view also shows our Wasatch Mountains in the background as well as the LDS Temple in the middle. 

(8) LIVE FOREVER. [Item by Andrew (not Werdna).] “How to Live Forever and Get Rich Doing It” by Tad Friend in The New Yorker (behind a paywall). About longevity research, but the SF reference was not quite the expected one:

“He mentioned one more seminal book, Robert Heinlein’s sci-fi collection “The Man Who Sold the Moon.” The man in question, D. D. Harriman, longs to go to the moon, but his vision and salesmanship are so vital to the moon-colonization program that his colleagues maneuver to keep him on Earth.”

The article begins:

Peter Diamandis is five feet four and has pipestem legs, but his torso widens into broad shoulders, powerful biceps, and a craggy, Homeric head. The composite effect is of a genie emerging from a lamp. Our wish is his command, and our wish, surely, must be for more time to make wishes: for limitless life. In December, Diamandis stood before two hundred doctors and scientists and vowed that in the coming decade our wish would begin to come true: “It’s either a hardware problem or a software problem—and we’re going to be able to fix that!”

(9) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.

[Written by Paul Weimer.]

Born August 29, 1954 — Michael Kube-McDowell, 71.

By Paul Weimer: I first encountered Michael Kube-McDowell ‘s work in a quasi tie-in novel, Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Odyssey. This was part of a series of novels that Asimov commissioned in the titular city, set somewhere in his Robot-Empire timeline. It started off in the classic amnesia case, with a man on the run and not remembering why, and easing readers into the setting Asimov had created for Kube-McDowell to explore in this and subsequent books. It was entertaining enough that I started to look for other works of his. I came across some stories here and there (especially a couple that wound up as Tales from the Darkside).

And then I struck gold when I found Alternities. 

Alternities stands as one of the classic parallel world novels. Walter Endicott, clearly not from our world, stumbles from our world, suddenly, into a world not his own. The singular universe has now fractured into a kaleidoscope (the novel uses the word maze) of alternate realities. The novel, like many alternate history multiverse novels of the period (before and since) heavily thinks about the branch points, the jonbar points, the decisions that lead to each of the major color-coded worlds that we see in the book. 

There is a lot of speculation as to why the worlds split as they did, and a surprising answer and conclusion, as well. The novel shows his erudition not only in science but in general communication of popular knowledge. Kube-McDowell’s columns and articles on everything from the space program to the idiocy of “scientific creationism” are a testament to his knowledge, curiosity, and ability to explain and bring ideas to his reading audience both in fiction and nonfiction alike.

And he’s a filker on top of all that.  Quite the Renaissance man indeed.

(10) COMICS SECTION.

• Dinette Set is skeptical.
• Loose Parts has merch. 
• The Argyle Sweater makes you figure it out.
• Tom the Dancing Bug writes a perfectly structured story. 

(11) A VOTE FOR ALIENS. Emma Stone endorses Carl Sagan at the Venice Film Festival: “Emma Stone declares belief in aliens during Bugonia film promo” reports the Guardian.

…“I don’t know about looking down on us, but one of my favourite people who has ever lived is Carl Sagan and I fell madly in love with his philosophy and science and how brilliant he is,” the Oscar winner said.

“He very deeply believed [that] the idea that we’re alone in this vast expansive universe – not that we’re being watched – is a pretty narcissistic thing. So, yes, I’m coming out and saying it: I believe in aliens.”…

(12) NINE? NEIN! GamesRadar+ picks “The 32 Greatest Alien Invasion Movies”.

Do aliens exist? Based on how many alien invasion movies there are, you’d be forgiven that there’s gotta be some proof of extraterrestrial life—and that the aliens are out to get us here on Earth. But, for now, attacking aliens are just the stuff of fiction. (Barring any funny business at Area 51, of course.) Makes for some great movies, though!…

You might wonder why the movie on the bottom of the list didn’t drop off altogether….

32. Plan 9 From Outer Space

Year: 1957
Director: Ed Wood

Widely regarded as one of the worst films ever made (if not the worst film ever made), Plan 9 From Outer Space is the masterpiece of Ed Wood, a ’50s genre filmmaker whose passion was huge but whose talents were, ah, lacking. Made famous in the ’90s when it was X-Files protagonist Fox Mulder’s favorite film and by Tim Burton’s funny and sympathetic biopic of the maligned director, Plan 9 From Outer Space probably doesn’t deserve the label of the worst film of all time. It’s certainly not good—it’s a confused, haphazardly made tale of aliens who bring corpses back to life to invade Earth—but there’s something charming about the inept gusto.

(13) POETRY CHAPBOOK PUBLISHING. “Creating a Chapbook: How To” — Dream Foundry’s 2023 panel video has advice.

From selecting the poems to include to options for publication and distribution, a conversation on the nuts and bolts of creating a chapbook for your speculative poetry.

(14) DIRT CHEAP. [Item by Steven French.] Part of me thinks this is neat, the other part thinks we shouldn’t encourage Musk & co. any further: “Turning Martian soil into metal: Scientists test new extraction process” at Phys.org.

The idea of building settlements on Mars is a popular goal of billionaires, space agencies and interplanetary enthusiasts.

But construction demands materials, and we can’t ship it all from Earth: it cost US$243 million just to send NASA’s one ton Perseverance Rover to the Red Planet.

Unless we’re building a settlement for ants, we’ll need much, much more stuff. So how do we get it there?

CSIRO Postdoctoral Fellow and Swinburne alum Dr. Deddy Nababan has been pondering this question for years. His answer lies in the Martian dirt, known as regolith.

“Sending metals to Mars from Earth might be feasible, but it’s not economical. Can you imagine bringing tons of metals to Mars? It’s just not practical,” he says.

“Instead, we can use what’s available on Mars—it’s called in-situ resource utilization (ISRU).”

More specifically, Dr. Nababan is looking at astrometallurgy—making metals in space….

[Thanks to Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, John King Tarpinian, Paul Weimer, David Doering, Andrew (not Werdna), Stephen Silverberg, Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, and Teddy Harvia for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Cat Eldridge.]