In a famous essay, "Science Fiction and Mrs. Brown," Ursula K. Le
Guin decried Mrs. Brown's absence from the SF field. (Attr:
Virginia Woolf)
PART SEVEN: MISCELLANEOUS
AM/FM. Engineer's term distinguishing the inevitable clunky real-
world faultiness of "Actual Machines" from the power-fantasy
techno-dreams of "Fucking Magic."
Intellectual sexiness. The intoxicating glamor of a novel
scientific idea, as distinguished from any actual intellectual
merit that it may someday prove to possess.
Consensus Reality. Useful term for the purported world in which
the majority of modern sane people generally agree that they live
-- as opposed to the worlds of, say, Forteans, semioticians or
quantum physicists.
The Ol' Baloney Factory. "Science Fiction" as a publishing and
promotional entity in the world of commerce.
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