"the great sun has turned his face away"

Happy birthday to two wonderful people, estellye and orenya! I hope both of you have terrific days and fantastic years to come!


FYI:

* SF Signal asked various "new guard" science fiction authors to define science fiction. Read the answers here (part 1) and here (part 2). (Thanks to kalquessa.)

* I have determined my upper-division seminar offerings for the Fall 2008 semester. (This semester I am teaching "Native American Identity in the U.S. Context" and "J.R.R. Tolkien in History, Political Thought, and Literature.") Both are new courses for me and for the university:

Worlds Gone Wrong: The Dystopian Tradition
( Read the course description. )

Native American Film and Fiction
( Read the course description. )

Every winter,
When the great sun has turned his face away,
The earth goes down into a vale of grief,
And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables,
Leaving her wedding-garlands to decay -
Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses.
- Charles Kingsley