PSA: Steerswoman back in print

If you're a newcomer to this LJ, you might have missed my rave review of Rosemary Kirstein's _Steerswoman_ books. I am informed by James Nicoll that they are coming back into print.

If you like SF, go buy them. If you've already bought them and have some disposable income, buy them *again*! I want Kirstein to earn enough money that she can quit her day job and write more of these.

Stata Center

Last night I went to an event at MIT's Stata Center. It's the first time I've ever actually been *inside* it. From seeing the outside, I was pretty sure that it embodied all that I find objectionable about modern architecture. Which it does. But it goes so far beyond that. This is the first time I've been in a building that actually felt *evil*.

Kes (who had been in it during her student time at MIT) had told me that it was made of Lovecraftian Non-Euclidean Geometry, and probably had an Elder God in the basement. I thought she was exaggerating, but no, it totally has that vibe. It's not *just* confusing, wasteful, and ugly. The acoustics are unsettling. The walls induce vertigo, and look (to one's hindbrain) as if they are about to fall on one. The most often repeated 'decorative' element is origami swans, thus invoking souls devoured in nuclear holocaust. It's a giant Fear Machine. The notion that there is Something Nasty in the cellar feeding on those negative emotions seems completely reasonable when one is inside.

(And I didn't even leave the first floor...)