Posts by Robert AB Sawyer

We do not work in stone although we may use stones to make a point. No, we work with ideas, and ideas, even the best ideas, even brilliant ideas, have a shelf life. The shelf life may be as brief as that of a baguette or as enduring as a loaf of Wonder Bread, but a shelf…

Life is nothing but instability and disequilibrium…a tumult, continuously on the verge of explosion. -Georges Bataille, from “Erotism: Death & Sensuality.” What perfect equilibrium.  Stability.  Certainty.  What perfect equanimity.  These are some of the qualities one may see when he or she looks at a photograph of a city skyline.  Or, one may see a…

Introduction: More and Less Than Meets the Eye 1 In this paper I will discuss the relationship between movement and engagement—both literaland psychological—of two women as they make their way through their respective cities.The two characters—Cleo, in Agnes Varda’s Cleo de 5 a 7,1 and Natasha Von Braun, néeNosferatu, in Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville, une étrange…