Author Archives: JE

About JE

James Enge is the author of the World-Fantasy-Award-nominated novel Blood of Ambrose (Pyr, April 2009). His latest book is The Wide World's End. His short fiction has appeared in Black Gate, Tales from the Magician's Skull, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and elsewhere.

AI Without the I

Seen on Bluesky. I’m guessing that “until it gets a bit better at this AI thing” ≈ forever

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Horrible Old Music-Man

I’m not 100% crazy about Richard Strauss’ music, except for “Death and Transfiguration”, which I love. But I can never listen to it now without remembering the remark about Strauss attributed to  Hans Knappertsbusch: “I knew him very well. We … Continue reading

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Horrible Old Men

I used to hold the unproven and unprovable belief that old age magnifies moral qualities, so that past a certain point you become more and more evil as you age, or the opposite. I’m not noticing any haloes when I … Continue reading

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The Message

Remembered belatedly that I have a Medium account. I have to say, I’m making quite a splash over there. I may be more than Medium. Possibly Extra Large.

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Canticle or CANicle?

As a kid, I was very creeped out by this Bantam cover of Miller’s A Canticle for Leibowitz when I found it on my parents’ bookshelf. I was already reading sf, but somehow that didn’t seem to apply to this … Continue reading

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More Like Un-ergy

“To assert dignity is to lose it.” Nero Wolfe in Stout’s The League of Frightened Men. One might say the same thing about “masculine energy”.

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Garum + Chili = ?

I was trying to figure out why you couldn’t say this in Latin, then thought, “Well, it could only improve garum”, and finally realized: oh, they mean cocina latina. Some of these keywords for Bluesky feeds are deeply ambiguous. (“Conan” … Continue reading

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Hamlet Is…

“Hamlet isn’t just Hamlet. Oh no, no, no–oh, no. Hamlet is me. Hamlet is Bosnia. Hamlet is this desk. Hamlet is the air. Hamlet is my grandmother. “ —A Midwinter’s Tale (1995) This is really just a test to see … Continue reading

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Kind of a Drag

Here’s the decoration for my office-door schedule this semester. In some ways I’m one of the volentes, in most ways I’m one of the nolentes, but am feeling the motion either way.

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Ixnay on the AIhay

Apple pushed a notification about so-called “Apple Intelligence” to my computer. Since they don’t have a “Hell, no!” button, and punching the screen is a too-expensive indulgence, this is my reaction.

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