Peter Watts Is An Angry Sentient Tumor: Revenge Fantasies and Essays

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Tachyon Publications, Nov 12, 2019 - Fiction - 369 pages
With over fifty unpredictable, scathing, hilarious, and more-than-occasionally moving essays about science, politics, family, pop culture, religion and more, Peter Watts — Hugo Award-winning author, former marine biologist, and “angry sentient tumor” (via Annalee Newitz, author of Autonomous) — shows why he is the savage dystopian optimist whom you can’t look away from ... even when you probably should.

[STARRED REVIEW] “Irreverent, self-depreciating, profane, and funny, showcasing a Hunter S. Thompson–esque studied rage and dissatisfaction with the status quo combined with the readability and humor of John Scalzi.”
—Booklist


Which of the following is true?

Peter Watts is banned from the U.S.
Watts almost died from flesh-eating bacteria.
A schizophrenic man living in Watts’s backyard almost set the house on fire.
Watts was raised by Baptists who really sucked at giving presents.
Peter Watts said to read this book. Or else.

With Watts's infamous penchant for blunt, honest, and deep reflection, these retrospective essays provide a view inside his head and even into his heart.
 

Selected pages

Contents

In Love with the Moment
We Need to Talk About Kevin
And so it Begins
Extraordinary Claims
Suck
Zounds Gadzooks and Fucking Sisyphus
Actually You Can Keep a Good Man Down
Dolphinese
Smashing the Lid Off Pandoras
Motherhood Issues
The BestCase Apocalypse
Thoughts on Logan
Story of Your Life
In Praise of War Crimes
Martin Luther King and the Vampire Rights League
PyrE Make them tell you what it is

The Dudette With the Clitoris
No Brainer
The Least Unlucky Bastard
The Men Behind the Mask
The Overweening Overentitlement
The Cylon Solution
A Renaissance of Analog Antiquity
Copyright

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About the author (2019)

Peter Watts is a former marine biologist and a current science-fiction author. His debut novel in the Rifters series, (Starfish) was a New York Times Notable Book, and his novel (Blindsight) has become a required text in undergraduate courses ranging from philosophy to neuroscience, and was a finalist for numerous North American genre awards. His shorter work, including Beyond the Rift, has received the Shirley Jackson, Hugo, and Aurora awards. Watts’s work is available in twenty languages and has been cited as inspirational to several popular video games. He lives in Toronto.

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