A Condor's Quill

This essay was published exactly one year ago this month (June, 2025) in Metastellar Magazine . In keeping with the sci-fi theme of my last post, I thought I would reprint it here ... The Intersection of Science Fiction and Philosophy by James C. Clar  © 2025 Science Fiction and Philosophy have a dynamic and long-standing relationship that stretches at least as far back as the nineteenth  century in works by the likes of Verne, Wells and Conan Doyle. The two fields have often informed, enriched and commented upon one another in many interesting and intriguing ways. Consider, for example, that Philosophy often uses thought experiments to explore complex and abstract ideas. Science Fiction takes those concepts and gives them narrative life. In Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep , to cite merely one example, questions about the nature of humanity and the importance of empathy are explored. The reader is thereby asked to consider whether androids with memories a...

  Revisiting a Classic I’ve read nearly all of Ray Bradbury over the years but only recently returned to The Martian Chronicles in its entirety. I first encountered the book as a teenager in 1973. This time, I was struck by themes I perhaps recognized then but could not fully appreciate until now. Published in 1950, the book remains one of the most hauntingly poetic works of science fiction ever written. Calling it science fiction, however, seems like a misnomer. Bradbury was not primarily interested in technology, engineering, or the physics of space travel. For him, Mars was less a planet than a mirror reflecting humanity’s anxiety, desires and, especially, its arrogance and prejudices. Reading it again in 2026, what strikes me is not just Bradbury’s lyrical prose, but the disturbing relevance of this themes. As “dated” as parts of the book may seem, those themes feel very contemporary indeed. The Comfort and Delusion of Nostalgia One of Bradbury’s most persistent and...

  I’m a writer and avid reader of hardboiled detective fiction, crime drama and noir. I’m also a jazz aficionado … on vinyl, of course. For the record (pun intended) my collection long predates the recent resurgence in the media. To me, those two interests have never felt separate. Noir and jazz simply belong together; artistically, culturally and emotionally. They speak the same language, a language whose grammar is improvisation and tension and whose vocabulary is that of longing, grit, betrayal and loss. The more I read noir and hardboiled fiction, in fact, the more I actually hear jazz in the prose. Take Chandler, for example, the godfather of lyrical, hardboiled writing. At times, his prose swings. It moves with the same balance of precision – Chandler is famous for working and re-working his stories until they were just right – and improvisation. It’s the same kind of balance you hear in any great jazz solo. In The Big Sleep , for example, the iconic P.I., Phil Marlowe decl...

Two more of my stories featuring hardboiled Honolulu P.I., Eddie O'Brien have been published this past week ... A Little White Lie : In July of 1945, the USS Indianapolis made port in Honolulu for six hours to refuel and resupply on its way toTinian with components for the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in August. Against that historic backdrop, Eddie is asked to locate a missing sailor.  Better Press : Eddie is hired by a wealthy art collector to ransom back a famous painting that was stolen from the man's home. The detective discovers that the painting in question has a rather dubious provenance. As usual, he decides to change the rules of the game. Additionally, this week on Freedom Fiction Journal , I was the writer featured in the publication's "Author Spotlight." There's a brief interview with yours truly there as well.

  A number of years ago, a dear friend of mine wrote a story about a Hollywood set designer who could "build anything." The story, and its central conceit, stuck with me.  Recently, I reread Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister . It's a later work and draws on the author's time working as a screenwriter  in Tinseltown.  Those two influences more-or-less coalesced and gave rise to my latest, Pale Perfection which can be found on Topiary Stories/Evergreen Fiction . I'm always fascinated and surprised by how disparate events, experiences etc. can come together and percolate to provide impetus for a story.