Paul Levinson
Bio
Novels The Silk Code, The Plot To Save Socrates, It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Prof, Fordham Univ.
Stories (742)
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Paul Levinson Read from 'The Whether App'
My first published story in a "pro" market was "Albert's Cradle," back in 1993, in Amazing Stories. I therefore was especially pleased when my story "Slipping Time" was published in the fall 2018 re-launch issue of Amazing Stories. The magazine, by the way, was started by Hugo Gernsback in 1926, making it the oldest science fiction periodical still in publication.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Outlander' 4.2
Outlander 4.2 last night, another strong episode, continued the blending of opposites that is the essence of the series. This time it was Jamie's aunt's plantation in South Carolina. It's a beautiful, bucolic paradise on first glance. But on closer inspection, it thrives on the backs of hundreds of slaves. Jamie's aunt is kind -- meaning, she treats her slaves well. Claire with her future sensibilities is horrified. Jamie's not to happy either. And before the hour is over, we're treated to an in-depth, sensitive tour of the law and practice of slavery in pre-Revolutionary War America.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Manifest' 1.5
Finally, a glimmer of progress in understanding what is going on in Manifest, in Monday's episode 1.5, just a glimmer. It comes from Cal, who becomes the first of the passengers on the flight that skipped ahead in time to not hear an instructive voice, but be the speaker of that voice. His father Ben is the one who hears it.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Making a Murderer' 2
My wife and I binge-watched the second season of Making a Murderer on Netflix the past few evenings. In an America brought to new levels of injustice and anger and despair courtesy of Trump, and commitment to vote him and his Republicans out of office as soon as possible, the story of what happened to Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey provides yet another totally separate example of the decline and miscarriage of justice in America, in this case due to police, prosecutors, and judges, including the U. S. Supreme Court.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Criminal
Elton John at Nassau Coliseum
Tina and I were on our feet for most of Elton John's fabulous Farewell Yellow Brick Road Concert at the Nassau Coliseum last night. This is the third retiring tour concert we've been to in the past few weeks—Paul Simon and Joan Baez were the previous—and each was superb and special in its own way.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Beat
Review of 'Manifest' 1.3
A fairly interesting Manifest 1.3 last night, centering around the murder of a passenger on the flight that skipped forward in time, Kelly. It turns out that her death was apparently just a run-of-the-mill murder—by a significant other who didn't like how Kelly was treating her after the return—but the end of the episode provided a more important payoff for the overall narrative. Or, rather, a question: why did the Feds take her body?
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Man in the High Castle' 3.7-10
The Man in the High Castle saved its crucial metaphysical reveal until nearly the last scene of the last episode, where Abendsen (the actual man in the high castle) explains to Smith that you can travel to an alternate reality only if you're no longer alive in that alternate world. This means Smith can bring back his son Thomas to his/our world (in which the Nazis and Japanese won the Second World War), Juliana can escape our reality to the one in which she saw herself killed (which she presumably does, also near the end), Tagomi wasn't alive in our off-screen reality which he visited in which we won the war (but great seeing him beat that Hitler youth, and fine performance throughout by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), Joe can come back to our world (in which Juliana killed him)—though I hardly missed him in these last four episodes—and all kinds of similar possibilities.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Man in the High Castle' 3.4-6
The Man in the High Castle episodes 3.4-6 contain the biggest stunner of the series. It's so unexpected, and handled so well, that I won't say what it is, on the slim chance that you're reading this and haven't yet seen these three episodes.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Man in the High Castle' 3.2-3
The Man in the High Castle episodes 3.2-3 go full bore into alternate realities, including: Dr. Mengele in New York schooling a shocked Smith about them, with Smith even remarking that this sounds like something out of "Frederic Brown"—a real science fiction writer in our reality, known mostly for his humorous science fiction stories, but author of the 1949 What Mad Universe, a novel with plenty of humor but also alternate universes. (The mention of Brown continues the weaving of elements from our reality into the alternate history of the Nazis and Japanese winning the Second World War that is the central story of The Man in the High Castle, with elements of our reality seeping through.) Smith, later watching one of the movie clips, sees his son Thomas alive and well, giving him a far deeper than professional stake in getting into or to the bottom of these alternate realities. Out West in Japanese California, the access to alternate realities is more mystical than scientific, as they are in the Nazi East Coast of America. This mysticism, by the way, is more consistent with Philip K. Dick's approach, but I like the way it's expanded to laboratory science in this third season of the story. Julianna's sister Trudy—the one who wasn't killed in her reality, but was in ours, now back in our reality alive and with Julianna—is discovered by Kido, the Japanese inspector who happened to kill her. This creates an unacceptable situation. Although Tagomi gets her and Juliania freed, they need to do something about Trudy, given Kido's understandable desire now to find out what's going on. Fortunately, I Ching is just thing to send Trudy back to her reality in a flash.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Man in the High Castle' 3.1
With the kick-in-the-gut news of the all-but-certain confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U. S. Supreme Court yesterday, I only managed to see the first episode of the third season of the brilliant Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime last night. Its alternate history of the Nazis and Japanese winning the Second World War was much more enjoyable than the real news in our reality. Herewith a review of that first episode, with more to come as I see the rest over the weekend.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
