Posthuman Blues

Man, word really gets around.

Here's Phenomena magazine's preface to The Pitch's take on "After the Martian Apocalypse":

"Mac Tonnies is undoubtedly the leading authority on alternative thinking about Mars.* Level headed and highly intelligent, his ideas are certainly 'out there' as far as mainstream science is concerned but within the realms of conspiratorial talk about all manner of past events and activities on the brown planet (yep, it's really brown and not red) this guy is a sensitive conservative.

"He does firmly believe that the face on Mars is artificial.** It was carved and created by another intelligence and is not of natural origin.

"This article is a gentle plea for Tonnies to return to his original vocation of science fiction writing.*** The writer has mixed feelings about Tonnies' recent publication 'After The Martian Apocalypse' and questions his thinking and influences. Nevertheless, it's not really critical and is amusing for the strange references that the writer constantly makes to himself.****"

*Really, I'm not. For my money, image processor Mark Carlotto has done more to bring science to bear on the question of artificiality than anyone else. (But hey, I'll take it.)

**I lean toward the Artificiality Hypothesis as the most likely explanation for the Face (and other peculiarities in the Cydonia region), but I'm not a "believer." I'm attracted to the Cydonia mystery, in part, because -- unlike so many "fringe" ideas -- it's scientifically testable; it doesn't make much sense to "believe" in something if you can be proven wrong.

***For whatever it's worth, I'm at work on a near-future SF novel called "Women and Children First," about life in an ecologically decimated America circa 2040.

****The "meat" references have confused quite a few Web readers unfamiliar with Ortega's weekly column, "Kansas City Strip." I can't say I blame them. Kansas City has an enduring history in the meat industry; outside my window, for example, is a barbecue place called "K.C. Masterpiece." So the obscure references to various pieces of cow meat are a regional thing. And I should add that The Pitch's ubiquitous print edition has a graphic of a sizzling K.C. strip steak next to the column.

Summing up: Ortega writes as an anthropomorphized steak -- who, incidentally, shares page-space with someone calling him- or herself "Jimmy the Fetus."

Who said the Midwest was boring?