Star Orcs

Star Trek And Socialism

Adam Kotsko | An Und Für Sich | 4th September 2023

Star Trek is held up as the archetype of progressive science fiction and interpreted as a reaction to late 20C "capitalist triumphalism". It provides a vision of "a post-scarcity world where a combination of automation and instant replication of consumer goods have eliminated need and toil". Yet it is "surprisingly incurious about the actual economic underpinnings of its utopian abundance" (1,480 words)

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When Wizards And Orcs Came To Death Row

Keri Blakinger | Marshall Project | 31st August 2023

Dungeons & Dragons is surprisingly popular among long-term prisoners in the US, including those sentenced to death. Playing can be difficult: with no internet, rules must be looked up in physical manuals that are banned in some states, as are the dice that are essential for play. But the productive escapism of inventing and then vanishing into a different world is worth the hassle (4,640 words)