The business of fiction is the study of the human condition, and gender is something that many humans are obsessed with, thus making it rather difficult to ignore when studying the human condition! Charles Stross businessconditiondifficult Change image and share on social
Britain is relatively compact and much closer to the borders of the U.S.S.R. than anywhere in North America. Charles Stross americaborderbritain Change image and share on social
History is another country and might be full of fascinating incidents and places to go visit - but as a destination for emigration, it has some problems! Charles Stross countrydestinationemigration Change image and share on social
The paucity of near-future U.S. scifi is about the country becoming pessimistic, not being able to see the future clearly. There's a trend in U.S. scifi towards militarism and far-future stuff. Charles Stross countryfuturemilitarism Change image and share on social
Luckily, I'm not a stand-up comedian, so I don't get the fear of standing on stage in front of a dead audience: my humorous pieces have to make it past an editor before they get exposed to the public. Charles Stross audiencecomediandead Change image and share on social
My books are published by Hachette. My books have been blacklisted and blocked on Amazon on multiple occasions. Charles Stross amazonblacklistblock Change image and share on social
I tend to work on the principle that much humour relies on cognitive dissonance - on the foreground not matching the background, on the protagonist's response to a situation being inappropriate, and so on. Charles Stross backgroundcognitivedissonance share on social
It turns out that the killer application for virtual reality is other human beings. Build a world that people want to inhabit, and the inhabitants will come. Charles Stross applicationbeingbuild Change image and share on social
I write more for the children of the computer revolution, who are also interested in speculation and exploring the human condition, but approach it from an information perspective. Charles Stross approachchildcomputer Change image and share on social
Science fiction has traditionally been economically naive, with a strong libertarian streak, which I think is like a crude Leninism. That's attractive because it could be used to explain everything, and if only we lived by its tenets, everything would be perfect. Charles Stross attractivecrudeeconomically share on social