Author Archives: VN Alexander

The Biologist’s Mistress

My new non-fiction title, The Biologist’s Mistress: Rethinking Self-Organization in Literature, Art, and Nature, has been released by Emergent Publications. Last year, I tried to distinguish myself from popular Harlequin Romance writer Victoria Alexander by changing my novel-writing pen name to Tori Alexander.  But I kept Victoria N. Alexander for my philosophy of science work, assuming that I ran no risk of being confused with Victoria Alexander on that front. A couple of months ago, I wrote to a colleague in Denmark telling him that my new book, Biologist’s Mistress, would be released soon.  He wrote back quickly saying that he had ordered my book from Amazon, but strangely the title (by Victoria Alexander) in Denmark had been translated into the “Perfect Mistress.”

I suppose there’s no avoiding one’s Doppelgänger.

My title, by the way, references a quote attributed to 20th C geneticist J. B. S. Haldane, “Teleology is like a mistress to the biologist; he dare not be seen with her in public but cannot live without her.”

Please take a look at the book’s website www.biologistsmistress.com, and get a copy too!

Jack Kevorkian dies at 83

Kevorkian was ridiculed while he fought to legalize physician-assisted suicide. The media, stooping as it usually does to name-calling, fixed a particularly offensive label to Dr Kevorkian, which effectively obscured the importance, sanity, mercy, and compassion behind his cause. I won’t repeat the name here because it does harm every time it’s used, and even sympathetic writers and reporters seem unable to resist the impulse to mention it.

I admire Dr Kevorkian for standing up for what he believed in.  Judge Jessica Cooper’s decision to send him to jail was a travesty of justice. She claimed that the court is not the place to test a law.

We have the means and the methods to protest the laws with which we disagree. You can criticize the law, you can write or lecture about the law, you can speak to the media or petition the voters. But you cannot break the law.

Tell that to Rosa Parks, Judge Cooper.

(See more about euthanasia at Naked Singularity.)

Naked Singularity now on Kindle

My second novel may not get quite as much attention as my other two novels (with pretty females on their covers), but Naked Singularity is my personal favorite and I’m happy to announce that it’s finally available on Kindle.  The subject is dark — euthanasia — but heavy as it is, it’s also darkly comic. Here’s a thoughtful review from poet Gerrit Henry published when the novel first appeared in 2003.

Alexander, Victoria N. Naked Singularity.The Permanent Press, 2003, Sag Harbor. 189 pp. One of the many dark beauties of Victoria N. Alexander’s new novel is that, not only is it the proverbial good read, it is also a proverbially brilliant one. Alexander–holder of a PhD–has dished up a heart-stoppingly beautiful heroine who holds similar degrees in teleology (the study of why) and she thinks, and writes, like a dream. Witness this sample from a soliloquy by Hali on death: “You had thought death would at least be romantic, but now you realize there is nothing to be thankful for–how vacuous, how colorless, how without pity, how without regard for your intentions . . . . ” This, from a piece of popular fiction, is almost asking too much in the matter of sheer, unabused style. Continue reading →

Fake political correctness in Amazon.com’s “Editorial Review” section

Let me say off the top that I like Amazon.com.  Even as a huge corporate entity, they provide a fairly even playing ground for small literary fiction presses.  They are even more democratic in this regard than many independent bookstores. But today I have some criticisms to make regarding their practices of posting “Editorial Reviews.” These are the unsigned reviews that appear at the top of the review section and that are the most visible.  Amazon has an agreement with Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Library Journal to post their reviews in this section. Publishers cannot opt to replace these reviews with others from equally respectable review publications. Amazon claims they  are under contract to post reviews and do not have a choice in the matter. Continue reading →

Biosemiotics: Discussion with Don Favareau

Philosopher Don Favareau explains “biosemiotics,” the new paradigm for  scientists and philosophers grappling with the concepts of “meaning,” “signaling,” and “coding” in biological processes–and in culture. Click here to listen to BBC radio broadcast featuring Don.

Biosemiotics is an area of science that informs my work in philosophy, as described in my forthcoming non-fiction work, The Biologist’s Mistress: Rethinking Self-Organization in Art, Literature, and Nature. But it also informs my creative writing, especially the short story collection I’m currently writing, The Narrative: and Other Stories, which focuses on how things become signs through poetic and chance associations. Continue reading →

PBS Frontline on euthanasia

PBS Frontline recently featured a show about how terminally ill patients and their families face death. Medical science today can keep virtually any body “alive” for years – even after vital organs have ceased to function. It is a complex issue because – in addition to the philosophical questions about what it means to be alive Continue reading →

How to write a book review

I’m the editor at an online literary fiction review called Dactyl Review. We  receive a lot of  emails asking  for some general pointers for writing reviews.  Most requests have come from conscientious readers who want to post their first review on Amazon.com, GoodReads or LibraryThing.  As a supporter of literature, I liked to help the reviewing world do a good job, on Dactyl Review and elsewhere.  So here’s some guidance that (I hope) will help you write the kind of review that will be useful to readers and writers alike, no matter what you think of the book. Continue reading →

Writer Dorion Sagan on What Now

Dorion Sagan, a good friend of mine, science writer, thinker, novelist, was recently interviewed on Ken Rose’s radio program “What Now? Extended interviews with accomplished thinkers, writers, artists, farmers and scientists addressing the global crisis” on KOWS in California.

Click here to download the mp3. It’s a wonderful, long interview. It starts slow, but keep listening. Dorion gives a surprising answer to Rose’s question about whether or not the human is likely to survive as a species and in what form. He talks about his books The Sciences of Avatar: from Anthropology to Xenology, Notes from the Holocene, Dazzle Gradually, which he wrote with his mother Lynn Margulis, Death and Sex, which he wrote with Tyler Volk, Cooking with Jesus: From the Primal Brew to the Last Brunch, and many others. Dorion also plugged my 2003 novel, Naked Singularity. Thanks Dorion.

What is Literary Fiction?

Literary fiction is often linguistically difficult, or unusual, in the way that poetry is. It often contains unfamiliar words or supports political, ideological, religious positions that are not widely accepted.  It subverts sentimentality. It makes people think.

Non-fans of literary fiction tend to complain that it sends them to the dictionary (or tries to).  They claim literary fiction is guilty of affectation, a term which seems to have changed its meaning of late:

Main Entry: af·fec·ta·tion

Pronunciation: ˌa-ˌfek-ˈtā-shən
Function: noun

1 :displaying extensive knowledge acquired chiefly from books : demonstrating profound, recondite, or bookish learning

2 :speech or behavior relating to, or characteristic of poets or poetry

Continue reading →

Review of Yellow Dog by Martin Amis

“Male violence did it.” Martin Amis has a bit of a reputation for making sweeping, declarative statements like this one that ends the first paragraph of Yellow Dog. I’ve read all of Amis’ books except Pregnant Widow and Koba the Dread (on my list, next) and I’m very familiar with the Amis conception of gender.  I can make sweeping generalizations about his Men and his Women. Continue reading →