Paul Levinson
Bio
Novels The Silk Code & The Plot To Save Socrates; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Best-known short story: The Chronology Protection Case; Prof, Fordham Univ.
Stories (696/0)
Review of Game of Thrones 7.7
An excellent season 7 finale of Game of Thrones last night, though, I have to say, not quite as exciting or decisive as last week's penultimate episode (but that's often the case these years — the next-to-last episode is often more mind-blowing or just better than the last, be it the season or series finale).
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Geeks
Review of Twin Peaks: The Return 1.15
I guess that was a gas station in Twin Peaks: The Return 1.15 last night—whatever exactly that was in the forest, where bad Cooper arrived in his vehicle. The structure behind it look a little like, I don't know, some kind of room and board, or maybe some kind of lodge, yeah that was more likely it. And someone very familiar offered to unlock the door for him, in that other-dimensionally super-slow distorted voice.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of Game of Thrones 7.6
I thought last night's Game of Thrones 7.6 was the best episode so far in the entire series. We finally got to see the battle between the dragons and the dead. Dragon fire versus dead ice and everything that led up to it last night was peak Game of Thrones, profound and breathtaking. And the battle itself...
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Geeks
Review of Twin Peaks: The Return 1.14
Hey, it's tough to make progress when your adversary is from/in another dimension and an evil one at that, and one with the power to snap up good people and return them with an evil twin. Not to mention that the FBI agent in charge of the case can't speak softly and carry a big stick, because he's hard of hearing (proof—he wears a hearing aid). But the forces of good made a small amount of painstaking, painful progress in Twin Peaks 1.14 nonetheless.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of Somewhere Between 1.4
So how is it that the killer is killed before he kills Laura's daughter Serena on Somewhere Between 1.4 last night, but there's still a harrowing story to be told? Because the killed killer is not the killer, after all. (Or, as is always the case with time travel, maybe he was but someone changed history so he no longer is.)
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of Twin Peaks: The Return 1.13
Twin Peaks may not always be comprehensible or comprehendible (well, almost never), but it's always good for a laugh, with a variety of visual, acoustic, and linguistic punchlines, and just some good old-fashioned gags (and I don't just mean scenes that make you feel like gagging).
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
- Top Story - August 2017
Review of Game of Thrones 7.4Top Story - August 2017
Well, this is the episode of Game of Thrones we've been waiting for — or at least, one of the episodes. In 7.4, we finally get to see one of the fearsome fire spewing dragons in battle... against Jaime Lannister's army.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Geeks
Review of Westworld Season 1 Finale
Here's what we learned in the excellent season 1 finale of Westworld, and the possible questions raised: The Man in Black is the new majority owner of Westworld. The Man in Black is William, much older. This is one of the first fine twists -- a sequence of turns and revelations of events that cut deep. What we've been seeing of Dolores during these ten episodes are not just skips and jumps and loops in her mind, but time itself chopped up, that is, earlier and more recent events in her life. Which means, regarding William, that every scene we've seen with him happened in the pretty distant past -- i.e., decades ago. Nice touch. Dolores dying in Teddy's arms by the sea is actually the entree to the new narrative Ford has been promising. I actually realized this a few moments before it was revealed, but it was still memorable to see. Maeve, despite her best efforts, was never going to leave Westworld. I was actually thinking this, too - the essence of Westworld is that, like the Hotel California, you can check in if you're a host (be created), but you can never leave. But the pursuit of her daughter being the reason is an effective touch -- because, after all, not only does love conquer all, but it's an all powerful component of what makes us human. The path towards consciousness is knowing thyself. In the Jaynesian bicameral mind -- at least, as portrayed in Westworld -- this means one half of your brain listening to the other. Two millennia prior to Jaynes, Socrates urged the same thing: know thyself. This makes Westworld not only Jaynesian but Socratic, a very good thing in my book. I never bought that Socrates drank the hemlock, though (and my best-known novel tries to explain what may really have happened back then) -- but, with that in mind, I wasn't happy to see Dolores blow out Ford's brains at the end, just as she had done years earlier with Arnold (even though suffering that real-guilt pain is said to be the only way she can achieve true consciousness).
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism
Review of Somewhere Between 1.3
The most significant development in Somewhere Between 1.3 last night was Laura's husband Tom, and his collection of evidence pertinent to the murders — collection apparently out of the legal process, kept at home, and reported by Tom to some unknown person via text message.
By Paul Levinson7 years ago in Futurism