Sci Fi that doesn't suck
Dit is een voortzetting van het onderwerp Sci Fi for discerning intellects.
DiscussieLiterary Snobs
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1kswolff
Apparently this "Gravity" movie is supposed to be above average. Any thoughts?
And what about Afrofuturism? Ytasha L. Womack has a new book out that explores the topic.
And what about Afrofuturism? Ytasha L. Womack has a new book out that explores the topic.
2CliffBurns
Ian Sales, slumming with the elf-humpers:
http://iansales.com/2013/11/04/so-that-was-a-world-fantasy-convention/
http://iansales.com/2013/11/04/so-that-was-a-world-fantasy-convention/
3CliffBurns
A three-dimensional model of the universe--science fiction geeks should love the accompanying short film:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/map-of-universe-accurate-to-1-offers-i...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/map-of-universe-accurate-to-1-offers-i...
4CliffBurns
Er, actually, this is the link with the short film. But the previous post is a good introduction to this:
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/515746/new-science-of-cosmography-reveals-3...
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/515746/new-science-of-cosmography-reveals-3...
5CliffBurns
The one science fiction film in 2014 I might drag myself out to see--Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WzHXI5HizQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WzHXI5HizQ
6CliffBurns
Kids' book on space flight, from the Soviet era:
http://boingboing.net/2014/02/10/wonderfully-weird-1961-russian.html
http://boingboing.net/2014/02/10/wonderfully-weird-1961-russian.html
7DugsBooks
This video reminds of reading Heinlein, before the first space walk when he described what it was like to be weightless. A short 2 minute film which appeals to the intellectual side of the discriminating futurist palette embodied by this LT area.
http://swimsuit.si.com/swimsuit/models/kate-upton/videos/zero-gravity
http://swimsuit.si.com/swimsuit/models/kate-upton/videos/zero-gravity
8justifiedsinner
#7 I loved the comment: "the good thing is your breasts don't go anywhere when you're upside down".
10CliffBurns
In the near future, technology will be more pervasive, invisible, discreet.
So says the new Spike Jonze movie and this here article:
http://www.wired.com/design/2014/01/will-influential-ui-design-minority-report/
So says the new Spike Jonze movie and this here article:
http://www.wired.com/design/2014/01/will-influential-ui-design-minority-report/
12CliffBurns
For those of us who are fans of the film "The Thing" or "Who Goes There?", the original John W. Campbell short story:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/giant-virus-revived-from-ancient-permafrost-1....
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/giant-virus-revived-from-ancient-permafrost-1....
13EAEowyn
In the Ocean of Night
Across the Sea of Suns
Great Sky River
Tides of Light
Furious Gulf
Sailing Bright Eternety
These are the titles in Gregory Benford's Galactic Center Series. He is a professor, physicist, and writes good SF novels. A beautiful language in them - even the titles above sort of form a poem together.
Across the Sea of Suns
Great Sky River
Tides of Light
Furious Gulf
Sailing Bright Eternety
These are the titles in Gregory Benford's Galactic Center Series. He is a professor, physicist, and writes good SF novels. A beautiful language in them - even the titles above sort of form a poem together.
14CliffBurns
I HAVE to see this documentary on Jodorowsky's "Dune":
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140313-the-greatest-movie-never-made
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20140313-the-greatest-movie-never-made
15CliffBurns
More on Jodorowsky--fascinating man:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/magazine/the-psychomagical-realism-of-alejandr...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/magazine/the-psychomagical-realism-of-alejandr...
16CliffBurns
Gord dug up this fun short piece by Terry Bisson--very Robert Sheckley-like (and that's high praise):
http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html
http://www.terrybisson.com/page6/page6.html
17AsYouKnow_Bob
There are (...at least...) two distinct short videos based on that story; here's the one with higher-production-values:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfPdhsP8XjI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfPdhsP8XjI
20CliffBurns
What's wrong with contemporary science fiction? Our chum Ian Sales might have part of the answer:
http://iansales.com/2014/06/05/fables-of-the-deconstruction
http://iansales.com/2014/06/05/fables-of-the-deconstruction
21CliffBurns
Our colleague Ian has a fine new SF tale just published. Read it here:
http://www.perihelionsf.com/1406/fiction_2.htm
See? Some SF doesn't suck...
http://www.perihelionsf.com/1406/fiction_2.htm
See? Some SF doesn't suck...
23CliffBurns
I tried reading Chalker but he didn't work for me at all--amazingly prolific author, I'll give him that.
Recently I had a chance to listen to a Philip K. Dick story, produced by BBC Radio. It was a straight reading of the tale, not an adaptation, and I had to turn it off after five minutes. Dick, like many SF hacks of that generation, was tone deaf. That immediately becomes apparent when you read an author out loud (you don't believe me, try reading a page--any page--from THE DA VINCI CODE out loud and keep a straight face). And you can tell a writer is used to being paid by the word because it takes them so long to get to the point. Padding means higher payment. Dick wrote a few good novels and a few good stories. The vast majority were drek.
Recently I had a chance to listen to a Philip K. Dick story, produced by BBC Radio. It was a straight reading of the tale, not an adaptation, and I had to turn it off after five minutes. Dick, like many SF hacks of that generation, was tone deaf. That immediately becomes apparent when you read an author out loud (you don't believe me, try reading a page--any page--from THE DA VINCI CODE out loud and keep a straight face). And you can tell a writer is used to being paid by the word because it takes them so long to get to the point. Padding means higher payment. Dick wrote a few good novels and a few good stories. The vast majority were drek.
24iansales
>22 Felurian: You're taking the piss, right?
25DugsBooks
>20 CliffBurns: Best story by Ian I have read so far! {only read a couple}. Nice meld of technical detail and SF "wonderment", reminds me a bit of "golden age" stuff.
26iansales
>25 DugsBooks: I keep on getting that "golden age" comment - to me, what I write is modern. Ah well :-)
(I think what it is, is that I'm using modern literary techniques on distilled science fiction ideas, and it's the latter that harkens back to sf of earlier decades.)
(I think what it is, is that I'm using modern literary techniques on distilled science fiction ideas, and it's the latter that harkens back to sf of earlier decades.)
27DugsBooks
>26 iansales: Aha ok. The sudden transition in the story got my imagination flowing which is very unusual for a short story {has to be a good one!} which reminded me of some golden age SF I read when very young. I am not sophisticated enough to make constructive comments on literary techniques .
28CliffBurns
The best SF, regardless of the era, has that "sensawunda" that utterly transports the reader.
Ian's work has that quality and that, I think, sets it apart from so many of his less adventurous, less literary contemporaries.
Ian's work has that quality and that, I think, sets it apart from so many of his less adventurous, less literary contemporaries.
29iansales
>27 DugsBooks: I took your remark as a compliment, and it's always good to hear when people like my stories. You're not the first to say it reminds them of reading sf when they were younger and getting that pure hit of wonder... which, I suppose, is one of the aims of good science fiction. And if it happens, I'm grateful - whether I'm trying for that effect or not :-)
But I will say that I try to keep as much of the story off the page as I can, in order to force the reader to work it out for themselves :-)
But I will say that I try to keep as much of the story off the page as I can, in order to force the reader to work it out for themselves :-)
30CliffBurns
Making contact with a lost spaceship. Story in here somewhere, Monsieur Sales?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/science/space/calling-back-a-zombie-ship-from-...
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/15/science/space/calling-back-a-zombie-ship-from-...
31DugsBooks
Interesting link Cliff, ::Conversation at the drive up::: "I'll I have two egg McMuffins and a tweak of an asteroid orbit".
32RobertDay
I had a recent encounter with a fondly-remembered name from my past.
http://robertday154.wordpress.com/2014/06/17/the-light-from-the-bushel/
http://robertday154.wordpress.com/2014/06/17/the-light-from-the-bushel/
33CliffBurns
Really enjoyed that, Robert.
34fredsmithx
All SF sucks unless it's funny (Pratchett/Fforde/Holt/Rankin) EXCEPT John Wyndham. Most authors think if it's not the real world they can write whatever comes into their heads.
35iansales
>34 fredsmithx: You probably need to read a little wider in the genre - there's plenty that doesn't suck: Park, Jones, Delany, Russ, Saxton, Shepard, Watson, Priest, Banks, Tiptree, Duchamp... and I've probably forgotten loads of authors...
36CliffBurns
Terry Pratchett has done more damage to the credibility of fantasy writers than Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson and all those other hacks combined. The genre is bad enough without being held up to ridicule with the lamest gags and most basic, juvenile writing. Fforde at least is literate...not sure about the others.
37anna_in_pdx
Isn't Pratchett written for kids?
38CliffBurns
...and the childish at heart.
39kiparsky
It's not hard to find science fiction that doesn't suck. For the lay reader, the "literary snob" not familiar with the genre but interested in good writing, I would suggest two names from the past and two more contemporary writers.
First of all, Theodore Sturgeon was a wonderful stylist who wrote mostly short fiction. There are tons of collections of his work, including a wonderful ten-or-so volume of his complete short fiction, and many little paperback collections. I would suggest picking up one of the little collections and reading through the stories. I think at least a few of them will grab you. Two titles for the Literary Snob to look for would be "Largo" and "The Man Who Lost The Sea". Roger Zelazny is best known for his Amber novels - which, if you ask me, start off quite well and slope off asymptotically towards the X axis. However, his other novels and his short fiction work at a really high level. The story called 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, By Hokusai is a lovely piece of work, you'll find it in a collection called Frost and Fire.
Closer to the present day, the recently late Iain M. Banks wrote a slew of wonderful novels in his "Culture" series. This isn't a series in the sense of continuing characters and action, just a set of novels sharing a common backdrop. They need not be read in any particular order, and each novel does its own work. Some of them are pretty grim, all of them have brilliantly funny bits, as far as I can tell there aren't any clinkers in the bunch.
Still among the quick is China Mieville. The first book I read of his was Perdido Street Station, which I don't recommend as a start - his imagination comes up with some very unpleasant images, and he's very good at executing those on the page. It's actually somewhat unpleasant to read, I thought. However, the Literary Snob might well enjoy The City and The City, which uses some nice science fiction devices to tell a pretty contemporary story.
First of all, Theodore Sturgeon was a wonderful stylist who wrote mostly short fiction. There are tons of collections of his work, including a wonderful ten-or-so volume of his complete short fiction, and many little paperback collections. I would suggest picking up one of the little collections and reading through the stories. I think at least a few of them will grab you. Two titles for the Literary Snob to look for would be "Largo" and "The Man Who Lost The Sea". Roger Zelazny is best known for his Amber novels - which, if you ask me, start off quite well and slope off asymptotically towards the X axis. However, his other novels and his short fiction work at a really high level. The story called 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, By Hokusai is a lovely piece of work, you'll find it in a collection called Frost and Fire.
Closer to the present day, the recently late Iain M. Banks wrote a slew of wonderful novels in his "Culture" series. This isn't a series in the sense of continuing characters and action, just a set of novels sharing a common backdrop. They need not be read in any particular order, and each novel does its own work. Some of them are pretty grim, all of them have brilliantly funny bits, as far as I can tell there aren't any clinkers in the bunch.
Still among the quick is China Mieville. The first book I read of his was Perdido Street Station, which I don't recommend as a start - his imagination comes up with some very unpleasant images, and he's very good at executing those on the page. It's actually somewhat unpleasant to read, I thought. However, the Literary Snob might well enjoy The City and The City, which uses some nice science fiction devices to tell a pretty contemporary story.
40CliffBurns
Iain Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Ken Macleod, Vernor Vinge, John Varley, Ian McDonald, James Morrow...
41CliffBurns
...and I can't believe I neglected to mention my Canuck colleague, Peter Watts. Super writer.
42RobertDay
>34 fredsmithx:: That's exactly what science fiction is not: writers who write "whatever comes into their heads". The whole point about science fiction is that whatever change from our everyday life is the focus of the story has to be consistent and based on rationality and firm scientific underpinnings. It has to work in the real world. (There is some debate over whether stories that are based on some of the wilder extrapolations of current science are real science fiction or just science fantasy.) The excuse of "it's just science fiction, you can make up whatever you want" is most often used by cheap tv and film makers, and careless authors of much fame and none. It's when the world of the story is well thought out, the scientific underpinnings rational and consistent, and the writing imaginative but well crafted that you get science fiction that doesn't suck.
At the risk of stirring up a hornet's nest, I'd say that you've described fantasy.
At the risk of stirring up a hornet's nest, I'd say that you've described fantasy.
43DugsBooks
>32 RobertDay: Nice stuff Robert. I thought of the short story by Bob Shaw "The Light of Other Days" when I read an article about scientists using low temps and different materials to slow the speed of light to the extent it is almost light in a bottle. I tried to search out the article again but can't find it.
44fredsmithx
I'll try your recommendations. I read science stuff and would expect to like SF but usually hate it. I don't need books for the young at heart but the author must have enough sense of humour not to take themselves too seriously - not funny or childish but not anal uptight like many in this genre. Anyway you're right, I mixed it up with fantasy. The danger there is stupidity. Of course all that faux-Tolkien rubbish is usually uptight too. I was impressed that Eragon landed near the top of my unsuggestions page...
45CliffBurns
...and, as has been pointed out to me here, there's a huge difference between FANTASY and HIGH FANTASY...
46fredsmithx
Don't know anything about the credibility of the genre. You go into any UK public library - huge fantasy section all adolescent nonsense.
Pratchett/Fforde/Holt/Rankin are all very literate. I'm actually impressed by their writing. Fforde if anything has bad bits. Rankin just gets carried away. Pratchett is a very careful but brilliant writer. His first books were ridiculously juvenile but they improved very fast. Read Nightwatch.
It's fine if you dislike comic fantasy.
And yes, Jordan is the worst author ever published.
Pratchett/Fforde/Holt/Rankin are all very literate. I'm actually impressed by their writing. Fforde if anything has bad bits. Rankin just gets carried away. Pratchett is a very careful but brilliant writer. His first books were ridiculously juvenile but they improved very fast. Read Nightwatch.
It's fine if you dislike comic fantasy.
And yes, Jordan is the worst author ever published.
47fredsmithx
what's HIGH FANTASY?
48CliffBurns
"Fantasy" covers everything from Jonathan Carroll to Jorge Luis Borges. "High fantasy" is anything imitating Tolkien: elves, fairy queens, etc.
49iansales
Christopher Priest certainly seems to think this sf sucks: http://arcfinity.tumblr.com/post/89245740023/were-reading-barricade-by-jon-walla...
50fredsmithx
There's more to Tolkien then elves. There's that awful epic language which everyone tries to copy. Tolkien was a genius. It merely made him boring. It makes his imitators suck.
51augustusgump
50: What a nice turn of phrase!
52fikustree
Zazen by Vanessa Veselka was one of my favorite recent post-apocalyptic dystopians. Although, really, it's more pre-apocalyptic. It takes place right on the verge of the end of society. The narrator is struggling with an early 20's freakout but it turns out she's also an unreliable narrator and you don't know how much of what she's recounting is real or in her mind.
53CliffBurns
John Brunner's STAND ON ZANZIBAR re-examined:
http://www.themillions.com/2013/03/the-weird-1969-new-wave-sci-fi-novel-that-cor...
(Thanks, Gord)
http://www.themillions.com/2013/03/the-weird-1969-new-wave-sci-fi-novel-that-cor...
(Thanks, Gord)
54CliffBurns
Christopher Nolan's epic "Interstellar" gets mixed initial reviews:
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29799816
(Personally I prefer his early, smaller efforts like "Memento" and "Following" to his big budget, comic book smut.)
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29799816
(Personally I prefer his early, smaller efforts like "Memento" and "Following" to his big budget, comic book smut.)
55CliffBurns
Warts and all feature on "Buzz" Aldrin:
http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201501/buzz-aldrin
(Thanks, Gord.)
http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201501/buzz-aldrin
(Thanks, Gord.)
56anna_in_pdx
Wow, that article is a lot to process. It must be so hard to be a certain kind of celebrity like that.
57CliffBurns
Best "space" photos of 2014:
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30281334
(Can't help it, I'm a geek.)
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-30281334
(Can't help it, I'm a geek.)
58DugsBooks
I visited Felica Day's website and found a new channel on Youtube that she & others participate in called Geek & Sundry. I like the series I have checked out so far, "Space Janitors"
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7atuZxmT954gRLnOM7sKgRTV3bBR8WdW
More links if interested, in my post at the SF topic of LT
http://www.librarything.com/topic/171073#4971461
>57 CliffBurns: Nice selection of photos, good resolution and cropping.
>55 CliffBurns: Buzz should be cast in the new SyFy series Ascension, write him in a part immediately!!!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7atuZxmT954gRLnOM7sKgRTV3bBR8WdW
More links if interested, in my post at the SF topic of LT
http://www.librarything.com/topic/171073#4971461
>57 CliffBurns: Nice selection of photos, good resolution and cropping.
>55 CliffBurns: Buzz should be cast in the new SyFy series Ascension, write him in a part immediately!!!
59CliffBurns
Hey, Ian, have you heard about the "Ascension" mini-series (see mention in previous message)? It's alt-history, right up your alley...but something about it sets off my "stink-o-meter". Have a look:
http://www.space.com/28013-ascension-syfy-tv-miniseries-project-orion.html
This series starts playing on CBC here in Canada later in the month.
http://www.space.com/28013-ascension-syfy-tv-miniseries-project-orion.html
This series starts playing on CBC here in Canada later in the month.
60iansales
I watched the first episode last Friday. The twist was bloody obvious from the start, and some of it was your typical telly stupidity, but I'm told it improves so I'll continue watching it. After all, pretty much all series start badly...
61CliffBurns
A planetary system 11 billion years old. Imagine the number of civilizations that could have risen and fallen during that interval.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/5-rocky-planets-found-in-very-ancient-solar-sy...
...imagine the multi-volume SF series that might inspire, an epic that would put FOUNDATION (dreadful books) in the shade...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/5-rocky-planets-found-in-very-ancient-solar-sy...
...imagine the multi-volume SF series that might inspire, an epic that would put FOUNDATION (dreadful books) in the shade...
62justifiedsinner
>61 CliffBurns: Imagine the number of sequels of Rambo they could have.
63CliffBurns
(Shudder)
64DugsBooks
So from Earth's timeline of ...4.5 billion years for our sun? to its cultural level of today, pizza delivered and cold beer with efforts to have the same at a space station. Now imagine a species a billion years sentient......teleporting pizzas?
I was dumb struck for several seconds while reading the article with wonderment imagining what could happen in a period of time so much greater than ours.
I also posted in the SF section of LT. From what I have read; this is in our Milky Way galaxy but some 100 light years away?
::edited for usual reasons::
I was dumb struck for several seconds while reading the article with wonderment imagining what could happen in a period of time so much greater than ours.
I also posted in the SF section of LT. From what I have read; this is in our Milky Way galaxy but some 100 light years away?
::edited for usual reasons::
65CliffBurns
Richard Dawkins reads some of the "fan mail' he receives from loving, tolerant Christian types:
http://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/richard-dawkins-reads-hate-mail-fans
http://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/richard-dawkins-reads-hate-mail-fans
66DugsBooks
Elon Musk names his two ocean platform landing ships after Iain M. Banks characters:
http://www.space.com/28445-spacex-elon-musk-drone-ships-names.html?utm_source=fe...
http://www.space.com/28445-spacex-elon-musk-drone-ships-names.html?utm_source=fe...
67CliffBurns
Cool tribute to a great author.
68justifiedsinner
I have a 22 foot sailboat I wanted to name Bora Horza Gobuchul but the rest of the family thought it was too long. We may go with an Arthur Ransome name instead.
69CliffBurns
Anyone heard of Aleksei German's "Hard to Be a God"?
http://www.avclub.com/review/hard-be-god-will-take-you-world-shit-214434
Medieval sci fi? Grungy? Long, troubled production overseen by obscure genius?
Oh, yes, this sounds like one for me...
http://www.avclub.com/review/hard-be-god-will-take-you-world-shit-214434
Medieval sci fi? Grungy? Long, troubled production overseen by obscure genius?
Oh, yes, this sounds like one for me...
72CliffBurns
Yep, same boys that wrote "Stalker".
I note that the Wachowski's "Jupiter Ascending" film is getting critically mauled. Their day is done...
I note that the Wachowski's "Jupiter Ascending" film is getting critically mauled. Their day is done...
73CliffBurns
Apollo gear on public display...for hardcore space nerds (Hey, Ian!):
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11ReturnedEagleArtifacts.html
(Thanks to Gord)
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11ReturnedEagleArtifacts.html
(Thanks to Gord)
74CliffBurns
The Martian death machines are on the way:
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31491805
Clearly these scientists can't recognize the plume of vehicles launching from the surface...
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31491805
Clearly these scientists can't recognize the plume of vehicles launching from the surface...
77CliffBurns
NASA has commissioned a series of lovely travel posters, celebrating its space explorations. Free for download and sharing:
http://boingboing.net/2016/02/12/gorgeous-retrofuturistic-space.html
(Thanks, Gord)
http://boingboing.net/2016/02/12/gorgeous-retrofuturistic-space.html
(Thanks, Gord)
78Karin7
Has anyone here read The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber?
79CliffBurns
Yes, interesting book about first contact. Not completely successful but not irretrievably stupid either.
Did you like it?
Did you like it?
80Karin7
It was disappointing as compared with The Crimson Petal and the White, in the light of good scifi and in a few other ways, but I liked enough about it to give it 3 stars.
81CliffBurns
Send your name to the outer reaches of our solar system:
https://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/january/nasa-invites-public-to-send-names-on-an-...
https://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/january/nasa-invites-public-to-send-names-on-an-...
82CliffBurns
A piece on sci fi's "difficult genius", Gene Wolfe:
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/sci-fis-difficult-genius
(Thanks, Gord)
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/sci-fis-difficult-genius
(Thanks, Gord)
83iansales
He's certainly "difficult" - a friend of mine interviewed him for Interzone, and all he got was yes and no replies.
84CliffBurns
Mars panorama--file this under "cool shit":
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/mars-panorama-1.3557612
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/mars-panorama-1.3557612
85Cecrow
>82 CliffBurns:, thanks for that. I read The Book of the New Sun years ago and still I parse every article, interview or essay to see what else I can glean from it.
86anna_in_pdx
When asked "1984 or Brave New World?" Chomsky replies "neither actually"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=62&v=Q9PqnWSlt9E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=62&v=Q9PqnWSlt9E
87justifiedsinner
>86 anna_in_pdx: But he likes We which influenced both and which is an expressionist, as opposed to realist, novel. 1984 always conjures up for me the grimmness of post war Britain something that was tapped into by Alan More's V for Vendetta. Huxley's novel was based on the latest theories of biology which he kept up with as one can see in his reference to neoteny in After Many a Summer Dies the Swan.
88CliffBurns
Gimme 1984 over BRAVE NEW WORLD any day. No contest.
89justifiedsinner
>88 CliffBurns: I agree even though I love Huxley.
90Karin7
>86 anna_in_pdx: I say neither to 1984 vs Brave New World, as well.
91CliffBurns
Anyone wish to send a few $$$ to support a Canadian science fiction magazine?
https://www.gofundme.com/jwj3dzgc
https://www.gofundme.com/jwj3dzgc
93CliffBurns
An overview of space concept art:
https://howwegettonext.com/the-improbable-bold-history-of-space-concept-art-42c1...
(Thanks, Gord)
https://howwegettonext.com/the-improbable-bold-history-of-space-concept-art-42c1...
(Thanks, Gord)
94CliffBurns
Cool short sci fi film that will convince you once and for all why virtual reality means the end of the human experiment:
https://vimeo.com/147365861?ref=em-share
https://vimeo.com/147365861?ref=em-share
95Limelite
Anathem by Neal Stephenson. Real science. Real fiction. Probably best snobby speculative fiction I've ever read. But I'm not a sci-fi fan.
98CliffBurns
New Jack Womack book, reviewed by John Crowley:
https://bostonreview.net/literature-culture/john-crowley-stranger-things-rise-an...
(Thanks, Gord)
https://bostonreview.net/literature-culture/john-crowley-stranger-things-rise-an...
(Thanks, Gord)
99RobertDay
>98 CliffBurns: I wondered what Womack, one of the most gloriously gonzo sf writers of recent years, had been up to recently.
One of the reasons that most science fiction fans don't believe in UFOs is that most UFO stories sound like really bad science fiction. Perhaps more pertinently, sf fans wouldn't mind if the aliens turn out NOT to be little grey men who go around in disc-shaped craft; whereas the arrival of a bona fide alien who resembled a perambulating tree and who arrived in something resembling a flying concrete mixer would nonetheless probably not satisfy UFO believers for whom they did not fit the myth.
One of the reasons that most science fiction fans don't believe in UFOs is that most UFO stories sound like really bad science fiction. Perhaps more pertinently, sf fans wouldn't mind if the aliens turn out NOT to be little grey men who go around in disc-shaped craft; whereas the arrival of a bona fide alien who resembled a perambulating tree and who arrived in something resembling a flying concrete mixer would nonetheless probably not satisfy UFO believers for whom they did not fit the myth.
100CliffBurns
Let's hope he has another novel in the pipeline as well...
102Jargoneer
>100 CliffBurns: - he's been working on a non-sf novel called Ashland for years. You can see if reading from it in 2009 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDWER1rPF8o
103dukedom_enough
Binibon, the opera Womack collaborated on with composer Elliott Sharp, was recently performed in New York. Not SF, but interesting nonetheless.
104dukedom_enough
A lot of people on twitter have been recommending Random Acts of Senseless Violence lately.
105CliffBurns
The new SF epic "Arrival" is getting a lot of buzz--included in the roster of films to watch in November:
https://filmschoolrejects.com/must-see-movies-theaters-november-2016-ranked-2672...
https://filmschoolrejects.com/must-see-movies-theaters-november-2016-ranked-2672...
106justifiedsinner
>105 CliffBurns: It's a wonderful story. I just hope they haven't screwed it up.
107Dzerzhinsky
Seems like there's been some really big-budget SF extravaganzas in recent years. 'Constantine'? 'Prometheus'? 'Elysium'? 'Inception'. All that kind of thing? Mixes of mysticism and SF blended together?
Frankly --no matter the actual quality of the flicks (which I hear is as 'variable' as it ever was) I'm turned off by it. The frenzy of promotion and advance hoopla always have a bludgeoning effect. Like being sucked into quicksand. There's almost nothing one can do to escape these ad blitzes.
Everyone is free to do as they please of course, and I hope other theater-goers enjoy themselves. But me, I literally never attend any more movies based on their advertising. Been burned too many times. I shrink from the feeling that some marketing team has once again manipulated me into a theater seat. The West Coast media vortex has long ago lost my trust.
Frankly --no matter the actual quality of the flicks (which I hear is as 'variable' as it ever was) I'm turned off by it. The frenzy of promotion and advance hoopla always have a bludgeoning effect. Like being sucked into quicksand. There's almost nothing one can do to escape these ad blitzes.
Everyone is free to do as they please of course, and I hope other theater-goers enjoy themselves. But me, I literally never attend any more movies based on their advertising. Been burned too many times. I shrink from the feeling that some marketing team has once again manipulated me into a theater seat. The West Coast media vortex has long ago lost my trust.
108CliffBurns
Completely understandable--films these days are hyped like the second coming of Christ.
It's pathetic...
It's pathetic...
109CliffBurns
Eight books about alien contact:
https://electricliterature.com/8-books-about-first-contacts-and-alien-encounters...
https://electricliterature.com/8-books-about-first-contacts-and-alien-encounters...
110CliffBurns
Ralph McQuarrie, great fantasy artist. This image brings back some fond memories of that first theatrical release, back in 1977. I'd seen some of McQuarrie's artwork for the movie in various science fiction fanzines before the film was released and it definitely caught my eye:
http://70sscifiart.tumblr.com/post/157014248981/matt-furguson
http://70sscifiart.tumblr.com/post/157014248981/matt-furguson
111CliffBurns
A nice piece on rediscovering Jack Womack:
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/theres-too-much-reality-on-jack-womacks-rand...
(From Gord, natch.)
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/theres-too-much-reality-on-jack-womacks-rand...
(From Gord, natch.)
112CliffBurns
Canada's Denis Villeneuve: king of sci fi cinema:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/denis-villeneuve-arrival-oscars-1.3984761
http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/denis-villeneuve-arrival-oscars-1.3984761
113RobertDay
I've just started Kim Stanley Robinson's 2002 short story collection Vinland the Dream, which appears to have alternate histories as a sort of broad theme (and it seems to be interpreted quite generously). The title story, and the second in the collection, "A History of the Twentieth Century, with illustrations", take a broad view of the sweep of events; indeed, they might only be considered 'science fiction' if you think of history as a science. That second story in particular dates from 1991 but is only set in 1996, and its central character is a historian.
114CliffBurns
For a limited time, buy a "story bundle" of recent science fiction:
https://storybundle.com/scifi?platform=hootsuite
https://storybundle.com/scifi?platform=hootsuite
115CliffBurns
Authors pick their favorite Philip K. Dick books:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/27/philip-k-dick-best-novels-blade-ru...
Mine has to be A SCANNER DARKLY.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/27/philip-k-dick-best-novels-blade-ru...
Mine has to be A SCANNER DARKLY.
117CliffBurns
New Philip K. Dick-themed TV series:
https://io9.gizmodo.com/holy-crap-the-philip-k-dick-electric-dreams-tv-series-18...
https://io9.gizmodo.com/holy-crap-the-philip-k-dick-electric-dreams-tv-series-18...
118CliffBurns
Samuel Delany interview:
http://lithub.com/dont-romanticize-science-fiction-an-interview-with-samuel-dela...
http://lithub.com/dont-romanticize-science-fiction-an-interview-with-samuel-dela...
119CliffBurns
Does spec fiction really work on the small screen:
http://lithub.com/can-speculative-short-fiction-really-work-on-tv
http://lithub.com/can-speculative-short-fiction-really-work-on-tv
122CliffBurns
SF titles to watch for this month:
https://bookmarks.reviews/5-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-brighten-your-february
https://bookmarks.reviews/5-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-brighten-your-february
123CliffBurns
Watching "First Man", the Neil Armstrong biopic, in the next couple of days.
We'll see how it goes--I read the book and liked it very much.
Neil wasn't a very demonstrative guy so a cypher like Ryan Gosling should be a good fit in terms of casting.
We'll see how it goes--I read the book and liked it very much.
Neil wasn't a very demonstrative guy so a cypher like Ryan Gosling should be a good fit in terms of casting.
124DugsBooks
>123 CliffBurns: Tried to check that out tonight but it was not in the “Redbox” which is near me. I didn’t know there was a book - fictionalized biography or just journalistic view?
125CliffBurns
No, it's a legitimate biography by James Hansen and very good:
https://www.amazon.ca/First-Man-Life-Neil-Armstrong/dp/1982110473/ref=sr_1_1?qid...
https://www.amazon.ca/First-Man-Life-Neil-Armstrong/dp/1982110473/ref=sr_1_1?qid...
127iansales
>126 CliffBurns: "an escape hatch for the Earthlings they’re leaving behind". Earthlings. FFS.
128CliffBurns
Gotta love those publicists, no?
So adept with words...
So adept with words...
129CliffBurns
This one looks interesting, space geeks:
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600406/first-cosmic-velocity-by-zach-po...
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600406/first-cosmic-velocity-by-zach-po...
130CliffBurns
Palestinian science fiction:
https://lithub.com/the-surreal-virtual-worlds-of-palestinian-science-fiction
https://lithub.com/the-surreal-virtual-worlds-of-palestinian-science-fiction
131CliffBurns
...and a profile of Samuel Delany:
https://www.publicbooks.org/samuel-delany-on-capitalism-racism-and-science-ficti...
https://www.publicbooks.org/samuel-delany-on-capitalism-racism-and-science-ficti...
133DugsBooks
>132 CliffBurns: I did not {know - how the hell did that happen?} any of Gibson’s background. He was born on a route we used to take frequently to the beach and moved to Canada at a time we were all waiting for draft numbers and buying maps of Canada. The more recent books sound interesting {having read the earlier ones}
134CliffBurns
Philip K. Dick's archives:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2019-08-15/philip-k-dick-...
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2019-08-15/philip-k-dick-...
135CliffBurns
5 new SF releases in October:
https://bookmarks.reviews/5-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-watch-for-in-october
https://bookmarks.reviews/5-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-watch-for-in-october
136CliffBurns
Renaming the Tiptree Award (and other SF prizes):
https://locusmag.com/2019/10/tiptree-award-to-be-renamed
https://locusmag.com/2019/10/tiptree-award-to-be-renamed
139pgmcc
>138 CliffBurns: Yes, we are in the month when Bladerunner becomes current affairs and then enters the realm of Historical Documents.
We are living in he future.
We are living in he future.
140RobertDay
>139 pgmcc: So where's my silver suit and flying car, then?
141CliffBurns
...and pleasure model replicants that look like Darryl Hannah. Let's not forget that.
143CliffBurns
Was everyone as bored and disenchanted with Denis Villeneuve's sequel as i was?
Jesus, that one was as slow-moving as a unicycle in a passing lane. As pointless as a broken arrow. Duller than a Bela Tarr film.
Etc.
Jesus, that one was as slow-moving as a unicycle in a passing lane. As pointless as a broken arrow. Duller than a Bela Tarr film.
Etc.
145CliffBurns
I agree.
146Cecrow
I thought it was alright, but I agree that at that pace it's not hard to see why he's splitting Dune into two movies.
147RobertDay
I'm broadly in agreement with >146 Cecrow: but agree that the Blade Runner sequel will never be considered as good as the original. Visually it was stunning, but it wasn't very - well, human. Very little evidence of any sense of humour in any of the characters; in particular, K's reaction to Deckard's dog ("Is it real?") was the ideal point where a gentle joke of some sort could have been effortlessly slipped in. "You can never go wrong with a bit with a dog", as one character said in Shakespeare in Love…
As for splitting Dune into two films; well, don't forget that it was first published as two separate serials in Analog. Having come across the serialisation of Children of Dune is some old Analogs I picked up, I can understand this to some extent: read on their own they are turgid and impenetrable. There's a lot in the original texts to deal with, and reducing any novel to a screenplay with a 160-minute running time is always going to be a problem, even when adapting a short story. The David Lynch film always felt to me like a trailer for the Dune film we ought to have had; even the miniseries came over as slightly rushed in places, and the first one cut the first couple of chapters and opened with the Atreides family already on the Heighliner.
As for splitting Dune into two films; well, don't forget that it was first published as two separate serials in Analog. Having come across the serialisation of Children of Dune is some old Analogs I picked up, I can understand this to some extent: read on their own they are turgid and impenetrable. There's a lot in the original texts to deal with, and reducing any novel to a screenplay with a 160-minute running time is always going to be a problem, even when adapting a short story. The David Lynch film always felt to me like a trailer for the Dune film we ought to have had; even the miniseries came over as slightly rushed in places, and the first one cut the first couple of chapters and opened with the Atreides family already on the Heighliner.
148CliffBurns
The rediscovery of John M. Ford:
https://slate.com/culture/2019/11/john-ford-science-fiction-fantasy-books.html
https://slate.com/culture/2019/11/john-ford-science-fiction-fantasy-books.html
149RobertDay
>148 CliffBurns: John Ford's work was never easy to find in the UK; Gollancz reprinted The Dragon Waiting in their Fantasy Masterworks series some time back (the 'dragon' in the title is a metaphorical one, mostly, and seems to represent Welsh nationalism); my review here: https://deepwatersreading.wordpress.com/2016/10/25/the-dragon-waiting-by-john-m-...
I have Web of Angels on the TBR pile, and I read Growing up Weightless quite some time back.
And I have a copy of How much for just the planet?, which is the only Star Trek novel I possess. If you're only going to have one, this is probably the one to have. It was recommended to me by a friend who described it as "A fine comic novel that just happens to be set in the Star Trek universe", which is pretty accurate. It is laugh-out-loud funny in places, though it has to be said that British readers of A Certain Age will read the last few chapters and think of a Brian Rix farce. My review is here: https://deepwatersreading.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/how-much-for-just-the-planet-...
I have Web of Angels on the TBR pile, and I read Growing up Weightless quite some time back.
And I have a copy of How much for just the planet?, which is the only Star Trek novel I possess. If you're only going to have one, this is probably the one to have. It was recommended to me by a friend who described it as "A fine comic novel that just happens to be set in the Star Trek universe", which is pretty accurate. It is laugh-out-loud funny in places, though it has to be said that British readers of A Certain Age will read the last few chapters and think of a Brian Rix farce. My review is here: https://deepwatersreading.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/how-much-for-just-the-planet-...
150CliffBurns
I saw one interesting SF film of late, Claire Denis' "High Life".
Not a perfect film, but weird and unique and intelligent.
Far better than "Ad Astra", for instance...
Not a perfect film, but weird and unique and intelligent.
Far better than "Ad Astra", for instance...
153pgmcc
>149 RobertDay: ...a Brian Rix farce.
That is a blast from the past. I haven't thought of Brian Rix in a long time.
That is a blast from the past. I haven't thought of Brian Rix in a long time.
154CliffBurns
Best science fiction and fantasy books of 2019:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/30/best-science-fiction-and-fantasy-b...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/nov/30/best-science-fiction-and-fantasy-b...
155CliffBurns
The Tim Maughan book mentioned in the above article, INFINITE DETAIL, is the best SF offering I read this year.
156iansales
>154 CliffBurns: Not "best", "most brilliant". FFS.
157Cecrow
>154 CliffBurns:, I'm still vouching for Black Leopard, Red Wolf, although it can be oppressive on the sex-and-violence front for some readers.
158CliffBurns
William Gibson, profiled in THE NEW YORKER:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/16/how-william-gibson-keeps-his-scien...
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/16/how-william-gibson-keeps-his-scien...
159CliffBurns
SF novels in the 1960s mostly got the future wrong...but who cares?
https://newrepublic.com/article/155978/science-fictions-wonderful-mistakes?utm_c...
https://newrepublic.com/article/155978/science-fictions-wonderful-mistakes?utm_c...
160CliffBurns
The essential novels of Ursula K. LeGuin:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/jan/24/essential-novels-ursula-...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2018/jan/24/essential-novels-ursula-...
161CliffBurns
Roundup of new science fiction and fantasy releases:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/10/best-recent-science-fiction-fantas...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/10/best-recent-science-fiction-fantas...
162CliffBurns
Excerpt from new William Gibson novel:
https://onezero.medium.com/william-gibson-takes-aim-at-the-silicon-valley-he-hel...
https://onezero.medium.com/william-gibson-takes-aim-at-the-silicon-valley-he-hel...
163CliffBurns
This book by Simon Jimenez looks interesting:
https://locusmag.com/2020/01/paul-di-filippo-reviews-the-vanished-birds-by-simon...
https://locusmag.com/2020/01/paul-di-filippo-reviews-the-vanished-birds-by-simon...
164iansales
>163 CliffBurns: The excerpt doesn't look too bad but a lot of current sf is wildly over-written so it would be interesting to see if that's sustained for the entire book.
165CliffBurns
I'm a fan of Paul Di Filippo's and trust his taste.
I've added VANISHED BIRDS to my library list so I should be able to let you know in a couple of weeks.
I've added VANISHED BIRDS to my library list so I should be able to let you know in a couple of weeks.
166DugsBooks
>162 CliffBurns: Think I will check that one out and the prequel- sounds Interesting.
167CliffBurns
Gibson says "we're all science fiction writers now":
https://www.thedailybeast.com/agency-author-william-gibson-says-we-are-all-scien...
https://www.thedailybeast.com/agency-author-william-gibson-says-we-are-all-scien...
168DugsBooks
>167 CliffBurns: from the article linked;
“Asked about the fact that the opening line of his 1984 breakthrough Neuromancer—“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”—is now widely regarded as one of the best opening lines in the history of the novel”
I am really out of the loop, I would have never made any such assertion {not having the street cred to do so} and have never heard of anyone proposing the same. Guess it justifies my opinion of the level of academic expertise I function at ;-)
“Asked about the fact that the opening line of his 1984 breakthrough Neuromancer—“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”—is now widely regarded as one of the best opening lines in the history of the novel”
I am really out of the loop, I would have never made any such assertion {not having the street cred to do so} and have never heard of anyone proposing the same. Guess it justifies my opinion of the level of academic expertise I function at ;-)
169RobertDay
I've just added a review of Warhoon 28, Richard Bergeron's 1978 tribute to Belfast sf fan Walt Willis - all 600+ hardbacked pages of it.
https://www.librarything.com/work/24146927/reviews/177990295
https://www.librarything.com/work/24146927/reviews/177990295
170CliffBurns
>168 DugsBooks: Agreed: ridiculously hyperbolic over-statement. Fanboy exuberance.
On the other hand, it's a great fucking opening sentence.
>169 RobertDay: That one looks interesting, Robert.
On the other hand, it's a great fucking opening sentence.
>169 RobertDay: That one looks interesting, Robert.
171iansales
>168 DugsBooks: It's a sentence that on first read sounds really cool, until you realise there was never any such thing as a "dead channel" - you'd either get a test card or snow. It's like a lot of descriptive phrases you find in sf novels - supposedly set in the future, but referencing something from the author's own formative years and so decades earlier than the book was written. Like when every music artist mentioned in a sf novel set in the future was famous before 1960...
172CliffBurns
There's your Eurocentrism showing through again, Sales.
In Canada, we have a dead channel.
It's called the CBC.
In Canada, we have a dead channel.
It's called the CBC.
173Cecrow
>172 CliffBurns:, oh! that hurt.
174CliffBurns
How about a "high five" for that one?
I'm feeling pretty sharp this morning...
I'm feeling pretty sharp this morning...
175CliffBurns
1970s science fiction films (okay, admittedly most of them did actually suck):
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6773-the-labyrinth-and-the-plague
https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6773-the-labyrinth-and-the-plague
176DugsBooks
>175 CliffBurns: Quote from the article:
"...the jarring prologue of George Lucas’s 1971 debut, THX 1138"
THX 1138, was a great flick. Scenes & themes from it are still being copied in films today - the car chase scene in a closed tunnel & the suppression of emotions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX_1138
>168 DugsBooks: Aha I see i was confusing Neuromancer with Johnny Mnemonic - when that flick was in production the, at that time nascent compared to today, internet was all abuzz about the movie in every newsgroup it seemed. After reviewing Neuromancer at wiki I might need to read it again, fascinating plot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mnemonic_(film)
"...the jarring prologue of George Lucas’s 1971 debut, THX 1138"
THX 1138, was a great flick. Scenes & themes from it are still being copied in films today - the car chase scene in a closed tunnel & the suppression of emotions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX_1138
>168 DugsBooks: Aha I see i was confusing Neuromancer with Johnny Mnemonic - when that flick was in production the, at that time nascent compared to today, internet was all abuzz about the movie in every newsgroup it seemed. After reviewing Neuromancer at wiki I might need to read it again, fascinating plot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mnemonic_(film)
177CliffBurns
I have a soft spot for "THX 1138" as well. A positively frigid movie, made with detachment and, as a result, utterly lacking sentimentality. Lucas channeling Kubrick.
Glad you recall it with affection. And may I also cite..."Silent Running"?
Glad you recall it with affection. And may I also cite..."Silent Running"?
179pgmcc
>177 CliffBurns: "Silent Running" is one of my favourites, as is "Dark Star".
180CliffBurns
And let's toss "Phase IV" in there as well. That's a little gem.
181CliffBurns
#178 I'm not as plugged into science fiction as I used to be but I think it's developed far beyond cyberpunk (which I always considered a rather small tributary). The field boasts some excellent authors who are offering original visions and ideas. I dunno about another "Golden Age" but it's definitely worth exploring these days.
Alastair Reynolds is fantastic and I'm sure Ian, who knows far more about the state of the art than i do, could offer even more examples.
Alastair Reynolds is fantastic and I'm sure Ian, who knows far more about the state of the art than i do, could offer even more examples.
182iansales
>178 jldarden: I've been saying that for years :-)
Unfortunately, most articles about cyberpunk - including that one - get their history wrong. The term was coined by Bethke, but the writers who became associated with it were part of The Movement, which was a reaction to the bloated best-selling sf of the 1970s. There have been several actual movements since - anyone remember Mundane SF? - but pretty much every subgenre mentioned in that article is just someone throwing out a label, which then gets either ignored or lost in the noise, and has next to zero impact. Science fiction is fundamentally broken because it won't interrogate its own politics, and only now is it beginning to clear house of all the scumbags of earlier years.
Unfortunately, most articles about cyberpunk - including that one - get their history wrong. The term was coined by Bethke, but the writers who became associated with it were part of The Movement, which was a reaction to the bloated best-selling sf of the 1970s. There have been several actual movements since - anyone remember Mundane SF? - but pretty much every subgenre mentioned in that article is just someone throwing out a label, which then gets either ignored or lost in the noise, and has next to zero impact. Science fiction is fundamentally broken because it won't interrogate its own politics, and only now is it beginning to clear house of all the scumbags of earlier years.
183CliffBurns
Good piece on Joanna Russ:
https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/joanna-russ-the-science-fiction-wri...
https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/joanna-russ-the-science-fiction-wri...
185CliffBurns
Chabon on working in the "Star Trek" universe:
https://www.gq.com/story/michael-chabon-star-trek-picard-interview
https://www.gq.com/story/michael-chabon-star-trek-picard-interview
186CliffBurns
Kim Stanley Robinson on climate change:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-sci-fi-authors-boldest-vision-of-climate-change-s...
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-sci-fi-authors-boldest-vision-of-climate-change-s...
187CliffBurns
The origins of "blade runner":
http://www.openculture.com/2020/02/ridley-scotts-movie-has-origins-in-william-s-...
http://www.openculture.com/2020/02/ridley-scotts-movie-has-origins-in-william-s-...
190guido47
Thanks Cliff, >188 CliffBurns:. A very interesting "potted history" of SF. I was surprised how many of the '20's authors, I own works of (now you can see why I'm Not an Author :-) )
191RobertDay
>189 CliffBurns: One of my Polish colleagues boggled somewhat on finding my reading an online article on Lem in the office one lunch-time. Apparently, Lem is taught in Polish schools the way Shakespeare was in British schools (i.e. badly).
192CliffBurns
William Gibson interview:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/01/william-gibson-i-read-naked-lunch-...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/01/william-gibson-i-read-naked-lunch-...
193DugsBooks
>192 CliffBurns:
"My earliest reading memory
Pogo comic strips by Walt Kelly. My mother had to teach me to read, as I wasn’t doing well at it in school."
I remember understanding the satire in Pogo all of a sudden while a kid reading at the kitchen table and it was like a new world in comics and a new world in general opened up. I think it was the J. Edgar Hoover FBI dog character that I finally linked to the real world and I was facinated. I believe Walt Kelly got some heat from the FBI because of this and I noticed the satire cooled off a good bit.
:: edited some terrible writing, learned to read ok but my writing kind of drags behind::
"My earliest reading memory
Pogo comic strips by Walt Kelly. My mother had to teach me to read, as I wasn’t doing well at it in school."
I remember understanding the satire in Pogo all of a sudden while a kid reading at the kitchen table and it was like a new world in comics and a new world in general opened up. I think it was the J. Edgar Hoover FBI dog character that I finally linked to the real world and I was facinated. I believe Walt Kelly got some heat from the FBI because of this and I noticed the satire cooled off a good bit.
:: edited some terrible writing, learned to read ok but my writing kind of drags behind::
195RobertDay
>194 Crypto-Willobie: Bit of a trip down Memory Lane there. ('Trip' may be used in any way you want.)
196CliffBurns
#194 Fascinating little compilation of lost "classics".
I've read three of them and can vouch for their strangeness and literary merit. I also own two of the others and if my TBR pile wasn't teetering already, I'd move them five or six feet closer to the top.
I've read three of them and can vouch for their strangeness and literary merit. I also own two of the others and if my TBR pile wasn't teetering already, I'd move them five or six feet closer to the top.
197CliffBurns
Science fiction and fantasy books to watch for in 2021:
https://bookmarks.reviews/the-most-anticipated-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-of-2021
https://bookmarks.reviews/the-most-anticipated-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-of-2021
198RobertDay
I'm about to pitch myself into a re-read - the first in possibly fifty years! - of E.E. 'Doc' Smith's Galactic Patrol. I'm under few illusions as to what I'll find; after all, I find myself sometimes taking a sharp breath at how my reactions have changed to something I last read three, four or five years ago. But for all that Smith's fiction is held up as now representing the worst of science fiction, I'm struck by how often people refer back to him within the context of the history of the genre. We should occasionally go down to the genre's cellars to remind ourselves about what's down there.
But in parallel with my book reading, I also sometimes plough through a huge TBR pile of specialist magazines and journals. I've just finished a 1993 issue of the journal of the UK's academic Science Fiction Foundation, Foundation 59. Apart from finding some remarkably apposite comments in reviews of books set in the impossibly distant future year of 2021, I came across this in an article by Czech fan/academic Cyril Simsa on the probably little-remembered US author Henry Slesar, and it put me in an interesting frame of mind for tackling one of Edward E. Smith's galaxy-smashing space operas:
"A lot of his (Slesar's) stories are perfectly respectable examples of the way sf was written in the '50s, and may even have seemed well above average for their day. But so much has changed in the genre in the interim: plot-lines which may once have seemed agreeably adventurous now seem trite and melodramatic, ideas which were part of sf's stock-in-trade are now unbearable clichés, the little philosophical homilies with which so many '50s sf writers liked to finish off their stories (the "moral", if you like) seem dated and prevent the story reaching a proper conclusion. In a world where fascism and civil war have come back to the streets of Europe, where naked manipulation of the political process by the mass media has become the norm, where rival drug gangs regularly shoot at one another with Uzi machine-pistols in the ruins of Los Angeles and computer networks will soon be offering us sex in cyberspace for real, it's difficult to read a story about a mad scientist with a beautiful blond daughter, or a solitary genius who invents a new variety of domestic robot, or indeed any story in which the moral turns out to be (in the words of the '50s B-feature) that "there are things man isn't meant to know", without disguising a smirk behind the palm of one's hand. (Then again, in fairness to Slesar, one has to ask whether the second-generation cyberpunks like Walter Jon Williams will seem any less ridiculous in 2022, and whether we won't perhaps be just as incapable of taking seriously anything with voguish references to "ice", "jacks", designer drugs, artificial intelligence, multinational corporations, computer voodo, banghramuffin orbital rave platforms, elephants in mirrorshades and so on, in an age no doubt as unimaginably different from where we are now, as the '80s were to the writers of the '50s.)"
But in parallel with my book reading, I also sometimes plough through a huge TBR pile of specialist magazines and journals. I've just finished a 1993 issue of the journal of the UK's academic Science Fiction Foundation, Foundation 59. Apart from finding some remarkably apposite comments in reviews of books set in the impossibly distant future year of 2021, I came across this in an article by Czech fan/academic Cyril Simsa on the probably little-remembered US author Henry Slesar, and it put me in an interesting frame of mind for tackling one of Edward E. Smith's galaxy-smashing space operas:
"A lot of his (Slesar's) stories are perfectly respectable examples of the way sf was written in the '50s, and may even have seemed well above average for their day. But so much has changed in the genre in the interim: plot-lines which may once have seemed agreeably adventurous now seem trite and melodramatic, ideas which were part of sf's stock-in-trade are now unbearable clichés, the little philosophical homilies with which so many '50s sf writers liked to finish off their stories (the "moral", if you like) seem dated and prevent the story reaching a proper conclusion. In a world where fascism and civil war have come back to the streets of Europe, where naked manipulation of the political process by the mass media has become the norm, where rival drug gangs regularly shoot at one another with Uzi machine-pistols in the ruins of Los Angeles and computer networks will soon be offering us sex in cyberspace for real, it's difficult to read a story about a mad scientist with a beautiful blond daughter, or a solitary genius who invents a new variety of domestic robot, or indeed any story in which the moral turns out to be (in the words of the '50s B-feature) that "there are things man isn't meant to know", without disguising a smirk behind the palm of one's hand. (Then again, in fairness to Slesar, one has to ask whether the second-generation cyberpunks like Walter Jon Williams will seem any less ridiculous in 2022, and whether we won't perhaps be just as incapable of taking seriously anything with voguish references to "ice", "jacks", designer drugs, artificial intelligence, multinational corporations, computer voodo, banghramuffin orbital rave platforms, elephants in mirrorshades and so on, in an age no doubt as unimaginably different from where we are now, as the '80s were to the writers of the '50s.)"
199iansales
>197 CliffBurns: Anyone who has an Andy Weir novel on their "most anticipated" books list has forfeited their right to have their opinion taken seriously.
200CliffBurns
Agree 100%.
201CliffBurns
Some sci fi tomes to watch out for:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/15/the-best-recent-science-fiction-an...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/15/the-best-recent-science-fiction-an...
202CliffBurns
This year's Philip K. Dick Award nominees have been announced:
https://www.norwescon.org/2021/01/20/2021-philip-k-dick-award-nominees-announced
https://www.norwescon.org/2021/01/20/2021-philip-k-dick-award-nominees-announced
204CliffBurns
LOCUS MAGAZINE's 2020 recommended reading list:
https://locusmag.com/2021/02/2020-locus-recommended-reading-list
https://locusmag.com/2021/02/2020-locus-recommended-reading-list
205RobertDay
>203 CliffBurns: Womack is always worth reading, even though I think of him as a very Nineties writer.
I'm currently on a break from the sf genre, reading Ian Rankin's Fleshmarket Close, though this was inspired by a recent read of Ken MacLeod's The Night Sessions. My background reading for that book revealed something I'd previously not known - that Rankin was in the same coterie of friends as Macleod and Iain Banks. 'The Night Sessions' had something of Rankin about it, so I thought I ought to make his literary acquaintance.
I'm currently on a break from the sf genre, reading Ian Rankin's Fleshmarket Close, though this was inspired by a recent read of Ken MacLeod's The Night Sessions. My background reading for that book revealed something I'd previously not known - that Rankin was in the same coterie of friends as Macleod and Iain Banks. 'The Night Sessions' had something of Rankin about it, so I thought I ought to make his literary acquaintance.
206CliffBurns
Philip K. Dick, author & mystic:
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-exegete/
(Older article, can't remember if it's been previously posted.)
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-exegete/
(Older article, can't remember if it's been previously posted.)
207pgmcc
>205 RobertDay: That is interesting about the links between Ian Rankin, Ken MacLeod and Iain Banks. Having read, and loved, The Night Sessions, I can see a link with the police procedural style. I have not read any Rankin so will be interested to see how you get on with him.
While I have not read any of his books I have bought about ten of his books for my wife.
While I have not read any of his books I have bought about ten of his books for my wife.
209CliffBurns
Remembering J.G. Ballard at his very, very best:
https://bookmarks.reviews/from-climate-change-to-car-crash-sex5-classic-j-g-ball...
https://bookmarks.reviews/from-climate-change-to-car-crash-sex5-classic-j-g-ball...
210CliffBurns
Science fiction and fantasy to watch for in June:
https://bookmarks.reviews/6-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-light-up-your-june/?utm_...
https://bookmarks.reviews/6-sci-fi-and-fantasy-books-to-light-up-your-june/?utm_...
211CliffBurns
Philip K. Dick is alive and well:
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220301-philip-k-dick-the-writer-who-witnes...DN-_-culture_june22
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220301-philip-k-dick-the-writer-who-witnes...DN-_-culture_june22
213CliffBurns
Bruce Sterling gifted us with a science fiction tale this Christmas:
https://bruces.medium.com/balkan-cosmology-by-bruce-sterling-2022-9a06b9b28bc0
https://bruces.medium.com/balkan-cosmology-by-bruce-sterling-2022-9a06b9b28bc0
214CliffBurns
Can't recall if this was posted previously:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/25/jg-ballard-martin-amis
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/25/jg-ballard-martin-amis
215CliffBurns
I can never get enough of that Ballard guy:
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2023/09/22/j-g-ballards-brilliant-not-good-w...
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2023/09/22/j-g-ballards-brilliant-not-good-w...
216RobertDay
>215 CliffBurns: Oh dear. The poor little souls, being exposed to something original instead of coming out of their creative writing classes with a toolkit that enables them to join the mainstream of formulaic fiction writing. However will they sell something so off-the-wall to Oprah?
217CliffBurns
>216 RobertDay: Couldn't have said it better myself, Robert. That section stood out to me, as well.