| On lit-fic versus SF |
[Dec. 11th, 2007|12:39 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | mundanes, sf | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica. [SomaFM] | ] |
Scalzi, in the midst of reaming out another PC idiot who tut-tuts about the horrible influence of Heinlein on modern SF, perfectly sums up the difference between creators of 'literary' fiction and writers of SF, thus:
"People start writing literary fiction as they tumble through writing programs at Sarah Lawrence or Bennington or Iowa because that’s what they’re expected to write and they want to impress their professors and fellow students; people start writing science fiction, on the other hand, roughly ten seconds after they set down The Star Beast or Ender’s Game or Snow Crash because they get done with the book and think, holy crap, I want to do that. Academia generally wants you to show you can write; science fiction generally wants you to tell a story. "
Nice.
And don't get me started on lit-fic wrters who steal SF ideas and claim they're not doing SF but something *better*... |
|
|
| Gibson interview |
[Nov. 8th, 2007|11:52 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | c21, gibson, interview, sf | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica. [SomaFM] | ] |
Rolling Stone asks a few dumb questions, The Gibson says quotable stuff in reply. Like;
' You made your name as a science-fiction writer, but in your last two novels you've moved squarely into the present. Have you lost interest in the future?
It has to do with the nature of the present. If one had gone to talk to a publisher in 1977 with a scenario for a science-fiction novel that was in effect the scenario for the year 2007, nobody would buy anything like it. It's too complex, with too many huge sci-fi tropes: global warming; the lethal, sexually transmitted immune-system disease; the United States, attacked by crazy terrorists, invading the wrong country. Any one of these would have been more than adequate for a science-fiction novel. But if you suggested doing them all and presenting that as an imaginary future, they'd not only show you the door, they'd probably call security. '
And;
' In the past ten years, we've seen incredible advances in nanotechnology and synthetic biology. Does any of it amaze you?
My assumption has always been that at some point we would lock on to a literally exponential increase in human knowledge. That was my best guess, somewhere back in the Seventies. There hasn't been anything that made me sit back and say, "Golly, I would never have imagined that." The aspects of recent history that have caused me to do that have been, in every case, manifestations of retrograde human stupidity. ' |
|
|
| "Fringe" - your new best TV show or another Lost opportunity?' |
[Oct. 5th, 2007|06:30 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | sf, tv | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electronica. [SomaFM] | ] |
The guys responsible for Alias, Lost and the upcoming Star Trek movie prequel/reboot have another iron in the fire. They're pitching it as "X-Files meets Altered States" - and as someone who found the former rarely interesting and adored the latter (and liked Alias but, ahem, lost interest in Lost around when Locke started acting like he'd lost all his IQ points), it'll be interesting to see what happens. Note the comment below about the House-like protagonist, now required in modern US programming...
' Nearly 15 years after "The X-Files" launched, Fox is looking to scare a new generation of viewers with "Fringe," a spooky skein from the minds of J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.
Net has made a series commitment to the Warner Bros.-Bad Robot production, which will start off with a two-hour pilot budgeted at more than $10 million. Abrams, Kurtzman and Orci -- the brain trust behind Par's new "Star Trek" feature -- wrote the project on spec and shopped it to nets this week.
Trio will exec produce "Fringe" along with Bryan Burk ("Lost"). A search has begun for a pilot helmer as well as a series showrunner.
"Fringe" mixes elements of "The X-Files" and Paddy Chayefsky's "Altered States" with what Abrams calls "a slight 'Twilight Zone' vibe." It will focus on brilliant but possibly crazy research scientist Walter Bishop, his estranged son and a female FBI agent who brings them together.
Episodes will explore self-contained mysteries of the paranormal, as well as the relationships between the three leads.
"So much of the story is relatable people in extraordinary situations," Abrams said. "The show is definitely a nod to 'Altered States' and 'Scanners' and that whole Michael Crichton/Robin Cook world of medicine and science."
There'll also be an overriding mythology that will come into play from time to time, as well as a healthy dose of humor.
"It does the stuff my favorite TV shows and movies do, which is to combine genres that shouldn't fit together," Abrams said. "It's definitely meant to scare the hell out of you, but it's also meant to make you laugh... It pushes all the buttons of things we loved from our childhood."
Driving the show will be the Walter Bishop character, a larger-than-life figure who bears some resemblance to the titular character in Fox's "House." In the pilot, he's in a mental hospital.
"Imagine that your father is Frankenstein mixed with Albert Einstein," Orci said. "He's someone who has the mental ability to solve so many problems but is so different that communicating with them is almost impossible." '
I suppose anything actually *original*, rather than a smorgasbord of other shows and films, is too much to ask for. |
|
|
| It's Sterlings's world, the rest of us just live in it |
[Aug. 13th, 2007|10:00 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | copyright, politics, sf | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | still knackered, not quite ready for bed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Doomed: Dark music for tortured souls [SomaFM] | ] |
Bruce Sterling's near-future political comedy Distraction is set in a United States which has become a Third-world country. The cause is China having distributed pirate copies of all US copyrighted intellectual property online for free, leading to US bankrupcy.
This might not be far off.
"The US has made a formal request to the World Trade Organization (WTO) for it to crack down on copyright piracy and counterfeiting in China.
It says that China's failure to enforce copyright laws is costing software, music and book publishers billions of dollars in lost sales.
The US also argues that China makes it hard for legitimate firms to operate.
The two countries have been in talks for four months, since the US first launched its challenge.
The US now wants the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body to intervene." |
|
|
| "...in sci-fi, there's no real rules, is there?' |
[Aug. 1st, 2007|10:25 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | media, sf | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | ohforfucksake | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Pascal Marcotte & Holly Long - Victim of Victims | ] |
In an interview with Sci-Fi Wire:
' Noel Clarke, who played Mickey Smith on the first two seasons of the BBC's Doctor Who, hinted to SCI FI Wire that he may be returning to the show in the upcoming fourth season, even though his character was left stranded in an alternate dimension...
As for how the writers would explain Mickey's possible return, Clarke offered a vague explanation. "It's a parallel universe, baby," he said. "The only thing I could say is that it's sci-fi, right? And in sci-fi, there's no real rules, is there?" '
Wrong. So fucking wrong it's just scary. |
|
|
| Nerd porn |
[Jul. 19th, 2007|12:31 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | funny, porn, sf | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | whimsical | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Space Station Soma: Tune in, turn on, space out. Ambient and mid-tempo electroni | ] |
From Scalzi comes this... a bit from comedian/poet Ernie Cline, which discusses about geeks and the women they desire - with pictures. No, not nude ones.
More comedy of recognition than I've had in ages - and I suspect the same may be true for *you*.
(How geeky is Ernie Cline? He wrote a sequel to Buckaroo Banzai. Jack Burton is in it. Good enough for ya?)
Probably not safe for work unless you're running your own ISP. In which case you're the target audience.
EDIT - due to loading problems here's the whole thing embedded by YewToob magicness.
|
|
|
| Memes instead of sleep... |
[Jun. 29th, 2007|02:01 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | meme, sf | ] |
| [ | mood |
| | less tired than I'd like | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Doomed: Dark music for tortured souls [SomaFM] | ] |
Since I'm awake, here's a dumb quiz with a predictable result when applied to me:
 | You scored as Babylon 5 (Babylon 5), The universe is erupting into war and your government picks the wrong side. How much worse could things get? It doesn’t matter, because no matter what you have your friends and you'll do the right thing. In the end that will be all that matters. Now if only the Psi Cops would leave you alone.
Serenity (Firefly) | | 100% | Babylon 5 (Babylon 5) | | 100% | Moya (Farscape) | | 81% | Heart of Gold (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) | | 81% | Millennium Falcon (Star Wars) | | 81% | Deep Space Nine (Star Trek) | | 81% | SG-1 (Stargate) | | 69% | Enterprise D (Star Trek) | | 63% | Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda) | | 63% | Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica) | | 56% | FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files) | | 50% | Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix) | | 50% | Bebop (Cowboy Bebop) | | 38% | </td>
Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics)
created with QuizFarm.com |
|
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
catvincent's journal
awake