Search found 380 matches
- Sat Feb 03, 2007 1:30 pm
- Forum: Literature and Cinema
- Topic: Trial of Flowers by Jay Lake
- Replies: 2
- Views: 39645
I made a more general reply in the Musings section, but here I wanted to touch upon the matter of torture. Again, please keep in mind I haven't read Trial of Flowers , but I have read a few books where torture is graphically depicted. The one I can never forget is the factual description of an impal...
- Sat Feb 03, 2007 12:59 pm
- Forum: Musings and Chats
- Topic: What do it mean?
- Replies: 3
- Views: 39419
That has happened to me, too -- a few times with authors whom I know, which makes the situation difficult. I used to read every book to the end. These days, to save time, brainspace and emotional tear, I stop reading the moment I find my jaw clenching (don't want to crack them fillings!). Sometimes ...
- Fri Feb 02, 2007 5:26 pm
- Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
- Topic: The science and the fiction in science fiction
- Replies: 12
- Views: 98335
- Fri Feb 02, 2007 4:43 pm
- Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
- Topic: Where Have All the Spacemen Gone? Part 3
- Replies: 15
- Views: 124345
The Galantai scheme
Very interesting indeed, and not just in view of our recent conversations. Definitely a valid classification, and a less "aggressive" one than Kardashev's. In a way, it is based on defense and stewarding of resources, rather than use of resources.
- Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:52 pm
- Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
- Topic: The science and the fiction in science fiction
- Replies: 12
- Views: 98335
The science and the fiction in science fiction
I have two friends, both published SF writers. One insists that the science in SF has to be right, once the postulates have been set. The other believes that the story has to carry the day, although the science must be as sound as possible. This division between hard and soft SF, with all its stereo...
- Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:31 pm
- Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
- Topic: Where Have All the Spacemen Gone? Part 3
- Replies: 15
- Views: 124345
Parameters
Carbon based life with an H2O substrate will have some parameters, correct? You'd be surprised! Just look at the variety of life on earth and count the lifeforms that became extinct during several cycles, each claiming 90% of that era's flora and fauna. You can tell that even here, where everything...
- Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:57 am
- Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
- Topic: Where Have All the Spacemen Gone? Part 3
- Replies: 15
- Views: 124345
I'd love to see a bibliography on the subject. // It's an amazing thing really - to discuss, scientifically, a subject with so many unknowns. But Biology as a discipline should be able to give us at least an educated guess - or am I wrong? No, alas, we're not even close. I fervently wish we could! ...
- Thu Feb 01, 2007 12:14 am
- Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
- Topic: Where Have All the Spacemen Gone? Part 3
- Replies: 15
- Views: 124345
Values across a manifold
There's no doubt that both biology and culture would play a role in how extraterrestrials behaved in general and towards other sentients in particular. For example, if they were optimized for floating in Jupiter's upper atmosphere they wouldn't share much with us in any dimension. SF stories have be...
- Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:06 pm
- Forum: The Art of Science, Fantasy and Science Fiction
- Topic: Additions to the Gallery albums
- Replies: 16
- Views: 133429
Additions to the Gallery albums
I never get tired of looking at Kathryn, Heather and Josh's art in the gallery -- including preliminary sketches and comps, which I enjoy almost as much as the finished works. So I was very happy to see that Heather added a preliminary study of Healing - Full Circle, her first work for the Embers un...
- Wed Jan 31, 2007 6:03 pm
- Forum: The Poetry and Prose of Science and Science Fiction
- Topic: Where Have All the Spacemen Gone? Part 3
- Replies: 15
- Views: 124345
Smoke and Mirrors
The first two possibilities again hinge on a basic similarity (of biology and motives) between us and the observers. Brin’s Crystal Sphere idea is clearly a fusion of the Ptolemean entities of the same name and the Dyson spheres, postulated by Dyson as a method to harvest energy by Kardashev II civi...
- Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:21 pm
- Forum: Literature and Cinema
- Topic: Mervyn Peake and Mannerpunk
- Replies: 5
- Views: 53514
The Gormenghast trilogy
The Gormenghast trilogy is tremendous, although I think the first two books are better than the third. I loved the atmospherics, the language, the characters, especially Titus' doomed sister. And it contains one of my favorite lines in all of literature: "For lust is an arrogant and haughty bea...
- Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:18 pm
- Forum: Literature and Cinema
- Topic: Fantasy universes and worlds
- Replies: 40
- Views: 263423
Fantasy universes and worlds
Ursula Le Guin's second fantasy universe Le Guin developed the Hainish universe in science fiction and the Earthsea trilogy in fantasy -- and in the last few years she dreamed yet another universe. This is "low" fantasy, so in terms of atmosphere it hovers between Earthsea and her real-wor...
- Mon Jan 29, 2007 12:34 am
- Forum: Literature and Cinema
- Topic: Movies and Representing History: The Case of "300"
- Replies: 20
- Views: 144230
"What Made Alexander Great"
On the topic of Alexander, there is a tremendous essay by Christopher Hitchens in Slate magazine, which says it all very succinctly:
http://www.slate.com/id/2110188/
http://www.slate.com/id/2110188/
- Sun Jan 28, 2007 1:17 pm
- Forum: Literature and Cinema
- Topic: Movies and Representing History: The Case of "300"
- Replies: 20
- Views: 144230
Homeric translations
I think that the best translations of both Homeric epics in English are by Robert Fagles (he did them in the last decade). They retain the sinew and muscle of the original without sounding stilted, and they have great general introductions by Bernard Knox. They came out as Penguin Classics, so they ...
- Sun Jan 28, 2007 12:38 am
- Forum: Literature and Cinema
- Topic: Movies and Representing History: The Case of "300"
- Replies: 20
- Views: 144230
Films and accuracy
Dear Eloise, first of all, lovely avatar! I agree with your views on both Troy (I liked Sean Bean's Odysseus and, oddly, I found myself liking Pitt's Achilles) and Alexander: indeed, he was dangerously mad in the last few years of his life. The specific fixations with his parents weren't that far fr...