Comments on: SF Goes McDonald’s: Less Taste, More Gristle

By: Omer

Omer — Sun, 20 May 2012 19:55:34 +0000

Nice Twilight doll reviews. You slohud totally get Alice soon to complete? your Twilight girls Barbie collection. btw I have the Twilight Ken dolls Edward and Jacob <3

By: Halif

Halif — Sun, 20 May 2012 12:04:59 +0000

e2809cFearful Symmetry trioletse2809dVerse and song gave birth to thee feaurfl mechanical and scientific deviceLove’s but a danceof verse and song sublime to theeA whisper, a glance, this little death e2809cShall we twirl down in Elysian Fields ?e2809dVerse and song gave birth to thee feaurfl mechanical and scientific device

By: Jen

Jen — Sun, 20 May 2012 06:16:11 +0000

e683b3e58f8ae788b1e7bf81e8b088e6b689e8bf99e8af9de9a298e79a84e4b880e6aeb5efbc8cMan tries to make for himself in the fshoian that suits him best a simplified and intelligible picture of the world; he then tries to some extent to substitute this cosmos of his for the world of experience, and thus to overcome it. This is what the painter, the poet, the speculative philosopher, and the natural scientist do, each in his own fshoian. Each makes this cosmos and its construction the pivot of his emotional life, in order to find in this way the peace and security which he cannot find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience.

By: clew

clew — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 23:19:21 +0000

“Folksy, ignorant president? Heard of the Democrat Jimmy Carter?”

Yes. His BS was from Georgia Tech. Moreover: “Chosen by Admiral Hyman Rickover for the nuclear submarine program, he was assigned to Schenectady, N.Y., where he took graduate work at Union College in reactor technology and nuclear physics, and served as senior officer of the pre-commissioning crew of the Seawolf, the second nuclear submarine.”

President Carter was trusted by /Rickover/ to work on new-technology nuclear submarines. It took the rise of the know-nothing, don’t-bother-us Eloi to make fun of him and pretend he was stupid. He never did.

By: Astrogator’s Logs » Blog Archive » To the Hard Members of the Truthy SF Club

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:12:44 +0000

[...] In an earlier round, I discussed why I deem it vital that speculative fiction writers are at least familiar with the questing portion of the scientific mindset and with basic scientific principles (you cannot have effortless, instant shapeshifting… you cannot have cracks in black hole event horizons… you cannot transmute elements by drawing pentagrams on your basement floor…), if not with a modicum of knowledge in the domains they explore. [...]

By: Astrogator’s Logs » Blog Archive » SF Goes MacDonald’s: Less Taste, More Gristle

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:02:38 +0000

[...] 2: The article is now also on the new blog I Like a Little Science in My [...]

By: Mel Green

Mel Green — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:18:54 +0000

Actually, I think I lent that to her once, & she couldn’t get through it. Too much explanation.

I just finally got my copy back from another friend who loved it… so I can reread it. Yay!

By: Athena Andreadis

Athena Andreadis — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:06:36 +0000

Have your friend read Downbelow Station. Action non-stop.

By: Mel Green

Mel Green — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:59:15 +0000

Gritty yeah… like all the fur that falls out in the Chanur novels after a harrowing bunch of jumping from system to system. She could win a Hugo for “best depiction of exhaustion.”

I think Cherryh does a consistently good job of finding the golden mean to make a good story. I find a respect for verisimilitude in her fantasy too. When Tristan & company go to war in the Fortress series, they actually have to pay attention to logistics & supply lines — how refreshing! (Seems to me that Tolkien paid attention to that in LOTR too… compare the travel of the Riders of Rohan from Rohan to Minas Tirith in the books as opposed to in the film.) But a friend of mine who likes quick action finds Cherryh quite boring.

By: Athena Andreadis

Athena Andreadis — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:48:08 +0000

I think the golden mean applies (as it does to real life of not only humans but also all life forms). Both ends of the spectrum discourage creativity: no rules and there is no reason to strive for excellence. Too many rules and the green shoots get strangled.

Incidentally, I concur that much SF is actually fantasy with spaceships (most traditional space opera falls into this category with Star Wars and BSG as exemplars — although one of our common favorites, Cherryh, is grittier than most).