More Star Wars Bloggery as Force Awakens Fever Takes Hold of the Web

It's really hard to NOT get swept up in "Star Wars Fever". I've already purchased tickets for Friday and we're looking forward to having a great time at the cinema.  But as a blogger and as a science fiction fan I could not resist the temptation to write as much about Star Wars this week as I could squeeze in time for (and that wasn't much).  In between client projects and other work I managed to create the new Star Wars Movies section on Xenite.Org but I had already started that earlier this year.  I wanted something fresh, unplanned, and spontaneous.  So last night I came up with a couple of ideas and it didn't take very long to write them.

Star Wars from Flash Gordon to Fan Films

Star Wars is upon us and we are all excited to be seeing the new Disney movie.  But after dragging my feet for many years I have decided to set the record straight on a few Star Warsian things.  I am sick and tired of seeing every media Website drag "The Phantom Menace" through the mud as if it is a bad movie.  The truth is that "The Phantom Menace" is the most popular of all the Star Wars films, but apparently the people who like to trash-talk and bad-movies have cowed all the real fans into silence.  So we have added a new Star Wars movies section to Xenite.Org's Movies Portal and we pull no punches in deflating the nonsense that has been circulating around which movies are best and most popular.

November 2015 Science Fiction and Fantasy Stuff

If you have not dropped by the SF Fandom forums in the last week or two, you might want to check out this discussion on Tolkien's views on Nazism, Socialism, and Communism. I thought it was an interesting question from user badlands and I took a stab at explaining what I think Tolkien might have thought of these political ideologies. In fact, I could not rule out any possible connection to Tolkien's fiction. What do you think? Might Morgoth and Sauron have represented something more than just "dark lords"?

SciFi Happenings in October

Although I haven't yet confirmed it with my friend Dutch Stacy, I am hoping to get up to HallowCon 2015 in Dalton, GA this Halloween. I really need to call him. If you're looking for something to do at the end of the month and you're close to the Chattanooga/north Georgia area, check out HallowCon. The convention will be held at the EconoLodge and Convention Center right off I-75. That's where we used to hold Magic Carpet Con in the 1990s.

In other news, Andre Norton fans will be delighted (or dismayed) to hear that three Witch World movies are going into production.  A small company called Kirin Media Ventures has acquired the film rights and they have retained film/documentary producer George Paige to get the ball rolling on the first movie.  The three films will be based on the first two Witch World novels, Witch World and Web of the Witch World.  A Chinese production company, Kylin Network (Beijing) Movie & Culture Media Co. Ltd., is also involved in the project.

September 2015 Doings and Things

Dragon*Con 2015 will be this weekend and I have been scheduled to participate in five sessions so far. I am keeping the details updated on the Middle-earth and Tolkien Blog. I have 1 panel on Saturday (Game of Thrones fans will want to see that one), "Middle-earth vs. Westeros". It falls to me to speak of death in two literary worlds.

Of Tolkien and Halloween and Conventions and Things

It has been a while since I was last able to participate in any conventions.  It seems like this year I will be participating in three.  First up is Tolkien Moot 2015, which will be held in Spokane, WA this weekend.  Tolkien Moot is for gamers who want to get together to play games inspired by Middle-earth.  My friend Hawke Robinson, who runs and funds the event out of his pocket, has been broadcasting these events over the Internet for years.  Technically, most "attendees" are "tune-inees", people who watch over wire.  I will be participating in two online panels remotely.

Where do Fandom and Cults Differentiate Themselves from Each Other?

The almost insane curiosity that science fiction and fantasy fandom direct at their favorite books, movies, television shows, and radio dramas (or comic books, art, etc.) has been compared more than once with cult-like devotion to religious leaders and icons.  In fact, the word "cult" itself has many meanings, and is related to words like "agriculture", "culture", and "cultivate".
We do appear to worship the Star Wars universe in many ways.  Some fans are so devoted to the Star Wars experience that they meet regularly in costume and ... and, well, do things like the Tolkien fans and the Star Trek fans and the Pern fans and the Hunger Games fans.  And it goes on and on.  Millions of people have identified with the science fiction way of life.

Remembering Andre Norton Ten Years Later

There have been few days in my life where sadness overwhelmed me.  March 17, 2005 was one of those rare days.  I had long been expecting it but when the moment came and a close friend told me that Andre Norton was gone, I just wanted to rip everything off the Web and put up Andre Norton memorials.  She was the first science fiction and fantasy author to stir real passion in my heart as a reader.  Her stories, often said to be written for young adults, touched me when I was a young teenager but I could not stop reading them when I reached my twenties and thirties.  Her craft was that good, that I could return to the same stories over and over again.