As a computer programmer I rarely watched movies about computer technology gone amok for many years. Friends and family only gradually persuaded me to watch "The Matrix". Will Smith helped me see past the issues I might have had with "I, Robot". Now I can pretty much watch a computer tech movie and not flinch.
But some scientists still have a hard time with the science in so-called science fiction movies. The Guardian has a story about Sidney Perkowitz, a physicist based at Emory University in Atlanta.
Perkowitz and some fellow scientists have proposed that Hollywood only violate the laws of physics no more than once per film. Otherwise, ... well, I don't know what will happen. Perhaps Reality will turn in its universal franchise or something.
You know, "Starship Troopers" disappointed me in a few ways but the size of the bugs was not one of the problems I had with the movie.
The "laws of physics" are not exactly laws in the sense that they must be enforced or even respected. Physicists today are developing experiments that will hopefully lead to practical technologies enabling us to travel to the stars safely, live longer lives, perhaps study the past in a more personal way, control the raw forces of nature, and otherwise do things that supposedly violate the "laws of physics".
It seems impractical -- no, unrealistic for a scientist to criticize the entertainment industry for making up its facts in order to tell interesting stories. Truth be told, science is constantly discovering new properties of things both natural and artificial that were previously relegated to science fiction and fantasy.
Hence, now we're talking about developing "invisibility cloak" technology for soldiers that will render them invisible on the field of battle, creating magnetic force fields to protect spaceships and astronauts from Solar radiation and other nasty things, teleportation technology, and even personal flight technologies (have you heard of the Martin Jetpack?).
It seems okay for science to challenge itself but for some reason Hollywood has to rein itself in and respect the boundaries that keep scientists from getting up and walking out of cinemas in disgust.
Perhaps where we need to set down some boundaries is in how seriously members of the scientific community take themselves. We should limit the scientific community to criticizing entertainment no more than once per decade.
That seems reasonable to me.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Robert Sawyer says don't self-publish SciFi novels
In a blog post that has sparked some discussion across the Web, Sawyer wrote: "...if you want advice on the questions you're asking, find someone who has successfully gone the self-publishing route with an SF novel, and ask him or her. The point is: no such person exists, and so you won't be able to find him or her."
Well, Stephen King comes to mind but let's not quibble over the orders of magnitude between Stephen King and the rest of us. In principle I agree with Mr. Sawyer. I don't think you'll get your money back if you self-publish a science fiction novel.
If it were that easy, we'd all be able to easily name someone other than Stephen King (or Mark Twain) who could pull it off.
Now, there are other types of books you can self-publish but they don't come with any guarantees of success. The best route to self-publishing success, in my experience (as a successful self-published writer) is to build an audience that is eager for your work before you self-publish.
Which means you should get published before you self-publish. Now, the Internet once made that easier than it is today. Unfortunately the online freelance industry collapsed almost ten years ago. There are still some opportunities but they are not what they once were.
People turn to self-publishing out of a sense of frustration. The traditional publishers are only willing to put out so many science fiction books each year (and, quite frankly, a lot of those books are not very good). So the traditional publishing industry has built up a lot of stigma with wannabe authors, many of whom don't understand the ins and outs of navigating a manuscript through the contorted channels of publishing.
And let's be fair here: many wannabe authors don't understand the ins and outs of good writing. Did I say the traditional publishing industry puts out a lot of bad books? They reject far worse and in much larger volumes.
Some bad books do get through the process because editors have to manage resources in a somewhat strategic way. That is, if they don't publish something in the right place at the right time, they may not be able to publish something else later. That has been the publishing industry's dirty little secret for many years, but whenever the publishing industry goes through a contraction, eliminating editorial positions and book slots, fewer bad books slip through the cracks of the quality control process.
Still, when you pick up a book in a store that was put out by a major publishing house and you just want to gag at the awful writing that some editor let slip through, you can stand there asking yourself, "Why can't I get published?"
And there are plenty of reasons why you can't get published. They usually have nothing to do with your personality (although I've heard that a few people who went toxic after being rejected pretty much got themselves virtually blacklisted). You need to be at least a competent writer but you also have to be imaginative.
I would love to get my Tolkienesque fantasy novels published some day. I'm still waiting for traditional publishers to beat a path to my door demanding the right to publish the kinds of stories we all grew up on. In the meantime, well, I'm still waiting.
And so are you.
Another reason why you don't get published might be that your resume is empty. There is something to be said about the difference between writing a short story and a novel. But a really good writer should be able to do both. I once submitted a short story to a writing workshop. I won't go into the story behind the story but Marion Zimmer Bradley threw my manuscript on the table and said, "This is a novel masquerading as a short story."
She was right. I had taken a mostly fleshed out novel plot and tried to skin it down into a short story. No professional with years of experience would have been fooled by that kind of trick. One of the points Ms. Bradley made to me that day (and which has been echoed by other people in the field in the years since) was that if you're going to write something, you have to make up your mind what you're going to write. It cannot be many things to many people.
It's easier to write a short story than it is to write a novel. If you learn to write good short stories you'll find there are more markets for them than there are for your novels. Rack up a few sales in short stories and you'll have a writing resume that just may get you past the slush pile at every agent and editor's office.
There are no guarantees you'll ever be able to publish a novel if you sell even 100 short stories. I'm just saying you'll have a better chance at getting someone in the publishing industry to take you seriously if you follow their guidelines and work your way up the ranks the way they ask you to. Hundreds of books have been published that explain the system.
And make no mistake about it: there is a system, one that has been contrived and honed through decades of contractual negotiations, lawsuits, and business deals worked out over dinner, at conventions, etc. Some people broke into traditional publishing by finding themselves in relationships (friendships, partnerships, whateverships) with established writers who helped nurture their inherent talents and molded their undisciplined skills into acceptable publishable craft.
Some people just end up in the right place at the right time. You occasionally hear about someone who writes a pitch letter to a traditional publisher and makes a huge sale -- all without any writing experience, sometimes even without any writing to sell. It happens. Some people are just born to be kings and millionaires, too. The rest of us have to build our kingdoms and our fortunes the old-fashioned way.
The Internet has been touted as a great opportunity for self-published writers. In fact, I do help self-published writers promote their books with some free resources. But I don't suggest to them that the world will beat a path to their doors because they list a book with my service. I'm just giving them a little free exposure.
If you want to use the Internet to promote a book you need to build an audience that will have an interest in that book. It doesn't matter how the book was published. No audience = no sales. You can hire a publicist to work with you but a good publicist will tell you that selling science fiction novels is not easy. Book stores rarely take the self-published science fiction novel.
Print-on-demand technology makes it less expensive to self-publish books. Because I was successful in reprinting a collection of essays through POD technology people have asked me through the years why I don't use that to self-publish one of my novels. The answer is always the same: I don't have an audience for the novel, whereas I did have an audience for the essays, which I had originally been paid to write anyway.
There are a lot of people who want to be published -- more than will be published by the traditional publishing industry. Some very good writers will go unpublished because they stop submitting their manuscripts too soon, because they write the wrong material, because they submit to the wrong agents or publishers, etc.
If you want to self-publish and use the Internet and POD technology to cut your costs, understand that you're not cutting your costs. You still have to market yourself. Traditional publishing should provide you with some marketing help (it doesn't always work out that way). Publishing short stories in anthologies and magazines at least gets your name out there. That's marketing yourself.
If you have a Website that gets 100,000 visitors a month, maybe you can self-publish a science fiction novel. Maybe 1% of those people will buy your book. Maybe.
If you have anything less than that to work with then your chances of selling even 1,000 copies of your book are pretty slim. A typical self-published book sells between 50 and 100 copies. And that's usually based on the author going out and doing signings, hawking their book at small shows and flea markets, etc.
If you're not prepared to do the marketing and build the audience, there is no reason for you to self-publish a book, much less a science fiction novel. Self-published places the burden of marketing all on you. It doesn't confer any credibility on you. Book stores and science fiction conventions are more likely than not to ignore you and your book because they have never heard of you.
That's the real difference between Stephen King and me: far more people have heard of him than me, so far more people are inclined to buy his self-published book than mine.
And that's just how it works.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Well, Stephen King comes to mind but let's not quibble over the orders of magnitude between Stephen King and the rest of us. In principle I agree with Mr. Sawyer. I don't think you'll get your money back if you self-publish a science fiction novel.
If it were that easy, we'd all be able to easily name someone other than Stephen King (or Mark Twain) who could pull it off.
Now, there are other types of books you can self-publish but they don't come with any guarantees of success. The best route to self-publishing success, in my experience (as a successful self-published writer) is to build an audience that is eager for your work before you self-publish.
Which means you should get published before you self-publish. Now, the Internet once made that easier than it is today. Unfortunately the online freelance industry collapsed almost ten years ago. There are still some opportunities but they are not what they once were.
People turn to self-publishing out of a sense of frustration. The traditional publishers are only willing to put out so many science fiction books each year (and, quite frankly, a lot of those books are not very good). So the traditional publishing industry has built up a lot of stigma with wannabe authors, many of whom don't understand the ins and outs of navigating a manuscript through the contorted channels of publishing.
And let's be fair here: many wannabe authors don't understand the ins and outs of good writing. Did I say the traditional publishing industry puts out a lot of bad books? They reject far worse and in much larger volumes.
Some bad books do get through the process because editors have to manage resources in a somewhat strategic way. That is, if they don't publish something in the right place at the right time, they may not be able to publish something else later. That has been the publishing industry's dirty little secret for many years, but whenever the publishing industry goes through a contraction, eliminating editorial positions and book slots, fewer bad books slip through the cracks of the quality control process.
Still, when you pick up a book in a store that was put out by a major publishing house and you just want to gag at the awful writing that some editor let slip through, you can stand there asking yourself, "Why can't I get published?"
And there are plenty of reasons why you can't get published. They usually have nothing to do with your personality (although I've heard that a few people who went toxic after being rejected pretty much got themselves virtually blacklisted). You need to be at least a competent writer but you also have to be imaginative.
I would love to get my Tolkienesque fantasy novels published some day. I'm still waiting for traditional publishers to beat a path to my door demanding the right to publish the kinds of stories we all grew up on. In the meantime, well, I'm still waiting.
And so are you.
Another reason why you don't get published might be that your resume is empty. There is something to be said about the difference between writing a short story and a novel. But a really good writer should be able to do both. I once submitted a short story to a writing workshop. I won't go into the story behind the story but Marion Zimmer Bradley threw my manuscript on the table and said, "This is a novel masquerading as a short story."
She was right. I had taken a mostly fleshed out novel plot and tried to skin it down into a short story. No professional with years of experience would have been fooled by that kind of trick. One of the points Ms. Bradley made to me that day (and which has been echoed by other people in the field in the years since) was that if you're going to write something, you have to make up your mind what you're going to write. It cannot be many things to many people.
It's easier to write a short story than it is to write a novel. If you learn to write good short stories you'll find there are more markets for them than there are for your novels. Rack up a few sales in short stories and you'll have a writing resume that just may get you past the slush pile at every agent and editor's office.
There are no guarantees you'll ever be able to publish a novel if you sell even 100 short stories. I'm just saying you'll have a better chance at getting someone in the publishing industry to take you seriously if you follow their guidelines and work your way up the ranks the way they ask you to. Hundreds of books have been published that explain the system.
And make no mistake about it: there is a system, one that has been contrived and honed through decades of contractual negotiations, lawsuits, and business deals worked out over dinner, at conventions, etc. Some people broke into traditional publishing by finding themselves in relationships (friendships, partnerships, whateverships) with established writers who helped nurture their inherent talents and molded their undisciplined skills into acceptable publishable craft.
Some people just end up in the right place at the right time. You occasionally hear about someone who writes a pitch letter to a traditional publisher and makes a huge sale -- all without any writing experience, sometimes even without any writing to sell. It happens. Some people are just born to be kings and millionaires, too. The rest of us have to build our kingdoms and our fortunes the old-fashioned way.
The Internet has been touted as a great opportunity for self-published writers. In fact, I do help self-published writers promote their books with some free resources. But I don't suggest to them that the world will beat a path to their doors because they list a book with my service. I'm just giving them a little free exposure.
If you want to use the Internet to promote a book you need to build an audience that will have an interest in that book. It doesn't matter how the book was published. No audience = no sales. You can hire a publicist to work with you but a good publicist will tell you that selling science fiction novels is not easy. Book stores rarely take the self-published science fiction novel.
Print-on-demand technology makes it less expensive to self-publish books. Because I was successful in reprinting a collection of essays through POD technology people have asked me through the years why I don't use that to self-publish one of my novels. The answer is always the same: I don't have an audience for the novel, whereas I did have an audience for the essays, which I had originally been paid to write anyway.
There are a lot of people who want to be published -- more than will be published by the traditional publishing industry. Some very good writers will go unpublished because they stop submitting their manuscripts too soon, because they write the wrong material, because they submit to the wrong agents or publishers, etc.
If you want to self-publish and use the Internet and POD technology to cut your costs, understand that you're not cutting your costs. You still have to market yourself. Traditional publishing should provide you with some marketing help (it doesn't always work out that way). Publishing short stories in anthologies and magazines at least gets your name out there. That's marketing yourself.
If you have a Website that gets 100,000 visitors a month, maybe you can self-publish a science fiction novel. Maybe 1% of those people will buy your book. Maybe.
If you have anything less than that to work with then your chances of selling even 1,000 copies of your book are pretty slim. A typical self-published book sells between 50 and 100 copies. And that's usually based on the author going out and doing signings, hawking their book at small shows and flea markets, etc.
If you're not prepared to do the marketing and build the audience, there is no reason for you to self-publish a book, much less a science fiction novel. Self-published places the burden of marketing all on you. It doesn't confer any credibility on you. Book stores and science fiction conventions are more likely than not to ignore you and your book because they have never heard of you.
That's the real difference between Stephen King and me: far more people have heard of him than me, so far more people are inclined to buy his self-published book than mine.
And that's just how it works.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
A final word about SciFi and Green Police
A friend mentioned to me today that there is a concise explanation of the "broad range of grass roots movements" around the world that have been labeled Green Police. Last week, in a series of articles on the SF Fandom Wordpress blog as well as here, I explored the "green police" concept from my limited perspective. I have been aware of the growing environmental movements around the world for some time and realized that science fiction (and fandom) have played their parts in developing the message.
Here is a concise list of the articles I wrote on both blogs:
BTW -- Black Oak Arkansas fans might think that second article title is familiar. It was inspired by the goofy song "Jim Dandy to the rescue". Sorry -- my resistance was futile.
I opened a discussion of these articles at SF-Fandom. Please feel free to drop by and leave your thoughts there if you don't want to comment on either of the blogs: SF Fandom blogs and environmentalism.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Here is a concise list of the articles I wrote on both blogs:
SF-Fandom Wordpress Blog Environmental Series
- Are the Green Police Real Enough?
- Galactic Green Police
- Should man change his environment?
- One last word about Green Police
SF-Fandom Blogger Blog Environmental Series
BTW -- Black Oak Arkansas fans might think that second article title is familiar. It was inspired by the goofy song "Jim Dandy to the rescue". Sorry -- my resistance was futile.
I opened a discussion of these articles at SF-Fandom. Please feel free to drop by and leave your thoughts there if you don't want to comment on either of the blogs: SF Fandom blogs and environmentalism.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Green Lantern to the environmental rescue
So this week I'm publishing articles about science fiction and environmentalism on the other SF Fandom blog. I'm publishing related articles on this blog as well. Tody's article is Galactic green police. This article continues the theme of how people can take action to help the environment -- and science fiction fans get in on the action now and then.
Source: Freaking News
Green Police poster calls for science fiction fans to get involved with environmentalism.
I like the idea of using Green Lanterns as "green police". I went looking for good Green Lantern costume pictures and found a few.
Source: How Stuff Works
Green Lantern fan at a convention.
Source: The League of Heroes
Green Lantern man and woman in costume at a convention.
Source: Halforums
Justice League characters line up, including Green Lantern and his friend Black Canary.
You might wonder what the connection is between Green Lantern and environmentalism. I don't know how closely tied he is to the cause, as I stopped reading comics decades ago. But I shared some memories in this week's articles.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Source: Freaking News
Green Police poster calls for science fiction fans to get involved with environmentalism.
I like the idea of using Green Lanterns as "green police". I went looking for good Green Lantern costume pictures and found a few.
Source: How Stuff Works
Green Lantern fan at a convention.
Source: The League of Heroes
Green Lantern man and woman in costume at a convention.
Source: Halforums
Justice League characters line up, including Green Lantern and his friend Black Canary.
You might wonder what the connection is between Green Lantern and environmentalism. I don't know how closely tied he is to the cause, as I stopped reading comics decades ago. But I shared some memories in this week's articles.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
How green are your police?
I was inspired to launch an ambitious series of articles on science fiction and the environment on the other SF Fandom blog this week but I wanted to publish related articles in tandem on this blog, too.
Today's article is titled Are the Green Police Real Enough and it sort of wanders and rambles in my usual fashion but it's all about accountability: who is accountable for what we do to the environment?
I wanted to dress up the articles with some pictures and I found this cute picture (sorry -- I don't know how else to describe it) of kids dressed up as "green police" (thus inspiring the name for the article).
Source: Lincolnshire County Council
It turns out that quite a few communities have invoked the idea of "green police" and I decided to follow that theme through the whole series, but I can't include all the pictures I found in those articles (despite the fact that they are typical very long-winded Michael Martinez articles).
So here are a few other "green police" pictures I looked at but didn't go with for the first article.
Source: Avon and Somerset Glastonbury Festival 2009
Source: You Can Go Green
Source: Blog In A Box
These two ladies give a whole new meaning to the expression, "Going green" (I can't believe I'm going to leave that comment in place).
Source: The Punch
They probably advance the cause much better than Irwin Allen did in the 1960s' television show, Lost In Space:
Source: Cracked
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Today's article is titled Are the Green Police Real Enough and it sort of wanders and rambles in my usual fashion but it's all about accountability: who is accountable for what we do to the environment?
I wanted to dress up the articles with some pictures and I found this cute picture (sorry -- I don't know how else to describe it) of kids dressed up as "green police" (thus inspiring the name for the article).
Source: Lincolnshire County CouncilIt turns out that quite a few communities have invoked the idea of "green police" and I decided to follow that theme through the whole series, but I can't include all the pictures I found in those articles (despite the fact that they are typical very long-winded Michael Martinez articles).
So here are a few other "green police" pictures I looked at but didn't go with for the first article.
Source: Avon and Somerset Glastonbury Festival 2009
Source: You Can Go Green
Source: Blog In A Box
These two ladies give a whole new meaning to the expression, "Going green" (I can't believe I'm going to leave that comment in place).
Source: The PunchThey probably advance the cause much better than Irwin Allen did in the 1960s' television show, Lost In Space:
Source: Cracked
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Trailer for Military SF episode of The Author Hour
The Author Hour is a literary podcast that has a YouTube channel where you can view trailers for various episodes.
The most recent episode, number 11, is devoted to Military SF.
Matthew Peterson, host of The Author Hour, has interviewed 70 authors. You'll hear many interesting anecdotes and get to listen to some of the most talented writers in science fiction and fantasy.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
The most recent episode, number 11, is devoted to Military SF.
Matthew Peterson, host of The Author Hour, has interviewed 70 authors. You'll hear many interesting anecdotes and get to listen to some of the most talented writers in science fiction and fantasy.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Isaac Asimov video - Changes in post-1949 science fiction
ABOUT SF, an online resource center maintained by the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas, has a YouTube Channel and they uploaded a snippet from a lecture by or interview with Isaac Asimov a couple of years ago. Sadly, the video doesn't seem to have been viewed very many times.
Feel free to increase their viewcount by watching the video here.
There are currently 8 videos on the YouTube channel. It would be a shame if no more will be uploaded. You can watch Damon Knight and Forrest J. Ackerman and Asimov talk about science fiction in the old days. Knight covers the history of science fiction from "Wells to the pulps".
Check it out.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Feel free to increase their viewcount by watching the video here.
There are currently 8 videos on the YouTube channel. It would be a shame if no more will be uploaded. You can watch Damon Knight and Forrest J. Ackerman and Asimov talk about science fiction in the old days. Knight covers the history of science fiction from "Wells to the pulps".
Check it out.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Professor George Challenger rises again
I'm very familiar with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, which has been adapted to film and television more than once. One of the most interesting characters in The Lost World is, of course, Professor Challenger, who leads a small expedition to South America in search of living dinosaurs.
What I was unaware of (or had completely forgotten) until I read this review of Science Fiction Classics Vol. 17) was that Doyle had featured Professor Challenger and news reporter Edward Malone in another story called "The Disintegration Machine".
Writer Michael May reveiws the latest in a series of graphic novel style adaptations of classic science fiction stories. The latest issue includes adaptations of works by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and E.M. Forster to name just a few others besides Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself.
May's review is entertaining and compelling. I remember reading the old Classics Illustrated comics in the 1960s and 1970s and loving them. It's nice to see there is an equivalent series that treats modern science fiction and fantasy with a similar respect that was extended to the ancient stories that ignited children's imaginations when presented correctly.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
What I was unaware of (or had completely forgotten) until I read this review of Science Fiction Classics Vol. 17) was that Doyle had featured Professor Challenger and news reporter Edward Malone in another story called "The Disintegration Machine".
Writer Michael May reveiws the latest in a series of graphic novel style adaptations of classic science fiction stories. The latest issue includes adaptations of works by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and E.M. Forster to name just a few others besides Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself.
May's review is entertaining and compelling. I remember reading the old Classics Illustrated comics in the 1960s and 1970s and loving them. It's nice to see there is an equivalent series that treats modern science fiction and fantasy with a similar respect that was extended to the ancient stories that ignited children's imaginations when presented correctly.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Xenite adds new SciFi merchandise section
Thanks to Google discontinuing its AdSense Video Units, we needed to find another source of revenue to help manage our server costs. We've been participating in the Amazon affiliate program for several years but placing individual products across a large site or aggregating product links onto single pages is too time-consuming to be a worthwhile effort.
Amazon has now set up its AStore program that lets you create a dynamic store populated directly from their catalog. We've accordingly set up a Science Fiction & Fantasy Store for Xenite.Org and SF-Fandom visitors.
Although the main page covers all science fiction and fantasy topics for books, games, and movies, there are several dedicated sub-sections. We'll appreciate your helping out by making occasional purchases through the store. The Xenite.Org network is a non-profit/non-commercial fan site network.
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Amazon has now set up its AStore program that lets you create a dynamic store populated directly from their catalog. We've accordingly set up a Science Fiction & Fantasy Store for Xenite.Org and SF-Fandom visitors.
Although the main page covers all science fiction and fantasy topics for books, games, and movies, there are several dedicated sub-sections. We'll appreciate your helping out by making occasional purchases through the store. The Xenite.Org network is a non-profit/non-commercial fan site network.
- SciFi Store
- Harry Potter Store
- Hobbit Store
- Pulp Science Fiction Store
- Legend of the Seeker Store
- Stargate Store
- Star Trek Store
- Star Wars Store
- Terminator Store
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Somewhere over the email
I should be sleeping but instead I am watching "You've Got Mail" again. I like the movie, although I'm not sure of what I find to be most appealing about it. The fact the movie's title is derived from AOL's mail system (as well as much of the plot) always disappointed me.
"That is so mundane," I thought. After all, America Online was never well regarded by the majority of non-AOL users (many of whom were ex-AOL users). Still, there was a time -- however brief -- when AOL had more users than the rest of the Internet. Or so it seemed to me.
AOL was once ubiquitous in defining the online experience, despite the fact there were many better options.
What would it take to turn the story of "You've Got Mail" into a science fiction movie? The technology is what Alfred Hitchcock called a "McGuffin". It moves the plot forward without requiring explanation. Think of a Star Trek story where a ship is stranded with a warp drive on the fritz. The engineer may struggle with the warp drive but eventually the ship blows up.
Do we really care about how warp engines work, or do we care about the characters and their real conflicts, the growth they experience? If, as Gene Roddenberry would have intended, we are only concerned about the characters then the warp drive is a McGuffin.
So think of a possible technology that works like email but which takes its place in the story. And maybe the conflict between the characters is not about a megacorporation putting a little bookstore out of business. Maybe it's about a small colony somewhere in space being threatened by an interstellar empire, a change in government, or a supermegacorporation.
The ubiquitous communications system can drive the story forward as the two characters interact with each other on different levels, only gradually realizing that the technology has both brought them together and kept them apart.
Would that not still be science fiction? Or, now that we've seen the story played out over email, is it too late to dream a little dream of things that might yet be?
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
"That is so mundane," I thought. After all, America Online was never well regarded by the majority of non-AOL users (many of whom were ex-AOL users). Still, there was a time -- however brief -- when AOL had more users than the rest of the Internet. Or so it seemed to me.
AOL was once ubiquitous in defining the online experience, despite the fact there were many better options.
What would it take to turn the story of "You've Got Mail" into a science fiction movie? The technology is what Alfred Hitchcock called a "McGuffin". It moves the plot forward without requiring explanation. Think of a Star Trek story where a ship is stranded with a warp drive on the fritz. The engineer may struggle with the warp drive but eventually the ship blows up.
Do we really care about how warp engines work, or do we care about the characters and their real conflicts, the growth they experience? If, as Gene Roddenberry would have intended, we are only concerned about the characters then the warp drive is a McGuffin.
So think of a possible technology that works like email but which takes its place in the story. And maybe the conflict between the characters is not about a megacorporation putting a little bookstore out of business. Maybe it's about a small colony somewhere in space being threatened by an interstellar empire, a change in government, or a supermegacorporation.
The ubiquitous communications system can drive the story forward as the two characters interact with each other on different levels, only gradually realizing that the technology has both brought them together and kept them apart.
Would that not still be science fiction? Or, now that we've seen the story played out over email, is it too late to dream a little dream of things that might yet be?
SF-Fandom is a moderated, fan-run community devoted to science fiction, fantasy, history, and mythology. SF-Fandom was founded in 2001 and is part of the Xenite.Org network. Free registration is required to post. Please be sure you read our Posting Guidelines.
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