Under the title “Notes from New Sodom”, Hal Duncan considers the failed old opposition of fantasy to sf, & describes the history of f/sf as a perpetual collapse of those categories. For instance, “Ray Bradbury’s entire ouvre exemplifies the crumbling of Science Fiction into the open interplay of science fiction, fantasy and horror.” A sort [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘science fiction’
October 28, 2009
all good cognitive stuff
Quantised perception, perceptual acceleration (or not) in times of high adrenalin, etc, here. Also, a fact about phantom limb. Maybe the next stage is to induce the phantom limb experience in subjects who haven’t lost anything, thereby enabling them to make personal choices about their neural structures & procedures. I can see this as being [...]
September 28, 2009
military science fiction
Away from the central action this is not an impressive war, the interception of incoming rockets–silvery elliptical explosions seen through the clouds–reminding the viewer, at best, of the closing sequences of This Island Earth: special effects put together long ago by a team not of the first rank. Missiles that get through make a hole [...]
September 17, 2009
sf retrospective
Stan Robinson’s spectacular at New Scientist is a mini-magazine of the 1980s, including a polemic by Stan himself, reviews & futurological speculations by everyone from Ian Watson to Gwyneth Jones, & flash fiction by many of the core authors of Brit SF. There’s even a review of Margaret Atwood. Very satisfying, although I could have [...]
July 24, 2009
into thin air
During my recent eczema of list-making I forgot Thin Air, by George E Simpson & Neal R Burger. How could that happen ? When you’re tired of military-industrial horror-science conspiracy fiction written by non-sf writers you’re tired of life. I mean that sincerely.
July 21, 2009
lunar clandestino
Paul McAuley has this. Looking at it I realised that I’m no longer interested in a world in which a WW2 bomber hasn’t been found on the Moon.
June 2, 2009
ch ch ch changes
In Locus, Graham Sleight tackles a retrospective mood in sf criticism via a metaphor from the music industry. Audiences, he says, driven to distraction by performances of fresh material, often heckle a band, “Play some old!” This demand seems to be based on the automatic & circular assumption that “older is better” [...]
May 2, 2009
some interesting science fiction
Frankenstein, 1818, Mary Shelley
The Time Machine, 1895, HG Wells
The War of the Worlds, 1898, HG Wells
The Purple Cloud , 1901, MP Shiel
The House on the Borderland, 1908, W Hope Hodgson
Metropolis, 1927, Fritz Lang
Last & First Men, 1930, Olaf Stapledon
At the Mountains of Madness, 1936, HP Lovecraft
Out of the Silent Planet, 1938, CS Lewis
The Golden Amazon, [...]
