Using Shadowrun as allegory for the actual world? Give me a break.
What is so appealing about the "corporatist" / dark future worldview anyway? Is it the hacker equivalent of survivalist fantasies about Soviet invasions and nukular holocausts . . . A paranoid fantasy where the disenfranchised can imagine themselves powerful?
If "corporatism" is going to be defanged, it will be through LAWS, not skulking lumpenhackers. Laws are concieved and nurtured through involvement and hard work by concerned and dedicated citizens. It means dealing with people, including some you may not agree with or much like being around. It means building coalitions and making compromises and getting up early.
Stefan (who used to WORK with the Shadowrun designers before he got a real job)
. . . I know, I know! God put the gas there to fool unbelievers!
He did it on the Monday after the first Sunday, which explains why he had to ask Adam what he and Eve were up to. He was off by M31 at the time.
Yeah, that's the ticket.
Seriously, you'll never convince a certain set of folks that the universe wasn't created, no matter what the evidence. Let 'em believe what they want, as long as they stay the hell out of schools.
Honest to gawd, my brother came up with this notion about three years back.
He pictured a hand-held reader that would store the URLS for downloading into your PC. We both thought magazines would be the ones who put the codes in their ads. Neither of us thought of newspapers and article tie-ins.
He wanted to patent and implement it all himself; knowing how tough the industry is on new gadgets and daunted by the task of getting the media to adopt the system, I suggested just writing up and patenting the idea and letting someone more connected with the industry do the dirty work. He took that the wrong way, got discouraged, and didn't follow up.
Probably an obvious idea, but he could have gotten in a claim and made few thou . ..
I was first exposed to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy via the original radio show, which was run on many NPR stations in the early eighties.
I think this "original" version is the best, and have listened to the tapes I recorded off the air* many times.
What puzzles me is this: I have never found an identical recording of this broadcast version of the show! The records are not the same. The official transcript books is not the same. The "original show" tapes released perhaps ten years ago are not the same either!
The one specific difference I remember: The version I heard on the air didn't have anything about the planet of intelligent Biros.
SO . .. were there in fact different broadcast versions? Perhaps one each for the British and American markets?
Thanks,
Stefan Jones
* I bought the "original broadcast" tapes so I'd have a legal copy.
Odd John MOVIE! Re:Starmaker definitely
on
Star Maker
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· Score: 1
In the Dover omnibus edition of Odd John and Sirius, the copyright for the former is in the name of George Pal. Pal was a fantasy film maker, best known for "The Time Machine" and "War of the Worlds." After many years of asking around, I learned from Forrey Ackerman that Pal had indeed plans to film a treatment of Odd John.
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN!
A Rough Plotline Re:Um...is it me?
on
Star Maker
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· Score: 2
An English fellow has a spat with his wife.
He storms outside, considers the state of the world (this is 1937, and most intellectuals figured the next war would end up with everyone dead from plagues and gas).
Turns his eyes to the stars and wonders what it's all about, and finds himself (for lack of a better phrase) astrally projected on a series of encounters with increasingly strange alien species caught up in various crisis.
With time, other astrally projected observers join him in the tour, which is across time as well as space. They see some races create superficially 'good' utopias . . . which they they try to force on others. They see others form mature utopias that observe other races without interference until they're ready for contact. (Sound familiar?)
What's left? Planetoid-sized habitats full of aquatic creatures linked by webs of neural tissue. Suns enveloped by swarms of space colonies inhabited by dozens of species. Convert-hungry 'Pervert' utopias frying entire solar systems. The two-billion year history of humanity reduced to two paragraphs.
And all this doesn't give the central theme away. Is that enough to go on?
Stefan
Not SF Re:Star Maker didn't just suck
on
Star Maker
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· Score: 3
Har! While I liked the book a lot, I enjoyed the show of bile.
A significant fraction of the people I've lent the book too had similar reactions.
Perhaps-important point: Stapledon didn't think he was writing science fiction. He was friends with Wells, but didn't know a thing about SF as a genre. What he thought he was writing were "myths of the future." Future histories. Few or no characters; little or no action on a personal level.
If you're looking for a traditional story, you won't find it in Star Maker.
Stefan
Widely Available, too! Re:Dover editions
on
Star Maker
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· Score: 1
I keep running across the Dover editions in places like Borders and Barnes & Noble. Also in lots of thrift shops. They've been in print since 1968 or so.
Sirius is one of Stapledon's last novels. Very sad and moving story about an "uplifted" dog (border collie / mastiff / german shepherd) dealing with life in WWII Wales and London.
Stefan
Star Maker beats everything for sheer scale
on
Star Maker
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· Score: 4
I am really glad that someone thought to review Star Maker here. I was thinking of volunteering a review myself.
I don't think the review does the book justice. "Dry" and "philosophical?" Perhaps. But CRIPES, man, the sheer scale and pageantry of it! Most SF just doesn't cut it for me any more after reading this brain bomb. Ringworld? A plaything invented by a dilletante. It was from Star Maker that Freeman Dyson got the idea for "Dyson Spheres." (Go look it up in Disturbing the Universe.)
Star Maker stretches from the condensation of the first galaxies (albiet in flashbacks) to the heat-death of the universe. It describes civilizations both humble (near-human races caught up in familiar problems) and fantastic (composed of thousands of artificial habitats, serving as home to dozens of symbiotic species). Warfare by artificially induced novas, entire multi-species empires mind-melding, interstellar travel via flying planet, something very much like Roddenberry's "Prime Directive," species living on collapsed stars . . . all this and more.
Stefan
With apologies to Kentucky Fried Movie . . .
on
Microsoft Loses
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· Score: 1
The solotaire dungeon I wrote for Flying Buffalo ("Dark Temple") probably had the highest work:pay ratio of any game project I did, but it's one of the things I'm proudest of.
The original notion of a liberal education came about as a reaction to this sort of heavy-handed, patronizing nonsense. A liberal education doesn't limit you to what your parents, your leaders, your local moral busy-bodies, your preachers and your military think is proper and necessary.
If we let the people behind bills like this have their way, you can kiss progress goodbye. A slack-less, hack-less, neutertopia where a career in computing will probably require background checks, a loyalty oath and future of COBOL and Ada work.
Lisa is a multi-purpose character. She is cast, at various times, as a girl obsessed with typical girl stuff (ponies, teen heartthobs), as a vegetarian flake, as a explorer of the psyche (she's probably had more psychedelic experiences than any other character on TV) and as the voice of reason and taste. Stefan
"Oh my gosh, a technological innovation that's similar to something in a dystopian SF novel! We're doomed!"
The "mass produced people" thing was brought up when Dolly was cloned. This is just another technique. Whether it's abused or not depends on a lot of other factors.
Send me to an island and give me my damn soma ration!
Zindell writes well. He's very inventive; his creations are vivid and interesting.
But damnit, he does go on. And on. And on. This book could have told its story in half its length. Toward the end, I was just plain irritated at the characters. "Grow up! Get lives! Quit acting like characters already!"
AND IT'S NOT OVER, DAMNIT! This book is a set-up for still more angst-ridden ponderous pondering. I give up.
"Scaring" people into keeping a week's worth of food and water on hand might not be unforgiveable.
I live about two miles from the San Andreas fault. It's generally considered a really good idea for people in 'quake zones to have a few days' supplies on hand, to make things easier for everyone until utilties are connected.
But it took the threat-I-don't-quite-belive-in of Y2K trouble to get me off my ass and buy peanut butter, crackers, batteries and bottled water.
What we really should worry about are the bozos who are going to make trouble for religious and political reasons. You know . . . the ones too weird to get invited to cool parties!:-)
He doesn't strike me as someone who would support romantic posturing and notions like "inherently tragic." Or someone who'd waste his time wandering around Disneyworld looking for portentious sociohistorical lessons.
For balance, Jon, go read the last chapter of Freeman Dyson's Weapons and Hope, "Tragedy is Not Our Business."
About eight years back, Pinkwater did special readings of essays from his book Fishwhistle. (Which were in turn transcripts of commentaries broadcast on NPR, and which were recorded as-is but without permission by Dove Audio and aren't as well composed anyway.)
If you happen across the long out of print two-tape Fishwhistle set, BUY IT.
I have had friends injure themselves laughing at some of the stuff on this tape. Brilliant.
Slashdot Mirror
Using Shadowrun as allegory for the actual world? Give me a break.
What is so appealing about the "corporatist" / dark future worldview anyway? Is it the hacker equivalent of survivalist fantasies about Soviet invasions and nukular holocausts . . . A paranoid fantasy where the disenfranchised can imagine themselves powerful?
If "corporatism" is going to be defanged, it will be through LAWS, not skulking lumpenhackers. Laws are concieved and nurtured through involvement and hard work by concerned and dedicated citizens. It means dealing with people, including some you may not agree with or much like being around. It means building coalitions and making compromises and getting up early.
Stefan (who used to WORK with the Shadowrun designers before he got a real job)
He did it on the Monday after the first Sunday, which explains why he had to ask Adam what he and Eve were up to. He was off by M31 at the time.
Yeah, that's the ticket.
Seriously, you'll never convince a certain set of folks that the universe wasn't created, no matter what the evidence. Let 'em believe what they want, as long as they stay the hell out of schools.
He pictured a hand-held reader that would store the URLS for downloading into your PC. We both thought magazines would be the ones who put the codes in their ads. Neither of us thought of newspapers and article tie-ins.
He wanted to patent and implement it all himself; knowing how tough the industry is on new gadgets and daunted by the task of getting the media to adopt the system, I suggested just writing up and patenting the idea and letting someone more connected with the industry do the dirty work. He took that the wrong way, got discouraged, and didn't follow up.
Probably an obvious idea, but he could have gotten in a claim and made few thou . . .
I think this "original" version is the best, and have listened to the tapes I recorded off the air* many times.
What puzzles me is this: I have never found an identical recording of this broadcast version of the show! The records are not the same. The official transcript books is not the same. The "original show" tapes released perhaps ten years ago are not the same either!
The one specific difference I remember: The version I heard on the air didn't have anything about the planet of intelligent Biros.
SO . . . were there in fact different broadcast versions? Perhaps one each for the British and American markets?
Thanks,
Stefan Jones
* I bought the "original broadcast" tapes so I'd have a legal copy.
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN!
He storms outside, considers the state of the world (this is 1937, and most intellectuals figured the next war would end up with everyone dead from plagues and gas).
Turns his eyes to the stars and wonders what it's all about, and finds himself (for lack of a better phrase) astrally projected on a series of encounters with increasingly strange alien species caught up in various crisis.
With time, other astrally projected observers join him in the tour, which is across time as well as space. They see some races create superficially 'good' utopias . . . which they they try to force on others. They see others form mature utopias that observe other races without interference until they're ready for contact. (Sound familiar?)
What's left? Planetoid-sized habitats full of aquatic creatures linked by webs of neural tissue. Suns enveloped by swarms of space colonies inhabited by dozens of species. Convert-hungry 'Pervert' utopias frying entire solar systems. The two-billion year history of humanity reduced to two paragraphs.
And all this doesn't give the central theme away. Is that enough to go on?
Stefan
A significant fraction of the people I've lent the book too had similar reactions.
Perhaps-important point: Stapledon didn't think he was writing science fiction. He was friends with Wells, but didn't know a thing about SF as a genre. What he thought he was writing were "myths of the future." Future histories. Few or no characters; little or no action on a personal level.
If you're looking for a traditional story, you won't find it in Star Maker.
Stefan
Sirius is one of Stapledon's last novels. Very sad and moving story about an "uplifted" dog (border collie / mastiff / german shepherd) dealing with life in WWII Wales and London.
Stefan
I don't think the review does the book justice. "Dry" and "philosophical?" Perhaps. But CRIPES, man, the sheer scale and pageantry of it! Most SF just doesn't cut it for me any more after reading this brain bomb. Ringworld? A plaything invented by a dilletante. It was from Star Maker that Freeman Dyson got the idea for "Dyson Spheres." (Go look it up in Disturbing the Universe.)
Star Maker stretches from the condensation of the first galaxies (albiet in flashbacks) to the heat-death of the universe. It describes civilizations both humble (near-human races caught up in familiar problems) and fantastic (composed of thousands of artificial habitats, serving as home to dozens of symbiotic species). Warfare by artificially induced novas, entire multi-species empires mind-melding, interstellar travel via flying planet, something very much like Roddenberry's "Prime Directive," species living on collapsed stars . . . all this and more.
Stefan
Missiles on the way.
Film at eleven.
The solotaire dungeon I wrote for Flying Buffalo ("Dark Temple") probably had the highest work:pay ratio of any game project I did, but it's one of the things I'm proudest of.
Stefan
If we let the people behind bills like this have their way, you can kiss progress goodbye. A slack-less, hack-less, neutertopia where a career in computing will probably require background checks, a loyalty oath and future of COBOL and Ada work.
Stefan
Crusoe + Fuel Cells = laptops that run a LONG time.
Lisa is a multi-purpose character. She is cast, at various times, as a girl obsessed with typical girl stuff (ponies, teen heartthobs), as a vegetarian flake, as a explorer of the psyche (she's probably had more psychedelic experiences than any other character on TV) and as the voice of reason and taste. Stefan
The "mass produced people" thing was brought up when Dolly was cloned. This is just another technique. Whether it's abused or not depends on a lot of other factors.
Send me to an island and give me my damn soma ration!
He's also been invited *here* by our right wingers. Gooney Birds of a feather flock together.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
I do wish the last chapter was a bit more explicit about the changes that happened.
But damnit, he does go on. And on. And on. This book could have told its story in half its length. Toward the end, I was just plain irritated at the characters. "Grow up! Get lives! Quit acting like characters already!"
AND IT'S NOT OVER, DAMNIT! This book is a set-up for still more angst-ridden ponderous pondering. I give up.
Stefan
I live about two miles from the San Andreas fault. It's generally considered a really good idea for people in 'quake zones to have a few days' supplies on hand, to make things easier for everyone until utilties are connected.
But it took the threat-I-don't-quite-belive-in of Y2K trouble to get me off my ass and buy peanut butter, crackers, batteries and bottled water.
What we really should worry about are the bozos who are going to make trouble for religious and political reasons. You know . . . the ones too weird to get invited to cool parties! :-)
He doesn't strike me as someone who would support romantic posturing and notions like "inherently tragic." Or someone who'd waste his time wandering around Disneyworld looking for portentious sociohistorical lessons.
For balance, Jon, go read the last chapter of Freeman Dyson's Weapons and Hope, "Tragedy is Not Our Business."
If you happen across the long out of print two-tape Fishwhistle set, BUY IT.
I have had friends injure themselves laughing at some of the stuff on this tape. Brilliant.
"Eat Pudding!"
Stefan Jones
In the Bay Area, it plays on 88.5, 6:30 pm Sunday Evenings.
Stefan
I can hardly wait.
Walking down a winding garden path dimly lit by glowing ornamental shrubs sounds very relaxing and romantic!
Stefan