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Science Fiction

Quote of the Day: Erich Fromm on the “Basic Question”

June 13, 2011

In comparing Zamyatin’s We, Huxley’s Brave New World, and Orwell’s 1984 Fromm notices that: . . . . there is one basic question common to the three negative utopias. The question is a philosophical, anthropological and psychological one, and perhaps also a religious one. It is: can human nature be changed in such a way that man will forget his longing for freedom, for dignity, for integrity, for love—that is to say, can man forget that he is human? Or does human nature have a dynamism which will react to the violation of these basic human needs by attempting to change an inhuman society into a human one? It must be noted that the three authors do not take the simple position of psychological relativism which is common to so many social scientists today; they do not start out with the assumption that there is no such thing as human nature; that there is no such thing as qualities essential to man; and that man is born as nothing but a blank sheet of paper on which any given society writes its text. They do assume man has an intense striving for love, for justice, for truth, for solidarity, and

Prose & Poetry Update

May 31, 2011

By Daniel Crandall

Memorial Day has come and gone, but we remember those who gave the last full measure of devotion on behalf of America. Inspired by those memories, this week’s Update includes two poems that would not be were it not for those who died fighting WWI. In 1915 the London Spectator published “In Flanders Fields,” written by Major John McCrae, a surgeon attached to Canada’s 1st Field Artillery Brigade. Its closing isn’t what one might expect from a combat surgeon, especially when viewed through lenses created by films such as M.A.S.H., A Bridge Too Far, and Apocalypse Now. Rather than simply lamenting lost lives, Major McCrae challenges future generations to continue fighting so as to honor the memory of those who sacrificed themselves in battle. In response to this, Moina Michael penned “We Shall Never Forget.” We shall never forget the sacrifice our brave military men and women made on our behalf. Neither shall we forget to pick up “from failing hands” “the torch” and “hold it high.” “In Flanders Fields” In Flanders Fields the poppies blow Between the crosses row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the

Prose & Poetry Update

May 24, 2011

By Daniel Crandall

This week’s issue begins and ends with G.K. Chesterton. Up first, the “Prophet of Common Sense” on Art, Literature and accepting the status quo: “The beautification of the world is not a work of nature, but a work of art, then it involves an artist.” – Illustrated London News, 9-18-09 “By a curious confusion, many modern critics have passed from the proposition that a masterpiece may be unpopular to the other proposition that unless it is unpopular it cannot be a masterpiece.” – On Detective Novels, Generally Speaking “And all over the world, the old literature, the popular literature, is the same. It consists of very dignified sorrow and very undignified fun. Its sad tales are of broken hearts; its happy tales are of broken heads.” – Charles Dickens “The aim of good prose words is to mean what they say. The aim of good poetical words is to mean what they do not say.” – Daily News, 4-22-05 “A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” – The Everlasting Man, 1925 Short Fiction The Disadvantage of Having Two Heads written & illustrated by G.K. Chesterton “A little boy once looked

Prose and Poetry Update

May 17, 2011

By Daniel Crandall

While the Newt flames out after less than a week in the spotlight as the “Big Republican On Campus,” folks might want to think about something other than politics. How about a good story? But first, a few literary quotes on good and evil, and the love of books. “No one who can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot.” – Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend “When I am king, they shall not have bread and shelter only, but also teachings out of books; for a full belly is little worth where the mind is starved.” – Mark Twain, The Prince and The Pauper “The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles “We live in a world of transgressions and selfishness, and no pictures that represent us otherwise can be true, though, happily, for human nature, gleamings of that pure spirit in whose likeness man has been fashioned are to be seen, relieving its deformities, and mitigating if not excusing its crimes.” – James Fenimore cooper, The Deerslayer Short Fiction Luck by Mark Twain “It was at a

Science Fiction Authors Pick (What They Regard As) The Best SF

May 16, 2011

By Mike Gray

Science Fiction Authors Pick (What They Regard As) The Best SF

By Mike Gray You have to wonder how much these writers’ opinions were shaped by their politics, religion, and/or philosophical beliefs: It requires little sophistry to consider Daniel Defoe’s immortal Robinson Crusoe as a metaphor for a man stranded on an alien planet. Crusoe is an exile, and exile has proved a perennial theme within the genre of science fiction. Of all its great themes, lingering on the fringes of comprehension is Star Maker, by Olaf Stapledon (1882-1950). Stapledon was an exile, his childhood spent between Egypt and England. Star Maker is both illuminated and darkened by a feeling of not belonging, the essence of exile. It was published in 1937, when it received a rather chilly reception; the public did not know what to make of it. If it was influenced by Milton’s Paradise Lost, it was doubtless also formed by the terror of the war against Nazi Germany, which was about to descend upon us. — Brian Aldiss on Stapledon’s Star Maker Fahrenheit 451 predated Marshall McLuhan and his theories about how media shape people, not just the reverse. We interact with our creations, and they themselves act upon us. Now that we’re in the midst of a

Prose & Poetry Update

May 9, 2011

By Daniel Crandall

Enjoy a bevy of literary links including Andrew Klavan, Rudyard Kipling, Evelyn Waugh, John Buchan, George Washington’s Beer, and a love poem by Pablo Neruda. But first some quotes from great literature concerning justice, war and liberty. “There are times, young fellah, when every one of us must make a stand for human right and justice, or you never feel clean again.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World “The Almighty gave us our lives, and I suppose He meant us to defend them, at least I have always acted on that, and I hope it will not be brought up against me when my clock strikes.” – H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon’s Mines “Peril, loneliness, an uncertain future, are not oppressive evils, so long as the frame is healthy and the faculties are employed; so long, especially, as Liberty lends us her wings, and Hope guides us by her star.” – Charlotte Bronte, Villette “You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.” – W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage Short Fiction A Creed, A Word and a Blade of Grass by Peter Orullian “The familiar glow of candlelight was the

A Fictional 100th Birthday Commemoration for Mr. Johnson

May 7, 2011

By Bruce Edward Walker

A Fictional 100th Birthday Commemoration for Mr. Johnson

The crowd emitted an audible wail. They shook in superstitious fear as Peetie forced the six strings of his guitar to scream above his moan. Zann smiled as he watched the group, unawares, rise collectively several inches above the ground. He hadn't taught Peetie this parlor trick. Peetie was levitating crowds without their knowledge even before Zann met him.

The Brilliant Ignoramus: Sherlock Holmes and the Universe at Large

April 30, 2011

By Mike Gray

The Brilliant Ignoramus: Sherlock Holmes and the Universe at Large

By Mike Gray One purported purpose of fiction seems to be an attempt to understand the human experience through stories. Science fiction has always been highly equipped to handle this problem by viewing culture and individuals through the lens of technology or fantastical concepts. Explaining life as we know it, or might one day live it, is certainly the task of all good science fiction. Similarly, the stories and enduring character of Sherlock Holmes provide a lens through which the human experience can be explained. Commenting on why Sherlock Holmes speaks to him specifically, Nicholas Meyer notes that, “They constitute a sort of secular bible.” For many, growing up with science fiction, the experience is similar. In an unreasonable world, the greatest science fiction can frequently comfort us, while at the same time forcing us to confront our greatest fears. And the ultimate impact of Sherlock Holmes is the same. — Ryan Britt Arriving late in a century of breathtaking material advancement, Sherlock Holmes could be said to embody the late Victorians’ idea of scientific progress: Essentially, Holmes believes any mystery can be approached, and a solution deduced, scientifically, by gathering necessary data, and drawing conclusions based

The Attack of the Terminators Is Already Overdue

April 22, 2011

By Mike Gray

The Attack of the Terminators Is Already Overdue

By Mike Gray They should have made the first film and forgotten about the sequels — but that’s not how Hollywood operates: The date 21 April 2011 has been prophesied in the Terminator series as Judgement Day, when the machines rise up and bring about the end of human society as we know it. When you mess around with history — but especially the kind that hasn’t happened yet — you’re going to get confusing discontinuities: TERMINATOR TIMELINE 4 August 1997: The date Skynet goes online according to the first Terminator film 29 August 1997: The first Terminator film claims this is when Skynet becomes self-aware and destroys human civilisation 25 July 2004: This is the date Judgement Day is pushed back to in Terminator 3 after the Skynet research is destroyed in Terminator 2 19 April 2011: The date Skynet goes online in The Sarah Connor Chronicles 21 April 2011: The date in The Sarah Connor Chronicles when Skynet launches its first missiles The creator of the Terminators thinks there’s something more worrisome than berserk androids: “Kyle Reese said in the first film that it was only one possible future — clearly,

Prose & Poetry Update

April 18, 2011

By Daniel Crandall

I’m back and I’ve decided to drop the “Weekly” from the post’s title. At least until I hit a good, say, three months of regular weekly updates. Without further ado, here’s a few links for the fiction and poetry fans visiting the American Culture. To start things off, a few literary quotes concerning education: “Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with,” the Mock Turtle replied; “and then the different branches of Arithmetic–Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.” - Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventure’s in Wonderland “At forty you stand upon the threshold of life, with values learned and rubbish cleared away.” - Algernon Blackwood, A Prisoner in Fairyland “There is no education like adversity.” - Benjamin Disreali, Endymion “So long…as we consider finance, industry, trade, agriculture merely as competing interests to be reconciled from time to time as best they may, so long as we consider ‘education’ as a good in itself of which everyone has a right to the utmost, without any ideal of the good life for society or for the individual, we shall move from one uneasy compromise to another.” - T. S. Eliot Short Fiction Shtetl Days by Harry Turtledove “Jakub Shlayfer opened the door and walked

Of Ambiguous Utopias and Heterotopias

April 15, 2011

By Mike Gray

By Mike Gray Odonianism is anarchism. Not the bomb-in-the-pocket stuff, which is terrorism, whatever name it tries to dignify itself with; not the social-Darwinist economic ‘libertarianism’ of the far right; but anarchism as prefigured in early Taoist thought, and expounded by Shelley and Kropotkin, Goldman and Goodman. Anarchism’s principal target is the authoritarian State (capitalist or socialist); its principal moral-practical theme is cooperation (solidarity, mutual aid). It is the most idealistic, and to me the most interesting, of all political theories. — Ursula K. LeGuin Science fiction (SF) presents possibilities for writers to explore “what-if” societies that never existed or could never actually exist, given the inertia that inheres in all known cultures. Two SF novels that explore the “what-if” theme are Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Dispossessed and Samuel R. Delany’s Triton. In The Dispossessed: he action takes place in a two-planet system — each planet is, in effect, the other planet’s moon. The larger of these two planets, Urras, is a world much like the Earth we know — divided among a number of competing governments, the best of which permit private property ownership and a relatively free market, though subject to heavy taxation. The

The Toy from Ganymede

April 14, 2011

By Mike Gray

By Mike Gray For years I’ve been trying to find a science fiction story I read a long, long time ago which describes the contemporary situation in Western civilization. And now, thanks to a helpful reader, I can tell you about it. The story was written by the great Philip K. Dick, who has managed to become famous posthumously for his books made into films — Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report — without people understanding his genius. “War Game” was published in Galaxy Science Fiction magazine’s December 1959 issue. Now, tell me if you think Dick predicted his future, our present . . . . — Barry Rubin, “A Science Fiction Story That Predicted the Manner of Western Suicide”

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Science Fiction

Quote of the Day: Erich Fromm on the “Basic Question”

Prose & Poetry Update

Prose & Poetry Update

Prose and Poetry Update

Science Fiction Authors Pick (What They Regard As) The Best SF

Prose & Poetry Update

A Fictional 100th Birthday Commemoration for Mr. Johnson

The Brilliant Ignoramus: Sherlock Holmes and the Universe at Large

The Attack of the Terminators Is Already Overdue

Of Ambiguous Utopias and Heterotopias

The Toy from Ganymede

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