Neanderpundit

Kim has a great essay on why he doesn’t like science fiction, and he’s spot on, on every point. It’s not for him, and he hasn’t found any to his liking, and has stopped trying and taking suggestions.

I don’t blame him. I’ve had my fill of “great” authors of all genres, and the very worst is, in fact, science fiction.

Now, unlike Kim, i’m a HUGE fan of science and engineering, and because of this, the stuff that expanded my mind scientifically- even if it was fiction- was what I read most voraciously. Clarke was always my first love; his characters are indeed two dimensional but his science is awesome- in fact, he predicted the communications sattelite and the computer clusterfucks of dec. 31 1999, years and years ahead of anyone, and these are only a very few of his accomplisments. Asimov, Bradbury….. tons and tons of stuff. I cut my teeth on Verne, Wells, and Doyle, on Olaf Stapledon and John Taine (Eric Temple Bell).

I liked all the stuff. I could give two fucks about character development or anything of that sort. I want to look at the technology, to see how the tech is applied, and what the possibilities were. To be able to imagine how people lived in space. To imagine how people adapted to new technologies.

Invariably, the representations of the future, or the technology, or the uses therof, are wrong. In Clifford D Simak’s “City”, for instance, dogs inherit the earth. The story as told by the dogs is one of utter stupidity- but the charming (to me) portion of the story is the way man’s relationship with dogs develops as the dogs are altered to give them speech. Simak talks about a world where eventually, there is such peace, that man will not even poison ants to prevent them from taking over the world. utter and complete bullshit.

But I couldn’t help but think: What if I could talk to my dog, and he could understand? What if he could speak back, and I could understand? THAT is the magical part of that story.

Olaf Stapledon’s “Odd John” is also a charming story, of the next adaptation through mutation of Man. A common enough storyline in science fiction, but Olaf wrote this in 1935. A few years before X-Men. Olaf tells of a group of new mutants with skills so powerful they can change the laws of physics at will, but who are so afraid of the abuse of power by their own numbers they commit suicide rather than damage the race. Utter horseshit- but the idea that man might improve through adaptation and mutation? Well, of course, that HAS happened. And continues to do so, not only at a genetic level, but at a social level. An interesting piece, that I return to often, whenever I think of humans as petty and worthless.

Any among you like the Jurrasic Park movies? See if you can find a copy of “before the Dawn” by John Taine. Way before Crichton was even born.

Now, this isn’t all I’ve read. Because of the schools I attended, I read a lot of the classics- like the Iliad and the Oddysey. In greek. Translating as I went. I read the Divine Comedy, before I was 12. I read so much for school, that reading the science fiction was a wonderful escape.

There are people who reccomend reading to me, the way people reccomend material to Kim.

Atlas Shrugged. We should go to where this bitch is buried, and use DNA material to ressurect her, just so we can kick her ass back into the stone age. Ayn rand can kiss my haiory white ass, Ihave never read such a piece of intolerable crap.

Narnia. All the characters in all these books should be duct taped to a merry go round surrounded by hordes of people anxious to bitchslap them. And they should all be bitchslapped, all day, for all eternity. Ten pages into the first book I realized I was going to hate every single character.

Even in Sci Fi- perhaps worst of all- there are SF books that are so awful, like “Dhalgren” by Sam Delaney, a book that should be used to light campfires- or “Way Farer” by Dennis Schmidt, the book so horrible I cannot imagine how anyone got it published. The veyr worst piece of fantasy/fiction on the planet, ‘The Eye of Argon” by Jim Theis, is something that must be read to be believed.

yeah. Ther’es some crap SF. Even the crap is enjoyable to some. And there’s crap elsewhere too. You have to decide what YOU want. Anyone tells you you’re wrong or less somehow by reading SF, or fantasy, or whatever, tell them to fuck off.

Off FamilyCare Smooth & Dry ™ now has Cornstarch!

With news that the Surge is working, and the glee with which the Hildebeest smacked down Obama on diplomacy, apparently Braaack decided to show his “tough guy” side and claim he would invade Pakistan.

Damn. Sounds like Obama is channeling Alger’s Troll Lou. I wonder if obtuseness hurts? it’s killing me.

You got that right bubba

Dolly!!! Get OUT of there! I don’t want to have to clean up the vomit when you start digging around in my long-term memory.

Damn.

What a day.