The most recent 20 comments posted to Electrolite by Jonathan Vos Post:

William Shakespeare was morned today in Stratford-on-Avon. An historian neighbor, surprised by the crowds at the funeral, including Royalty, said "I had no idea that Bill was known outside this neighborhood."

Amazed that the son of the local hatmaker was a published poet and playwright, the historian said "we thought he was just an aristocrat wannabe, busy managing his family estate and that of his wife Anne Hathaway. Something about a 'second-best bed.'"

William Shakespeare hung out at the local pub, telling war stories, tall-tales, stories about star-crossed lovers, and the occassional Greek or Roman myth bedecked in modern details. "He must have been an ex-soldier," said one pub attendees, because he knew so much about those old wars, the Roses, that sort of thing."

"No way, dude," said his companion. "He must have been a lawyer or a doctor because he knew so much stuff about bones and suits and long Latin words."

"We thought he was just a silver-tongued booze-hound," said the publican.

"I guess if we knew he was kind of famous, we would have paid more attention, and maybe written down some of his stories.

Joe Haldeman was the only survivor of his platoon in Viet Nam. When he got home, he wrote an autobiographical Viet Nam novel. No editor would buy it. So he wrote "The Forever War" and that put him on "our tribe's" radar screen. Then he wrote "1968" about an SF fan who was the only survivor of his platoon, and driven into shell-shock madness by that, hallucinating various SF scenarios. Of course I hope that Sgt. James Riley not only survives, but someday writes "The Forever Dune War" or whatever...

American economics is valid in this respect: competition is healthy. ISFDB is my competitor, in the marketplace of free data on Science Fiction authors, books, and stories. Yet I grieved its passing, and celebrate its rebirth. My own domain, magicdragon.com, now in its 8th year on-line, got over 10,000,000 hits in 2002. I provide data on over 9,300 SF authors (plus over 3,300 Mystery authors plus about 500 Westerns authors, plus a thousand fictional characters), and vast realms of film, TV, chronological, and thematic analysis. But my audience suffered without ISFDB, whose founder I and have stayed in supportive contact. There is, properly, no jealousy when you create a labor of love, and someone else does too, based on a similar love. Let a thousand flowers bloom!

It would be an interesting analysis to take Michael Moore's words literally. Do we have a fictitious president? I advise that Electrolite readers read the anthology "Alternate Presidents", edited by Mike Resnick, Tor Books, 1992. It has fiction, often well-researched, often fascinating, on what would have happened if a presidential election had gone the other way -- one story per election, 1789-1992. Many non-USA friends of mine agree with MM (not to be confused with fellow Oscar winner Eminem) that Bush represents a junta that illegally seized power from the actual winner, Gore. The second-best outbreak of Fantasy at the Oscars was the well-deserved award for Animated Feature to "Spirited Away." That was one of MY two favorite films last year. The other being "The Two Towers", which shamefully won only a special effects Oscar and a sound editing Oscar. Was "Chicago" really a better film than "The Two Towers" or "Gangs of New York"? I like musicals too, but, man, like, you know.... get real!

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