Tom Whitmore @79 writes:
> Harlequin did actually publish some SF under its own imprint in the early days... an A. E. van Vogt book.
Careful! When you mention Harlequin and A.E. Van Vogt in the same sentence, my head explodes from cognitive dissonance.
Now I have to go and look for all the pieces.
Serge @57 writes:
"Their mouths were filled with broken promises."
Serge++
abi @54:
> I think that repeating stereotypes about romance writing in this thread is fairly obnoxious.
I thought it was a gentle enough prod, and not mean spirited.
And as someone who's read mainly SF for my whole life, I took this (http://www.shrovetuesdayobserved.com/flight.html) in good part.
And to get on topic, yay RWA! It's upsetting reading some of the more credulous or defensive comments over at Smart Bitches - makes me think of my ghastly experience reading the Publish America forums and seeing people who had to protect their emotional investment in the trap they'd fallen into.
SylvieG at #7 writes:
> He was my first and only pet. I can't imagine how people can ever get another pet after losing one, and risk experiencing this pain again.
All my sympathy. I've lost two cats over the years and will probably lose a third (currently 18yrs) this year.
> I can't imagine how people can lose a *child* and survive.
That's harder to imagine. Loving someone (or something) is like having your nerve endings permanently exposed to the outside world. It's worth it, but...
> Any advice on how to get on with life (or simply get a life) would be most welcome.
When we lost our last cat I sat down and wrote about 3000 words on her personality, habits and quirks. That may have made it easier to start remembering her with pleasure instead of pain.
Abi - have you read 'A short history of the 20th century, with illustrations', by Kim Stanley Robinson? It touches on SAD and does a lot to alleviate my own encounters with it.
Also, for SAD quotes: do you know where Joanna Russ talked about James Tiptree and SAD? All I know is I've read it somewhere and can't find it again.
Open threadery: I recently got around to watching _The September Issue_, and quite enjoyed it.
One of the things that most struck me was that Anna Wintour, who is surrounded by terrified lackeys, who is chaufered from place to place, who has assistants to attend to all of life's little details, and who has enough influence to have Manhattan moved to the far side of the moon if she so chooses - spends the whole movie drinking Starbucks coffee. Out of paper cups. With cardboard lids.
Surely this is not living the good life?
(PNH sidebar)
That awful columnist who writes for DoubleX - obviously she's pond scum.
But apart from her obvious vileness (and the vileness of the friends who abandoned the original letter writer) what gets me down is how many articles/columns/blog posts seem to be aiming for publicity by provocation. Parts of the internet are aspiring to the condition of talk radio.
One of the things BoingBoing gets right is the concept of the Unicorn Chaser. I need one now.
In one of Lois Mcmaster Bujold's Vorkosigan books there's a throwaway mention that net access is a basic human right on Beta Colony.
At the time I read it it seemed nicely sfnal - a way of showing what a big bunch of hi-tech liberal softies the Betans were, in contrast to the Barrayarans.
In recent years I've thought occasionally of how the sfnalicity [I nominate this as word of the month] of that idea has been eroded with the introduction of free net access at public libraries.
Now today on Slashdot:
---
"Starting next July, every person in Finland will have the right to a one-megabit broadband connection, according to the Ministry of Transport and Communications. Finland is the world's first country to create laws guaranteeing broadband access. The Finnish people are also legally guaranteed a 100Mb broadband connection by the end of 2015."
---
Science fiction is hard says Barbie.
Bill Stewart at #130 writes:
> Steve@100 - The "Close" was only that I was stealing from the quite good German translation of Wnoorejbpxl rather than doing my own (and/or Google's)
Ah - I see. Way above my head - it will be a while yet before my German is up to comparing variant translations of Wnorejbpxl.
It's a brilliant idea mixing that with Gur Gnl Oevqtr Qvfnfgre - has that "inevitable in retrospect" feeling.
Henry Troup at #64:
> Imagine the Jenkins rendition of McGonagall!
My mind can't encompass that.
Oddly enough, just the other day I was googling for Edith Sitwell poetry and I discovered that there exist recordings of Prunella Scales (unfairly, perhaps best known for playing Sybil Fawlty) reciting Sitwell's poetry.
While I like both of them very much, my mind can't quite encompass that either.
(brief mention at: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-59176473.html)
Re. 'Superfreaks' in the PNH sidebar:
Aargh. This article makes me grind my teeth. (Disambiguation: I agree with the article. The book sounds like rubbish.)
This just reinforces - as if it needed it - my conviction that self described contrarians are prone to being grandstanding jerks.
Michael Roberts at #124:
> Oh how very freaky that ROT-13 for Green is Terra.
And furthermore, "irk" is ROT-13 for "vex" - the only word I know which survives the ROT-13 process with its meaning intact!
Nice Barrayar piece btw - now we need a second verse about dull knives and genetic purity.
Carrie S. at #125:
> Steve Taylor: "The Waters of March".
Thanks. I'm finding this thread educational in ways I didn't expect. I was actually thinking of Brian Eno's "Third Uncle", though I can see it's not actually a match.
Antonia T. Tiger at #127:
> OK, I'm going for NaNoWriMo again.
Oddly enough I was just coming to the same conclusion. I did it once before, in 2003 I think it was, and it was a buzz, in a gruelling kind of way.
Carrie S. at #122:
I guess that would be Erq/Terra/Oyhr Znef - Xvz Fgnayrl Ebovafba - but I can't guess what (if any) the original source material is. Can you enlighten?
btw - it's worth having a listen to Ovt Erq by Senax Oynpx (rk Cvkvrf). Nice to know there are a few sf readers in the music world.
Bruce Cohen (SpeakerToManagers) at #102:
> Steve Taylor @ 72:
> Well, it's one I know well, YMMV. Gung'f Wreel Enssregl'f "Tneqra bs Ratynaq".
Hmm - turns out I don't know it after all. I know *him* - but never heard that song. Very nice song (just checked it out on youtube) - and a very apt choice for the use you put it to.
Bill Stewart at #97:
> Close
I was introduced to the English/French/German versions of Wnoorejbpxl by _Godel Escher Bach_ and was blown away. I agree the French one lacks a certain favpxre-fanpx, but it does show the flavours of the different languages nicely.
How am I only 'close' though - Xopher also seems to be thinking of Gur Gnl Oevqtr Qvfnfgre.
Oh dear - I see tiredness has crept up on me and hidden an errant ap'ostrophe in post #93. I though I'd ditched that bad habit.
All of a sudden I see Teresa's comments about people who demand the right to have their old posts removed in a different light.
Bill Stewart at #91:
As I've unaccountably neglected to learn German I am completely reliant on Google Translate, but
- would you by any chance be rendering Gur Gnl Oevqtr Qvfnfgre into the words of Yrjvf Pneeby - themselves rendered into Trezna, as spoken by sbervtaref?
Well then - the first of these I've ever tried.
It's perhaps harder to work out which poem I've shamelessly stolen from than it is the setting:
---
The Twk-man counts; one, two, three, four.
What is he counting, this patient creature
beside the River Derna?
He counts with a covetous air
What to us - not him - seems paltry fare
his salt; it's exact measure
Albatross at #79:
F.Z. Fgveyvat ernyyl qbrf jevgr n evccvat lnea jura ur'f ba sbez.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2009 | 67 |
| 2008 | 94 |
| 2007 | 117 |
| 2006 | 52 |
| 2005 | 80 |
| 2004 | 68 |
| 2003 | 31 |
| 2002 | 1 |
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