If you want to be a writer, then why aren't you -- you know -- writing?

SF history

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Anyone who has been around lit SF for any amount of time is likely aware of the nearly instant debate that can be generated with a single name: Robert A Heinlein.
Depending on who you ask, Heinlein was….
A Communist
A Fascists
A Hippie
An Authoritarian
A Libertarian
The best Sf Writer of all time. (including future tense)
A Hack
A talented creator of female characters.
A sexist.

And he was all these things at the same time. Truly he is the Rorschach test of SF Fandom.
One of his most controversial works was the novel Starship Troopers. He wrote the book as a juvenile, it was rejected, new material was added and ti has not been out of print ever since. This is the book many point to when they call Heinlein a Fascist.

I have stumbled across — thanks to the comments and discussions at TOR SF – an archive of criticisms and defenses of Starship Troopers spanning a time from 1959 when it was being serialized in F&SF through its publication as a novel and ending in 1963.

Wow. The Heinlein flame wars are sort of like the 100 years war. This was a fascinating series of comments and essays to read. It has not moved my thoughts on the matter. (I’m a Heinlein Fan, but I worship no man. Something I think got from reading Heinlein; though — like Ayn rand — fantatical followers are upsetting and close-minded.) The essay comparing Starship Troopers with The Star Dwellers has made me want to find a copy of The Star Dwellers and give it a read.

If you have any interest at all this link is worth your time.

19.08.2010 Culture, SF, Writing No Comments

Musing on Marriage

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

Continuing off from the recent court ruling on marriage I have a few questions for people who feel that the ruling was in error.

Do you feel that marriage is a fundamental albeit unenumerated right or is it a privilege of government?

If you feel it is a fundamental right, who sort of reasonable restrictions can the state place upon it before the government has overstepped its bounds and intrudes in the exercise of that fundamental right?

Can the State restrict marriage to only mixed-gender couples that are fertile? Force infertile people to substitute a civil union for their marriage?

Can the State restrict marriage to mixed-gender couples of only the same political party affiliation?

Can the State restrict marriage to mixed-gender couples of only the same race? (Yes, Loving vs West Virginia said no the state cannot, but you might feel that was another example of judicial tyranny.)

Can that State restrict marriage to mixed-gender couples of only the same religious preferences?

For my own opinion marriage IS a fundamental right, though it is unenumerated in the US Constitution. Any of the above restrictions are infringements on the exercise of that right, as is the restriction that it can only be practiced by mixed-gender couples.

10.08.2010 Culture, Politics, life 1 Comment

Sunday Night Movie: The Day The Earth Stood Still

Monday, August 9th, 2010

Yesterday I got the news that award winning actress Patricia Neal has passed away and I resolved to make my Sunday Night Movie The Day The Earth Stood Still.

I have not seen very many films with Patricia Neal, but from what I have seen she was a talented actress of diverse skill and range. The films I know her best from are, of course, The Day The Earth Stood Still, and  A Face In The Crowd.

The first film clearly SF and the second very nearly SF. If you have never seen A Face In The Crowd this is a must see movie. A great, absolutely stellar cast, a pitch-perfect scrip and just as relevant today as when it was made.

Back to last night’s movie.

The Day The Earth Stood Still is a classic of SF films, and is a classic of films in general. Made in 1951 it was ahead of the curve for SF films, leading, along with Destination Moon, the charge into SF films of the 50s. Sadly, most of the films that followed were heavy on ray guns, monsters, and adventure and light in the thought and ideas that science-fiction can explore so well.

Very loosely inspired by the Harry Bates short story, Farewell the Master,  the movie is about the arrival of an alien, Klaatu, and his robot, Gort, to the planet Earth. Klaatu is greeted with gunfire and suspicion. The alien has a mission and message, but refuses to share it with any one nation or people, insisting that it must be heard by representatives of all the peoples and nations of the Earth.

This of course is impossible in a world divided between the United States and the USSR. Frustrated by terran stupidity, Klaatu eascape his captivity to learn more about humans and their fears firsthand.

What follows is in part a message film, in part a lovely look at the Earth through alien eyes, and in part a manhunt. (Or an alien-hunt if you prefer.)

I have problems with the specific message delivered in the film, but that’s okay. It’s a wonderful story, wonderfully told. I am not as allergic to ‘smug aliens’ as some of my friends are.

Of course if you have never seen this movie, I urge you to rent it. I own it on Blu-ray and the effects hold up very well for a film nearly 60 years old.

DO NOT see the remake. There is no remake. I refuse to acknowledge it.

09.08.2010 Blu-ray, Culture, Movies, Politics, SF No Comments

The California Prop 8 Ruling

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

So if you have been following the news then you know a Federal Court ruled that the recent change to the California State Constitution defining marriage as only being between a man and a woman is unconstitutional under the United States federal constitution.

I applaude this ruling.

I know that there are many many people who do not, and I will not speculate or denigrate their motives here. My position is that movement towards greater individual liberty is generally a good thing and that movement towards less individual liberty is generally a bad thing.

(Please take note of that word GENERALLY, in the sentence. It is there for a reason. There are exceptions and remember that before you start listing something like healthcare trying to imply I am inconsistent.)

There are and will be of course those who decry this an tyranny from the bench. That the will of the people were overruled by a black-robed jackbooted thug who committed the worst of all judicial crimes — activism. I would be more sympathetic to there arguments if they ever raised the specter of activist judge on a judge who had ruled in their favor. Activism is always found where the judge ruled against your side, not on your side itself.

(Wanna prove me wrong? List three cases that you think should be overturned because the judge was activist, but where what you personally liked — outcome-wise — had been the result.)

The will of the people? That always come second to the protections of the United States Constitution. If Californians passed a change to their constitution outlawing the private ownership of all firearms I hardly think these same objectors would be citing the ‘will of the people’ as a reason to not overturn the law. They would be right because the US Constitution enumerates the right to  bear arms in the Bill of Rights.

Ahh, but people are fond of saying that any right they don’t agree with isn’t enumerated in the Bill of Rights and therefore is not a right at all.

Poppycock.

I give you the 9th amendment to the Constitution and part of the Big Ten Bill of rights.

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Certainly I consider the right to marry as an unenumerated right. It is not a privilege, it is a right that the government can restrict only with good cause. Where the state has a compelling interest. (Such as incest which produces deformed and disabled offspring a burden on the state and society.)

Judge Walker — a G.H. Bush appointee — found that the state had no compelling interest in restricting marriage to only mixed gender couples and that such restrictions violated the 14th amendment.

I applaud him.

05.08.2010 Culture, Politics 2 Comments

A sign of the coming apocalypse

Sunday, July 18th, 2010

The ACLU is defending a person rights to own firearms.

This will not help them avoid conservative scorn, but I for am happy to see this development.

18.07.2010 Culture, Politics 2 Comments

A bygone age

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

Last night I did not video game as late as usual because I was suffering from pulled muscles that made sitting forward uncomfortable. I ended up surfing the channels on my TV looking for something to watch while I waited to unwind and get ready for bed.
On TCM (Turner Classic Movies) I spotted something that could have been a low-budget horror film from the late 50′s or early 60′s, but alas it was what looked a murder mystery. (Turns out to have been Girls On The Loose)

For the first time in years I thought about my Saturday night as an adolescent in Ft. Pierce Florida. Every Saturday night at 11 pm the local TV station would start Creature Feature. A double bill of horror and genre films that would play into the early morning hours.

I saw many an entertaining movie late Saturday night with a bowl of popcorn by my side. It was on Creature Feature that I first saw many classic movies such as The Creature From The Black Lagoon and quite a few of the Roger Corman ‘Poe’ Movies from the sixties.

Those days are gone. Late night TV now is a collection of infomercials — one of the sins of the Reagan era — and second rate TV shows. There isn’t much in the way of a Creature Feature with classic and cheesy movies I haven’t seen before. Now I know that we have DVD, Blu-ray, Movies on Demand, and Instant View movies on Netflix and I utilize all of those in my movie watching habits, but there is a real shortfall in this aspect of home video. It only shows me movies I have asked it to show me.

I never get surprised or exposed to a new movie this way because I search out the films I want to rent, buy, or view. Oh there is the occasional that I find by surfing the sites or rarely one that is recommended to me by the software actually looks interesting, but this is a different dynamic than the Creature Feature.

Every Saturday night I would lay back on the couch, the rest of the house asleep, and I was watch a genre movie. I usually knew no more than that when the features started. It was genre and that was enough to spark an interest. Sometimes the movies would be so bad or dull I would go to be, most of the time the movies were forgettable and have now been forgotten, but occasionally the movies would leave an impression that echoed through the decades.

I remember watching Planet Of Vampires on Creature Feature, a stylistic though flawed Italian SF movie. Years later I found it on DVD and bought it for a friend. We watched the film and man the makers of Alien were clearly influenced by this movie. Sadly I did not buy a copy of the DVD for myself and it is now out of print. I never would have seen this movie had it not been for Creature Feature.

This is terribly saddens me. Young people growing up today will not get the same exposure to the classic genre films that I got. They’ll see remakes of the really big name movies, such as The Day The Earth Stood Still, and perhaps track down the original, but that random sf/horror film of the weekend is a thing of the past. Many films that are not classics are going to be rarely seen just because of the death of Creature Features across the country. While The Killer Shrews is a film with more flaws than charms I am still happy that I saw the movie and when it turned up in a 50 movies boxed set I bought I was happy to watch it again.

Perhaps this is why I am a fan of our local club, San Diego Vintage SF, though my life has made it tough to attend in months. Every month a genre film from before 1968 is shown, along with a serial and cartoon. (Frankly I could skip the serial as it was never part of my movie going experience.) However SDVSF does not make up for the Creature Feature.

It would be wonderful is TCM did a regular program dedicated to SF,Horror, and Fantasy films. They already have these movies and they play them, but not as part of a generalized programming about them with a host, introduction and such. There is a richness in the genre and it extends beyond the recognized classics. A treasure likely to be rarely seen and forgotten with the years.

17.07.2010 Blu-ray, Culture, Horror, Movies, SF, life No Comments

A post Westercon report

Friday, July 9th, 2010

There is one bit of data I learned at Westercon that truly was depressing.

In the Mohave desert right now, a new industry is being born. Passenger Spaceflight. In the Mohave you will find companies like Virgin Galactic and Xcor racing to establish the first safe, reliable, passenger service to space. Both companies are looking forward to at first sub-orbital hops, but much more could be had further down the road.

This is truly the American spirit. Bold visionary people, taking enormous risks as they build something new from the ground up.

When asked about regular operations and where the Lynx spacecraft would launch from, a member of Xcor told us that due to the business climate it all likelihood the company would move from California. The government climate makes it too difficult form the new industry to be born here. They can get their R&D done here, just as Rutan has with Spaceship One, but it looks like New Mexico is ahead of the nation in the race to make it an industry.

That is truly a shame.

09.07.2010 Culture, Politics, conventions, tech 3 Comments

My thoughts on Confederate History Month

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

First off, for those not in the know, I was born in the South and I was raised in the South. Take that for whatever’s its worth in context for the following opinions.

So Earlier this month, April 7th, Governor Robert McDonnell  of Virginia issued a proclamation that April is ‘Confederate History Month.” Beside the usual pot of hot water this create for a politician, McDonnell turned the temperature of his water by not even mentioning slavery in his proclamation.

This has cause all sorts of tirades and rants in the media and on the internet. One of the silliest I personally saw was CNN Analyst Roland Martin insisting that Confederate Soldiers were terrorists. I supposed it would have been too much of a stretch for the man to call them Fascists 60 years before fascism or Nazis 70 prior to that band of murderous thugs so he went for the current no-good and no question about term ‘terrorist.’  Just like the people who throw around, Fascists, Socialist, and anti-semtic as political insults Mr. Martin does himself no favor and achieves nothing for to degrade communication.

The soldiers of the Confederacy  were fighting to defend a vile and evil institution and they were wrong to do so, but they were not terrorists. The Confederacy fought in uniform, followed the Laws Of War as they were understood at the time and were easily distinguished from the civilian population around them. (Yes, you can violation of these general conditions just as you can for any conflict any time.) To accept Mr. Roland definition is render the word terrorist meaningless except as a combatant you don’t approve of.

But what about Confederate History Month itself? How do I feel about that?

Damn stupid idea.

The Confederacy took up arms against my country The United States Of America. I will not celebrate anyone taking up arms against my country while I still defend her. Why not a Lt. Colonel Francis Smith day? Or how about Isoroku Yamamoto on a stamp?

There is a lot to celebrate about Southern Culture. We in the south have a culture that is rich and has much to offer, but I would not put the Confederacy as part of that we should celebrate. The USA is my country and I consider myself a patriot and I will not honor those who attack my country.

18.04.2010 Culture, Politics 2 Comments

Michelle Malkin Loves Communists.

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

So if you follow political columnist at all then you should already be familiar with Michelle Malkin. Ms. Malkin  is a very conservative opinion writer. She’s known for fiery opinions defended aggressively with a penchant for name-calling.  Ms. Malkin’s frequent posting are aggressive, and in-your-face which has earned her plenty of die-hard supporters and an equal number of die hard critics.

I am in neither camp. I do not care for name calling and I feel whenever you you do so in an argument you do nothing but weaken your case. I find her blog to be depressing. There is very little joy in her posts and nearly every post is about something that has offended, enraged, or irritated her. That’s fine if that is what she wants. It’s her blog and she can put up anything she likes, but it make for a repetitive and angry tone. I seriously can not think of a post that was truly just happy or joyous.

I frequent her site because it is a very good reflection of where conservative thought and feelings are for a number of subjects.

For a woman who like to call people to the left or her Socialists and Communists I have been surprised lately with her love affair for Communism. Thought I am sure it is one born out of ignorance.

Recently she’s been posting that Conservatives need to have an “I am Spartacus” moment of resistance to the health care reform, base on the stunning scene from the movie “Spartacus“.

Here’s the scene:

Spartacus is one of my favorite films and I will be so happy in a few months when I have it on DVD, but the film is a communist allegory.
The film was based on the novel Spartacus written by Howard Fast, who was a communist. I don’t mean that in the current Republican way of anyone left of me is a communist, Mr. Fast was a member of the American Communist Party. He was so hot politically no publisher would touch the novel Spartacus and he was forced to self-publish it. On the audio commentary to the Laserdisc of Spartacus Mr. Fast made it clear that the story was a communist allegory about the rich and the workers.

The film screenplay was adapted by Dalton Trumbo, another Communist.  Trumbo spent 11 years in prison for contempt of congress for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.  Spartacus was the first film he was credited with writing after the blacklist. (Thoigh he had written many just denied credit.) He was proud of having killed films in Hollywood that were deemed anti-communist.

I have no doubt that if either man was still alive today they would happy tell Ms. Malkin that in their view she and her fellow conservatives are more aligned with Marcus Licinius Crassus than with the workers uprising symbolized by the slave revolt in Spartacus. (To be clear I am not a communists and I ignore the communist allegory of Spartacus, but then I am not trying to lift the film for my own political ends either.)

I am deeply amused by the irony that a communist hater is aligning herself with communist writers and with what they saw as communist characters.

03.04.2010 Blu-ray, Culture, Movies, Politics 5 Comments

Stupidity masquerading as News Reporting

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

 
This news report – on our local station I’m sad to say — is a prime example of the mindlessness that passes a Tv news today. Really? With all the problems in the world, hell with all the problems in San Diego a dysfunctional local government, crumbling infrastructure, and all the rest these bozos spend valuable air time and resources on a piece about the dangers of a freaking Ouija board?
It’s cardboard, ink, and plastic for god’s sake nothing more. There is no magic to the freaking ouija board. They’re made in china. What do these people think is going over there? Blood Sorcerers enchanting each piece as it gets printed, stamped, and packaged?
Look at who they went to for opinion; mindless drone who are the types to give religious people bad names. I know a number of religious people and frankly they don’t think like this.
Oh Karen Thompson, so what if Ouija boards freaked you out as a kid. Lots of things freak lots of kids out. Clowns. Many a kid has endless nightmares about the clowns, shall do scary ‘news’ reports about them too?
Pastor Phelan? Spend a little less time worrying about cheap Chinese junk and a little more time about how to open hearts vs closing minds and I think you’ll be a little closer to god’s work.
The piece really went off the cliff when they went to the random internet comments as sources of opinion. Hell bells I was waiting for someone to comment that Hitler liked them or some other mind rotting garbage.
That 1st amendment protects fools and prophets alike.

04.02.2010 Culture, general 2 Comments