tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23616295565451450302024-03-13T21:19:28.690+00:00In the Plane of the EclipticThe semi-random musings of SF writer and editor Jetse de VriesJetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-76783833238290210612012-09-03T21:30:00.002+01:002012-09-03T21:30:32.247+01:00Theaterfestival de Boulevard, 2012This year I revisited<a href="http://www.festivalboulevard.nl/" target="_blank"> Theaterfestival de Boulevard</a> in my home town. This year's motto was "LIFE IS WONDERFUL". I can certainly get behind that.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrE_o_vHJFq783FPCftbt5k3jqjyGM2udaNVEUIhI_bfrAn1cCCj0uKBs6jwFu4MLUDVzqJ_vcyg5SmlKGwBdaGTt-ZZ8nN2aiW_FSdJqL3z9akxXpCn2dmYQKz8kTPhUBPi7fmGeaqaFA/s1600/IMG_2095.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrE_o_vHJFq783FPCftbt5k3jqjyGM2udaNVEUIhI_bfrAn1cCCj0uKBs6jwFu4MLUDVzqJ_vcyg5SmlKGwBdaGTt-ZZ8nN2aiW_FSdJqL3z9akxXpCn2dmYQKz8kTPhUBPi7fmGeaqaFA/s320/IMG_2095.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
I don't visit it every year, although I do visit it most years (if that makes sense). Originally it was called "Boulevard of Broken Dreams": a theatre festival with all different kinds of acts and shows. In those days it was -- if I remember correctly -- <i>only</i> on De Parade (the square opposite the medieval gothic church St. Jan: see also my picture above). Nowadays, it's spread out all over Den Bosch in several locations: there was even a free bus taking visitors from De Parade to the other venues.<br />
<br />
The main reason I felt it was 'special' this year was because my story "Solitude, Quietude, Vastitude" had just been published by <a href="http://www.specutopia.com/" target="_blank">Specutopia</a> (Theaterfestival de Boulevard was from August 2 - 12, <a href="http://www.specupress.com/specutopia.php" target="_blank">Specutopia's first issue</a> was published July 1). This story takes place at Theaterfestival de Boulevard (albeit a very fictional one) and -- even more coincidentally -- this year's motto (Life is Wonderful) links, both laterally and directly -- to my story. One of the underlying themes (of my story) being that the unnamed female protagonist visits the festival in order to (temporarily) forget her problems -- only to find that they come back in twisted forms -- and that she can only make her life wonderful if she moves forward.<br />
<br />
The story is based on the 'old' festival, when all performances took place on De Parade and the performances depicted therein were quite a bit more fanciful than the ones I witnessed this year. More about those in a few seconds.<br />
<br />
What struck me this year was that indeed almost all the performances took place somewhere else, and that De Parade was reduced mainly to the central location where all kinds of food (five different food stalls: some close to actual restaurants) and drinks (several bars, terraces and even a wine bar, although the selection overall was a bit poor) could be had: one could go there, stay all night, and not see a single act (but have a good time nonetheless). Only on the last weekend there was street theatre, which was nice.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTiKucowDZGu4lXiu8n9fY2Kddiu2HFlw50zBYM40vFD4DXAxB2pVMUEPYaiU-XTYGXOcGp4OlugtaEoUNVeH0jNo3Sb9zPknnHuMwXnsIGbf1qR1wjJXydQmi6oX4S7_3aYRSc8yZ7Y1K/s1600/Mister+More-Lady+Less+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTiKucowDZGu4lXiu8n9fY2Kddiu2HFlw50zBYM40vFD4DXAxB2pVMUEPYaiU-XTYGXOcGp4OlugtaEoUNVeH0jNo3Sb9zPknnHuMwXnsIGbf1qR1wjJXydQmi6oX4S7_3aYRSc8yZ7Y1K/s1600/Mister+More-Lady+Less+2.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
So indeed, the first performance I went to was nearby a local supermarket (C1000). <a href="http://www.studio-orka.be/" target="_blank">Studio Orka</a> performing "<a href="http://vimeo.com/35684692" target="_blank">Mister More, Lady Less</a>". This was an almost all ages (7+) show, and I quite liked it as such. It's a high-octane story where two shop detectives -- initially disguised as Mexicans promoting a trip to Mexico -- have to find the 'coupon thief' who is stealing coupons in order to gain that trip to Mexico. It was fun: the actors are Belgian, and to a lot of Dutchmen the Belgian version of Dutch sounds charming, funny and endearing. For another, they interacted well with the audience, and especially the kids were drawn well into the story. Only disadvantage that it was rather hot in the cabin where we were eventually led in, but apart from that I had a good time.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-qai54ySsjWsBskf7Y3sqNZVhryjvvWUqBvnNRTwpBqBusdfTZ2uuUiO6WTBrbK7K8mphZzik4JGc8VDs_T-p6U8yLfDkj8sV7MCb3kbMXUYEnWkWeMHsy1fGdACouiwMLlOG8udNWZwy/s1600/Suit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-qai54ySsjWsBskf7Y3sqNZVhryjvvWUqBvnNRTwpBqBusdfTZ2uuUiO6WTBrbK7K8mphZzik4JGc8VDs_T-p6U8yLfDkj8sV7MCb3kbMXUYEnWkWeMHsy1fGdACouiwMLlOG8udNWZwy/s320/Suit.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The next performance was "<a href="http://www.festivalboulevard.nl/programma/programma-2012/ivo-schotrutger-martens-suitnominatie-entreeprijs-2012" target="_blank">Suit</a>", in de Muzerije/Fontys Theater. This was a mixed musical/theatre performance (for what *that* is worth, nowadays). It did include a support act, which was a band playing a kind of pop music that wasn't really to my taste. Nothing against the support act: their music just wasn't for me.<br />
<br />
Then, after a pause, came "Suit": the performers (your basic drums-bass-guitar-singer foursome) dressed up in a body-covering 'suit', complemented by two women--also in body-covering suits, and both enclosed in a glass enclosure on either side of the stage. Before each song, a kind of 'explanation/declaration' about:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>the state of the current music industry(*);</li>
<li>the intent of the play(*);</li>
<li>a semi-intellectual statement to add depth(*);</li>
</ul>
<div>
was displayed on the video screen in the back (*) = take your pick).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
It was interesting, but -- for my money -- lacked something. It could either have nailed the lack of true originality in pop music much harder, but then the band needed to be of a higher calibre (OK: this is not fair, but I imagine a band like, say, Tool, doing this: they would have driven the point home so far it hurt, and Tool also like the combination between visual and aural arts).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As it is, if you wish to parody the music you love, you need to be about as good as the bands you satirise. See: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinal_Tap_(band)" target="_blank">Spinal Tap</a>, <a href="http://zimmershole.com/" target="_blank">Zimmer's Hole</a> and even Rush (who are increasingly parodising themselves: during the last tour, while playing their perennial favourite "Tom Sawyer", on the video screens were Alex Lifeson playing bass, Neil Peart playing guitar and Geddy Lee playing drums, and each of them looking like: 'how the hell am I supposed to do this').</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As they say: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_a_Cigar" target="_blank">nice, but no cigar</a>. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_cowbell" target="_blank">Needed more cowbell</a>.</div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidURs6JK6u7THCZyiFDulnbaSj10-QOeNsmRNuQJV5pU_6aKQB0scBuSPTK3-hZBpFtPT8NCrXEWgCSwV7yU5V9SQk2CSlyEW2S2T8ulRV0JUF5hentn4-EQsULhfpgJYjvl5lM7xGlOgL/s1600/HENDRIK1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidURs6JK6u7THCZyiFDulnbaSj10-QOeNsmRNuQJV5pU_6aKQB0scBuSPTK3-hZBpFtPT8NCrXEWgCSwV7yU5V9SQk2CSlyEW2S2T8ulRV0JUF5hentn4-EQsULhfpgJYjvl5lM7xGlOgL/s320/HENDRIK1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<a href="http://www.festivalboulevard.nl/programma/programma-2012/studio-gebroed-hendrik" target="_blank">Hendrik</a> (by <a href="http://www.studiogebroed.nl/" target="_blank">Studio Gebroed</a>)was the act that had, I think, the most remote location: at Fort Crevecoeur, a small military base very close to the similarly-named drainage sluice (lock weir?).[Note: compare LoTR and John Carter as regards the taking over of command.)<br />
<br />
Even if Fredrik Hendrik's accent felt a bit unconvincing to me (who knows: he really might have had such an accent. But somehow I doubt it), more troublesome was his transformation from Mama's boy to inspiring commander. The whole performance hinged on that transformation: initially Frederik Hendrik lives in the shadow of his big half-brother Maurits and under his French mother's excessive care, but gradually develops to a competent leader mastering the siege and conquest of Den Bosch. I just didn't buy it.<br />
<br />
By way of comparison, I had a similar problem with the third part of The Lord of Rings movies (The Return of the King) when Aragorn had to take over command (after Théoden died) and inspire his troops to march to Mordor. It's supposed to be <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXGUNvIFTQw" target="_blank">a stirring speech</a> but to me it fell rather flat. Conversely, when John Carter--in the same titled movie--<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PThbYBdtvo" target="_blank">defeats a pair of white apes in an arena</a>, challenges and defeats Tal Hajus and then, with a rousing speech, compels the Tharks to march to Helium: well I thought that worked wonders. Difference of day and night.<br />
<br />
Your Mileage May Vary (quite a bit).<br />
<br />
On the last weekend there were street performers on de Parade: this was good, as it brought some action to the square had mostly been turned into a food & drinks plaza. Wish it had been like that all fortnight.<br />
<br />
All in all it was good: good to see some acts, good to see old friends and make a few new friends. Yet it seemed to miss the spunk it had a few decades ago: I'm getting old.Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0Parade, 5211 's-Hertogenbosch, Nederland51.6873688 5.307396651.6848943 5.3024610999999995 51.6898433 5.3123321tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-87877508551974070922011-01-06T14:45:00.013+00:002011-01-06T22:19:15.287+00:00Partial Solar Eclipse of January 4, 2011<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVcpWICTjn7P89UrE2NWFZNCkPq-9-UKHizuD1XDqRl5mitIjQdg5S6xAotUYxrFoK_twkjRLoOEAxbwP4BkOfzfEokoO1ZBToxW8M7ctZT09gM0l8lvt_0HxAfCbs4D_zUQVKpboI7MQQ/s400/SE2011Jan04P.gif" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559101757884227810" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 270px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" border="0" />Unfortunately I wasn't able to see anything in neck of the woods (Den Bosch & Waalwijk, The Netherlands) because of cloud cover. Here's a somewhat shaky iPhone picture of how it looked like for me:</div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkb_D9lKjepjEL9neasYnR5u7-8mfiofEdiiEw6SYW4fyg0Ws6j1O17cSPqFFH8kdG0DLLACpsbMtLD5sBxzEYCAyBKqXABDljzpmxMbElfrac8D9YS5mpZDPcmGD0qfBnq3rpTWEZOCc6/s400/IMG_0008.jpg" style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 299px; height: 400px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559199964248159474" />Luckily, a lot of other people across Europe, Africa and Asia did see it, and here are a few of their pictures:<br /><div><div><div><div>First one of somebody in The Netherlands who did see it (via <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/gallery/2011/jan/04/partial-solar-eclipse">the Guardian</a>):<br /></div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhkUWmC9nTRIbT8-1XujKM_uGssezOr4kjrNdjEWmhyphenhyphenm4U27sIpUjcbcraoD2WjuhN21kDXRfJrWFIlqCuoJyknih3a-xqNUp30zzM7Uz8_J37MoybbwQfMuNlp-s-3Y4DMReDvIEaCio/s1600/eclipse-netherlands-El_Universo_Hoy-twitpic.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559093006414058034" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 292px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhkUWmC9nTRIbT8-1XujKM_uGssezOr4kjrNdjEWmhyphenhyphenm4U27sIpUjcbcraoD2WjuhN21kDXRfJrWFIlqCuoJyknih3a-xqNUp30zzM7Uz8_J37MoybbwQfMuNlp-s-3Y4DMReDvIEaCio/s400/eclipse-netherlands-El_Universo_Hoy-twitpic.jpg" border="0" /></a> In Barcelona, it was visible both above this great city (via <a href="http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2720/Nieuws/photoalbum/detail/1788431/186345/20/Gedeeltelijke-zonsverduistering.dhtml">de Volkskrant</a>):<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJcTu40S9wAgOK4y5_X3hD0AkZDrW896VuyriRZ85WIfkDUGEAF15LrGUbus6wONE2PvwEYew58vRKyOLBZIZgP4Lt1C1AHgCdoENRZfX66TCX7s228AR3SSyABQK1fpYyUzJh5FzXiWq6/s1600/eclipse-barcelona-joanvm-twitpic-010411.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559092945308105714" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 268px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJcTu40S9wAgOK4y5_X3hD0AkZDrW896VuyriRZ85WIfkDUGEAF15LrGUbus6wONE2PvwEYew58vRKyOLBZIZgP4Lt1C1AHgCdoENRZfX66TCX7s228AR3SSyABQK1fpYyUzJh5FzXiWq6/s400/eclipse-barcelona-joanvm-twitpic-010411.jpg" border="0" /></a> Or in the hand of an unnamed Spaniard (via <a href="http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2720/Nieuws/photoalbum/detail/1788431/186345/20/Gedeeltelijke-zonsverduistering.dhtml">de Volkskrant</a>):<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1qjTLhH1qvbSzSJPSCtrA8O4wV1aywcDSzV38JtCTs8oe9c7p2k225j_fQOn7xXwpYQ7YkGe7Do7XxpiLcsXbdeO9gEMCK2m9zU93WMSuVgc63Uw-6Z1nYQiM-qcr5Kj7K_vRY0GY4wX0/s1600/eclipse-barcelona-jorx-twitpic-010411.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559092859882615618" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 299px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1qjTLhH1qvbSzSJPSCtrA8O4wV1aywcDSzV38JtCTs8oe9c7p2k225j_fQOn7xXwpYQ7YkGe7Do7XxpiLcsXbdeO9gEMCK2m9zU93WMSuVgc63Uw-6Z1nYQiM-qcr5Kj7K_vRY0GY4wX0/s400/eclipse-barcelona-jorx-twitpic-010411.jpg" border="0" /></a> Here's a picture from a colleague in Sweden at the day job: </div><div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR5YTt841ZmXAhqfs0EUH-ljQBkFymdlSJOfToWkSniGhyzg76aHHtzLhoBRCKhamVcGl4VY6l_NiIuLAx9Y5Aeb8qyTRCEjwOzbs594QpobFOJhdskF_-Jh4c-RAD25eLw-fximdHrgpD/s1600/Foto%2527s+van+Gunnar+Samuelsson+-+Prikbordfoto%2527s.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559092374048545154" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 266px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR5YTt841ZmXAhqfs0EUH-ljQBkFymdlSJOfToWkSniGhyzg76aHHtzLhoBRCKhamVcGl4VY6l_NiIuLAx9Y5Aeb8qyTRCEjwOzbs594QpobFOJhdskF_-Jh4c-RAD25eLw-fximdHrgpD/s400/Foto%2527s+van+Gunnar+Samuelsson+-+Prikbordfoto%2527s.jpg" border="0" /></a> But the most spectacular one is from the Malaga, Spain: a seagull flying right in front of the eclipse (via <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/gallery/2011/jan/04/partial-solar-eclipse#/?picture=370256310&index=6">the Guardian</a>):<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj89l_g7GSaHESkU_C7Plt9FIV-Xu0uG0dZXkPPWZ47BM17qcKM67mD2o7JGuPjmGTfCCktmysDqHRcZWBMEgypm05nbSdBDEeqodO2eWg_mcDGcTwiAKdmreopNJ5NDRCxyBlTE27ckmVr/s1600/A-seagull-against-partial-004.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559092254930983090" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 267px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj89l_g7GSaHESkU_C7Plt9FIV-Xu0uG0dZXkPPWZ47BM17qcKM67mD2o7JGuPjmGTfCCktmysDqHRcZWBMEgypm05nbSdBDEeqodO2eWg_mcDGcTwiAKdmreopNJ5NDRCxyBlTE27ckmVr/s400/A-seagull-against-partial-004.jpg" border="0" /></a> The next partial eclipse is on June 1, 2011: this one will be just before dusk (unlike the January 4 one which was just after dawn). Not visible in The Netherlands, and I won't be going to north Scandinavia to see it.<br /></div><br /><div></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559098295130467618" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 270px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRFEyYwL5FmQwe2y7Pn9OB2PBdi6X7f4lJo_KUE4kVVJn6WmITl7PSwRUr-tZt4n-NYmvfTISU_obSm9VZcmlmlJsbm52bY4YCiOWDWALaqyGNa-yh8MLJhsoHksgpjgR6XRByXQWRCAoh/s400/SE2011Jun01P.gif" border="0" /><br /><div>The next annular eclipse is on May 20, 2012: sweeps over Japan, continues over the Pacificjust below the Aleutian Islands before it enters Caifornia and Arizona. Yes, right over the Grand Canyon! My solar eclipse friends and I intend to be there, near Page.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559099145478661538" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 270px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvQW84a1QyZFd-NKMMF0_3Y7nJ-OrpRWNNJXax1IoDjTaZOhNZUSmPU63MA4cWy7NjMjmMQXK-POx05lz-j_UBepnig7UWd6o4Z1_T7fSfGUFyljKpATteOZH5FD26nXFh7rfazyev3GIM/s400/SE2012May20A.gif" border="0" /> The next total solar eclipse will be on November 13, 2012: flies over far north Queensland, then south of New Caledonia, norht of New Zealand over the Pacific. My solar eclipse friends and I have already booked accomodation in Port Douglas!<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559099899644800482" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 270px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXeOYsKrAcjO4LUkjI5NPJujN7h6kTH2eCFJkp4MmVeTPhyphenhyphenIBTwzspKYnr-vRWLK7RPnjNEU49MZvfrfrE_abOVlDGrJVT6OTFQUF1D34yw2FfyE0DroNTz6Zdx0MhOWlDfTSZH3fdLQyw/s400/SE2012Nov13T.gif" border="0" /><br /><div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-90560725683457397922010-12-24T10:56:00.021+00:002011-01-06T14:44:46.403+00:00Is Bruce Sterling Future-Shocked? Or: Michael Moore 1 -- Bruce Sterling 0<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLJs3JaHnaebIdHxnE0b6oUbCvwc23KbLNwjsu5a1EicHk4RU1Go4TMJ__Qbng9R_8oiHhiL_0gmuEKr8SREhwVz1ejAXZqzIAoKSBJ2vIRZhPmckuf4rbZvyNH7U3kxqmEWokhXpjPP-O/s1600/transparency.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554238357831116674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 362px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLJs3JaHnaebIdHxnE0b6oUbCvwc23KbLNwjsu5a1EicHk4RU1Go4TMJ__Qbng9R_8oiHhiL_0gmuEKr8SREhwVz1ejAXZqzIAoKSBJ2vIRZhPmckuf4rbZvyNH7U3kxqmEWokhXpjPP-O/s400/transparency.gif" border="0" /></a>Sometimes the mighty do fall. And as they fall, they cause others to fall in their wake. Even people that used to be some of their main critics. For those, it's a fall from grace, even if it's a fall in style: shrouded in pithy observations, perpetrated with sharp similes and suffused with the air and eloquence of a grandmaster. Beautiful to watch, but still a gracious fall from grace. <div><div><div><div><div><div><div></div><br /><div>I'm talking about "<a href="http://www.webstock.org.nz/blog/2010/the-blast-shack/">The Blast Shack</a>": Bruce Sterling's recent piece about Wikileaks. I've read through it several times, and can't escape the following two conclusions:<br /></div><br /><div><strong>1): Bruce Sterling is effectively arguing <em>against</em> more transparency.</strong></div><br /><div>Price quote:</div><div><blockquote>For diplomats, a massive computer leak is not the kind of sunlight that chases away corrupt misbehavior; it’s more like some dreadful shift in the planetary atmosphere that causes ultraviolet light to peel their skin away. They’re not gonna die from being sunburned in public without their pants on; Bill Clinton survived that ordeal, Silvio Berlusconi just survived it (again). No scandal lasts forever; people do get bored. Generally, you can just brazen it out and wait for the public to find a fresher outrage. Except.<br /><br />It’s the damage to the institutions that is spooky and disheartening; after the Lewinsky eruption, every American politician lives in permanent terror of a sex-outing. That’s “transparency,” too; it’s the kind of ghastly sex-transparency that Julian himself is stuck crotch-deep in. The politics of personal destruction hasn’t made the Americans into a frank and erotically cheerful people. On the contrary, the US today is like some creepy house of incest divided against itself in a civil cold war. “Transparency” can have nasty aspects; obvious, yet denied; spoken, but spoken in whispers. Very Edgar Allen Poe.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554238282069405986" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 213px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2IGqTfYpCGaqEsWkkRK-sUnqWLhW8c60Zo5XZ0-4GU1cwwMsNWxDUOC8xUAy6lZ3dPVx39M9lh_3GpsQjZURoVYhKzW6HqfMqTSo9UHGf-ZsNAKhfzEsb7FwHMyE2Lzfsda49biGDCoOZ/s400/discretion+1.jpg" border="0" /></blockquote></div><div>All right, so protecting politicians from possible scandals is more important than the information that the Wikileaks cables have provided (so far)? Even worse -- see the next price quote:</div><div><blockquote>And I don’t much like that situation. It doesn’t make me feel better. I feel sorry for them and what it does to their values, to their self-esteem. If there’s one single watchword, one central virtue, of the diplomatic life, it’s “discretion.” Not “transparency.” Diplomatic discretion. Discretion is why diplomats do not say transparent things to foreigners. When diplomats tell foreigners what they really think, war results.<br /><br />Diplomats are people who speak from nation to nation. They personify nations, and nations are brutal, savage, feral entities. Diplomats used to have something in the way of an international community, until the Americans decided to unilaterally abandon that in pursuit of Bradley Manning’s oil war. Now nations are so badly off that they can’t even get it together to coherently tackle heroin, hydrogen bombs, global warming and financial collapse. Not to mention the Internet.<br /><br />The world has lousy diplomacy now. It’s dysfunctional. The world corps diplomatique are weak, really weak, and the US diplomatic corps, which used to be the senior and best-engineered outfit there, is rattling around bottled-up in blast-proofed bunkers. It’s scary how weak and useless they are.<br /></blockquote></div><div>Do I read that right? Global warming and financial collapse happened as the nation couldn't tackle it <em>because there was too much transparency</em>? Global warming and the next financial bubble can be stopped by more “discretion” (read secrecy)? Talk about having it backwards.<br /></div><br /><div>This appalls me. And thankfully not just me: cue, for example, to Mark at <a href="http://www.webstock.org.nz/blog/2010/the-blast-shack/#comment-2755">comment #61</a>:</div><ul><li>Saudi Arabia put pressure on the US to attack Iran. Other Arab allies also secretly agitated for military action against Tehran.</li><br /><li>Washington is running a secret intelligence campaign targeted at the leadership of the United Nations, including the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and the permanent security council representatives from China, Russia, France and the UK.</li><br /><li>Small teams of US special forces have been operating secretly inside Pakistan’s tribal areas, with Pakistani government approval. And the US concluded that Pakistani troops were responsible for a spate of extra-judicial killings in the Swat Valley and tribal belt, but decided not to comment publicly.</li><br /><li>The US ambassador to Pakistan said the Pakistani army is covertly sponsoring four major militant groups, including the Afghan Taliban and the Mumbai attackers, Laskar-e-Taiba (LeT), and “no amount of money” will change the policy. Also, US diplomats discovered hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Pakistan earmarked for fighting Islamist militants was not used for that purpose.</li><br /><li>The British government promised to protect US interests during the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war.</li><br /><li>Russia is a “virtual mafia state” with rampant corruption and scant separation between the activities of the government and organised crime. Vladimir Putin is accused of amassing “illicit proceeds” from his time in office, which various sources allege are hidden overseas. And he was likely to have known about the operation in London to murder the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, Washington’s top diplomat in Europe alleged.</li><br /><li>British and US officials colluded to manoeuvre around a proposed ban on cluster bombs, allowing the US to keep the munitions on British territory, regardless of whether a treaty forbidding their use was implemented. Parliament was kept in the dark about the secret agreement, approved by then-foreign secretary David Miliband.</li><br /><li>One of the biggest objectives at the US embassy in Madrid over the past seven years has been trying to get the criminal case dropped against three US soldiers accused of the killing of a Spanish television cameraman in Baghdad.</li><br /><li>The British military was criticised for failing to establish security in Sangin by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, and the US commander of Nato troops, according to diplomatic cables.</li><br /><li>Rampant government corruption in Afghanistan is revealed by the cables, including an incident last year when the then vice-president, Ahmad Zia Massoud, was stopped and questioned in Dubai when he flew into the emirate with $52m in cash.</li><br /><li>The British Foreign Office misled parliament over the plight of thousands of islanders who were expelled from their Indian Ocean homeland – the British colony of Diego Garcia – to make way for a large US military base.</li><br /><li>The US military has been charging its allies a 15% handling fee on hundreds of millions of dollars being raised internationally to build up the Afghan army.</li><br /><li>Conservative party politicians promised before the election that they would run a “pro-American regime” and buy more arms from the US if they came to power.</li><br /><li>The president of Yemen secretly offered US forces unrestricted access to his territory to conduct unilateral strikes against al-Qaida terrorist targets.</li></ul><ul><li>A potential “environmental disaster” was kept secret by the US last year when a large consignment of highly enriched uranium in Libya came close to cracking open and leaking radioactive material into the atmosphere.</li><br /><li>Libya threatened UK with “dire reprisals” if the convicted Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, died in a Scottish prison.</li><br /><li>Ann Pickard, Shell’s VP for sub-Saharan Africa, claimed in Oct 2009 that the oil giant had infiltrated all the main ministries of the Nigerian government.</li><br /><li>Two British civil servants, Dr Richard Freer and Judith Gough, contradicted Gordon Brown’s statement on reduction of the Trident fleet in conversations with US embassy officials in London.</li><br /><li>The US ambassador in Kampala sought assurances from the Ugandan government in December 2010 that it would consult the US before using American intelligence to commit war crimes in the conflict against the LRA.</li><br /><li>The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer paid investigators to unearth corruption links to Nigeria’s attorney general in an attempt to persuade him to stop his legal action against a controversial drug trial involving children with meningitis.</li><br /><li>The pope intervened personally to ensure the Vatican’s increased hostility towards Turkey joining the EU.</li><br /><li>The Vatican refused to allow its officials to testify at Irish inquiry into clerical child abuse and was angered when they were summoned from Rome.</li><br /><li>BP suffered a giant gas leak in Azerbaijan 18 months before the Gulf of Mexico disaster.</li><br /><li>Azerbaijan accused BP of stealing $10bn of oil and using “mild blackmail” to secure rights to develop gas reserves in the Caspian Sea.</li><br /><li>US energy company Chevron negotiated with Tehran about developing an oilfield despite tight US sanctions.</li><br /><li>Speculation that Omar al-Bashir siphoned $9bn in oil money and deposited it in foreign accounts could fuel calls for his arrest<br /><br /><em>Do you honestly think that US taxpayers should not know this information? </em></li></ul><div>(Emphasis of last sentence mine.)<br /></div><br /><div>(See also <a href="http://www.webstock.org.nz/blog/2010/the-blast-shack/#comment-2770">comment #69</a>, <a href="http://www.webstock.org.nz/blog/2010/the-blast-shack/#comment-2779">comment #75</a> and <a href="http://www.webstock.org.nz/blog/2010/the-blast-shack/#comment-2817">comment #108</a>, and <a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/12/analysing_wikileaks">this article in The Economist</a>.)</div><div></div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554238212326243250" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 173px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4MJpHi_tfP4bK_dzEJkBWyVp_n9WtQMysDbHbl8M9Huj9cHMRRTzgqSJScyWD02w7EPqCczeQ-r94_r8e2tvgaTzbYmyYmAMxfmxhUGFrKZkLFCAhhGrI-W3sdCT0HcH1fxUk7hJD1Ebr/s400/Wikileaks.png" border="0" /> <div>Indeed, as a concerned, tax-paying citizen (in my case of The Netherlands)(and I'm certainly no 'naturally sociopathic hacker' ) I also want to know if, for example:</div><ul><li>our goverment let themselves be coerced into the war with Iraq;</li><br /><li>our goverment let themselves be coerced into the war with Afghanistan: our previous coalition fell over the question of withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan;</li><br /><li>Trafigura did indeed play some very dirty games in getting rid of chemical waste in Ivory Coast;</li><br /><li>Shell does indeed play dirty games in Nigeria;</li><br /><li>And more things I'm probably not aware of;</li></ul><p>If that kind of transparency gives headaches to diplomats and politicians alike: then so be it. They should learn to deal with it, and--especially the politicians, but also big corporations--it should help prevent more outright lies, deceptions and skullduggery.</p><p>If Bruce Sterling is against that kind of transparency, then I greatly prefer documentary maker Michael Moore, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/15/bradley-manning-campaign-michael-moore?INTCMP=SRCH">who campaigns to free Bradly Manning</a>:</p><blockquote><p>"To suggest that lives were put in danger by the release of the WikiLeaks documents is the most cynical of statements," Moore said.</p><p>"Lives were put in danger the night we invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq, an act that had nothing to do with what the Bradley Mannings of this country signed up for: to defend our people from attack. It was a war based on a complete lie and lives were not only put in danger, hundreds of thousands of them were exterminated.</p><p>"For those who organised this massacre to point a finger at Bradley Manning is the ultimate example of Orwellian hypocrisy."</p></blockquote><p>Amen to that. Or, in other words: Michael Moore 1 -- Bruce Sterling 0.</p><p><strong>2): Bruce Sterling is failing as a futurist.</strong></p><p>A large part of Bruce Sterling (<a href="http://www.egs.edu/faculty/bruce-sterling/biography/">professor of internet studies and science fiction</a>)'s reputation hinges on his ability to explore the near-future: this is what <a href="http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/">Beyond the Beyond</a> is majorly about. In that light, I find it quite disappointing that he does pinpoint the 'real issue':</p><blockquote><p>That’s the real issue, that’s the big modern problem; national governments and global computer networks don’t mix any more.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554238125959379954" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 223px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTK0ChSxtEbqOIicddx0AKSixkwPuw74c2Me8_CcGTwBZQiX3qpkqXYSy4DYUZjvotWzx-675eFxK1OjJ3KcQBGmpTFUHAIBRtcO6_0-c68BudSwTW_-bDH69DvUd7ubE4cLEOYY90ez-t/s400/discretion+2.jpg" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>But then, while he admitted he didn't quite see it (Wikileaks) coming:</p><blockquote><p>But who cared about that wild notion? Why would that amateurish effort ever matter to real-life people? It’s like comparing a mighty IBM mainframe to some cranky Apple computer made inside a California garage. Yes, it’s almost that hard to imagine.</p></blockquote><blockquote><p>So Wikileaks is a manifestation of something that has been growing all around us, for decades, with volcanic inexorability. The NSA is the world’s most public unknown secret agency. And for four years now, its twisted sister Wikileaks has been the world’s most blatant, most publicly praised, encrypted underground site.</p></blockquote><p>He doesn't see any solution to this problem, or fails to see the positive sides and effects of it:</p><blockquote><p>The data held by states is gonna get easier to steal, not harder to steal; the Chinese are all over Indian computers, the Indians are all over Pakistani computers, and the Russian cybermafia is brazenly hosting wikileaks.info because that’s where the underground goes to the mattresses. It is a godawful mess. This is gonna get worse before it gets better, and it’s gonna get worse for a long time. Like leaks in a house where the pipes froze.</p></blockquote><p>This is (intentionally?) missing the point: Wikileaks is, as Sterling mentions at length in his piece, *not* a sovereign state spying on another state: <em>Wikileaks are showing the hidden data to the public at large.</em><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5554237981971216962" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 362px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinciVY6K07bJGaOTmkE2W-_A702lYtr7eK67fLPeav_K6-8v7MbS2bmvS5W8DXvxqYcZwCemqk1BoqOQrLqewmz1y9x8fJARYX73c7H1dByO112hVC6LCoA_zqmJa7ogbxAr8DIbiqGJfy/s400/transparency+2.jpg" border="0" /></p><p>So spying becomes easier for nations: well, they've been spying on each other since time immemorial. This is just business as usual. What has changed is that it is much more difficult for nations (and corporations) to hide their schemes from the public at large. And thus they try, desperately, to put the ghost back in the bottle. I hope they fail. I hope that nations--*any* nation--will be less able to wage wars based on disinformation, lies and deceit.</p><p>More openness, more abilities for concerned citizens to make informed choices. It seems that Bruce Sterling sees this as a bad thing, but he can't put the cat back into the bag, either.</p><p>What's the matter, Bruce? <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Shock">Future-Shocked</a>?</p><p><b>UPDATE:</b> Gabrielle Coleman on The Atlantic <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/12/hacker-culture-a-response-to-bruce-sterling-on-wikileaks/68506/">more or less makes the same point</a>:</p><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="LINE-HEIGHT: 19px;font-family:Georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size:13;" ></span></p><p></p><blockquote><p>There is no denying that there is tremendous support for WikiLeaks among geeks -- although much of it came after the backlash against WikiLeaks; there is no denying that hackers will attempt to impact politics through technological means; there is no denying that WikiLeaks and Julian Assange deserve some critical scrutiny, which is what Sterling dished out. But I am less sold on the idea that the form of exposure so powerfully provided by WikiLeaks does not have some merit.<br /></p><p>Personally I find myself sympathetic toward the purported mission behind OpenLeaks. They are seeking to do something similar to WikiLeaks but transforming it by injecting a dose of much needed transparency and accountability. And yet, due to the obsessive media spotlight on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks (including Sterling's piece) the public may be led to believe that there is only one way to spread leaks, when in fact WikiLeaks helped to usher a paradigm that can be tweaked and hacked to better serve democratic goals.</p></blockquote><p></p><p></p>Excellent: like the age-old question -- "Who's watching the watchers?" -- Coleman points to OpenLeaks as the next step in transparency: keep the organisation that strives for more transparency transparent itself. Practice what you preach, and by doing so better serve democratic goals.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now you can shoot me, but the 'old' Bruce Sterling -- say, the writer of <i>Islands in the Net</i>, <i>Holy Fire</i> and <i>Distraction</i> -- used to come up with such forward-looking visions himself.</div><div><br /></div><div>The king is dead: long live the king!</div></div></div></div></div></div>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-63365313505743024092010-04-07T17:20:00.005+01:002010-04-07T17:37:04.805+01:00Various & Sundry: Patrick Farley's Electric SheepI pledged $50 to Patrick Farley's <a href="http://electricsheepcomix.com/">Electric Sheep</a>:<br /><br /><a href="http://kck.st/drsSAg"><img src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2052006434/electric-sheep-reloaded-0/widget/card.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />And this purely because I love the '<a href="http://www.dicebox.net/asides/dontlookback.htm">Dicebox Aside: Don't Look Back</a>' Comic he's doing (haven't checked out Electric Sheep yet).<br /><br />So call me crazy. But I do like Kickstarter, and Patrick Farley.<br /><br />NOTE: <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/06/patrick-farley-vows.html">via BoingBoing</a>.Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-90535057641971454792010-02-25T08:57:00.006+00:002010-02-25T10:44:38.700+00:00Story Published in The Tangled BankA quick mention of personal news:<br /><br /><br />Almost two weeks ago--February 12--THE TANGLED BANK: <em>Love, Wonder & Evolution</em> was released, <a href="http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/the-tangled-bank-love-wonder-and-evolution/8340048">electronicall only</a>, so far, by editor/publisher Chris Lynch's <a href="http://thetangledbank.com/">The Tangled Bank </a>Press.<br /><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442109400772829698" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 283px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_m6pt0Vhh8xfLM0J8TPg-XmW461NLrfHYE9yk9V9ws5T9KFhKeBP_eqTUPoVL2etfNDqNZKPNG_Y2IvfC7PdX8iQ2yNXUX_YJbtATStvi0o8e1iUv4NdiXmMzM2RC1d7NS4aPW7DqoVvC/s400/Tangled+Bank.png" border="0" />It features stories by such writers as <a href="http://zsadani.com/">Sophy Adani</a>, <a href="http://anilmenon.com/">Anil Menon</a>, <a href="http://carlos-hernandez.net/main/">Carlos Hernandez</a> (and many others) plus my own "The Frog Pool". Complemented with poems, illustrations and an essay by Russell Blackford. Check out the <a href="http://thetangledbank.com/2009/12/24/table-of-contents-announced/">Table of Contents</a>.</p><p>Apropos Carlos Hernandez: he's on a roll. His story in <em><a href="http://www.interstitialarts.org/projects/interfictions2.php">Interfictions 2</a></em> (“The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria”) is a doozy, and online you can check out "<a href="http://futurismic.com/2009/07/01/new-fiction-homeostasis-by-carlos-hernadez/">Homeostasis</a>" (at Futurismic) and "<a href="http://daybreakmagazine.wordpress.com/2009/12/25/daybreak-fiction-fembot/">Fembot</a>" (at my own <em><a href="http://daybreakmagazine.wordpress.com/">DayBreak Magazine</a></em>).</p><p>Apropos Anil Menon: he's co-editing (with Vandana Singh) an anthology called "<a href="http://www.zubaanbooks.com/RamayanaAnthology.asp">The Speculative Ramayana Anthology</a>". Check it out, and if it inspires you, do send in a story!</p><p>Apropos Sophy Adani: <em>Destination: Future</em>--the anthology she co-edited with Eric T, Reynolds--has just been released (at least at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Destination-Future-Z-S-Adani/dp/0982514093/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265508544&sr=8-1">Amazon</a>) through <a href="http://www.hadleyrillebooks.com/">Hadley Rille Books</a>.</p><p>Apropos my own silence: I am (and will continue to be, at least until Summer) extremely busy, both in the day job and the SF editing in my spare time. Most of the action is now at <a href="http://daybreakmagazine.wordpress.com/"><em>DayBreak Magazine</em></a>, where you can check out <a href="http://daybreakmagazine.wordpress.com/category/shine-excerpts/">excerpts for the SHINE anthology</a>, and <a href="http://daybreakmagazine.wordpress.com/category/fiction/">upbeat SF stories</a>, of which the latest is by my compatriot <a href="http://www.metromantyck.net/enews.html">Paul Evanby</a>: "<a href="http://daybreakmagazine.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/daybreak-fiction-a-thousand-trains-out-of-here/">A Thousand Trains Out of Here</a>". A razor-sharp reversal of current Dutch sociological and political trends set in a sunnier future. Enjoy!<br /></p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5442129497613981586" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 286px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOqyvs9q55tiTEZEFpw9R4i4lrk8Icfqt4mHni9swNFNtTnpDO9t6CxrWXkYzHPuzm_HExthyphenhyphenu2GEVDVVCjbo5EKJ8REoRQLRdrv5S5R1RuvyKNG90idtLEwwAigK5bHLL5orN3fP1-tOb/s400/daybreak_1.jpg" border="0" />Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-42094109909344514492009-12-25T14:37:00.005+00:002009-12-26T12:53:22.052+00:00Should SF Die?(<a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/should-sf-die/">Cross-posted</a> from the <i><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/">Shine</a></i> website.)<div><br /></div>There’s been a lot of musing about the fate of science fiction, lately. To be clear, I’ll be discussing *written SF* here (predominantly), not SF in movies, comics, video games or other media. To summarise (and this is far from complete, but I hope it touches upon the main points):<br /><ul><br /><li>According to <a href="http://ashokbanker.com/" target="_blank">Ashok Banker</a>, SF is morally and ethically bankrupt (to put it mildly: his interview at the <a href="http://worldsf.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">World SF News Blog</a> has been deleted <a href="http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2009/12/10/ashok-banker-interview-no-longer-available/" target="_blank">on his request</a>, because some idiot stalker is now threatening not only him, but his family and friends, as well);</li></ul><ul><li>According to Lavie Tidhar, SF — and fantasy, as well — is suffering from <a href="http://worldsf.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/editorial-where-is-the-world-in-the-world-fantasy-awards/" target="_blank">monolithic anglophone syndrome</a>;</li><br /><li>According to Mark Newton, SF is <a href="http://blog.markcnewton.com/2009/12/03/why-sf-is-dying-fantasy-fiction-is-the-future/" target="_blank">commercially dead</a>, and <a href="http://blog.markcnewton.com/2009/12/08/why-sf-is-dying-the-follow-up-post-in-which-the-author-defends-himself/" target="_blank">fantasy is the (bestselling) future</a>;</li><br /><li>According to <a href="http://www.starshipreckless.com/blog/" target="_blank">Athena Andreadis</a> on the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/" target="_blank">Huffington Post</a>, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/athena-andreadis-phd/science-fiction-goes-mcdo_b_391837.html" target="_blank">SF has ditched science</a> and has become, in effect, fantasy. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoff_Ryman" target="_blank">Geoff Ryman</a> (who recently edited <em><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/dec/19/when-it-changed-book-review">When It Changed</a></em>) and <a href="http://kenmacleod.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Ken MacLeod</a> (who is involved with <em><a href="http://www.humangenreproject.com/">The Human Genre Project</a></em>) seem to agree;</li><br /></ul>My viewpoint is that SF is becoming increasingly irrelevant, and that lack of relevance can be attributed to developments and trends already mentioned in the points above, and SF’s unwillingness to <em>really</em> engage with the here-and-now. That doesn’t mean that SF needs to die (actually, a slow marginalisation into an increasingly neglected and despised niche-cum-ghetto is probably a fate worse than death), but it does mean that SF needs to change, and that it needs to become much more inclusive of the alien (and I mean alien in ‘humans-can-be-aliens-to-each-other’ sense) and proactive, meaning it should not just shout ‘FIRE! FIRE!’ (and do almost nothing but), but both man the fire trucks *and* think of ways to prevent more fires.<br /><br /><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/fire.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1087" title="FIRE!" src="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/fire.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="202" /></a><div><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/fire.jpg"></a>That’s the short version: allow me to expand on it below the cut.<a name='more'></a><br /><br />There have been several flame wars on the internet about what SF exactly is. For one, I think it’s as much a marketing niche as a genre defined by certain hard-to-define characteristics. For another, I think that if SF wants to prevent becoming more marginalised, it needs to ditch the common concept that it’s ‘the literature of ideas’ and should try to become ‘the literature of change’.<br /><br />Ideas are a dime a dozen. Ideas flow by the bucketloads as half-drunken people quip witticism in a bar, as stoned students discuss RPGs at a frat party, as white collars desperately brainstorm in anther effort to hide a lack of true inspiration. The utmost majority of ideas are ethereal, as lasting and interesting as the latest trending topic on Twitter. Yes, there are those very rare <em>good</em> ideas: and I’m willing to bet that most really good ideas are carefully kept under wrap until they’re patented and ready for the big time (see, for example, how Apple launches new products like iTunes, iPods, iPhones, etc.). And renaming SF ‘the literature of really good ideas’ is lame at best and pathetic at worst.<br /><br />SF — should it be willing to move forward — needs to reinvent itself as the literature of <em>change</em>. This means that SF needs to be willing to change, itself, and <em>continue</em> to be willing to change, to either adapt, or — dare we think it? — be <em>proactive</em>. Because, let’s face it, SF hasn’t been particularly proactive in the last few decades. This also means that SF needs to be open to outer influences instead of being afraid of those. SF as a species should be willing to cross-fertilise with everything around it, and thrive, or otherwise become a genetic dead end.<br /><br /><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/genetic-dead-end.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1089" title="Genetic Dead End" src="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/genetic-dead-end.jpg" alt="" width="210" height="210" /></a></div><div><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/genetic-dead-end.jpg"></a>So let’s apply this viewpoint — SF as a literature of change, willing to change itself, as well — to the points, mostly mentioned by others, above:<ol> <li>SF is racist (Ashok Banker);</li><br /><li>SF is predominantly an anglophone white man’s game (Lavie Tidhar), not open enough to women, people of colour, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT" target="_blank">LGBT</a>s and cultures other than western ones;</li><br /><li>SF is on a commercial dead end because (a)women aren’t buying it, (b) it can’t keep up with the current rate of technological change, (c) it’s eaten up from the outside by the mainstream and (d) most people grow up on fantasy films, anyway (all Mark Newton);</li><br /><li>SF, like much of the current US way of thinking, is too dismissive of actual science (Athena Andreadis);</li><br /><li>SF is not exploring relevant topics deeply enough (me);</li><br /></ol><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">1. SF is racist</span>:</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/racist-nail-polish.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1090" title="Racist Nail Polish" src="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/racist-nail-polish.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="249" /></a></div><div><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/racist-nail-polish.jpg"></a>Let’s jump immediately into the deep end. Is SF racist? And of so, should it die, or should it mend its ways?<br /><br />First one qualitative distinction: SF is not a homogenised group thing, but rather a collective of writers and readers (and publishers, editors, reviewers, critics, fans etcetera) that prefer to experience story in a certain mode. Saying that *all* SF is racist is a bit like saying all Christians, all Muslims, all Buddhists, or all atheists are racist. Unfortunately, some Christians, Muslims, Bhuddists or atheists will be racists. Fortunately, some of them will not be racists.<br /><br />Thus, not *all* SF is racist: throughout its history novels and short stories by people of colour have been — and continue to be — published: Samuel R. Delany, Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Vandana Singh, Steven Barnes, Nalo Hopkinson, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Nnedi Okorafor and David Anthony Durham immediately come to mind, and then I realise I am overlooking many, many others (for which my profound apologies).<br /><br />Therefore, a better question is: ‘Is SF, as a genre, <em>predominantly</em> racist?’ That’s a tough one to answer. Are the SF novels and short stories written by, or about, non-white or non-western people just a small, negligible minority in a sea of conservative WASP tales? Or is there a trend towards more inclusion of diverse cultures in SF?<br /><br />On the one hand, it is extremely hard to deny that the majority of both SF writers *and* SF protagonists are white males. The <a href="http://www.fanhistory.com/wiki/Race_Fail_2009">Racefail</a> discussion earlier this year does not exactly show SF from its best angle, and incidents like <em><a href="http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2009/08/toc-the-mammoth-book-of-mindblowing-sf-edited-by-mike-ashley/">The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF</a></em> don’t exactly help in that regard, either. I remember that some statistics were made of the number of male/female authors in the SF digests, but can’t find them right now, although I do distinctly recall that the majority of writers in them was male (and white).<br /><br />That none of the 57 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel" target="_blank">Hugo Awards for Best Novel</a> have been won by people of colour (and 15 by women), is not a good sign. That all of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SFWA_Grand_Master" target="_blank">SFWA Grand Masters</a> are white, and that only 3 of the 27 SFWA Grand Masters are women doesn’t help matters, either. Compare this with a literary prize like the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_prize">Man Booker Prize</a> (where 8 people of colour, and 15 women have been awarded among the total of 43 recipients), or the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_winners_of_the_National_Book_Award">Nobel</a> Prize for Literature (where 9 people of colour, and, admittedly, only 9 women have been awarded among the total of 106 recipients), then one can clearly see that SF still has way to go in that respect. OK: one could also say that the whole of western literature has quite a way to go in that respect, but I do note that the number of ethnic and women recipients of both literature and SF prizes has been going up since, say 1960 or so. If looked from that perspective, SF has <em>much more</em> catching up to do than literature.<br /><br />So in SF there is, undeniably, a strong bias for fiction written by, or written about, white males. Part of this is historically grown (yes, the whole western world was more racist in the past — think slavery, witch hunts, concentration camps and other atrocities — and only slowly becoming less racist over time), but I can’t escape the impression that a large part of it is due to the fact that SF, that is: a very large part of the community that we call SF, is very conservative, and as such very much behind the times.<br /><br />(Obviously, there remains the question how much of this bias is intentional, unintentional, or just plain <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_privilege">white privilege</a> at work. It’s another tough question on which I don’t have an easy or definite answer. I’m ignoring it for the moment, as I like to concentrate — in my best <em>Shine</em> fashion — on improving things, on looking for solutions.)<br /><br />On the other hand, I do have the feeling that the tide is, finally, slowly, yet inevitably turning.<br /><br />One very recent point of light is provided by Ahmed A. Khan’s and Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad’s <em><a href="http://islamscifi.com/?page_id=33">A Mosque Among the Stars</a></em> anthology that portrays (at least one) muslim, or Islam, in a positive light. Then there are anthologies like <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cosmos-Latinos-Anthology-Science-Classics/dp/0819566349" target="_blank"><em>Cosmos Latinos</em></a>,</em> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Matter-Century-Speculative-Diaspora/dp/0446525839" target="_blank"><em>Dark Matter</em></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Visions-Third-Millennium-Science-Novelists/dp/1592210228" target="_blank"><em>Visions of the Third Millenium</em></a>, and websites like <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SciFiNoir_Lit/" target="_blank">SciFiNoir</a>, the <a href="http://carlbrandon.org/" target="_blank">Carl Brandon Society</a>, <a href="http://afrofuturism.net/" target="_blank">Afrofuturism</a>, and <a href="http://theangryblackwoman.com/" target="_blank">The Angry Black Woman</a> (even if the latter is only partly about SF & fantasy), and more.<br /><br />If there is one thing I am sure of, it’s that I am missing quite a few similar ethnic SF loving people out there, for which my apologies: the more, the merrier, as far as I'm concerned. And do enlighten me!<br /><br /><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">2. SF is predominantly WASPish</span>:</strong><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/world-sf.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1091" title="World SF" src="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/world-sf.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="202" /></a></strong></div><div><strong><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/world-sf.jpg"></a></strong>Check out several <a href="http://worldsf.wordpress.com/tag/2009-summaries/">summaries</a> on the World SF News Blog about how much SF short stories from international writers are published: it’s very little, indeed.<br /><br />Still, this is an area where I do see quite a bit of forward movement, to wit:<ul> <li><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Apex-Book-World-SF/dp/0982159633">The Apex Book of World SF</a></em>, edited by Lavie Tidhar (and the international <em>Apex Online</em> issue);</li><br /><li><a href="http://worldsf.wordpress.com/">The World SF News Blog</a>, run by Lavie Tidhar;</li><br /><li>The <em><a href="http://bestamericanfantasy.com/">Best American Fantasy</a></em> series, now published by Underland Press, will now include stories from Latin America, as well;</li><br /><li>The inaugural <a href="http://www.sfftawards.org/">SF and fantasy translation awards</a> have been announced;</li><br /><li>The <a href="http://www.interstitialarts.org/wordpress/">Interstitial Arts Foundation</a> has made a concerted effort to bring more international writers in their <em><a href="http://www.interstitialarts.org/projects/interfictions2.php">Interfictions 2</a></em> anthology;</li><br /><li>The launch of <a href="http://www.rocketkapre.com/usok/" target="_blank">Usok</a>, an English language Philippino magazine;</li><br /><li>Not to mention the tireless <a href="http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/">Charles A. Tan</a>, who, amongst many other things, edits collections of SF/fantasy from The Philippines;</li><br /><li>An upcoming anthology of SF/fantasy written by ethnic Chinese people outside of China called <em><a href="http://swordskill.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/the-dragon-and-the-stars-anthology-toc/">The Dragon and the Stars</a></em>, edited by Eric Choi and Derwin Mak;</li><br /><li>The December issue of <a href="http://www.wordswithoutborders.org/">Words without Borders</a> focuses on international SF;</li><br /><li>Last but certainly not least the launch of <a href="http://www.haikasoru.com/">Haikasoru</a>: a line of translated Japanese specfic from VIZ media edited by <a href="http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/">Nick Mamatas</a>;</li><br /></ul>These are all examples of international SF with — mostly, although not exclusively — non-white writers and protagonists. Maybe they’re just drops in the bucket, but these drops are not colourless: they are distinct, and they keep falling in greater numbers. Like in literature, the landscape will change. And this is a change SF should embrace.<br /><br />Then there is the problem of ‘writing the other’: should people from culture A write about people from culture B, or not?<br /><br />Of course, this is frought with perils, but still needs to be done. If everybody in the world would only write and read about their own culture, cultural exchange and quite possibly culture itself would die a slow and painful death. Trying to imagine oneself in another’s place is highly important, and trying to write from another culture’s viewpoint is part and parcel of that.<br /><br />Make no mistake: this has been done (<em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Men-Writing-Science-Fiction-Women/dp/0756401658" target="_blank">Men Writing SF as Women</a></em>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Women-Writing-Science-Fiction-Men/dp/0756401488" target="_blank"><em>Women Writing SF as Men</em></a> are just two examples), and hopefully will continue to be done. However, SF often takes the easy way out by using a white male protagonist who is slowly (or often incredibly quickly) accepted in the alien culture (<em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferngully">FernGully</a></em>, <em>Dances with Wolves </em>[OK: not SF but a telling example], <em>Avatar</em>), and then — as the hero — solves all problems. That Hollywood movies do it is one thing, but if written SF is <em>really</em> ‘<a href="http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1411424.html" target="_blank">fifty years ahead</a>’ of big movie SF, then shouldn’t it feature much more stories where the hero is a (non-white) native and/or female and/or LGBT?<br /><br />The obvious answer here is that SF needs to open itself more, <em>much</em> more to writing from other viewpoints: other sexes, other ethnicities, other cultures. For a literature that’s supposedly interested, and often <em>about</em>, the alien SF, but all too often, seems ethnocentric and infused with xenophobia.<br /><br /><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">3. SF is on a commercial dead end</span>:</strong><br /><br /><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/downward-spiral.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1093" title="Downward Spiral" src="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/downward-spiral.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="202" /></a></div><div><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/downward-spiral.jpg"></a>Here’s where Mark Charan Newton has <a href="http://blog.markcnewton.com/2009/12/03/why-sf-is-dying-fantasy-fiction-is-the-future/">stirred up quite a ruckus </a>— and rightfully so — but while this would have been a good chance to analyse how much written SF sales are dropping, and the deeper causes to that, that unfortunately happens only somewhat in the <a href="http://blog.markcnewton.com/2009/12/08/why-sf-is-dying-the-follow-up-post-in-which-the-author-defends-himself/">follow-up post</a> (‘What is happening to SF is a negative feedback loop, reinforced by the way modern publishing works, as well as some potential cultural problems’), where Richard Morgan comments:<br /><blockquote>...that where the SF/F genre is concerned,the message has gone out, loud and clear, that in order to make successful artefacts of mass entertainment, you must not challenge your audience with anything that a 14 year old American mid-western teenager can’t instantly relate to.</blockquote>This, BTW, is totally aimed at SF movies. Hence Morgan’s and Newton’s musings on risk-taking (‘Is fantasy too risk-free?’/‘risk isn’t everything to casual readers’). However, there are already whole SF lines aimed at ‘no risk’-taking: see the <em>Star Wars</em>, <em>Star Trek</em> and other sharecropper novels that indeed sell pretty well, thank you. I don’t think most ‘original’ SF needs, or should, compete with that. Written SF should be <em>ahead</em> of Hollywood, right?<br /><br />Mark provides a good explanation of ‘frontlist sales’ in bookshops, and while his observation that —<br /><blockquote>What we have is a vicious circle. If there are only a few SF books selling well each year, that isn’t enough room for it to acquire significant market share/nurture a culture. It attracts fewer new readers. And as Dark Fantasy rises, this will only squeeze SF out further.</blockquote>— is certainly true, it overlooks the positive effect that a truly new SF blockbuster, a game changer can have. An obvious example from over two decades ago is William Gibson’s <em>Neuromancer</em>: while not the very first cyberpunk novel, nor the best, it broke cyberpunk to a larger audience, paving the way for more titles and more sales for SF overall.<br /><br />And <em>Neuromancer</em> took risks: in many aspects it was different from the ‘mainstream’ SF that it preceded. So obviously, if SF keeps churning out the same old/same old all over again, it will certainly dwindle into insignificance, both commercially and artistically.<br /><br />So in order to get out of this slump, SF must re-invent itself. For that, SF must welcome change, and change itself. It should face the modern world and the near-future, instead of running away from it. For that, it must — inevitably — take risks.<br /><br />Roughly speaking, both the New Wave and cyberpunk were catch-up exercises: with the New Wave SF caught up with the cultural and sociological changes of society at that time (60s/70s), with cyberpunk with the technological changes (back in the early 80s, almost no SF was about computers, software and the internet).<br /><br />One might argue that with the short burst of SF novels and short stories about the technological singularity in the early oughts SF was, for once, trying to be ahead of the game. However, this focused merely on the high tech computing frontier, and mostly ignored a flesh-and-blood world that was (and is) suffering major problems like environmental degradation, overpopulation, climate change and more.<br /><br />It’s high time SF faced that one head-on, and while some may argue that it’s already doing this, I fear that the ‘dystopia-only’ approach is proving less than fruitful. More on this later. But it seems imperative that SF does its next catch-up exercise, and quick.<br /><br />(And quite possibly I’m wrong: maybe SF should be about mind-blowingly virtual avatars doing mind-numbingly stupid things, a kind of reverse ‘science fantasy’ where SF is merely a thin veneer on an escapist fantasy power dream. The cynics among you may observe that this has always been the case...;-)<br /><br />Then also it might be smart to aim this at a larger audience: not just the ‘14 year old Midwestern American teenager’ (where we can safely add *white* before teenager), but maybe at women, blacks, hispanics, asians and other ‘minorities’ (I wouldn’t call women a minority, as there are more women than men on average, hence the quotation marks)? As Mark Newton remarks, more women read books, and they’re spending the most money on books. And those other ‘minorities’ read as well, increasingly so. So it’s not only wrong-headed (to say it softly) or medieval (to say it hard) to marginalise women, non-white people, LGBTs and other cultures from SF, it is also commercially stupid.<br /><br /><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">4. SF dismisses actual science</span>:</strong><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/real-science.png"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1094" title="real science" src="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/real-science.png" alt="" width="270" height="270" /></a></strong></div><div><strong><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/real-science.png"></a></strong><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/athena-andreadis-phd/science-fiction-goes-mcdo_b_391837.html">This fresh in from Athena Andreadis</a>, where she laments the casual attitude with which American society at large, and also — seemingly — SF in particular, dismiss science and the scientific method.<br /><br />The prize quote:<br /><blockquote>The real problem is not that science is hard to portray well in SF. The problem is impoverished imagination, willful ignorance and endless repetition of recipes. In short: failure of nerve.</blockquote>Amen to that, and I’ll expand on it in the next and final point→<br /><br /><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">5. SF is not relevant enough</span>:</strong><br /><br /><strong><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/networking-session1.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1095" title="networking-session1" src="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/networking-session1.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="202" /></a></strong></div><div><strong><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/networking-session1.jpg"></a></strong>Where we finally arrive at one of my favourite bugbears. Yes, I know: SF does handle urgent, near-future topics like climate change, pollution, environmental degradation, overpopulation, biodiversity loss and more. However, it almost exclusively shows how things will go from bad to worse to worst, and almost never comes up with the merest hint of a proposal to a solution.<br /><br />Why?<br /><br />Because SF is mostly behind the times. While an offhand remark from Nick Mamatas in his brilliant <em><a href="http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1411424.html">Avatar review</a></em> — “<strong>Avatar</strong> does represent a step forward in science fiction film in that it is only forty years behind science fiction literature rather than the usual fifty years.” — sollicits applause and warm fuzzy feelings of entitlement in several comments, the truth is that written SF is, in most cases, way behind the curve of actual scientific, technological and sociological developments in the real world.<br /><br />As Marcus Chown muses in his <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/dec/19/when-it-changed-book-review">Guardian review</a> of <a href="http://www.commapress.co.uk/?section=books&page=WhenItChanged" target="_blank"><em>When It Changed</em></a>:<br /><blockquote>The discovery that we live in a universe far stranger than anything we could possibly have imagined poses a problem for science fiction writers, whose stock-in-trade is, of course, imagining what the future will bring and the impact it will have on us.<br /><br />Geoff Ryman thinks that a lot of science fiction writers, faced by this difficulty, may have given up, and that a lot of science fiction — particularly what appears on TV and film — is little more than cowboys in space.</blockquote>It’s worse than that: most SF writers are not only overwhelmed by developments in science, they are doubly overwhelmed by (the pace of) today’s technological and sociological progress. It’s why the utmost majority of SF writers shies away from near-future SF: things change too fast and too unpredictable for them to keep up. Which leads to the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/2009/06/16/why-i-cant-write-a-near-future-optimistic-sf-story-the-excuses/">usual excuses</a>, and to most SF written safely in the far future, which has another advantage: instead of all today’s problems and developments happening in a highly complex and often strangely intertwined manner, an SF writer can isolate a problem quite nicely on a different planet or different timeline.<br /><br />This is both a folly (most of today’s problems <em>are</em> complex and intertwined by definition: if not they’d be <em>different</em> problems) and writerly cowardice as in ‘it’s too difficult so I ignore it/run away from it’ and the already cliché’d repartee ‘it’s not up to SF to imagine solutions to today’s problems’.<br /><br />Because that’s the problem: SF doesn’t want to (try to) tackle today problems. It just wants to highlight them, exaggerate them into apocalyptic disasters and let the world go down the drain in five hundred different ways. SF is very good at imaging how civilisation (or the world in general) ends: if it only used part of that imagination thinking about solving an actual problem it might have had some more respect from the world at large.<br /><br />So let’s call it what it is: a failure of the imagination. Yes, quote me on it: ‘most written SF today suffers from a failure of the imagination’. It’s lazy, it avoids doing the hard work. As Athena Andreadis said:<br /><blockquote>However, the nation's <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/athena-andreadis-phd/america-then-and-now_b_290382.html">radical shift to the right</a> also brought on disdain for all expertise - science in particular, as can be seen by the obstruction of research in stem cells and climate change and of teaching evolution in schools (to say nothing of scientist portrayals in the media, exemplified by Gaius Baltar in the <a href="http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2009/03/doomed-to-repeat-it-battlestar.html">aggressively regressive</a><em> Battlestar Galactica</em> reboot).<br /><br />This trend culminated in the choice of first a president and then a vice-presidential candidate who flaunted their ignorance and deemed their faux-folksy personae sufficient qualifications to lead the most powerful nation on the planet. Even as the fallout from these decisions deranges their culture, Americans cling to their iPods, SUVs and Xboxes and still expect instant cures for everything, from acne to old age, <a href="http://www.starshipreckless.com/blog/?p=196">seeing scientists</a> as the Morlocks that must cater to their Eloi.</blockquote>It seems not only true for the unthinking masses at large, but for a large amount of SF, as well.<br /><br />In short, SF should get off its arse, be totally open to outside influences and other cultures, and get involved with proactive thinking, proudly using science, about the near future.<br /><br />Conceptual breakthrough doesn’t happen by looking at the other while not trying to understand her/him/it: it happens when a fresh understanding, a new insight opens up the previously weird and uncanny behaviour of the other, enhancing our view of a highly diverse world, opening us up to the beauty of it all.<br /><br />Sense of wonder doesn’t arrive by watching the world from the safety of the couch or the local pub: it comes from engaging with the strange and the alien, then truly understanding it, and seeing the world in a new light.<br /><br />Conceptual breakthrough doesn’t happen by pointing <em>only</em> to the things that go wrong, shouting fire and then depicting the seven-hundred-and-twenty-fourth version of Ragnarok: it happens when engaging with a problem so deeply that either obvious or lateral approaches come to the fore.<br /><br />Sense of wonder doesn’t come when the scientific, technological or sociological causes of a phenomenon are ignored, taken for granted or not understood: it comes when the root cause — which can be something initially alien like quantum mechanics, string theory, complexity or chaos theory — suddenly becomes obvious, when a new way of looking at the world becomes clear, when a wonderful new understanding dawns.<br /><br />Neither can be achieved without hard work and inspiration, quite possibly more hard work and inspiration than ever before (in that manner, like in <em>When It Changed</em>: collaboration may be the new way forward. It is already so in science, so why not in SF? Must writers remain isolated islands in a sea of change?), but this is also the challenge. Is SF up to this challenge? If not, I suspect it’s bound for a <a href="http://thisislandrod.blogspot.com/2009/10/decline-of-western-leone-peckinpah-penn.html">slow deterioration</a> not unlike that of, say, <a href="http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Romantic-Comedy-Yugoslavia/Westerns-THE-WESTERN-AND-FILM-STUDIES.html">the western</a> (I know: there are still plenty of western *movies* — which even show more signs of engaging with today’s culture that SF: Brokeback Mountain, anyone? — but <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_fiction#1990s_and_2000s">western fiction</a> has been on life support for decades). If SF is up to the challenge, then it may become relevant once again.<br /><br /><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/saturn_eclipse_exaggerated.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1096" title="Saturn_eclipse_exaggerated" src="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/saturn_eclipse_exaggerated.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="133" /></a></div><div><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/files/2009/12/saturn_eclipse_exaggerated.jpg"></a>Since this is the <a href="http://daybreakmagazine.wordpress.com/2009/12/25/daybreak-fiction-fembot/" mce_href="http://daybreakmagazine.wordpress.com/2009/12/25/daybreak-fiction-fembot/" target="_blank">festive</a> <a href="http://daybreakmagazine.wordpress.com/2009/12/25/daybreak-fiction-fembot-v2/" mce_href="http://daybreakmagazine.wordpress.com/2009/12/25/daybreak-fiction-fembot-v2/" target="_blank">season</a>, I remain hopeful (although that’s hard, sometimes), and next year I intend <a href="http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=1906735670" mce_href="http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=1906735670" target="_blank">to</a> <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?r=1&usri=Jetse+de+Vries&ISBN=9781906735678&IF=N&ourl=Shine/Jetse-de-Vries&itm=1&cm_mmc=Skimbit-_-k186085-_-j14933426k186085-_-Home%20Page%20Text%20Link" mce_href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?r=1&usri=Jetse+de+Vries&ISBN=9781906735678&IF=N&ourl=Shine/Jetse-de-Vries&itm=1&cm_mmc=Skimbit-_-k186085-_-j14933426k186085-_-Home%20Page%20Text%20Link" target="_blank">lead</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shine-Optimistic-Science-Fiction-Jetse-Vries/dp/1906735662/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259057408&sr=1-1" mce_href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shine-Optimistic-Science-Fiction-Jetse-Vries/dp/1906735662/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259057408&sr=1-1" target="_blank">by</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Shine-Anthology-Optomistic-Jetse-Vries/dp/1906735670/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259057186&sr=1-1" mce_href="http://www.amazon.com/Shine-Anthology-Optomistic-Jetse-Vries/dp/1906735670/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259057186&sr=1-1" target="_blank">example</a>.</div>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-87388114889169787122009-12-03T15:47:00.010+00:002009-12-03T16:39:56.635+00:00IS IT ALIVE? SHINE COMPETITON!<p>Apologies — to the two or three people still follwoing this blog — for the lack of updates: the <em>Shine</em> anthology and other projects are eating up all my time. All the action (well, as far as I am concerned) is over there.<br /><br /></p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411040316803109074" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 73px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdsn-clhgEJJfXZ1k98zQltuJda96LVsRW1f4u7D6D03OnCJ8ViK5K2bjYptw32aXUkvfXVVIlEkR_LPW_o96g6iroPqhQm4TUFRmybHucK7juTNPSHnRd9uPE8DJ6zSwI-jAzYcnvRsuS/s400/DayBreak_1.jpg" border="0" />So a short recap:<br /><br />In my ongoing efforts to promote <em><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/">Shine</a></em>, an anthology of near-future, optimistic SF (to be released by Solaris Books in April 2010), I have started a <a href="http://daybreakmagazine2.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/shine-competition-the-competition/">competition</a>. Goal of this competition: guess the end sentence of 16 fragments of the stories appearing in Shine, plus the authors: <strong><a href="http://daybreakmagazine2.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/shine-competition-the-competition/">SHINE COMPETITION</a></strong>!<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://daybreakmagazine2.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/shine-competition-the-prizes/">Prizes</a>:</strong> too good to be true!<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://daybreakmagazine2.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/shine-competition-the-rules/">Rules</a>:</strong> short and straightforward!<br /><br />It's a fun way of experiencing parts of the stories, and get into the writers' minds.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411043542690345906" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 160px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilId5o6-nKt_e-yMVio4h_9KgD969znek6nn10XCR5R3WbdeqhP6htEEsm0_3mxmyItUqeS9QvOgxzv7Sw4is2yNnxPrIt4w_VHXyCgDu8i_FhsdPFyBDVLSXCfY4KhXEDb-o9j_LCsRPI/s400/DayBreak_2.jpg" border="0" /> <p>Also, in order to promote <em>Shine</em> and optimistic SF in general, I have started a webzine called <em><a href="http://daybreakmagazine.wordpress.com/">Daybreak Magazine</a></em>. <em>DayBreak Magazine</em> will feature an new story every two weeks. So far four have already been published:</p><ul><li>"<a href="http://daybreakmagazine2.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/the-very-difficult-diwali-of-sub-inspector-gurushankar-rajaram/">The Very Difficult Diwali of Sub-Inspector Gurushankar Rajaram</a>" by Jeff Soesbe;</li><li>"<a href="http://daybreakmagazine2.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/daybreak-fiction-%e2%80%9chorrorhouse%e2%80%9d/">horrorhouse</a>" by Hugo-winner David D. Levine;</li><li>"<a href="http://daybreakmagazine2.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/daybreak-fiction-%e2%80%9cthe-gender-plague%e2%80%9d-v2/">The Gender Plague</a>" by K.D. Wentworth;</li><li>"<a href="http://daybreakmagazine2.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/daybreak-fiction-%e2%80%9cthe-branding-of-shu-mei-feng%e2%80%9d/">The Branding of Shu Mei Feng</a>" by Amanda Clark;</li></ul><p>Finally, for those who like their fiction *extremely* short, my Twitterzine <a href="http://twitter.com/outshine">@outshine</a> containing optimistic SF tweets (and music reviews by Paul Graham Raven, movie reviews by Lucius Shephard, and comics reviews by David Alexander MacDonald) has been running from January 2009 onwards.</p><p>These three venues -- the <em><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/">Shine</a></em> blog, <a href="http://daybreakmagazine.wordpress.com/"><em>Daybreak Magazine</em></a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/outshine">@outshine</a> -- are updated, very frequently and often.<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5411049984156360754" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 270px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwEJXIuOSNm7bh2H-CmXUJCt2iwcEUkO8KtIL7QDAiVH1pcU00AICuLfev1R9qjqnLdZU1KuAt2TU8E2WVlhkWeajztDY_DmxL_Z_9GksUwK7vo3-cATI4diCxCuuE-8yQKOIbWf6Hztw-/s400/shine_7_RS.JPG" border="0" /></p>(<em>Shine </em>cover art by <a href="http://www.vincentchong-art.co.uk/">Vincent Chong</a>)<br /><br /><p>The moment I have more time I hope to post some more personal stuff over here, such as Con reports from both <em>Anticipation</em> and World Fantasy in San José.</p>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-39625935029063472012009-07-13T12:10:00.019+01:002009-07-31T10:57:29.649+01:00A Travel Schedule, Part 2<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><br /></div>In week 32, I will be attending <em><a href="http://www.anticipationsf.ca/English/Home">Anticipation</a></em>, the Montréal WorldCon.<br /><br />My travel plans and preliminary schedule are as follows:<br /><br />Flight to Montréal:Departure: Tuesday August 4 @ 15.20 hrs. with flight KL 0671; <ul><li>Arrival: Tuesday August 4 @ 16.35 hrs (flying time approx. 7.15 hrs.)</li></ul><p>After clearing customs & immigration I'll be heading to the Best Western Europa for a full week (there was a CAN$ 80 per night special if I booked a full week, so why not...;-).</p><p>This gives me the Tuesday night and the Wednesday daytime for preparations, especially -- I hope -- to do some shopping for a special event.</p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357929498206561122" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 199px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgQEtYol4kMpBySJ9EaWLRQtCABpHBqO-79or8ULxiTZQs5EPzY4nOGy6b0A9r3GF2iBkngFk4KO85BYg0d2o9Q9N3OCaZ390IrEn-amg7_Te1d-J04iZ66uWYoWrMlwC0T8vt1tsOO1NM/s400/montreal_aggrandi_port.jpg" border="0" />Also, an 'unofficial' event: <em>Pubcrawling with the Pros</em>.<br /><p>Last year, Jim Minz had the luminous idea to do a Microbrew Pubcrawl in Denver (actually two: one on the Wednesday before, and one on the Sunday afternoon). As it happened, only two people showed up on the Wednesday (Jim and me), but we had a great time, and tasted some great beers. Sunday we redid it with a nice group (Jim Minz, Jeremy Lassen, John Picacio, Chris Roberson, Allison Baker, John Picacio, Diana Rowland, Christian Dunn, George Mann, Mark Newton and a few others whom I can't recall right now) to great acclaim.</p><p>Montreal supposedly has Belgian type beers, so I think a repeat is in order.<br /><br />So, the way things look right now, there will be two pubcrawls:</p><ol><li><strong>Wednesday evening August 5 from 8 PM onwards:</strong> where I will be waiting in the bar of the Hotel Delta Centre-Ville for the estimable Mr. Jim Minz to arrive, after which we set off;</li><br /><li><strong>Monday afternoon August 10 from 1 PM onwards:</strong> we gather in <a href="http://www.fourquet-fourchette.com/site/en/montreal.html">Le Fourquet Fourchette </a>restaurant (which is located right in the Palais des Congrés), and from there we will set off;</li></ol><p>Since we expect that the group on the Monday will be much larger, the Monday pubcrawl will be less extensive (we'll concentrate on a group of brewpubs which are within crawling distance) than the Wednesday evening one.</p><p>Anybody who wishes to join us, feel free to drop me an email at <a href="mailto:Jetse.deVries@gmail.com">Jetse.deVries@gmail.com</a> .</p><p>At Thursday the WordCon takes off, and -- so far -- I have the following items scheduled:<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357929970424095730" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 175px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7GBCAXF77JE7yCSbSIVzVc8lJvCci04j9ZliB7N3b-292aGuXeD5OH8RmmNhpD4MMU8i7AnT80Ia_jQAr8dD4toiDPXkavCobdxziVxixXTYhoTnZoioKUb6CAEwL4GzbZzto5tdBNUFq/s400/palais02.jpg" border="0" /><strong>--> Thursday August 6:</strong></p><p>When: Thu 2:00 PM</p><p>Location: P-511A</p><p>Session ID: 345</p><p>Title: <em>Translation Challenges</em></p><p>Description: What are the artistic and professional challenges faced by translators? How do they tackle translating between languages whosegrammars are incompatible?</p><p>Language: English</p><p>Track: Literature in English</p><p>Moderator: Kari Sperring</p><p>Duration: 1:30 hrs:min</p><p>All Participants: Jetse de Vries, Kari Sperring, Rani Graff, TomClegg, Fabio Fernandes, Eileen Gunn.</p><p>NB: <a href="http://www.verbeat.org/blogs/pwt/">Fábio Fernandes</a> is still listed as a participant, <a href="http://verbeat.org/blogs/pwt/2009/07/worldcon_2009_-_the_program.html">but unfortunately he will not make it</a>. Too bad: I was looking forward to meeting him, as well.</p><p>******************** </p><p>When: Thu 5:00 PM</p><p>Location: P-518A</p><p>Session ID: 549</p><p>Title: <em>Putting the World into Worldcon</em></p><p>Description: Our information about SF outside the English language isoften provided by (mediated by) Anglophone experts who have been tothe foreign land in question and brought back what interests them.Here, instead, we gather experts from SF/fantasy traditions outsideEnglish to tell us what we should look out for.</p><p>Language: English</p><p>Track: Literature in English</p><p>Moderator: Jetse de Vries</p><p>Duration: 1:30 hrs:min</p><p>All Participants: Aliza Ben Moha, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Jetse de Vries, Stefan Krzywicki, Tara Oakes, Tore A. Hřie</p><p>NB: a handy map for the locations (which is <a href="http://www.anticipationsf.ca/English/Palais">available</a> on the <em>Anticipation</em> website):<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357906349986874242" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 218px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7fTMaahZbjn6alk2m56-lyJlpCbXqQU-lI6YFASgNw9QPbkIQveOUb_RjipqvI4z-YqvV3jgRegBv8xX_3sMPttKPtv265W89P_zvQlODYIulVTALeT-jcaZln4tb-dCIHvvTOlGTR5D-/s400/palais_meetings_level.png" border="0" /></p><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><br /></div><p></p><p>Furthermore, on Thursday evening -- as things stand now -- I will be having dinner with a few very good friends: Adam Rakunas and Daryl Gregory and his family in <a href="http://www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca/index_e.html">Au Pied de Cochon</a>.</p><p><strong>--> Friday August 7:</strong></p><p>When: Fri 3:30 PM<br /><br />Location: P-523A </p><p>Session ID: 1008<br /><br />Title: <em>Anatomy for Writers, Heroes and Tavern Brawlers.</em> </p><p>Description: Author, karate instructor, fencer and first aid officerSean McMullen provides a tour of how the human body can and cannot bedamaged. Want to know where a hero can be punched without any effect?Worried about his vascular dilation? Curious about the real-lifeversion of Mr Spock's nerve pinch? Not sure whether a really longsword fight is three hours or seven seconds? Wondering why readers arelaughing because your hero has microsecond reactions? Come along andfind out in complete safety.<br />Language: English<br /><br />Track: The Light Programme<br /><br />Moderator: Sean McMullen<br /><br />Duration: 1:30 hrs:min<br />All Participants: Jetse de Vries, Sean McMullen, Darlene Marshall, Kirsten Britain<br /><br />NOTE: this should be great fun: I will be the wild barbarian who gets his arse kicked by the Master. Or maybe, maybe the unwashed barbarian can pull a quick one...<br /><br />********************</p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364500116482529154" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 190px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcEB58XHVvt0s70hssWUA_7brTS1Rww71nsVWrBGWC8wUprF-1aVzyIzzJz8JAd3Bu3aRHqsG7EvpKfUII6ZFfTEQoYKTb5Fm8RhpuUHBWsjeaM7ceKU9SK0zJ66CUg-D8NuG2g46p0y7-/s400/AngryRobot-party.jpg" border="0" /> When: Friday 7.00 PM<br /><br />Location: Room 2231, Party Level, Hotel Delta Centre-Ville<br /><br />Session ID: C2H5OH<br /><br />Title: <em>Angry Robot Launch Party.</em><br /><br />Description: Launch party for new HarperCollins imprint <em>Angry Robot</em>. With introduction speech by Neil Gaiman. Drinks, drinks, drinks & snacks arranged by your Moderator who has a reputation (<em>Interzone</em> party, LACon IV; Pyr party, Denvention) to uphold. Wine aficionados will be attended to by connoissuer Adam Rakunas; beer lovers will be helped by The Flying Dutchman; there will even be soft drinks and mineral water for teetotallers. This is the party to be on the Friday night: don't miss it!<br /><br />Language: English/Français/others/<br /><br />Track: The Party Floor<br /><br />Moderators: Jetse de Vries, Adam Rakunas (wine master)<br /><br />Hosts: Marc Gasoigne & Lee Harris (Publishers/Editors)<br /><br />Duration: ??:?? hrs:min (depending on when your 'Moderator' decides to call it quits, or when the booze runs out, or when the suite needs to be vacated: whichever comes first...;-)<br /><br />Special Guests: Neil Gaiman & Mystery Guest, various <em>Angry Robot</em> authors<br /><br />Note that Neil Gaiman, as Guest of Honour, has a very full schedule, so will make an appearance at 7 PM and give a short speech. If you want to see him, be early!<br /><br />All Participants: everybody is invited!<br /><br />Be often, drink early! (Or was it the other way around?)<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357930318069615410" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 220px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEfsf3QQwd_WSyZUG2-FTck-OZhmruMbLh15dLiKcEenMK_m71QQ3GSCFb2mrsJljJj2svNMbJPd5dWbW6jhIhEMdD-h-D7s_M4mXK3Zx3oo9chA1tQ_U4m_u_LvV8Ofdhyphenhyphen325m1LG-oIH/s400/Delta_2.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>--> Saturday August 8:</strong><br /><br />When: Sat 12:30 PM<br /><br />Location: P-521A<br /><br />Session ID: 1625<br /><br />Title: <em>Jetse de Vries--Kaffeeklatsch</em><br /><br />Description: A chance to ask those burning questions.<br /><br />Language: English<br /><br />Track: Kaffeeklatsch<br /><br />Moderator: <not>(I'll be there: don't worry)<br /><br />Duration: 1:00 hrs:min<br /><br />All Participants: Jetse de Vries & all who wish to show up. Come by & ask anything you want!<br /><br />********************<br /><br />When: Sat 3:30 PM<br /><br />Location: P-516AB<br /><br />Session ID: 586<br /><br />Title: <em>How to Pitch Your Novel ... And How Not to</em><br /><br />Description: You're an aspiring writer, you've run into an editor oragent in a bar. After buying them a drink, what's the next thing to do? Talk about your just-completed novel? Thrust the printout into their hands? Or ... something else? Some advice from those who know.<br /><br />Language: English<br /><br />Track: Literature in English<br /><br />Moderator: Cathy Petrini<br /><br />Duration: 1:30 hrs:min<br /><br />All Participants: Cathy Petrini, Jetse de Vries, Mike Resnick, Sean Wallace, Ginjer Buchanan<br /><br /><strong>--> Sunday August 9:</strong><br /><br />When: Sun 10:00 AM<br /><br />Location: P-511CF<br /><br />Session ID: 87<br /><br />Title: <em>When the Oil Runs Out</em><br /><br />Description: Oil is a limited resource but is the basis of much ofour energy usage. What are we going to do as it becomes more expensiveand eventually runs out? Turn your bicycle into a dynamo to power yourphone or laptop?<br /><br />Language: English<br /><br />Track: Science and Space<br /><br />Moderator: Jetse de Vries<br /><br />Duration: 1:00 hrs:min<br /><br />All Participants: Chuck Cady, Jetse de Vries, Paul Kincaid, MichčleLaframboise, Richard Lynch, Paolo Bacigalupi.<br /><br />********************<br /><br />When: Sun 12:00 PM<br /><br />Location: Other<br /><br />Session ID: 1527<br /><br />Title: <em>Jetse de Vries Signing</em><br /><br />Description: Jetse de Vries Signing ehrm ... something.<br /><br />Language: English<br /><br />Track: Autographs<br /><br />Moderator: <not><br /><br />Duration: 12:30 hrs:min (this is what it literally says in the email I received from programming: I'll just assume that it's a typo and it'll take 00.30 hrs:min. Or they've mistaken me for J.K. Rowling...;-)<br /><br />All Participants: Jetse de Vries<br /><br />NOTE: from 8.00 PM onwards you have the Hugo Awards Ceremony, followed by the Hugo Losers Party (actually Hugo Nominees Party, but as a four-time loser 'Losers Party' just sounds better) and various other parties.<br /><br />NB: I understand from Jim Minz that the Baen party will also be on the Sunday night. There will be -- as ever -- no lack of booze.<br /><br /><p>********************</p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357929705297773506" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 334px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJW64f0JKNzVUYvR8O_KIQYZcI5RyUILQoU-mdBcBdwoRjp60ds11mdkDNE8WjZ6wWYDxy-KKYZGjJbFJCx0M-9GO3tWR6lvCTEG-7UFprt6wieocHQE6k_r0EjCQkAay4EfB6BZaKvKG8/s400/Montreal+Metro+Plan.jpg" border="0" /><strong>-->Monday August 10:</strong><br /><br /><p>The second pubcrawl.</p><p>Gasthering time: 1.00 PM</p><p>Gathering spot: <a href="http://www.fourquet-fourchette.com/site/en/montreal.html">Le Fourquet Fourchette </a>restaurant (which is located right in the Palais des Congrés).<br /></p><br /><p>As Jim has something scheduled at 6.00 PM, we intend to return before that time.</p><p>It's also much better to do this <em>before</em> the Dead Dog party, as then you can actually taste the great beers Montréal has to offer. After that it's Dead Dog time, and all will be well...;-)</p><p>Then I'll be flying back home on Tuesday August 11:</p><p>Flight from Montréal: </p><ul><li>Departure: Tuesday August 11 @ 18.25 hrs. with flight KL 0671;</li><li>Arrival: Wednesday August 12 @ 07.05 hrs (flying time approx. 6.40 hrs.)</li></ul><p>No rest for the wicked, as then I need to finalise the <em>Shine</em> ToC, and reminisce about SF plans for the future. Next Con will be World Fantasy in San Jose.</p></not></not>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-80839268332767376462009-07-13T08:24:00.016+01:002009-07-13T11:01:26.953+01:00A Travel Schedule, part 1In week 30, I will be visiting China in order to witness the July 22 total solar eclipse (which is the longest of this century!).<br /><br />My itinerary is as follows:<br /><br />Flight to Shanghai:<br /><ul><li>Departure: Saturday July 18 @ 18.20 hrs. with flight KL 0895</li><li>Arrival: Sunday July 18 @ 10.55 hrs. (flying time approx. 10.35 hrs.)</li></ul>As I understand from one of my colleagues at work, China is taking the swine flu (or Mexican flu) pandemic <em>very</em> seriously, and people will be scanned -- on the forehead -- with an infrared scanner in the plane, after it has landed (obviously) and before it is allowed to go to the gate. See the picture.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357845392963970130" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdmbLijDJrpNxnczJZlt9Zv1WHeeN2NMhyphenhyphenVRfTBUqkp_fher8RS-UUS05x-8VdZWxH74ZODANeVrZK-IHQ1dGG9QqNwJnRVz4qfheg718iFgGTcK9dUpMCjTnuBnih4brBTBRiicUM2OAK/s400/IMG_0836.JPG" border="0" /> <p></p><p>So I'm mentally preparing for an extra two hours on the ground before we can disembark.</p><p>Then it's off to the Crowne Plaza Century Park Hotel, where I will stay for two nights. I'll probably visit our company's Shanghai local headquarters on Monday.</p><p>Then on Tuesday, I'm travelling onward to Wuhan's Hangkou station by train (and a bullet train at that):</p><ul><li>July 21 -- Shanghai to Hangkou -- D3006 -- depart 14.06 hrs. -- arrive 18.59 hrs.</li></ul><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357878113921492498" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 385px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-QUg30rgJq3b3G6gOsbd68gvcOpeJ1q6S4ONI2E8ZvDuhGvXXtpTmfYJkQbKwDHx3-ZxOgjPHPFFAWMqH_A5V-pF6FaT98mQ0esyp6-pfS2TBKU4D3FT9PREqjvWHiFcmrijJFJ0XyuOW/s400/China+High+Speed+Rail.bmp" border="0" /> <p>In Wuhan I've booked the Yushang Business Hotel, as my fellow eclipse enthusiasts will be staying there, as well.</p><p>My eclipse friends have booked an organised trip through the geology department of the University of Utrecht, which lasts three weeks. I didn't book that trip because I will be going to <em><a href="http://www.anticipationsf.ca/English/Home">Anticipation</a></em> -- the Montréal WorldCon -- a week later, and I only have so many days off, and my budget only goes so far.</p><p>Anyway, reunion with friends on the Tuesday night, and then the next morning, on July 22, I hope to join the group when they set off, on 6 a.m., for a good location about 25 kilometres north of Wuhan. Climatologically speaking, this should be one of the best spots (with the lowest chance of cloud cover, which is still 61%, so it's going to be ) to observe the total solar eclipse.</p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357865281752911202" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 278px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii_zVvmSVep6DoKPHudYb7qz4t2Hb44z0bJXE-OeVos4-l_FPXhZounyewMEil26YFHmwSxAjbI8bVOJKGGLv86ku0EOlFCXgWsqV5PUv-9QpLPCyPEU1IAvEzj0lUhgjCLAmqeDa4tCxx/s400/Total+Solar+Eclipse+2008+Novosibirsk.jpg" border="0" />(NB: this is the one from last year in Novosibirsk.)<br /><br /><p>Here's the <a href="http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2009Jul22Tgoogle.html">interactive map</a> of the July 22, 2009 solar eclipse (courtesy of NASA). The centre line of totality goes straight over the Wuhan Tianhe Airport, and the place where we will -- probably, as I don't know the exact location -- be has the following data re. the total eclipse:</p><p>Lat.: 30.7837° N; Long.: 114.3165° E</p><p>Total Solar Eclipse; Duration of Totality: 5m29.1s Magnitude: 1.037</p><p>Event ----------------------- Date ------- Time (UT) - Alt -- Azi</p><p>Partial eclipse start(C1) : 2009/07/22 00:15:01.4 032.4° 084.3°</p><p>Total eclipse start (C2) : -2009/07/22 01:24:02.4 047.2° 092.9°</p><p>Maximum eclipse : --------2009/07/22 01:26:46.4 047.8° 093.3° </p><p>Total eclipse end (C3) : --2009/07/22 01:29:31.5 048.4° 093.7°</p><p>Partial eclipse end (C4) : 2009/07/22 02:46:17.5 064.6° 108.3°</p><p>Since this is all in UT (Universal Time, then -- <a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converted.html?day=22&month=7&year=2009&hour=1&min=25&sec=0&p1=0&p2=665">according to the Time Zone Converter</a> -- we need to add 8 hours for CHina time, so totality will start at 09.24.02 hrs local time, and end at 09.29.31 local time.<br /><br />Or, in solar eclipse geek parlance: First Contact @ 08.15.01 local time; Second Contact @ 09.24.02; Third Contact @ 09.29.31; and Fourth Contact @ 10.46.17.</p><p>After which we will return to Wuhan and then either celebrate a successful observation, or drown our sorrows if the event was obscured by clouds. There will be beer, nevertheless.</p><p>Then the Uni of Utrecht groep will fly onwards to Guilin in the evening: I will stay one more night in Wuhan. The enxt day I'll be going back to Shanghai:</p><ul><li>July 23 -- Hangkou to Shanghai -- D3016 -- depart 11.23 hrs. -- arrive 16.16 hrs.</li></ul><p>Of course, I could have taken a flight from Shanghai to Wuhan and back, but I hope to see a bit more of China in the train, and a five hour train trip is just about the right length. Another, although unplanned, advantage is that the Yushang Business Hotel in Wuhan is literally a stone's throw away from the Hangkou railway station. This is a lucky coincidence (I would've booked the same hotel as where my eclips friends would be staying, irrespective of location in Wuhan).</p><p>Then, on Thursday late afternoon I'm back in Shanghai.</p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357878777872731234" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 352px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk5JMReUg0OnZrm5cq3gD-WvMdZUhGILxJLL6s2tnbTOuRnhWB243Pzx1VSSBLUUPPuiqFvJ-CW7EPUsOXmWaK0zFq-XfUmAE6BnhSiEKfl_2WsS4tTdeq3FfDkJtJFSnLxwrdCVzu55Jw/s400/shanghai_pudong-1.jpg" border="0" /> <p>The Friday morning and afternoon are free for sightseeing: in the evening the plan is to have dinner and drinks (plenty of drinks) with a couple of Dutch expatriates, who know the good places in Shanghai.</p><p>Then Saturday -- with or without hangover -- is the trip back home:</p><p>Flight from Shanghai: </p><ul><li>Departure: Saturday July 25 @ 12.50 hrs. with flight KL 0896</li><li>Arrival: Saturday July 25 @ 18.55 hrs. (flying time approx. 11.45 hrs.)</li></ul><p>Which then gives me the Sunday to recover as I am expected back on the day job on the Monday. Then one week of work, and onwards to Montréal (of which more in the next post). Last year, I had only two days between returning from Novosibirsk and travelling onwards to Denvention. Now, it's ten days, so maybe I'll be more coherent on the first day in Canada...;-).</p>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-36981468634631151992009-04-28T09:26:00.014+01:002009-06-09T14:17:29.817+01:00Miscellaneous Writing Updatery<p>With all the things I'm doing for the <a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/"><em>Shine</em> anthology</a>, my own SF writing gets buried under (much in the same manner as it did when I was still part of the <em>Interzone</em> team).</p><p></p><p>I do have two new stories ready, but I either run them through the critiquing gamut, or let them age a bit (like wine or cheese), before I send them out. So this update is about reprints.<br /></p><br /><br />For one, “Cultural Clashes in Cádiz” – originally in <em>The Amityville House of Pancakes, vol. 1</em> (officially out of print, although you can snag up a hardcopy [used and even a ‘new’ one] at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Amityville-House-Pancakes-Omnibus-1/dp/1894953266">Amazon US</a> – I notice that the ‘new’ one goes for $36.99 and the used from $6.52 and up – <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1894953266/202-7191856-6127031">Amazon UK</a> – where one ‘new’ one goes for £8.95 [the other for £51.94, which is insane] and the used for £40.71, what the heck? – Amazon Canada – ‘new’ one for C$62.24, used ones from C$25.95 through C$66.56 , which is also madness – while <em><a href="http://www.clarkesworldbooks.com/book_1894953266.html">Clarkesworld Books</a></em> discounts it to $9.00 [the shop's only temporarily re-opened, and you have to buy for $35 minimum], <a href="http://shocklines.stores.yahoo.net/amhoofpabbyp.html">Shocklines</a> has it for $13.95, and the <a href="http://genremall.com/creativeguypublishing.htm">Genremall</a> has it for $13.35. Finally, an electronic version at <a href="http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/eBook24150.htm">Fictionwise</a>) – and now reprinted in <em><a href="http://www.zcbooks.ca/5073.html">A Mosque Among the Stars</a></em> (hardcopy via <a href="http://www.zcbooks.ca/5073.html">ZC Books</a>, kindle edition via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/A-Mosque-Among-the-Stars/dp/B0027P87LU">Amazon US</a>), is getting some decidedly good reviews:<br /><br /><ul><li>Annie at <em><a href="http://annieworld.livejournal.com/7394.html">Annieworld</a></em> was somewhat confused by it at first, thrown off by the name Leonard, but eventually “So the real reason for the actions of Leonard caught me by surprise and I loved it. It is probably one of the best stories.” (of the anthology);<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329680636797044370" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 339px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5BiI-4YZXiYkE7rs002laBvhwcsvxih2kG4Glrc49YEocbD3JI0A47aR-Xd6O3FYwhzbx9Q6GMJvUEn5y4jSyRkeKNusUtUfwQtElqK8Vtx2pdtwY_jqid1FrYxWwrFSFHV8EGLzkVbzE/s400/Cadiz+carnaval.bmp" border="0" /></li><li>Berrien C Henderson, <a href="http://selfavowedgeek.livejournal.com/">the self avowed geek</a>, wrote in his <a href="http://selfavowedgeek.livejournal.com/97300.html">LJ review</a> of <em>A Mosque Among the Stars</em>: “My hands-down favorite was the time-travel adventure, “Cultural Clashes in Cadiz,” by Jetse de Vries. He handles multiple settings and points of view quite well and weaves them together for a satisfying conclusion with a bit of a twist I thought I would’ve seen coming and didn’t, so my hat’s off to Jetse for the pleasant surprise.”;<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329700083665005490" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn-o_5eCmaEk0NVi3_mSkSGSsuxhHO4kRbUYoytyEX7O6dNG0WGLWguNIVJkNv60yFeIYbGrxxcyLjMb9UtFn-gHYH__a40UH4_N1s6jVUgcDGNpLa25Wmii-rWdk6znfPOZD1sDQ7uGIs/s400/carnaval_cadiz.jpg" border="0" /></li><li>And Francesca Forrest – on LJ as <a href="http://asakiyume.livejournal.com/">Asakiyume Mita</a> – was also very complinetary (while pointing out errors-cum-characteristics: “The language in this one is over the top, sometimes hilariously anachronistic”) in her <a href="http://asakiyume.livejournal.com/268475.html">LJ review</a>: “The story is full of heart. It’s exuberant, hilarious, and underneath it all, moving.”;<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329679941967651410" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 290px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1sdqr12X5sAQoZ0pILCFrt_lc_FBoah_Jjyn4GYG4lFhsc74i9sRO5VbUInj04Kcd6COTOVtpr0isFgUbE3BQr_LuQjq0O-IFL_-fm5BU7yxMbCv5zH0jIXOnlKIfAZSh3vAkmdPNxxBr/s400/Carnaval.JPG" border="0" /></li></ul><p>However, before my head swells to dangerous proportions, there are also reviews that either don’t mention it (<a href="http://sfgospel.typepad.com/sf_gospel/">SF Gospel</a>’s Gabriel McKee’s <a href="http://sfgospel.typepad.com/sf_gospel/2009/04/the-message-of-a-mosque-among-the-stars.html">review</a> [maybe it was one of the problematic ones: “There’s a thread running through the anthology, and it’s tough to tell how problematic it is. Many of the stories deal with terrorism, war, and the clash of civilizations.”, however “The important thing, and what the editors have striven for, is that these stories address the questions of terrorism and war without demonizing the innocent along with the guilty. It’s an important message, and this anthology delivers it well. ”], or Susie Hawes at <a href="http://ghostposts.blogspot.com/2009/03/mosque-among-stars-edited-by-muhammad.html">Ghostposts</a> [“The rest of the stories are wonderfully written, with tight plotting, sympathetic characterization and close attention to internal logic. The settings are descriptive. The suspense is chilling.”], or <a href="http://ilmalinsaan.blogspot.com/">‘ilm al-insaan</a>’s <a href="http://ilmalinsaan.blogspot.com/2009/04/islamic-sci-fi.html">review</a> [where it was probably one of the problematic ones, as well: “My problems with the volume included a definite sense that readers are still encountering the “Islamic” aspects from the position of outsiders, Western, non-Muslim outsiders. The authors are primarily non-Muslim, and there was a tendency in some of the stories to exoticize the Muslim Other.”), or that don’t like it (I honestly couldn't find one in the <em>A Mosque Among the Stars</em> reviews, although there were a few in the <em>Amityville House of Pancakes, vol 1</em> reviews).<br /><br />While “Cultural Clashes in Cádiz” is enjoying its second wind, “Random Acts of Cosmic Whimsy” has just had its third publication, albeit as a translation in the latest issue of <em>Galaxies</em> magazine. The story's first appearance was in <em>DeathGrip: Exit Laughing</em> under the title “The Ultimate Coincidence” (after which <em>Hellbound Books</em>, the publishers, immediately called it a day. The anthology is <a href="http://shocklines.stores.yahoo.net/deexlabbywah.html">for sale at Shocklines</a> for $3, though), back in November, 2005.</p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329735951026305762" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 259px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6A_wK2G2SWKUnoQZ1CgB6-W8QpRgsGbq1gh5vOqiq9EesNSDo9-piFu8xQcfOUEumKDi6aDW2NcVFhCfD-Zen1pM4ai6LwebZyQJ4ag-cJ0g4_x-8rho1bF_0EcJ44PX3yNNbDS7OcEXp/s400/Galaxies+3-picture.jpg" border="0" /> <p>Then a rewritten and retitled version called “<a href="http://www.flurb.net/6/6devries.htm">Random Acts of Cosmic Whimsy</a>” appeared in <a href="http://www.flurb.net/6/index6.html"><em>FLURB </em>#6</a> in September 2008<em>.</em> The translated version of that version has just appeared in <em><a href="http://monsite.orange.fr/galaxies-sf/">Galaxies</a></em> (according to the <a href="http://monsite.orange.fr/galaxies-sf/page1.html">Table of Contents</a> it’s French title is “Exemples aléatoires de fantaisie cosmique”, which is something like “Random Examples of Cosmic Imagination”, if Babelfish is on the money). And my name’s on the cover, so I’m quite chuffed.</p><p>And there’s another appearance in the works – at least, I hope that’s still the case – on which more <em>if</em> and <em>when</em> it appears.</p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329745557403727554" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 264px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC8p-TU3u02sJkTsi6NykGYuX6f5M_5gJqti9E1VK95zH79tqtkbdC-lL0FuqP3nqvSuw5qxB2fuc2WU_4NLbUAMquTooChXuuCS9FEJwlA8AOUZ9QMTqSdb9rtk70Z6XK9Xu0NvyuRkPo/s400/Apex+Book+of+World+SF.jpg" border="0" /> <p></p><p>Finally, “Transcendence Express” is heading for its fourth appearance (first as lead story in <em>HUB #2</em>, the last print version of the magazine: there’s a dangerous pattern appearing here; then as an electronic incarantion in <em><a href="http://www.hubfiction.com/archive/">HUB #44</a></em> [no direct link yet as content is moved over from the old HUB website]; and <em><a href="http://escapepod.org/">Escape Pod</a></em> podcast <a href="http://escapepod.org/2007/09/06/ep122-transcendence-express/">EP #122</a>) in <em><a href="http://worldsf.livejournal.com/5528.html">The Apex Book of World SF</a></em>, edited by <a href="http://www.lavietidhar.co.uk/">Lavie Tidhar</a>, and planned for a September 1 2009, but already <a href="http://www.apexbookcompany.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=86">available as a pre-order</a>.</p><p>Also in this case there was a fifth appearance planned, but since it’s been <em>very</em> quiet about that one, I suspect it fell through. Anyway, so far I can’t complain.</p><p>(Note: edited to correct that Berrien Henderson is a he, not a she)</p>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-26378182241718780152009-04-23T21:38:00.010+01:002009-04-23T22:05:08.691+01:00Prologues in SF<span style="font-size:100%;">This is actually an answer to the "<a href="http://neilwilliamson.wordpress.com/2009/04/23/a-bit-previous/#comments">A Bit Previous</a>" post by <a href="http://neilwilliamson.wordpress.com/">Neil Williamson</a>, which was triggered by a Twitter discussion after <a href="http://www.garethlpowell.com/">Gareth Lyn Powell</a> made the seemingly innocuous remark "I can haz prologue".<br /><br />The general sentiment, it seems, is <span style="font-style: italic;">against</span> the (use of the) prologue. Here's my defense of it:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">As I already mentioned on </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Twitter, prologues are like highly dominant spices in a dish: they can work if used with mastery and restraint, and if they add someting essential to the whole.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Three types (from the top of my head):</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">1) Essential pre-info dumping.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">In this, a previous event that — like the famed ‘wings o</span><span style="font-size:100%;">f the butterfly’ — sets off a much larger event. The much larger event is the novel, the much smaller event that initiated the storm is the prologue.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHn_bags0IkK0XN2TWPAH3us3b-qQoAwqEL2BSI0vExxRDXm1So6v70nf4rtta1i2sEzydSEwctbb5U8Hj4EpsUHsA0eNeHJk-Avm7QnPTeqS6JySjcpwr2TO9mzQ52e3guHgBZvuciuVU/s1600-h/Schild's+Ladder.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 260px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHn_bags0IkK0XN2TWPAH3us3b-qQoAwqEL2BSI0vExxRDXm1So6v70nf4rtta1i2sEzydSEwctbb5U8Hj4EpsUHsA0eNeHJk-Avm7QnPTeqS6JySjcpwr2TO9mzQ52e3guHgBZvuciuVU/s400/Schild's+Ladder.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327992684888392802" border="0" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Example: Schild’s Ladder by </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Greg Egan. Part one of that book is nothing but a prologue; that is: the experiment that triggered a Universe-wide change of reality. The experiment in the prologue is about probing reality at its deepest core — like Fermilab and Cern are doing, but then on a much grander scale. This experiment focusses immense energies at a very small scale, and triggers a change of the ‘normal’ vacuum state, something the researcher in the prologue didn’t expect.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">However, once a quantum of the vacuum turns into ‘novo-v</span><span style="font-size:100%;">acuum’, this releases enough energy to transform nearby vacua as well, and a chain reaction ensues: reality changing from state 1 to state 2 at about half the speed of light.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The researcher and her team don’t survive the experiment (are simply transformed/absorbed by the novo-vacuum), so can’t be used as a flashback/infodump latter on in the story.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">The rest of the novel is about how the novo-vaccuum expands from the initial site of the </span><span style="font-size:100%;">experiment — a sphere expanding at half lightspeed — and how some people eventually find that — while it transforms ‘normal’ space, ‘eating up’ planets settled by humans — this might not be a bad thing after all, as they discover that the novo-vacuum might be *richer* than normal space. However, for deeper emotional richness and involvement it is essential that the reader knows that the onruishing novo-vacuum is not a freak event, but something initiated by scientific curiosity, giving the novel a richer moral ambiguity.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Schild’s Ladder is probably the most extreme hard SF novel ever written, and possibly the one’s that least understood. I consider it Egan’s absolute masterpiece, the most extreme extrapolation of hard SF to date.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">And it wouldn’t have worked without the prologue (even if it’s called ‘part 1′: it stands completely apart from the rest of the novel, so is the perfect definition of a prologue).</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">2) Superb scene-setting without giving anything essential away (that almost the antidote of </span><span style="font-size:100%;">example 1).</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">This is even harder to do: the only example that comes to mind right now (and I’m almost certain that next week or next month, when this discussion is forgotten, several better ones will come up) is Ian McDonald’s Brasyl.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBVnLweQYZuv5kt7xl5DqnhAPh0HgFhDaKW8zYSuvQJD3gQKaJU95Q9kqUHkZ-fO7Goqq10rm6-rDK3EyGFNukzsMcCxT6ryj03MGNnSdcPKYSRP6mJVss7u5pqaw5KXrW0OxSUbVveSwf/s1600-h/brasyl.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 260px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBVnLweQYZuv5kt7xl5DqnhAPh0HgFhDaKW8zYSuvQJD3gQKaJU95Q9kqUHkZ-fO7Goqq10rm6-rDK3EyGFNukzsMcCxT6ryj03MGNnSdcPKYSRP6mJVss7u5pqaw5KXrW0OxSUbVveSwf/s400/brasyl.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327993133562514418" border="0" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I know, Our Lady of Production Values is presented as a first chapter rather than a prologue, but its first three ’slices of Brazil’ — present, future and past — work phenomenally well as three separate prologues into the complex multiverse that is ‘Brasyl’.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">(Warning: music analogy coming): It’s akin to the way that ‘Prelude to </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Madness’ — which is a very heavy version of the Grieg original — is used as an prelude (musical prologue) of Savatage’s “Hall of the Mountain King” (which is the original title — albeit in Norwegian — of Grieg’s composition. It sets the stage for the main song, the whole atmosphere while also, in a way, is quite different from it. It paves the way without giving too much away, and both the prelude and the main song are more than the sum of the separate parts.</span><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr36Nsj_aRdhowyZoG4rb5j7pJDgM-1dOPJGeowUe2bYI8cDHrscNMSLlSzwTcZJBb00haXqMzx3mSzeeW-UDjTmHUqykF-2ZNO8huevTKJ-j04unzKDmzrogmCYaWRKEH9PL1Vx7VbRQu/s1600-h/Hall+of+the+Mountain+King.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr36Nsj_aRdhowyZoG4rb5j7pJDgM-1dOPJGeowUe2bYI8cDHrscNMSLlSzwTcZJBb00haXqMzx3mSzeeW-UDjTmHUqykF-2ZNO8huevTKJ-j04unzKDmzrogmCYaWRKEH9PL1Vx7VbRQu/s200/Hall+of+the+Mountain+King.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327995305057624466" border="0" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">3) Both an essential pre-info dump that does give something essential away *and* a superb scene-setting that doesn’t give everything away.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">This one is the hardest to do.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisHaQmTgHJ8WxeFJm6j_F0H63KtNL6lE-k86HDdunm0_XDcsB7KJGcGHN9Dngr78ZFLxfTP5PYTKXOuAeG2dZTG2xSL_yW0jUQvh9l4twDUlvXnu0ypvLdtNOkxxc0HCkpk0K9_GoBzhnU/s1600-h/Shadow+of+the+Wind.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisHaQmTgHJ8WxeFJm6j_F0H63KtNL6lE-k86HDdunm0_XDcsB7KJGcGHN9Dngr78ZFLxfTP5PYTKXOuAeG2dZTG2xSL_yW0jUQvh9l4twDUlvXnu0ypvLdtNOkxxc0HCkpk0K9_GoBzhnU/s400/Shadow+of+the+Wind.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327993534559089026" border="0" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">For this, check out The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. This is probably one of the most perfect prologues ever written: the protagonist tells how — when he was still very young — he was taken into the ‘Cemetery of Forgotten Books’ by his father, and had to make a life-changing choice by selecting one book (which was, obviously, The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax). This foreshadows everything while giving almost nothing away. It makes you want to read this, no matter what. And the novel delivers in spades.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Maybe it’s more like an overture (warning: musical analogy coming up) than a prelude: it contains the seeds of everything to come while not telling the whole story. Like the ‘Overture’ of 2112 by Rush.</span><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><span><span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 23px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;font-family:georgia;font-size:14;" ><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Qjf-fYvfSuTdgkVh7mfoGMUcnud9vY_FPG3OCh274rmdJZpS6I8cTYASPeSW3pKji7Olkma0_n1xBhKHD_mdC1J3S9OU6xKE7tg-JBac-LBnhC6jAog3LyMJJ1igvyGoH4fAVvLInUZq/s1600-h/21%6012.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8Qjf-fYvfSuTdgkVh7mfoGMUcnud9vY_FPG3OCh274rmdJZpS6I8cTYASPeSW3pKji7Olkma0_n1xBhKHD_mdC1J3S9OU6xKE7tg-JBac-LBnhC6jAog3LyMJJ1igvyGoH4fAVvLInUZq/s200/21%6012.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327994898897859042" border="0" /></a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">I know that anybody can give countless examples of prologues that are total failures, and I gladly concede that the utmost majority are.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">However, that is the same as saying that </span><span style="text-decoration: underline;font-size:100%;" >'</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_consciousness_%28narrative_mode%29">stream-of-consciousness</a>’ writing can never work. Indeed, it almost never does. However, you have novels like ‘Ulysses’ and ‘Finnegan’s Wake’ (the obvious English-language examples: there are Russian & French predecessors and many international and English-language successors to this style of writing).</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">In science, the single successful experiment leads to a new, breakthrough theory that eventually gets general acknowledgement (and acknowledges the necessity of the </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >failed</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> experiments, as well, as these showed how it </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >shouldn’t</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> be done). In SF writing though, it seems that more often than not people prefer to discard the rare but spectacularly successful experiments on the basis of all the failed ones.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size:100%;">That, I am arguing, is fatally wrong and will help make SF irrelevant.</span></p></span></span>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-32325676196376045072009-04-08T11:52:00.003+01:002009-04-08T12:32:56.338+01:00EasterCon: LX 2009I will be attending EasterCon in Bradford. I hope to see many of you there: both the ones I already know, and new people (happy to meet you!).<br /><br />I will be on the following programme items:<br /><br /><em>Friday April 10:</em><br /><br /><strong>SF music in popular culture</strong> : War of the Worlds to Rocky Horror<br />Fri 19:00 Hawthorn<br />Persephone Hazard (moderator)<br />Mike Cobley<br />Jetse de Vries<br />Neil Williamson<br /><br /><em>Sunday April 12:</em><br /><br /><strong>"Near-future, optimistic SF"</strong>: "Two impossibilities, or something we can pull off?"<br />Sun 19:00 Hawthorn<br />Jetse de Vries (moderator)<br />Chris Beckett<br />Jaine Fenn<br />Charlie Stross<br />Tony Ballantyne<br /><br /><strong>"Writers, artists and fans discuss their musical inspiration"</strong><br />Sun 20:00 Sycamore<br />Persephone Hazard (moderator)<br />Mike Cobley<br />Paul McAuley<br />Jetse de Vries<br />Alastair Reynolds<br /><br /><strong>E-Books - are they the future?</strong> Ebook readers are being sold in high street stores. Has the timefinally come for them to achieve mainstream popularity?<br />Sun 22:00 Hawthorn<br />Alex Ingram (moderator)<br />Mike Scott<br />Lee Harris<br />Jetse de Vries<br /><br />Monday April 13:<br /><br /><strong>Hugo nominations panel</strong>: "The nominations for the 2009 Hugo awards have been released - what do we think? What are the surprises, and what are the notable omissions?"<br />Mon 11:00 Boardroom<br />Pauline Morgan (moderator)<br />Mike Scott<br />Penny Hill<br />Shana Worthen<br />Jetse de Vries<br /><br />So my Sunday evening schedule is quite full, but luckily I will have time enough on Saturday to check out a few book launches (especially the <em>Future Bristol</em> anthology), the BSFA Awards, the Symphony Orchestra, the dealer's room, and other programme items.<br /><br />There's even a beer tasting Saturday at 21.00!<br /><br />Hope to see many of you this coming weekend!Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-19105409814054115872009-03-24T13:17:00.006+00:002009-03-24T16:49:03.631+00:00Ada Lovelace Day: Ingrid DaubechiesIn honour of Ada Lovelace Day, I thought that I'd try to highlight a woman in science from my home country, The Netherlands. To be honest, I couldn't think of one, and also couldn't find a high profile one. This may very well be because I don't know enough, or because I didn't search enough, and do please feel free to correct me, as I sincerely would like to know.<br /><br />So I moved my focus to our southern neighbours, and found a great example of a high profile female scientist: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Daubechies">Ingrid Daubechies</a>.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316754634096041282" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 400px; height: 300px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirhOqGREikVpSBbL-acOZMaTkjiOODzqoXqc8vdd06rmELht4kPVXRKmJWT7aLN4rgaLp4QBys4unpCNDo2wylxffLkz0sWYZsdy00-6qukT5zXsQ0ZGtRckhQOpVXX9Ew-qoZgHHq7JSG/s400/Ingrid+Debauchies.bmp" border="0" />Her accomplishments are staggering: while she's mainly known in the field for her <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daubechies_wavelet">Daubechies wavelets</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohen-Daubechies-Feauveau_wavelet">CDF wavelet</a> (Cohen-Daubechies-Feauveau wavelets, of which one family is famously used in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG_2000">JPEG 2000</a> compression), she has a Ph. D. in theoretical physics, was the first female full professor of Mathematics at Princeton -- where, <a href="http://www.pacm.princeton.edu/%7Eingrid/">I suppose</a>, she still works today -- and has won a veritable slew of awards:<br /><ul><li><a class="new" title="Louis Empain Prize (page does not exist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Louis_Empain_Prize&action=edit&redlink=1">Louis Empain Prize</a> for Physics (1984) </li><br /><li><a class="mw-redirect" title="Leroy P. Steele Prizes" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leroy_P._Steele_Prizes">Steele Prize for Mathematical Exposition</a> (1994) </li><br /><li><a class="new" title="Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics (page does not exist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ruth_Lyttle_Satter_Prize_in_Mathematics&action=edit&redlink=1">Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics</a> (1997) </li><br /><li><a class="new" title="IEEE Information Theory Society (page does not exist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=IEEE_Information_Theory_Society&action=edit&redlink=1">IEEE Information Theory Society</a> Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation (1998) </li><br /><li>Fellow of the <a title="Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Electrical_and_Electronics_Engineers">Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers</a> (IEEE) (1998) </li></ul><ul><li><a class="new" title="NAS Award in Mathematics (page does not exist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=NAS_Award_in_Mathematics&action=edit&redlink=1">NAS Award in Mathematics</a> (2000) </li><br /><li><a class="mw-redirect" title="Noether Lecturer" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noether_Lecturer">Noether Lecturer</a> (2006) </li></ul><p>As wikipedia notes:<br /></p><blockquote><p>In 2000 Daubechies became the first woman to receive the National Academy of<br />Sciences (NAS) Award in Mathematics, presented every 4 years for excellence in<br />published mathematical research. The award honored her "for fundamental<br />discoveries on wavelets and wavelet expansions and for her role in making<br />wavelets methods a practical basic tool of applied mathematics."</p></blockquote>I must apologise for not researching this further: typically, I made the pledge and on the day itself I find myself extremely busy. I may extend this post tomorrow.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE:</span> there's a saying in Holland that goes: 'It's as if the Devil's playing with it'. Anyway, in a clash of synchronicity -- see me mentioning above that I couldn't come up with clear examples of Dutch women strong in science or technology -- Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant has an article about Suzan de Haan, who is the only female operations manager in charge of a drilling platform in the Dutch part of the North Sea offshore industry.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik34TgJNSSS3eo7M7FxGUJvrnaF-UBkMxSZePWT9NCP2BoLl-HbewcpWBaRx17Ze4shQmTZ6xVwnUAB6r3br52YV11caoV3C7_0Ap810EN9KjlSoxH4c04ZhZCM8j70yvXxbuCd3XVHepR/s1600-h/boor_148111n.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik34TgJNSSS3eo7M7FxGUJvrnaF-UBkMxSZePWT9NCP2BoLl-HbewcpWBaRx17Ze4shQmTZ6xVwnUAB6r3br52YV11caoV3C7_0Ap810EN9KjlSoxH4c04ZhZCM8j70yvXxbuCd3XVHepR/s400/boor_148111n.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316796457104346226" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.volkskrant.nl/economie/article1169200.ece/Vrouw_is_de_baas_op_gasplatform">Article here</a> (in Dutch). I'll translate some parts tomorrow as I'm running out of time today. But hey: I'm proud of Suzan de Haan, as this is a part of technology in which my day job is also closely related (we provide propulsion installations for such platforms), so I know how difficult her job is. Hat's off!Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-27542508453799965782009-03-24T10:13:00.011+00:002009-03-24T13:16:43.387+00:00Carousel Gig in the Willem 2Sunday March 15 the so-called Blisstrain tour had their final gig in de Willem 2 in Den Bosch.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316697265490682882" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 352px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitj4zzjbHC296LGUWYYCFDScS7PAz-3_MwlyA86_TNvkhGYylsiO1Y73nFMIQW7USSZjcC6_I0D59SXvwq3vM_lzYIXB5enL2NT2a3t70fR4JFz3N2IyGG2ua5OYBYgxHFZJXu2jKHHE8q/s400/Bliss09webflyer_kl.jpg" border="0" />Line up: <a href="http://www.myspace.com/theantikaroshi">The Antikaroshi</a>, <a href="http://www.myspace.com/ostinatospace">Ostinato</a>, <a href="http://www.myspace.com/bulbulshit">Bulbul</a>, <a href="http://www.myspace.com/beehoover">Beehover</a> and <a href="http://www.myspace.com/weinsistband">We Insist!</a>. The whole show consisted of the bands playing in a kind of 'carousel': one band would start to play, members of other bands would join in at some points, and near the end of their playing time members of the next band would join in until they took over, and the next band was on. And so on throughout the gig.<br /><br />Thus, the band I was most interested in seeing -- The Antikaroshi -- started the 'Blisstrain'. Actually, the guitar player/singer of Beehover was joining in as an extra vocalist, sitting on his knees, shouting through a megaphone. May sound strange, but it worked.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316706714956792370" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 167px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWemAse-KtYtexzevjw-ebOyadDd5GInVgAPTbAEK_z0heQM1Vh7HhDuuTgviFQqZNvVOBD1BODHqdv_AZr1Igbe5Ie62_Kl2EL-9O5A0PAPcw3-QP97Jpjb8bIy-4sigg-Bc0fVJDnPsQ/s400/ANTIK-1579-02.jpg" border="0" /><br />After that first song, it was mostly 'pure' Antikaroshi (the violin player of Bulbul joined them during one song, and a guitar player from another band during another: I'm not sure which one): a very good band, and they played most of <em>Crushed Neocons</em>, with verve. Since I wasn't very familiar with them (I bought <em>Crushed Neocons</em> at the gig, and had only listened to some of their songs on <a href="http://www.myspace.com/theantikaroshi">their MySpace page</a>), I had some cognitive dissonance. For example, at the gig I heared the one singe line of "Fes" as:<br /><br />"There are so many drugs around. I need them bad, bad, bad."<br /><br />While on closer listening at home it's obviously:<br /><br />"There are so many dogs around. I hear them bark, bark, bark."<br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316732213796634274" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 216px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjILlPOaRF5rYk6dyBx-wtr1syCu8Cz6rNDaBo17MRGffBMoxdyT1Qm3ojWbrTWke_ShmUzc7vSGs-F1ge7nyluTFgycePVWcyGJmQDzWNqA-EJvaO9yGjkkgohBN8aL30F5x1qWsYMdOQw/s400/antikaroshi-crushed-neocons.jpg" border="0" /> I leave further conclusions to the Freudians amongst you. When the drummer of two-piece band Beehover joined in, the end of the Antikaroshi's set was near. I really like them: Fugazi is an obvious influence, although for my money the Antikaroshi are more freestyle, while at the same time more tight. Great musicians.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316733363750971378" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHP9Ib1rzD2Y9cloYUqjPpyPOxPAepFrri43i8dN1TqqKu1VN1MMlqdpXFlk_RC1vsh3v6rCt1njHol65h7IEqAo2fP2bsYyG2mcDNUUaZFJqIZXAKcmX-2RQPzJoiXnabyzirTNeWs1Uw/s400/Beehoover_Live.jpg" border="0" /> <a href="http://www.beehoover.com/news.html">Beehover</a> was a nice surprise: they're a two piece (and read why on <a href="http://www.beehoover.com/biography.html">their biography</a>) band, very tight and with a highly distinct sound. The guitar player -- as far as I could see -- uses a five string bass, of which he has stringed only the bottom four strings. The result is a sound that hangs somewhere between bass and guitar: sometimes you hear Lemmy, sometimes Kyuss, sometimes dirty rock'n'roll, sometimes stoner rock.<br /><br />My friend Vincent and I loved them, and I bought their latest album <em>Heavy Zoo</em> after the gig. Then, instead of the next band, there was an unexpected break -- it must have been unexpected, because the DJ Bidi, who was talking backstage, had to run to get the music started.<br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316733748032523666" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 146px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 146px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Etj-qvwSDJCPAT4VhhEHTqluWt77fxIYhYrmETgtL-HRUevg189ZR9qJNHaFak3UxgPVsS_Jwhg9iQx93F0zAOoWWtoB1GNt-kQR73XJnk6mLb9T4H3mQFmm9vv3wgXCZdjgPu5xDgOl/s400/zooo_small.jpg" border="0" /> Check out pictures of the show, made by the venue's volunteers, <a href="http://www.w2.nl/index.cfm?art_id=30&iMonth=03&iYear=2009&idPlayDates=464">here</a>.<br /><br />After the break Bulbul and Ostinato played, but neither made much of an impression on me. This is mostly a matter of taste: both bands are fine, they're just not for me.<br /><br />The evening ended with the highly alternative French rockers of <a href="http://www.weinsist.com/">We Insist!</a> A weird band whose music was all over the place. The drummer looked like a cross between Phil Lynott and John Holmes, and especially his leopard skin shirt was beyond kitsch.<br /><br />Maybe by that time I had too much, or my mood had shifted, but I found them a bit too freaky. YMMV, as always.<br /><br />Apart from the usual merchandise (T-shirts, CDs, etc), Blisstrain provided a USB-stick with footage from the show, recorded that very day. I bought it, and love the idea!<br /><br />This is the way small venues like Willem 2 and small labels like <a href="http://www.mainstreamrecords.de/">Exile on Mainstream Records </a>make a difference: memory sticks with footage of the show you just visited, pictures both by volunteers and by visitors (if they supply them) of the same gig after that show: see above): a use of new media to good effect. Much fresher than the old go to the gig, no photos allowed and buy the overpriced merchandise tours of much bigger bands.<br /><br />That Sunday I spent half the money (than I would have on a show of a 'bigger' band) and got more than twice the fun.Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-20043849313932270772009-01-10T11:48:00.002+00:002009-01-10T12:34:16.824+00:00Why Postal Companies Are Going Down the DrainWarning: rant!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Today I sent off an MS of 60 pages to the USA. Since that weighed over 200 grams, I had to pay 10.45 euros for the privilege. The economy option for post outside the EU has been discarded: it's either the priority rate or nothing. This is insane: I will now endeavor to send MSs only through email (even more than I already did).<br /><br />Then I wanted to send a small envelope of business mail to the UK. Not only has the economy option for that been dropped, as well, but you must buy a minimum of 5 stamps, as of January 1. I only <span style="font-style: italic;">need</span> one stamp, not five. Also, years ago postage rates would remain the same for years on end. Now the rates are increased <span style="font-style: italic;">every</span> year, so those other four stamps will be useless if I don't use them before the end of the year.<br /><br />The lady at the post office had already put the 5-stamp package in front of me, expecting I would accept that kind of policy without question. This sort of monopolist shenanigans makes my blood boil, and in turn my stubbornness goes to 11 (on a scale of 10).<br /><br />So fuck that: I've sent it off with two old stamps I still had who together were worth more than the priority rate. On top of that, I'll scan the signed contract at the day job next Monday, and email it. I will try my damnedest to do as much of my correspondence over email (if possible *all* correspondence).<br /><br />Thus, large national postal companies (I understand that the Royal Mail and USPS are just as bad) will continue to lose small customers (yes: citizens like you and me) through their insiduous ways of charging outrageously, and will end up mostly servicing large customers that send of mail in bulk, and thus get good discounts.<br /><br />However, there are already many private companies doing that, and since these offer cut-throat rates (for bulk shipments only: just try to send a single package through a private mail company, and watch the price) in combination with horrible service (and I've seen quite some rants aimed at UPS, DHL and FedEx in the blogosphere), that is the way the national mail companies will go.<br /><br />And indeed, Dutch TNT Post (already partly privatised) has already announced job cuts for the upcoming five years, even if they continue to make a profit. You see, they have to *continue* to make a profit, as they're not a fully national comany anymore. So they increasingly focus on the commercial market, and keep increasing the prices for small customers.<br /><br />SF magazines are one of those 'small' customers: sending out a few thousand (let alone a few hundred) is not enough to get a bulk discount. So the postal rates for them go up, considerably, as well. Therefore, SF fiction print magazines are doomed (or more doomed than they already were): mailing costs will go up, and sending the magazines through commercial companies is even more expensive. In the abscence of growing subscription numbers, the only thing left (apart from going fully online) is cutting costs. Therefore <span style="font-style: italic;">Asimov</span>'s and <span style="font-style: italic;">Analog</span> have changed size, and <span style="font-style: italic;">F&SF</span> has lowered its publishing frequency. However, if USPS keeps raising its prices -- and they will -- it's a losing battle (and it pains me to say so).<br /><br />And the national postal companies will become indistinguishable from commercial shippers, with the only difference that they <span style="font-style: italic;">must</span> deliver mail to even the smallest of customers. By boy, will they charge you for it!<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman";" lang="EN-US"><br /></span></div>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-51214382727848926192008-12-20T17:12:00.017+00:002008-12-20T21:47:07.328+00:00Some Cheese, Wine & Beer BloggingFor the few people still hanging on: apologies for the relative silence. Of late, most of my blogging energies went into the <span style="font-style: italic;">Shine</span> anthology weblog. Expect some major announcements and fresh developments on that soon.<br /><br />Also, it was <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> busy at the day job: I was having nothing but back-to-back training sessions from the Summer onwards, with barely a day or two to recover in between.<br /><br />OK: let's start with some wine. From my employer I got two bottles of <span style="font-style: italic;">Grande Visière</span>. I tried it last Thursday, and didn't like it. I tried it again on Friday, and it still didn't work. I tried it the last time today: I guess it's OK as table wines go, but it just doesn't have any character: a middle-of-the-road red that is just a little bit too sour and too plain unremarkable to make any kind of impression. A 3 on a scale of 10, or a 1.5/5 as <a href="http://www.wineass.com/">Wineass</a> has it.<br />Since I'm at it, a Wineass-like Twitter review: Grande Visière French table wine: sour, dull. Like transmission fluid without lubricating properties. Free, 1.5/5, use only in emergency.<br />I actually threw it down the drain after tasting the Lehman: with wine I just can't be bothered with second class products (nothing to do with price: some cheap wines can be very good).<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3mPukU0jSNQ2ipDV5w0fnWny7Z2SOO3Ey_47Kppzq1as-rD9tJX29ExjNQPQ3ko8czXQzPL9VvzRoAAvaWg3VD-3x6TBc4Qi43Or8BwfPaiquMRfP16bXWsKQvNS7-XnBkJh7T94Rr5mu/s1600-h/The_Futures_main.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 127px; height: 363px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3mPukU0jSNQ2ipDV5w0fnWny7Z2SOO3Ey_47Kppzq1as-rD9tJX29ExjNQPQ3ko8czXQzPL9VvzRoAAvaWg3VD-3x6TBc4Qi43Or8BwfPaiquMRfP16bXWsKQvNS7-XnBkJh7T94Rr5mu/s400/The_Futures_main.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281964081237364946" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Then in the local Gall & Gall liquor store (where a very good friend of mine works) I bought a Spanish wine called <span style="font-style: italic;">Celeste</span> (a 2005 crianza from Ribera del Duero), which I haven't opened yet (so expect a report later on), and a <a href="http://www.peterlehmannwines.com/library/03%20Futures%20Shiraz.pdf">Peter Lehman the futures shiraz from 2003</a>, which I opened.<br /><br />According to Sylvia (my good friend at the Gall & Gall store) 2003 was one of Australia's best wine years, and it shows: I think it's divine. This is shiraz as it is meant to be (at least, according to my preferences): a red so deep it's almost black, rich forest fruits and plummy overtones, heavenly herbs and superb spices, subtle, fine grained tannins and a lingering, deep & complex aftertaste, like angels bleeding on your tongue.<br />Twitter review: 2003 Lehman the futures shiraz: fair dinkum. Forest fruits, plums, heavenly herbs & Superb spices. Angels bleeding on your tongue: €15, 5/5.<br /><br /><br />The cheese: I did some cheese shopping at <a href="http://www.fonsvandenhout.nl/">Fons van den Hout</a>, a delicatessen shop specialised in cheese in Tilburg. It's the closest shop (it involves a 20 minute train ride) where I can get the single Dutch truffle cheese: more than worth the short trip. I bought two cheeses there, and two from my local AH (Albert Hein) supermarket.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWx4yaK_u6chRGDC40DE8xRC1kTPeiZ7vUIUJ33l48S0rMUtDRzWTbjC2qlx6EYJGd_c2mwohhjVakJhLGs2fLlILdcbyal6HRBT_zcAPuKL2UoFYOYA1y2leyHe678lfe1BW1CvIQLCVy/s1600-h/Fons+van+den+Hout.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 235px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWx4yaK_u6chRGDC40DE8xRC1kTPeiZ7vUIUJ33l48S0rMUtDRzWTbjC2qlx6EYJGd_c2mwohhjVakJhLGs2fLlILdcbyal6HRBT_zcAPuKL2UoFYOYA1y2leyHe678lfe1BW1CvIQLCVy/s400/Fons+van+den+Hout.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281949830546128290" border="0" /></a>Also, I have the habit to put those -- sometimes expensive -- cheeses on LU (this is the brand name) crackers of the 'salt & pepper' variety: I find they combine real well with certain cheeses. Obviously, YMMV.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvdfF8qyox1M6DQl4cw5RIBs3xtp-uXOz3pfd7vDLkU_48tzos9eKcWSlZdfDCJerXWOJ0NqyG6aTURRlESVH-hA5Re7djw7-044sujRQA-tOYA32y29VApoRO1aQkYUzUtBVBU8Q9MQy9/s1600-h/LU+Salt+%26+Pepper.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvdfF8qyox1M6DQl4cw5RIBs3xtp-uXOz3pfd7vDLkU_48tzos9eKcWSlZdfDCJerXWOJ0NqyG6aTURRlESVH-hA5Re7djw7-044sujRQA-tOYA32y29VApoRO1aQkYUzUtBVBU8Q9MQy9/s400/LU+Salt+%26+Pepper.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281958605833749474" border="0" /></a><ul><li>A gorgonzola piccante from Ballarini (from my AH supermarket);</li><li>A blue stilton which is the Christmas special in Albert Hein: you're supposed to drink port with it, but I have tried port several times (I have colleagues in Portugal who bring port, and I've tried it both in Portugal and Andalucía, but it just doesn't work for me. A matter of taste);</li><li>A mountain cheese from the Elzas (from Fons van den Hout);</li><li>A Dutch truffle cheese (ditto);</li></ul>The blue stilton is both extremely crumbly and very smelly, and so blue-veined that mushrooms almost start to form: it's an aggressive cheese that takes no prisoners. Still, there is a certain complexity behind the near-overwhelming fungal and almost sickeningly sour attack on your taste buds. Definitely one for advanced cheese aficionados, and not one for the faint of heart. Strangely, I find it combines surprisingly well with <span style="font-style: italic;">Leffe Brune</span> (see below).<br /><br />The Elzas mountain cheese, on the other hand, doesn't make much of an impression on a first look: a plain cheese, halfway between soft and crumbly, with no fungal veins or speckled additives. Only the brown crust marks it somewhat. I tasted a piece of it in the shop, and it didn't immediately make much of an impression: this might also be due to the fact that it was very busy in the shop (good for them: they deserve the clientele) and that I was still slightly hung over from the office party of the night before.<br />However, after returning home and a refreshing shower it slowly reveals its hidden subtleties: a salt'n'mustard tang that works great with the almost sandy texture, combining the suaveness of a younger cheese with the character of an older one. Definitely a keeper, and a perfect accompaniment to the Lehman futures shiraz.<br /><br />The gorgonzola piccante is an old favourite: when I do a four-cheese plate, I try to make a 50/50 mix of new and known. I tried the mild gorgonzola, but found that it was a bit too cowardly for my tastes. The piccante combines a certain tang with a certain smoothness, a bit like a very charming kid doing something naughty but getting away with it.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBp0-VHGUbnULEtsnkDSQTsCpmTW3e7J4wKoEqS2I6AcFfqb1P9HCSsl2AhQ_vWU35NlPoLErn_ZpkarW37UjzGeJwDnTcS0TwMiniwBb_k55_qZXfaOQktOzdEsHiM2aXs4M0WJIUL6CZ/s1600-h/TRUFFELKAAS+NED.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBp0-VHGUbnULEtsnkDSQTsCpmTW3e7J4wKoEqS2I6AcFfqb1P9HCSsl2AhQ_vWU35NlPoLErn_ZpkarW37UjzGeJwDnTcS0TwMiniwBb_k55_qZXfaOQktOzdEsHiM2aXs4M0WJIUL6CZ/s400/TRUFFELKAAS+NED.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281948615182712466" border="0" /></a><br />The Dutch truffle cheese (picture above): this one is the most difficult to describe for me. It combines the taste and texture of a 'belegen' cheese (in Holland this is a classification system to determine the amount of time a cheese has ripened: 'jong' -- young -- is up to four weeks; 'jong belegen' is 8 to 10 weeks; 'belegen' is 16 to 18 weeks; 'extra belegen' is 6 to 8 months; 'oud' -- old -- is 10 to 12 months; and 'overjarig' -- overaged -- is 16 months and older) with the phenomenal taste of truffles. How does a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truffle_%28fungi%29">truffle</a> taste? Well, this is a minefield: not only are there several types of truffles (black and white, summer and winter, and many others), and I suspect that this Dutch cheese uses the black truffle (the least expensive variety). Also, truffles are very pungent, so can easily dominate the palette.<br />However, when used in just the right amount they give extra depth, complexity and a certain suave smoothness to a dish (this can be a meat dish, over a pasta or a salad, or indeed in specialty cheeses). Think of the king of all mushrooms with a very earthy undertone and tangy, twangy, maybe even funky overtone (OK: it is undescribable. Do try it, if you get the chance). Restraint is the true mastery in combining cheese with truffles: too much truffles and they totally dominate the palette (if you want that, you might as well eat them pure, even if that's an expensive experience), too little and their complex suavity doesn't shine through.<br /><br />Also, the very helpful lady in the shop in Tilburg gave me something extra: a dip (or sauce) to use with the cheeses: this is an orange marmalade-like concoction that I find works nice with more plain cheeses, but kills the complexity of the more advanced cheeses. So I'm only using it when in dire need (read: if I can't afford the real good stuff).<br /><br />Now, I'm one of these drink multitaskers who think it's no problem to drink both a great beer *and* a fine wine during dinner. In some connoiseur circles this amounts to blasphemy, but since it's perfectly fine to have a seven (or more) course meal with a great diversity of dishes I don't see why I can't have the same diversity with drinks (and yeah, I know there are endless varieties of wine: I just like to have both beer and wine).<br /><br />In summertime, I prefer wheat beers like <span style="font-style: italic;">Hoegaarden</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Brugs Wit</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Dentergems</span> or a good German Heffe-Weissen. In wintertime, though, I prefer more heavy beers (apart from the Hertog Jan lager I drink year-round) like <span style="font-style: italic;">Leffe Brune</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Corsendonk</span>.<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />Leffe Brune</span> is the beer of choice tonight: a great complex darkly malted beer with caramel overtones: packs a good punch without knocking you out straightaway (in the manner a lot of <span style="font-style: italic;">triples<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> <span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span></span></span></span>do).<br /><br />I also bought a <span style="font-style: italic;">Leffe</span> beer glass: I think this is close to the perfect beer glass, an near-spherical bowl on a thick pedestal, think a wine glass for beer.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggll-RwwzajVcAc3IarF13zcER2wPJXym9mVytNXB1Q5poLcqS5XPZCCoNpvuHxwjzkf7S2xWRvrKm1UqMCjERhWYbOXLqYubcp0j6g1lvtk8WTSG1iMWVr4285gao8zvxC1MqfJlQq6Is/s1600-h/Leffe+Glass+3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 202px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggll-RwwzajVcAc3IarF13zcER2wPJXym9mVytNXB1Q5poLcqS5XPZCCoNpvuHxwjzkf7S2xWRvrKm1UqMCjERhWYbOXLqYubcp0j6g1lvtk8WTSG1iMWVr4285gao8zvxC1MqfJlQq6Is/s400/Leffe+Glass+3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5281949499944892098" border="0" /></a>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-90941136450026949132008-11-30T20:01:00.004+00:002008-12-07T14:12:27.378+00:00The Police in BelgiumDon't mess with them...<br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwxY632ciFruuB7SXOZBsdEGSIThtqcK_fD4hMDqYfApobGQw94H_WUdTqYYknR72ZvVfGviw3yYXCInN_OJA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-9404825957681858072008-11-19T08:25:00.004+00:002008-11-19T08:46:14.981+00:00I Have Been Interviewed...<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcJeBOltGJvnO1pVnqeWIZ_KmaSPepTVd_jPTl49p08QOBPPssEX7PAUNiGhQ3QWsoJAmld0h6BgU3x7Gn6w8cb9ibfqGfMJ-nCBF04LRc5PxbbpuBQKnX9x3Y830ouKynCRS_asiJqc_7/s1600-h/SHINEBANNER2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270286941030446514" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 250px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcJeBOltGJvnO1pVnqeWIZ_KmaSPepTVd_jPTl49p08QOBPPssEX7PAUNiGhQ3QWsoJAmld0h6BgU3x7Gn6w8cb9ibfqGfMJ-nCBF04LRc5PxbbpuBQKnX9x3Y830ouKynCRS_asiJqc_7/s400/SHINEBANNER2.jpg" border="0" /></a>...about optimistic SF and the upcoming SHINE anthology by <a href="http://www.fantasybookspot.com/jaytomio/">Jay Tomio</a> of <a href="http://www.bookspotcentral.com/">BookSpot Central</a> for their <a href="http://www.bookspotcentral.com/tag/bookspot-beat/">BookSpot Beat</a> feature.</div><div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270287057747848242" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 195px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9Fd1zoj3y5ER17C89ihY8OcPuOhBmKVGrMkPq1S4E1eI8_vSKc7S_EGijgRRciY4EiMx7LAfwWb5yQPjMbBlxPh0NwCa-7o4A-UFrlJSHQPskfR0vpSuLxDRk10MBolmhiw0-B2BfuZIt/s400/BookSpot+Central.jpg" border="0" /> <div></div><div></div><div></div><div><a href="http://www.bookspotcentral.com/2008/11/the-bookspot-beat-interviewjetse-de-vries-talks-optimistic-science-fiction/">Check</a> it <a href="http://www.fantasybookspot.com/jaytomio/2008/11/18/bookspot-beat-interview-jetse-de-vries-on-optimistic-sf/">out</a>!</div></div>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-89462852792698585652008-11-16T15:39:00.023+00:002008-11-16T17:50:25.935+00:00The Diamond Ring SocietyOn Saturday November 15 there was another meeting of the 'Diamond Ring Society'. It's a not-so-secret cabal of Dutch solar eclipse chasers, consisting of my friends Peter v/d Linde, Bram LaPort, Ellen Dautzenberg and Freek Slangen. We met up in a bar in Amsterdam, exchanged pictures (that is: most of them gave CD-roms with pictures to me, as I'm not a photographer), and we discussed future solar eclipses.<br /><br />First, finally some pictures of the August 1, 2008 total solar eclipse near Novosibirsk:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7FHmej_cpf8p01vsUk80KhbtQurWaA0gWhzxDqLhyphenhyphenM2YVwcAwUXzI8Gt9OrweSe4sYzklwB9MyDMh5wzCSa1mp-NROqWSZg2NJbzKvToRkspMJEqxCAgNHil7X9dgZRyWKlyV9uHQk6xD/s1600-h/transsib_2008+%28413%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7FHmej_cpf8p01vsUk80KhbtQurWaA0gWhzxDqLhyphenhyphenM2YVwcAwUXzI8Gt9OrweSe4sYzklwB9MyDMh5wzCSa1mp-NROqWSZg2NJbzKvToRkspMJEqxCAgNHil7X9dgZRyWKlyV9uHQk6xD/s400/transsib_2008+%28413%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269301940846205106" border="0" /></a>The shadow of the moon racing towards us over the lake;<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkD9jQqx1YorQ5cHcUNOTeOGs0U_qWNopbdTYnVeDQ3TtIA9cK0pkYQTRQZ28Mx9IAv2SNM0nzDjBYOW__v2wF5HpJN8SdbatvxNwrATXarU_qnI2bPsUlmby-kULd7NwZBWYFAqnTf5ga/s1600-h/transsib_2008+%28434%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkD9jQqx1YorQ5cHcUNOTeOGs0U_qWNopbdTYnVeDQ3TtIA9cK0pkYQTRQZ28Mx9IAv2SNM0nzDjBYOW__v2wF5HpJN8SdbatvxNwrATXarU_qnI2bPsUlmby-kULd7NwZBWYFAqnTf5ga/s400/transsib_2008+%28434%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269301560789006242" border="0" /></a>The sky at the beginning of totality;<br /><br />Snapshots of the total solar eclipse sequence:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHE3CV36j9Q3uyQ990GxIGHNd-U2RRYbuir_AKdAsLH4ZEpGP9rCXtgQndqYgn2OfXlXcPgKKBRMLoutM9bEQjgjj2HYLKbjJ9xF3OYRQX0HlZPRF545CVw5EXBrnh8A2yQRIYUsayxNLQ/s1600-h/transsib_2008+%28368%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 132px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHE3CV36j9Q3uyQ990GxIGHNd-U2RRYbuir_AKdAsLH4ZEpGP9rCXtgQndqYgn2OfXlXcPgKKBRMLoutM9bEQjgjj2HYLKbjJ9xF3OYRQX0HlZPRF545CVw5EXBrnh8A2yQRIYUsayxNLQ/s200/transsib_2008+%28368%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269301069581311346" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha5dJcCmhF9tfXDbRAVOsNYgpnot1q7VNGt-tikH7FfVZrtwDwib8iSF9nQ6jabIHBNzsyqIVBowaFf0qJevg1OVTe0MvxptOK2FwGIaBqg5Z5v7WjeZbrYovhOuWWzSl5z3jx4jb3ocDI/s1600-h/transsib_2008+%28392%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 132px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha5dJcCmhF9tfXDbRAVOsNYgpnot1q7VNGt-tikH7FfVZrtwDwib8iSF9nQ6jabIHBNzsyqIVBowaFf0qJevg1OVTe0MvxptOK2FwGIaBqg5Z5v7WjeZbrYovhOuWWzSl5z3jx4jb3ocDI/s200/transsib_2008+%28392%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269307845533763250" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4POddgtEJRXNlSG2ak4ZHSU1t3tgCAemFOeh4zP0IqjeOaOJZudxSvLCgCcZY9YZtBvlbQ0PbvAhaQ7uUtBeYaR6Sx91otkVjgxGasOekMXi62vl0OyUXSWx_-hOFMPWzstbMSEhxt3cc/s1600-h/transsib_2008+%28421%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 136px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4POddgtEJRXNlSG2ak4ZHSU1t3tgCAemFOeh4zP0IqjeOaOJZudxSvLCgCcZY9YZtBvlbQ0PbvAhaQ7uUtBeYaR6Sx91otkVjgxGasOekMXi62vl0OyUXSWx_-hOFMPWzstbMSEhxt3cc/s200/transsib_2008+%28421%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269310312141662242" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />First Contact until Second Contact;<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcEmlyZKOHYFmlVHz5K6109GqY5eRyiCCODK2Z4WExnhoMUm7_aFi-X94Oxf8rkvaf2WOhKjmeOdG1NTxMNOshgS-sGy4kqHmpfnmpKJFqDXB6SdHBsHEzuKgX52a21VxHq94AZcPDrrM4/s1600-h/transsib_2008+%28430%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 136px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcEmlyZKOHYFmlVHz5K6109GqY5eRyiCCODK2Z4WExnhoMUm7_aFi-X94Oxf8rkvaf2WOhKjmeOdG1NTxMNOshgS-sGy4kqHmpfnmpKJFqDXB6SdHBsHEzuKgX52a21VxHq94AZcPDrrM4/s200/transsib_2008+%28430%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269300103762817826" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf8P6rm7OEBAyagkrx7yTc5PaTraJ8wzbZ4SK5E6j6-ZXgSfRQEPZxDK5s9nooZHfn5EIOQKoOKb79zXYfGTL1O6GhdchUdge10Z3KQBLBvGZy-IX3mueFBsxW3Lmb2ABmDhZh07BThoF_/s1600-h/transsib_2008+%28438%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 136px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf8P6rm7OEBAyagkrx7yTc5PaTraJ8wzbZ4SK5E6j6-ZXgSfRQEPZxDK5s9nooZHfn5EIOQKoOKb79zXYfGTL1O6GhdchUdge10Z3KQBLBvGZy-IX3mueFBsxW3Lmb2ABmDhZh07BThoF_/s200/transsib_2008+%28438%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269310010154960018" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJxQ16bitAJg2Frztm_bMcvMUChFsfp9HUROMHlrZTKw8YgYIZV_I5iK1_OGDSR2cuzVjVDvfUn1qzrV0-l21Rnjt-LkaLeBd_0VU3Yn7Q0SPYZTqphYK9LgtsRhQqPpvo5uVQHJEgUre/s1600-h/transsib_2008+%28438%29_p.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 132px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJxQ16bitAJg2Frztm_bMcvMUChFsfp9HUROMHlrZTKw8YgYIZV_I5iK1_OGDSR2cuzVjVDvfUn1qzrV0-l21Rnjt-LkaLeBd_0VU3Yn7Q0SPYZTqphYK9LgtsRhQqPpvo5uVQHJEgUre/s200/transsib_2008+%28438%29_p.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269309620864695026" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Second Contact to Third Contact (totality with one protuberance and the solar wind);<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPnt8xZtKPppNBMby4S7cNZD17C77uwDA0fMqJuu_Q_T0G6x0YQOXU7qzYeJIOszBkLSZZufZDWpMUMK0Osw0bvOGBzB3jSvc_oALoFsw63VDJjFA3XSK9RIXtfq48oZ9xM5HCLrUe9gZs/s1600-h/transsib_2008+%28446%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 132px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPnt8xZtKPppNBMby4S7cNZD17C77uwDA0fMqJuu_Q_T0G6x0YQOXU7qzYeJIOszBkLSZZufZDWpMUMK0Osw0bvOGBzB3jSvc_oALoFsw63VDJjFA3XSK9RIXtfq48oZ9xM5HCLrUe9gZs/s200/transsib_2008+%28446%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269298570355802914" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTy2cxeMRI2KtbwmsKq9rdkt-3rumKqw6_5SuZJbKOr_LepTIAxoDANLmanyTnzLWydTpASCchgtp_EiooFABv7Q5gWEbdn1LjjWhWhZDc5F-zat9-fox4AkJ2Nei0ywyH-5pylv7qdcHU/s1600-h/transsib_2008+%28453%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 132px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTy2cxeMRI2KtbwmsKq9rdkt-3rumKqw6_5SuZJbKOr_LepTIAxoDANLmanyTnzLWydTpASCchgtp_EiooFABv7Q5gWEbdn1LjjWhWhZDc5F-zat9-fox4AkJ2Nei0ywyH-5pylv7qdcHU/s200/transsib_2008+%28453%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269308415853364674" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /><br /><br /></span><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg57bdFfU8J1YSAltJ-kLiNOugJP4oupwFCwbE0vnrZ4bxd-E-BlWUc0CUzp-PdfyCOLkDp77tHYWBn0Wiz6MMxR7aa7AmPWx7NbKeAyaeR04sKFtIgmCQd-UL-UCoBah0yZGXrQjNG5dbY/s1600-h/transsib_2008+%28465%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 132px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg57bdFfU8J1YSAltJ-kLiNOugJP4oupwFCwbE0vnrZ4bxd-E-BlWUc0CUzp-PdfyCOLkDp77tHYWBn0Wiz6MMxR7aa7AmPWx7NbKeAyaeR04sKFtIgmCQd-UL-UCoBah0yZGXrQjNG5dbY/s200/transsib_2008+%28465%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269309256496285186" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Third contact to Fourth Contact;<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN4hFcLSI-xfbZ4PFPrY_YGIce93bDMcQF0ESCG7_D7DVw9Pp9twtuxfjfN6YEv5lYMC_qGO2m-WABi3EurnoPJOEU0KiI9aIAIe7baDLhV6g7GBBpIFROgCP6rqrAN8PXmwrTWeF2-dAR/s1600-h/transsib_2008+%28441%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgN4hFcLSI-xfbZ4PFPrY_YGIce93bDMcQF0ESCG7_D7DVw9Pp9twtuxfjfN6YEv5lYMC_qGO2m-WABi3EurnoPJOEU0KiI9aIAIe7baDLhV6g7GBBpIFROgCP6rqrAN8PXmwrTWeF2-dAR/s400/transsib_2008+%28441%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269296614574767458" border="0" /></a>The sky at the end of totality;<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_em5HZRkKTOAkbPWBNSrUhZwvVGk2IoDJ82tUQNDf5pXsm9AnNTdu3r3vPIHRB7nSa9wbDEJYxy7O6skmsfJ4n989HnSFiQZd3IeoYdtxEeI7g6kYt5bmpTUAojd_LhO0HcD8tUd2XQAS/s1600-h/transsib_2008+%28443%29.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_em5HZRkKTOAkbPWBNSrUhZwvVGk2IoDJ82tUQNDf5pXsm9AnNTdu3r3vPIHRB7nSa9wbDEJYxy7O6skmsfJ4n989HnSFiQZd3IeoYdtxEeI7g6kYt5bmpTUAojd_LhO0HcD8tUd2XQAS/s400/transsib_2008+%28443%29.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5269295796644284818" border="0" /></a>The shadow of the moon racing away from us across the lake;<br /><br />(All pictures are made by <a href="http://www.freekslangen.nl/index1.html">Freek Slangen</a>, a member of our not-so-secret cabal.)<br /><br />The next total solar eclipse is July 22, 2009, where the moon's shadow will cross over the north of India, over the Himalaya Mountains into China, then into the Pacific via Shanghai, passing just under Japan and off way into the Pacific (<a href="http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEplot/SEplot2001/SE2009Jul22T.GIF">path here</a>). My friends are looking at an organised travel arrangement via the University of Utrecht: for me this might be a bit too long (a three-week trip), as I intend to do WorldCon in Montreal (August 6 to 10), as well, and also World Fantasy in San José, and I only have so much days off.<br /><br />So I might fly into Shanghai for a week, and join my friends in Wuhan (which looks to be one of the best spots: it'll be a tricky one, as July is the monsoon season in India, and the rainy season in China. This is compounded with the possibility of tyfoons, which generate an enormous amounts of clouds around their central twisters). Then get back home, stay home for over a week -- instead of a day like this year when I went from Novosibirsk, one day at home, then onwards to Denver -- and go to Montreal.<br /><br />In 2010, there is a total solar eclipse on July 11, which is almost fully over the Pacific Ocean, and ends in Patagonia. It crosses over Easter Island, but all accomodation and trips for that are already fully booked now. So we're looking at French Polynesia or the Cook Islands.Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-53385427701746189372008-11-15T00:32:00.005+00:002008-11-15T10:55:35.301+00:00Relevant SF<span style="font-weight: bold;">(Cross-posted from the <a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/">SHINE blog</a>)</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifFs_2tW60vz0BLDd5cr7ku2-qT_0rCFB32zEqevhun61hHO_1IJGyVIqcpn7jhMqyyucK7ju3m1NXGIcQh_Z3IA9p4FRhnV4nlFNDX7eQEorkDVgTUWu0keeZuuj9Zq6UdBAw5-qE3tb8/s1600-h/networking-session1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 270px; height: 202px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifFs_2tW60vz0BLDd5cr7ku2-qT_0rCFB32zEqevhun61hHO_1IJGyVIqcpn7jhMqyyucK7ju3m1NXGIcQh_Z3IA9p4FRhnV4nlFNDX7eQEorkDVgTUWu0keeZuuj9Zq6UdBAw5-qE3tb8/s400/networking-session1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5268676474202946450" border="0" /></a>...or: The world is looking for solutions. Why isn't SF trying to help, or at least trying to think along? <p>In the past couple of weeks, I've been in airplanes quite a bit. My airplane reading is mostly newspapers and science magazines like <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/" mce_href="http://www.newscientist.com/" target="_blank"><i>New Scientist</i></a> and <i><a href="http://www.sciam.com/" mce_href="http://www.sciam.com/" target="_blank">Scientific American</a>.</i> So when I flew to Spain about a month ago I delved into the October, 11th <i>New Scientist</i> "A Brighter Future" special issue, and when I flew to Calgary two weeks later I bought <i>Scientific American</i>'s "Earth 3.0" special issue. Then there's also <a href="http://www.odemagazine.com/" mce_href="http://www.odemagazine.com/" target="_blank"><i>Ode Magazine</i></a> (I read the Dutch version, but there's also an English one) with a 'Generation Now' special report.</p> <p>The similarities between the three: they're all worried about the (near) future. Indeed, just like SF, I hear you think. But unlike most SF today, these three magazines are not only analysing the problems, they're also actively looking for <i>solutions.</i> Why has most SF fixated on the former (often directly extrapolating today's problems in tomorrow's dystopias), while greatly ignoring the latter?</p> <p>I strongly suspect that this is one of the main factors that keeps (written) SF from being relevant to a larger part of the population, especially young people. Not the sole one(*), mind you, but a very important one. I strongly think we need SF that starts thinking about near future solutions for our current problems.</p> <p>Since our problems are complicated and interlinked, our solutions need to be multifacetted: most of today's biggest adversities do not exist in isolation, so multiple causes need to be addressed simultaneously. This requires multidisciplinary approach that is both broad and deep: one single specialist in one field (no matter how brilliant) will not do, but a group of 'intelligent optimists'. These teamworkers and teambuilders realise that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution, but that quintessentially different aspects require tailor-made solutions. They cherry-pick the best solutions from a great variety of sources, attack the problems from a lot of different angles, and are interdisciplinary, practical, forward-thinking go-getters.</p> <p>Dog help me, I hear some of you think: this is immensely difficult. Indeed, it is. It's the point: SF can't afford to be too simple or straightforward anymore. Good near future SF not only reflects the complexity of the real world to a high degree, it also needs to see the intricate problems as tractable if we put our combined minds to it, with sharp intelligence, the will to co-operate, and hope.</p> <p>So let's look at this in a broad perspective, and link the three 'special issues' I mentioned above:</p> <ol><li>Our energy and water problems are interlinked: both crises must be solved together (this is the <i>Scientific American</i> "Earth 3.0" cover blurb almost ad verbatim). In the article, they link water usage to huge power plants such as combined gas/steam cycle, coal, oil and nuclear plants. And if alternative vehicles like hydrogen fuel-cells and plug-in electric vehicles get their charge from these huge power plants than they are water hoggers, as well:</li><li>But the <i>New Scientist</i> "A Brighter Future" has this highly illuminating graph on pages 32 and 33 that depicts where alternative energies such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and tidal wave are most abundant across the world showing that the electricity potentially available from renewables (310,600 TWh) is much bigger than the total electricity being generated (19,014 TWh in 2006). Especially solar and wind energy use hardly any water: so if we power our electric or hydrogen fuel-cell or biomass hybrids with them we kill two birds with one stone: the energy and the water dependency. Only 433 TWh is generated by renewables, so the potential is enormous:</li><li>Which bring us to <i>Ode Magazine</i>'s "Generation Now": it sees higher oil prices as the trigger for decentralised generation of renewable power, both stimulated by governments (as has already happened in Germany and Spain) and by entrepreneurs, as Silicon Valley investors are now turning to investing heavily in green energy, and where people will try to make their houses self-supporting energy-wise ('energy-free living');</li></ol> <p>Again, why do I find this kind of positive, forward-thinking in non-SF magazines?</p> <p>Two quick, off-the-cuff musings:</p> <ul><li>We need an urgent paradigmatic shift in economic thinking: the planet cannot sustain continuous economic and population growth. So combine a zero-growth (or a shrink-and-expand-to-the-same-size) economy while the population stops growing, as well (UPDATE: the 'zero-growth' economy was actually the theme of the 18th October issue of <i>New Scientist</i>, as <a href="http://sciencefictionfantasy.blogspot.com/" mce_href="http://sciencefictionfantasy.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Anthony G. Williams</a>'s post '<a href="http://sciencefictionfantasy.blogspot.com/2008/11/folly-of-growth.html" mce_href="http://sciencefictionfantasy.blogspot.com/2008/11/folly-of-growth.html" target="_blank">The Folly of Growth</a>' reminded me. Thanks!). The European Union might be the forerunner in this: less economic growth over the last decade than the US or the new Asian tigers China and India, with a population that is stagnating or even shrinking while its people are growing older.</li><li>Suppose a platform like <a href="http://www.liftport.com/" mce_href="http://www.liftport.com/" target="_blank">Liftport</a> starts building a space elevator somewehere west of the Galapagos Islands, it could have the hydrocarbons it needs for its complex nanotube tether supplied by a company that is cleaning the Pacific from the accumulated plastic pollution. It uses solar and skysails powered vessels to get supplies to and from the space elevator's Earth base, it's presence in the tropics stimulates the nearby Latin American economies in a sustainable way, and more.</li></ul> <p>This is to get you -- and especially the SF writers among you -- thinking. Doesn't SF pride itself for it's potential for 'sense of wonder' and its ability to shift paradigms? The point is, these sensawunda-powered conceptual breakthroughs almost always happened in space, virtual realities and runaway technological singularities (and yes: I'm guilty, too). Bring the gosh-wow, preconception-shattering power of SF to address, if even partly, the current problems plaguing our planet (or help imagine new solutions, new approaches) and SF will become relevant again.</p> <p>Another maxim has it that SF writers like a challenge. So what are you waiting for?</p> <p>(*) = I fully agree with Paolo Bacigalupi -- see <a href="http://thefix-online.com/interviews/paolo-bacigalupi/" mce_href="http://thefix-online.com/interviews/paolo-bacigalupi/" target="_blank">his interview</a> in <a href="http://thefix-online.com/" mce_href="http://thefix-online.com/" target="_blank"><i>The Fix</i></a> and <a href="http://windupstories.com/2008/03/10/optimistic-co2-sci-fi/" mce_href="http://windupstories.com/2008/03/10/optimistic-co2-sci-fi/" target="_blank">an exchange</a> I had with him on <a href="http://windupstories.com/" mce_href="http://windupstories.com/" target="_blank">his blog</a> -- and <a href="http://ianmcdonald.livejournal.com/73525.html" mce_href="http://ianmcdonald.livejournal.com/73525.html" target="_blank">Ian McDonald</a> that SF needs to become relevant again (we disagree, and probaly not even that much, on <i>how</i> to recapture that relevance: Paolo's focus is on environmental issues, while Ian has a thing with the Multiverse, while I think we should troubleshoot the lot -- the environment, the economy, the human tendency to short-term thinking, the lack of education, and the elephant in the room called overpopulation): spewing humanity all over the galaxy while we haven't decently solved our current, highly complex problems is a flight forward. We need to face our challenges now, and instead of fictionally wallowing in them, we need to start thinking our way out of them.</p><p><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;">(NOTE: I love a good discussion, and haven't closed the comments on this post, but I would appreciate it if people would comment on the </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/2008/11/15/relevant-sf/">SHINE blog</a><span style="font-style: italic;">.)</span></blockquote><br /><p></p>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-87548667949370442902008-11-11T19:10:00.005+00:002008-11-12T06:31:00.451+00:00SHINE weblog updateA weekly (or so, I hope) update of what's going on at the <a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/">SHINE anthology weblog</a> last week:<br /><br /><ul><li>The kick-off: <a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/2008/10/05/optimistic-sf-open-platform/">Optimistic SF open platform</a>;</li><li>For those that need to write: <a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/shine-anthology-guidelines/">guidelines</a>;<br /></li><li>A <a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/congratulations-with-president-barack-obama-change-will-come/">post</a> about the US elections and its impact on the anthology;</li><li><a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/the-grapevine-part-1/">Two</a> <a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/the-grapevine-part-2/">posts</a> about the publicity events involving <a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/">SHINE</a>, tagged 'The Grapevine';</li><li>A first foray into the heart of the matter: "<a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/2008/11/08/why-optimism/">Why Optimism?</a>";</li><li>The first post of a series about <a href="http://shineanthology.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/music-that-makes-you-feel-optimistic-part-1/">music that makes you feel good</a>;</li></ul><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkXNFYphxtskjK1BhzNPBY9CxfNxba0Bem_RWXDszQdFo5YSDwt0LaEExJjJvmKfBAFvA0XdaakhuVaudLjEnXeS7JFHaUAcai7pAZwrXxvhgVPpKLNo2YoVxTyDzRbTNg0S2nXOFWawWm/s1600-h/SHINE.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 295px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkXNFYphxtskjK1BhzNPBY9CxfNxba0Bem_RWXDszQdFo5YSDwt0LaEExJjJvmKfBAFvA0XdaakhuVaudLjEnXeS7JFHaUAcai7pAZwrXxvhgVPpKLNo2YoVxTyDzRbTNg0S2nXOFWawWm/s400/SHINE.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267486480875895330" border="0" /></a>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-59450801840444390392008-11-11T18:31:00.005+00:002008-11-12T06:26:46.101+00:00Foreign SaleMy story "<a href="http://www.flurb.net/6/6devries.htm">Random Acts of Cosmic Whimsy</a>" (originally published in <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.flurb.net/">Flurb</a> </span>#6) is now slated to appear in French magazine <a href="http://monsite.orange.fr/galaxies-sf/">Galaxies</a> (which has been relaunched at the last <a href="http://www.utopiales.org/">Utopiales</a>, if I understand their announcement correctly) for the late February/early March issue, according to a reliable source.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOkBX0GUlRnW0BBViz3cwOD7_cr0R7e977mFXbfNy2AwrMRb7YjA7G5mVAzpduz76S4C-KDb6rH5Uurqf7ZScGXNMiyU27_otvgMAA5ArR5KJNxNWKL0C1IJXfdzX_1yr_MipvR4skVbCa/s1600-h/Galaxies.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 213px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOkBX0GUlRnW0BBViz3cwOD7_cr0R7e977mFXbfNy2AwrMRb7YjA7G5mVAzpduz76S4C-KDb6rH5Uurqf7ZScGXNMiyU27_otvgMAA5ArR5KJNxNWKL0C1IJXfdzX_1yr_MipvR4skVbCa/s320/Galaxies.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267478385892843522" border="0" /></a><br />Actually, there is another reprint (well, republish) of "Random Acts of Cosmic Whimsy" in the pipeline, but more of that <span style="font-style: italic;">if</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">when</span> it happens...Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-10225682729264439202008-11-08T17:50:00.010+00:002008-11-10T20:07:48.836+00:00A Mosque Among the Stars<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd1DONaatqdseamj-WCv1MUr7MHpiAIAPMN03Q5L9LrO154TrP_8xjuR1DxDm7VqtGm4YWWT2goMXkaLRR6PiiqujiKX1GvsD6ubZAnapggW6dRJmyOShdQINx7yf6igqpH1J5yJApjQzW/s1600-h/A+Mosque+Among+the+Stars.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 129px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd1DONaatqdseamj-WCv1MUr7MHpiAIAPMN03Q5L9LrO154TrP_8xjuR1DxDm7VqtGm4YWWT2goMXkaLRR6PiiqujiKX1GvsD6ubZAnapggW6dRJmyOShdQINx7yf6igqpH1J5yJApjQzW/s200/A+Mosque+Among+the+Stars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267121196959527794" border="0" /></a><br />...is slated for a November 14 release. It contains my story "Cultural Clashes in Cádiz". It's one of the stories that portrays (at least one) Islam or Muslim character(s) in a friendly light.<br /><br />Here's <a href="http://islamscifi.com/?page_id=33">the page about it</a> on the <a href="http://islamscifi.com/">Islam and Science Fiction website</a>.<br /><br />Here's <a href="http://ahmedakhan.livejournal.com/">Ahmed A. Kahn</a>'s <a href="http://ahmedakhan.livejournal.com/18904.html">announcement</a> of <span style="font-style: italic;">A Mosque Among</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> the Stars</span> (with a ToC).<br /><br />Order it at <a href="http://www.zcbooks.ca/">ZC Books</a> <a href="http://www.zcbooks.ca/5073.html">here</a>.<br /><br />And last -- but certainly not least -- there will be a <a href="http://ahmedakhan.livejournal.com/23054.html">launch event</a> on <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix8VSEWi0eWJyrT2yDETI4ApGP6FI5Ga5wBRHlkr4VblJZdTBKn7jas7Y-0o7lTy9o8iF0muEC12-l6Pp3ZAuKZpCrSnhJFiLWng175WODm39Kr17lokECJeU-Nbrir2idwTfrV9UcRBPT/s1600-h/Sparks.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix8VSEWi0eWJyrT2yDETI4ApGP6FI5Ga5wBRHlkr4VblJZdTBKn7jas7Y-0o7lTy9o8iF0muEC12-l6Pp3ZAuKZpCrSnhJFiLWng175WODm39Kr17lokECJeU-Nbrir2idwTfrV9UcRBPT/s200/Sparks.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5267121749886354802" border="0" /></a>November 22 at the Chapters bookstore in London, Ontario (from 2 to 5 pm). <span style="font-style: italic;">A </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Mosque Among the Stars</span> will be jointly launched with Ahmed's collection <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sparks-Ahmed-Khan/dp/0980192129/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1#productPromotions"><span style="font-style: italic;">Sparks</span></a>. Call me biased, since I lifted Ahmed's story "Elevator Episodes in Seven Genres" from the IZ slushpile (it was published in <a href="http://www.tangentonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1096&Itemid=260"><span style="font-style: italic;">Interzone </span>#211</a>), and he published me in <span style="font-style: italic;">A Mosque Among the Stars.</span> But do check it out.Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-60352162786300237932008-11-05T20:55:00.007+00:002008-11-10T19:15:50.297+00:00World Fantasy in Calgary......was brilliant. It was only my second World Fantasy and it has become my favourite convention.<br /><br />I haven't made any pictures myself, so I will just point to the good people who have done so:<br /><br /><a href="http://suricattus.livejournal.com/">Laura Anne Gilman</a>'s <a href="http://suricattus.livejournal.com/968598.html">pictures</a>;<br /><br /><a href="http://www.johnpicacio.com/blog.html">John Picacio</a>'s <a href="http://www.johnpicacio.com/2008/11/wfc-2008-in-calgary.html">pictures (and blog post)</a>;<br /><br /><a href="http://ellen-datlow.livejournal.com/">Ellen Datlow</a>'s <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35025258@N00/sets/72157608792088653/">pictures</a>;<br /><a href="http://louanders.blogspot.com/"><br />Lou Anders</a>'s <a href="http://louanders.blogspot.com/2008/11/world-fantasy-convention-2008.html">pictures (and blog post)</a>;<br /><br /><a href="http://kathryncramer.typepad.com/">Kathryn Cramer</a>'s <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathryncramer/sets/72157608561029786/">pictures</a>;<br /><a href="http://blog.electricvelocipede.com/"><br />John Klima</a>'s <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/johncklima/sets/72157608665024181/">pictures</a>;<br /><br /><a href="http://webpetals.livejournal.com/">Marjorie Liu</a>'s <a href="http://webpetals.livejournal.com/238681.html">pictures (and blog post)</a>;<br /><br />Some of the many, many highlights included:<br /><br /><ul><li>Unfortunately missed the Hades party at Wednesday evening because my flight arrived late, but the buzz in the Hyatt hotel bar was fine;<br /></li><li>A relaxed lunch with David Levine & Kate Yule;</li><li>The Queensland Writers party;<br /></li><li>The Johncon/Nightshade party in Jeremy's room, and going to a liquor store with Alan Beatts to get more booze when it ran out (and then needing to be subtly reminded by Alan that when Jeremy strips he might be indicating that the party is over, around 5.30 in the morning);<br /></li><li>Doing the "Fantasy 'Zines Around the World Panel" with a monumental hangover but liking it nevertheless;</li><li>Great lunch with Gordon Van Gelder, Sean McMullen and Jenny Blackford afterwards the panel;</li><li>the Borderlands Scotch single malt tasting party (absolutely awesome! Both the whiskies and the party);<br /></li><li>Having dinner with Diana Rowland on Halloween: she was dressed up as Sarah Palin and it took me a while -- we don't celebrate Halloween in Holland -- to realise just <span style="font-style: italic;">why</span> she did that;<br /></li><li>The first few days I had problems getting my bar bills paid: that is, the moment I went away for a few minutes (to go to the toilet, to talk with yet another fabulous person) and came back to get my check I found that somebody else had already closed the tab for me. I sometimes protested to be told not to worry about it. Then the last few days I made certain that I picked up a number of tabs from people -- often against their protests -- because good karma needs to go around and around;<br /></li><li>Dinner with Marc Gascoigne (now <a href="http://angryrobotbooks.wordpress.com/">Angry-Robot</a> publisher), Sean and Catherine McMullen and Mike Gallagher: probably the best conversation I had in Calgary;<br /></li></ul>It was fantastic to meet so many people I didn't know personally (but was, in many cases, well aware of) like Shawna McCarthy, Daniel Abraham (David! Next time I'll buy Mexican lunch or dinner), Jenny Blackford, Robert Hoge, Justin Ackroyd, Shaun Tan, Nora Jemison, Steven Mills, Lawrence Connolly, Laura Anne Gilman, Jemma EveryHope, Nikki Kimberling, Rob Shearman (who might have been a wee bit shy initially, but looked like a veteran as the con progressed), Colleen Anderson, and several people whose face (and function) I remember, but whose name I forgot: I ask forgiveness.<br /><br />And the many very good to good friends (and I'm not even trying to pretend this list is complete): Lou Anders, John Picacio, Paul Cornell (thanks for introducing me to Rob), Karen Newton, Bill Willingham (you should be working...;-), Chris Roberson & Allison Baker, Mary Robinette Kowal, Aliette de Bodard, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Doselle Young, Gordon Van Gelder, JJA (this anthology is METAL!), Marjorie Liu (next dessert will be on me), Jeremy Lassen (even if the 'Shade faded for a little while on Saturday evening...;-), Jim Minz & Jay Caselberg (don't mention the 'better' name tags), Ellen Datlow, Eileen Gunn, Jonathan Strahan, Garth Nix, Alan Beatts & Jude Feldman, Amelia Beamer & Liza Groen Trombi, Todd Lockwood, Kay Kenyon, Diana Rowland (creepy Halloween costume alright, and I'm glad I didn't look like her running mate...;-), Marc Gascoigne, Sean McMullen & Catherine McMullen (what <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> to do in Venice), David Anthony Durham, Steven Erikson, Rani Graf (I am finally remembering your name: so alcohol does not destroy braincells...;-), Christian Dunn & Mark Newton (obviously...;-), Graham Joyce, Daryl Gregory, John Klima & Mark Teppo, Adrienne Loska (good luck with the documentary!), Tony Richards, Farah Mendlesohn, Mark Rich, Leslie Howle, Walter Jon Williams, David Levine & Kate Yule, Ken Scholes & Jay Lake, Heather Lindsley (say hi to Al Golden --ehrm -- Robertson).<br /><br />My profound apologies beforehand for all the great people I've met but forget to mention here, and all the great moments that I'm either skipping or temporarily (I hope) not remembering.<br /><br />World Fantasy is the best!Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2361629556545145030.post-73173849070641487352008-11-05T20:38:00.005+00:002008-11-05T20:54:02.389+00:00Imaging President Barack Obama<div><span><span>First (and most important of all): many, many congratulations with President Barack Obama! To many of my American friends, and the many outside of it as well. Too many to mention, and you know who you are.<br /><br /></span></span></div> <div><span><span> </span></span></div> <div><span><span>(I returned from World Fantasy on November 4, and was so jetlagged I couldn't sleep. Which was good, as I had planned to follow the US elections live anyway, but now I had no problems staying awake [I had those today]. At 05.30 am or so Dutch time McCain gave his concession speech. I feel so happy I nearly cried, and so many in the US must have felt -- probably still feel -- much, much happier than I do.)</span></span><br /></div><br /><span><span>Back in May 2005 I received a story from <a href="http://edwardrmorrisjr.blogspot.com/">Ed Morris</a> in the IZ slushpile called "Imagine" (<a href="http://www.pauldifilippo.com/">Paul Di Filippo</a> had urged him to try <a href="http://ttapress.com/">Interzone</a> with it, and too good effect, and my belated thanks here). I forwarded the story to my (then) Interzone colleagues and Andy Cox published it in <a href="http://ttapress.com/">Interzone </a>#200, on September 2005.<br /><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5TA5F_GB85Ar48a0pZx91nv-0qd4tbR0SV6uOEX9cgw_-kUO-dvkqhKvbKIGKar3GWcOVzlPMBzoQNwylYFZqZVvBPr75JuClGuEhOfL47bRS0yC5vn_RuJ-IPAJzyGc2s1Vi_3u8dYH4/s1600-h/Interzone+200.bmp"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 159px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5TA5F_GB85Ar48a0pZx91nv-0qd4tbR0SV6uOEX9cgw_-kUO-dvkqhKvbKIGKar3GWcOVzlPMBzoQNwylYFZqZVvBPr75JuClGuEhOfL47bRS0yC5vn_RuJ-IPAJzyGc2s1Vi_3u8dYH4/s320/Interzone+200.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265276835805328546" border="0" /></a><br /><span><span>The last paragraph of the story is as follows:</span></span><br /><br /><span><span><blockquote style="font-family: arial;">"Well, we would have been denied our President Barack Obama, who just allowed me back into the States a week ago Tuesday. About him, at least, I have no room to bitch."</blockquote><br />My question to the blogging masses is: does anybody know of fiction (not non-fiction) that imagined a President Barack Obama that was published before September 2005?<br /><br />As a second query: what might be the first story (or novel) that imagined a black President of the USA?</span></span>Jetse de Vrieshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09995292305473339386noreply@blogger.com0