Science Time!

Beautiful enhanced pictures of dwarf galaxy NGC 1705, thanks to the Hubble.
And this article about ice cores and measuring climate change in the past.

Great Krugman column today.

And it does seem I was right about that latin phrase in the letter of resignation of the diplomat I mentioned a little while ago, 'oderint dum metuant' does mean "Let them hate so long as they fear."

Last night's news conference did not alter that perception, I think.

Okay, I'll reveal myself the 14 novels I didn't read on the list. Ones in bold...I want to read someday
5.A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
14.Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras
19.The Demolished Man, Alfred Bester
20.Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
28.I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
29.Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice
35 More Than Human, Theodore Sturgeon
36. The Rediscovery of Man, Cordwainer Smith
40.Rogue Moon, Algis Budrys
43.Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
48.The Sword of Shannara, Terry Brooks

My memory got jarred a bit. I originally counted Dragonflight and Mission of Gravity...but I realized upon reflection that I have read both (I'd really love a copy of the latter, I had to read it in the library since it was OOP at the time).

Arref talks about the books on the list that he hasn't read. Because the comments have been acting up lately, I decided to mention a couple of those books here.

11. The Book of the New Sun, Wolfe
Rich, involving, deep but not for sissies. Wolfe throws an interesting world at us, strange and arcane words, and a convoluted story with digressions and other surprises. Jim Groves got me into this set. Highly recommended.

16. The Colour of Magic, Pratchett
It IS silly, but its satire of the excesses of the fantasy genre is of a pretty good order. I've only read the first in the books, someday I will read more of them.

25. Gateway: Pohl
Not bad, but not especially "superb", either

27. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Adams:
Adams is to SF as Pratchett is to Fantasy. Do read it, and Don't Panic.

31. Little, Big, Crowley
I just recently read this myself. It was slow and ponderous, interesting but not perfectly to my taste in the end.

33. The Man in the High Castle, Dick
IMO, Dick's best novel.

39. Ringworld, Niven
My first Niven novel, as it so happens. The sequels grow lamer and lamer as they progress but the original is still a classic

49. Timescape, Benford
Before I got turned off on Benford on his antics with his Foundation novel, he wrote some good stuff. This one involves communication through time, and attempts to change a horrible future by communicating with the past. It's a story more about scientists than the actual science.

Which Price is Right?

The article had special interest to me, of course, because of my background working in the computer department of a grocery store. I already knew one of the truths of this article--not everyone pays the same price for the same exact goods. And this is, I think, a trend which will only increase in the future.

Some Significant (to me) SF/Fantasy Books that I have read

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury and I, Robot by Issac Asimov
First two SF books I have ever read.

The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings, by Tolkien
As above, for Fantasy. I read this entire set over a few days before the showing of the execrable animated version on television
one weekend when I was 11 or 12. Of course I didn't know how bad it would be before I saw it.

Expanded Universe, by Robert Heinlein
Oddly enough, my first Heinlein, although I read Time Enough for Love and The Past Through Tomorrow at about the same time. Not the usual choices to begin his oeuvre, admittedly. I later caught up with his other books and novels.

The First Amber series, by Roger Zelazny
The second fantasy I ever read, which eventually got me into the ADRPG and its wonderful community. Is it any wonder that after reading Tolkien and Zelazny, that a lot of the fantasy of the 1980's seemed weak to me? (eg. Terry Brooks or Goodkind or even Robert Jordan)

The Planet of Adventure novels, by Jack Vance
My first exposure to the Master. I am very happy to report that the GURPS supplement covering the books will be out this summer.

The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove
The work that got me into his Alternate history novels.

Wow.
Mongoose Publishing is doing a D20 take on Babylon 5, due early summer.

Yummy!

Via Roll the Bones

AS a postscript...I've only read 34 of these 50.

The 50 most significant SF Books of the last fifty years, 1953-2002

As chosen by the SF Book Club. I won't present the entire list here, go read it for yourselves, but I do want to comment on a few of the entries.

1. The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

No real argument here, the seminal fantasy work.
2. The Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov

I might have switched this with the # 3 entry, mainly because it is read more and Dune is, I feel, far more an obvious influence on Space Opera.
3. Dune, Frank Herbert

See above.
4. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein

Influential? I am not sure. Controversial, definitely.
5. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin

I disagree. I think The Left Hand of Darkness (which comes in at #30) should be here instead

6. Neuromancer, William Gibson
No argument, even if pure cyberpunk was and isn't really my style.

7. Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
Again, I would have picked one of his other works. 2001, for example. Or Rendevous with Rama.

8. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K. Dick

Yes, because it brought Dick to the attention of Hollywood, and Blade Runner has influenced a raft of SF books and movies alike.

9. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
Not a bad choice here either, its helped spark a sub-section of Fantasy. "Celtic Fantasy Trilogies" often with a strong
female element.

10. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

Especially important work these days. (Hint: John Ashcroft)

Some of the choices in the 50 are odd, or unfamiliar or just plain weird:
#13 Children of the Atom, Wilmar Shiras ??? I might be nyeh kulturni, I've never heard of this.

Sword of Shannara?!? Why is that there at all?
Is Cordwainer Smith's The Rediscovery of Man really more significant than
a raft of other choices--Hyperion by Dan Simmons, mayhap? And where is Stapledon in the list? (They do have
Cities in Flight by Blish, that's something). None of the Heinlein juveniles? (the other Heinlein is Starship Troopers).

But I guess everyone has their own "list" of SF books (or just plain books) significant to THEM. Perhaps today, given time,
I will post mine (and maybe start another meme, hey?)

Hmm, can you hear me now?

Terminus Est and Jacta Alea Est

It's latin for "This is the line of division" and "The Die is cast"

After soul-searching and a Hamletian lethargy, I have finally, officially decided to take the offer made to me, and leave Southern California.

I have given notice to my landlord, and notice to work (just a few minutes ago). It's real, and I have crossed the line of no return. California shall shortly no longer be my home.

Where am I going and who are my benefactors? Now that its official---My benefactors are the Olsons, and thus I will be moving to the land of 10,000 lakes and 10,000,000,000 mosquitos. Yes, the state of Minnesota.

It's not such a stretch. It might have well been one of the finalists (Pittsburgh, PA being the other) of places I might have gone to escape my family and poor home life. And being 2000 miles away from the wreckage of the disaster of my relationship with Bonnie and simultaneously being closer to many of you (although not too close to my meddling family) suits me well.

Revised my entry below a bit. I guess I hit a pessimistic patch there. I don't think SF and Fantasy and RPGs are "doomed to die" but on the other hand, I keep going back to a thought experiment--if I was twelve today, what would get my allowance (or paper route money or whatever).

Perhaps when I do get into the educational system, I will have first-hand rather than statistical knowledge of the situation, and see for myself what is really going on...and even influence matters a bit. Reading and imagination are valuable things. Harold Bloom might be a pompous ass, but he has a point. Reading is hard work, but its good work. Anything which keeps a child from being a mindless, soulless drone is a good thing. The printed word, I feel, has a greater capacity for this than, say, Movies or other graphic media at this time because it does require an engagement between the writer and the reader.

It's far easier to "turn off your brain" for a movie than it is for a book.

The graying of science fiction fandom

More Speculative Fiction novels are being produced than ever. Fantasy novels are especially popular, and prevalent, as are the ever-growing number of "media tie-in" novels. I looked at my latest copy of Locus and was amazed at how many novels there were out there that looked interesting. I probably could reserve myself to only a couple of authors and just barely keep up with their work.

There is just one problem though. Reading, especially speculative fiction reading, is skewing older and older. The fans are, as a demographic, aging and graying. Simple statistics tells you that if you don't "replace" your numbers, the average age of SF fans is going to go up. And that is precisely what is happening. Worldcons and other cons are increasingly dominated by older attendees.

But why?

It's similar to the reasons I gave on my previous entry on Gaming. Reading takes work, speculative fiction even more so. Every genre has its jargon, its methodology, its "standard" set of practices. Speculative fiction requires more than most. Science Fiction is often the worst at this, since an entire world often has to be created, even if its only a few short years in the future. To say nothing of a huge, space-opera universe a la Peter Hamilton or Frank Herbert. By contrast, a basic horror novel, or mystery is a much easier genre in which to learn the conventions.

Then there is the gender factor. I am not condoning it, but it seems that out of the two headed hydra of fantasy and science fiction, there is a tendency for women to prefer the former and men the latter. I see this on the bus all of the time. If a woman is reading a novel, its far more likely to be Laurell Hamilton than Peter F. Hamilton. According to Locus, the ratio of female readers of Spec-fic to male readers is rising. This is not solely or even primarily due to an influx of female readers although that is the case.

The number of readers, especially male SF readers is decreasing as the population ages. The Golden Age of SF is 12, or so Asimov said, certainly by the time I was 12, I was "into" SF. Today, a creative and precocious 12 year old is more likely to play their Playstation than read an SF novel, or play RP games. The fumbling attempts to re-capture the spirit of the Heinlein juveniles lately is just that...fumbling.

I can hear you saying now. "But what about Harry Potter?"

Harry Potter is a good thing for fantasy and SF alike, but there is a lack of evidence that kids who finish reading those novels are trying any others of either sub-genre. Publishers are trying hard to capitalize on the HP phenomenon, but so far, such attempts are not working. Novels like Artemis Fowl or the Magickers are not being snatched up as quickly as HP. The kids simply want more HP, not more Spec-fic.

I don't think that SF will "wither away" necessarily, but perhaps its just pessimism, but I look at the myriad other things available to a twelve year old and wonder how the printed SF word will, in the end, survive among the thousand other, more flashy delights available today, to say nothing of what is to come in the future. As Arref pointed out in one of the comments, with the myriad delights available, there are less dollars for each one.

A not so cheery Role Call #8this week

Is roleplaying a dying hobby?

I'm a pessimist at heart, and by experience. Things that I hope will go right inevitably fall apart, by tragedy or my design, cosmic or otherwise. So my feelings about such matters are usually discolored by such emotions and it takes real effort to be objective. Forgive any unwarranted bias, heretofore.

I really have to do a post today about a tangential issue: Is Speculative fiction dying? since many of the same principles apply.

Let's face it. Gamers are not a common lot. Gaming is a creative activity which requires work. There is something to it, though, the exercise of imagination, one might say it is old as Man, to imagine, to dream of different places and being there, doing different things. As Arref points out there was roleplaying long before Gygax.

With that said, however, role playing games in their current form were in a decline until the revision of Dungeons and Dragons into their "D20" aspect, and its clear a lot of games are melding into that format. It might be that this second renaissance is doomed to be short lived, since the number of new gamers is steadily falling. The people roleplaying now, by and large, have been doing so for some time. Its not absolute, of course, as witness Arref's experience, as linked above.

Why?

Greater Competition from various sources. Its a much more diverse world than when I was 12. (Following the Golden Age philosophy, it seems to work for RPGs as well as SF). When I was 12, the compeitition for my creativity wasn't as intense as it was today. Cable had just started (and I didn't have it). Computers were primitive and the Atari 2600 was still a pretty new idea. There was no blistering barrage of cable television shows, advanced consoles of a thousand stripes, collectible card games on the Pokemon or Magic model...it was easy for me to fall into SF, and into roleplaying.

I'm not sure that a hypothetical version of me, aged 12, would necessarily follow that path today. I would like to think I would, but its certainly harder to find the "signal" of roleplaying amongst the "noise" of other entertainments. This is not to say that I don't watch television or play computer games...I do both. But would I have been hooked on roleplaying today? I am not sure. And the "graying" of roleplayers as a general rule is an indication of that, I think.

That said, however, as a general rule, roleplaying will never die. Its forms might change, its medium might be altered, but the general exercise of the imagination will live on as long as humans are not soulless automatons. However, pen and paper "Tabletop" roleplaying. Yes, I think its in a decline. It may go out entirely, only to be "resurrected" someday in a new form, in a new medium. The consolidation of a lot of RPG stuff into D20 is not a good sign--just as the loss of biodiversity in an area is a sign of ecological trouble. The quantity of RPG stuff may even increase for a while, but if they are all branches of the same root system, its not healthy at all--it suggests a basic lack of support for other ideas.