M. Thomas Apple's Blog, page 59
December 31, 2018
The Ultima Thule Awakens! (Well, OK, New Horizons Awakens, Fine…)
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It’s been a long 13 years.
Remember New Horizons? The Little Probe That Could?
No?
You know, the photos of Pluto, Formerly Known As the Ninth Planet?
Doesn’t ring a bell?
Hmpf. Go read about about it.
Anyway, by sheer chance, New Horizons happens to be close enough to grab some pictures of an object in the Kuiper Belt (which looks like KEW-per or KWEE-per but is actually pronounced KAI-per and is completely unrelated to former SF Giants player and current announcer Duane).
Ever wanted to see a peanut-shaped tiny rock (or rocks)
Only half a day left!
Read all about it, uh, pretty much anywhere online, really:
December 28, 2018
Earthrise: Fifty years and counting (Don’t count on it)
“To really think about ourselves as citizens of Earth is something that I think we’re still working toward,” Jacob Haqq-Misra, a research scientist at Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, told Space.com. “[Seeing this image] may be enjoyable and fun and awe-inspiring, and you might think about it later that day, but I don’t think most people have a perception of ‘I’m a citizen of Earth’ when they’re driving to work.”
He’s curious how potential future space developments — establishing a human presence on Mars, or discovering extraterrestrial intelligence, for example — might make that Earthling perspective easier to grasp by creating a group to contrast it against.
That’s us: the forever simian, defining ourselves in contrast to what we aren’t as opposed to what we could be.
So what would happen if some of us became Martians, Venusians, or Jovians? Hmmm…
www.space.com/42842-earthrise-apollo-8-photograph-50-years-later.html
December 24, 2018
Not anthropomorphic but anthropogenic climate change SF
[image error]Yes, climate change is real.
Yes, some of these five classic SF novels from Tor are really about pollution and not climate change per se.
Yes, that doesn’t really matter.
The Sheep Look Up is still the best of the bunch. And (not surprisingly) somewhat prophetic.
Le plus chose change…
(P.S. Happy Yuletide. Bwah ha ha…)
December 23, 2018
Who’s up for some Mars skating?
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Just in time for Christmas!
The Korolev Crater, 51 miles wide and over a mile deep of ice. Perfect spot to place a colony or two.
Or play a massive game of ice hockey. Game on!
December 21, 2018
You must not go into the Wood at night!
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Check out this free five-minute reading of “The Magic Wood,” by Henry Treece, one of many New Apocalypse poets who influenced Neil Gaiman’s dialogue in Sandman. Available only for the next 29 days.
Truly creepy. With Great Pleasure at Christmas (great title, BBC).
Link courtesy of the wordsmith Neil, himself, @neilhimself. Thanks!
December 19, 2018
Farout is, like, far out, man
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A newly discovered object is the most-distant body ever observed in the solar system—and the first object ever found orbiting at more than 100 times the distance from Earth to the sun.
Keep in mind this is in addition to several other dwarf planets — Eris, the “Goblin,” and Sedna. Oh, and of course Ceres (which is much closer than the others). And Pluto. Which used to be a “planet” and not a “dwarf planet” (I say COUNT THEM ALL! Planet / dwarf planet / who cares).
So why is 2018 VG18 important?
Because it adds to the existing body of knowledge indicating the possible existence of a mysterious “Planet 9” (which used to be Planet X before Pluto got demoted) — which still has not been actually observed (emphasis!) and yet is the source of endless internet hoaxes, influencing all the whackadoodles who think we’re about to be invaded by alien hordes and/or that the Nibiru Apocalypse is coming / has come / will have had already been coming repeatedly (the date keeps getting changed when the end fails to occur).
Like, far out, Farout.
December 17, 2018
André Patry and the King’s Daughter
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My mother was descended from a King’s Daughter.
OK, not actually a princess. Just someone who was paid by the French government to go to New France and marry a local farmer. But it still sounds cool to say we’re related to a King’s Daughter.
Les Filles du Roi were unmarried women recruited in the late 1600s to, as the Canadian Encyclopedia puts it, “correct the gender imbalance” in New France. Basically, the French government had originally only been interested in raping the New World of its resources and suddenly realized that there were many, many more English settlers in the colonies to the south. Without a larger population of people who had a vested interest in actually staying in New France longer than their military or fur trapper contracts obliged, New France could easily be overrun.
In the end, of course, this is essentially what happened. Although the 800-odd King’s Daughters were successfully married to farmers as well as French army soldiers — whom they were able to choose, as it turns out — the population of New France never came close to that of the British Colonies. But nearly two-thirds of present-day Québécois can trace their ancestry directly to a Fille du Roi.
And so can many US families, particularly in New England and New York. In my family;’s case, the King’s Daughter was Henriette Danielle Cartois.
Records of Henriette prior to her arrival in Québec City in 1671 are scarce, but there is some indication that she may have come from a Protestant family. If she were secretly a Huguenot, constantly under the threat of not just discrimination but open violence from the government, she may have been eager to escape France. This would be a very curious fact, if proven, considering that the despotic Louis XIV (the “Sun King”) refused to allow Huguenots to emigrate to New France.
Whatever her reasons for emigrating, it does seem that she was an independent-minded, strong-willed woman. Qualities necessary for survival in New France, where most had no reason to go.
Her first marriage was to Michel Autebout, who came from Le Mans, now famous for car racing. Evidently, Henriette had second thoughts after meeting her husband, as she annulled the marriage four days later, but then reconsidered and signed another marriage contract. The couple had two daughters, but Michel died after only a handful of years, leaving all his property to Henriette; little is known about Michel, but given his “dit” nickname (“Belhumeur,” or “The Good-natured one”), he was probably a former soldier in the French Army Carignan regiment, or perhaps the son of a soldier stationed in Québec City.
At the time her first husband died, Henriette had property valued at roughly 350 livres, to go along with the 50 livres given her as a Fille du Roi. In today’s money, that’s about $7000. Not too shabby.
It’s unknown why her first husband died, but fortunately (for my mother, and for me, and for a few thousand living Québécois) Henriette immediately got married again, this time to a farmer named André Patry (also spelled Patris or Patrie).
[image error]André’s story was written up some time ago in a book that is now out of print. Suffice to say that he is basically the progenitor of anybody named Patry in Québec — and there are lots of people by that name.
Originally a servant from Airvault — a small village northeast of La Rochelle after which it is said François Marie Arouet took his pen name of Voltaire — André worked long enough to become a freeman and own his own farm just outside Québec City.
His marriage to Henriette lasted until his death nearly 25 years later. During their marriage, André seems to have been constantly lending and borrowing property and money, and Henriette was constantly going to court to sue for proper payment. Whereas André was quite obviously terrible at running his finances, Henriette gained a reputation as a hard bargainer and was clearly more outspoken than her husband. She insisted that their marriage be “joint,” meaning that all of the property be owned equally by both husband and wife, which gave her a fair amount of clout (if not respect) in the community.
[image error]When André died in 1697 at the young age of 48, Henriette again signed a “joint” marriage contract with another former soldier (Jean Coutelet dit La Rochelle), but he reneged on the agreement, leaving her destitute. With two young children still at home, Henriette begged a neighbor to give her charity. When he refused, she stole 32 livres from his playing card table and ran off. She was quickly arrested and brought to the Provost of Québec (the highest judge in New France).
The judge must have felt lenient, as Henriette got married for a third and final time shortly thereafter, at the age of 51, to the same person who had previously reneged the marriage contract. Nothing more is known of her until she died in Saint-Vallier, a small farming community across the St. Lawrence River from Québec City, in 1728. Records at the time reported her age as “100,” but she was probably 77 or 78. Still, an impressive age, considering her life and times.
I have to wonder about the fact that all three of her husbands were from the Loire Valley. Michel was from Le Mans, farther inland, but André was from Airvault and Jean came from La Rochelle itself. The medieval Knights Templar-related coastal city of La Rochelle was a hotspot of religious conflict in the 1600s; the background of The Three Musketeers is the siege of La Rochelle and environs, and New Rochelle, New York, was founded by Huguenots fleeing religious persecution and violence.
The ship that carried Henriette to New France along with hundreds of other King’s Daughters left from La Rochelle. But most records claim that Henriette was from l’Île de Paris (or at least baptized there), and that her parents were from Châlons-en-Champagne, Marne, in the Champagne-Ardenne region northeast of Paris. Her parents were still alive when she was sent to New France.
So why did she go? Was she indeed coerced? Do she go voluntarily? Most of the King’s Daughters were destitute orphans. Henriette clearly was not.
Regardless of her reasons for emigrating, Henriette Danielle Cartois was clearly not a woman to be trifled with. Nearly 150 years after her death, her descendant Sophie Patry married Ferdinand Lewis dit Clermont, a descendant of a soldier in the conquering British Army of 1760. And their child Joseph brought my French ancestral line down to Troy, New York.
Distant relations? Sure. Only one of many. But had I known about this as a teenager, it would have made high school history class a whole lot more interesting…
For more on the King’s Daughters / Les Filles du Rois, visit Canada’s sesquicentennial website Canada: The Story of Us or stop by Les Filles du Roi and the Virtual Museum of New France, among many, many other web sites about this ten-year window into North American history.
December 16, 2018
Born on this Day (Dec 16): “Sir” Arthur C. Clarke and Philip K Dick “Esq.”
Two of the greatest Science Fiction authors of all time, were both born on this day December 16 – Arthur C. Clarke in 1917 and Philip K. Dick in 1928.
Note that I always put “Sir” in quotes, because, basically, $%# that BS. Clarke may have conceived of (NOT invented) the satellite, but PDK (NOT a “Sir”) has had infinitely more influence on modern society.
So I’m calling PKD “Esq.” Also a Pope. Remember that “All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense.” Hail Eris!
Anyway, thanks to blackwings666 for the reminder…
via SCIENCE FICTION LEGENDS: ARTHUR C. CLARKE & PHILIP K. DICK — blackwings666
December 14, 2018
I hazflare cheezeburger! I mean, Red Dwarf
Another red dwarf has been caught firing off a super powerful flare, further bolstering the notion that life might have a hard time taking root around these small, dim stars.
Well, no wonder there are no aliens. Smegging hell.
https://www.space.com/42196-red-dwarf-star-hazflare-bad-news-life.html
December 10, 2018
“Feel-bad Seventies Sci-Fi” — The influence on and by changing societies
[image error]I love ’70s sci-fi movies. Partly it’s because the early ’80s was the advent of the VHS/VCR and cable TV, and in late elementary school I was introduce to these movies for the first time.
Don’t even get me started about late ’70s / early ’80s sci-fi TV shows. Buck Rogers and the original Battlestar Galactica. Gil Gerard and Lorne Greene. My childhood heroes. Yikes.
Anyway, I’ve already written about how recent Chinese SF could be viewed as a result of (and a window into) modern zeitgeist and as a reflection on cultural and societal mores/fears/desires/hopes.
Cosgrrrl has written in a similar vein about what she calls the “feel-bad” sci-fi flicks of the ’70s. Problem: Many of the stories actually reflected concerns in a previous decade of society.
A brief run down of these “feel-bad” movies and their sources:
A Boy and His Dog (1975) – Based on a short story by Harlan Ellison from 1969.
A Clockwork Orange (1971) – Based on a novel by Anthony Burgess from 1962.
Logan’s Run (1976) – Based on a novel by William Nolan and Clayton Johnson from 1967.
The Omega Man (1971) – Based on a novel by Richard Matheson from 1954.
Rollerball (1975) – Based on a short story by William Harrison in 1973.
Silent Running (1972) – original screenplay, novelized the same year.
Soylent Green (1973) – Based on a novel by Harry Harrison from 1966.
Westworld (1973) – Original screenplay (Michael Crichton’s Hollywood directorial debut).
So out of the 8 movies listed, 6 are based (sometimes quite loosely, sometimes not) on previous stories. Only 1 of those stories was actually from the ’70s; 4 were written and published in the ’60s. One came from the ’50s.
So do these movies show “a glimpse into the mindset of filmmakers and audiences at that time”? I.e., the 1970s?
Yes and no.
[image error]Content-wise, clearly US science fiction had already been dealing with societal issues prior to the “national hangover” from the turbulent Sixties.
I Am Legend (which influenced zombie movies and TV shows in every decade since) was clearly a reaction to post-WWII nuclear apocalypse fears.
A Clockwork Orange has nothing to do with the US Sixties, being written by a British author at the end of the Fifties. The ending of the movie, however, is clearly Kubrick (totally different from the book).
Movie producers and scriptwriters were absolutely feeding on fears of a US movie audience in the Seventies. At least, until Star Trek and Star Wars came out and the era of “feel-bad” sci-fi ended (at least until the 21st century, post-9/11 world). So it is merely a difference between SF in written form vs in Hollywood form?
I think it would be telling to compare early to mid Seventies sci-fi movies with what was popular – much more popular – at the time. Mainstream US readers and moviegoers poo-pooed sci-fi my entire childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. SF was a fringe genre, watched only by “immature” teenagers who had no idea how to grow up and join the rest of “mature” society.
Now? Sci-fi rules the airwaves. Sorry, the streaming. (The airwaves still sounds better.)
[image error]But of course sci-fi has always been there. Even Buck Rogers was originally serialized in newspapers back in the ’20s and ’30s. (And it had a really horribly depressing ending, too.) It was only — guess what — Fifties US society that told us that sci-fi was the mask of an immature mind. Avid newspaper readers in the 1930s clearly didn’t think sci-fi was immature.
Cultures and societies change. So do their associated desires, fears, hopes, dreams, and so forth. That’s why we constantly see new adaptations of older stories. That’s OK. It’s the nature of stories. Which is why I Am Legend got made again as a Will Smith blockbuster in 2007 (with a really stupid ending), Battlestar Galactica had a reboot (2004 onwards, including spinoffs), and Westworld was reinvented (2016 – ). And of course Star Wars and Star Trek will never die, although they will (and have) adapted to fit perceived audience taste and demographics.
Also, don’t forget that big movie studios are notoriously risk-averse (they do fork over tons of money for production cost) and prefer to rehash old stories that they figure teenagers who are now grown up will go watch again.
Which is to say I think we should be on the look out for the next version of Flash Gordon at some point soon. (Besides the smartphone commercial, I mean.) Hopefully with less spandex and even less blatant racism. (And yes, the 1980 movie was based on a 1930s newspaper comic strip. Sense a pattern?)
I laugh when a literary agent tells me that the current “SF market” is “saturated.”
So what? When hasn’t it been? As long as there are people worried about the future, there will be sci-fi.
