Sable Aradia's Blog, page 41
April 5, 2018
Story Review: “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison
“Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Read for the 12 in 12 Challenge.
This story won the 1965 Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Short Story.
In a dystopian future, the forces of order have managed to gain control over everything, including our time. Lateness is punished by having the number of minutes you have delayed removed from your lifespan, until eventually, the chronically late are simply “turned off.”
I would be dead already in this world, which is probably why I see it as far more sinister than others who have reviewed it have seen it. They see it as a funny and satirical tale of a dystopian future that makes commentary on society’s current obsession with schedules and rules. I don’t see it as funny at all. When the tyranny of control involves even the control of your time, then all aspects of life become firmly controlled out of terror – and that’s exactly what some people want.
Into this horrible world comes the Harlequin – who, like me, has no time sense, and therefore, is in a position to see the horror of this society. Consequently he seeks to upset it by throwing monkey wrenches into schedules. His stunts are almost Joker-like in the random chaos they seem to instill.
Harlan Ellison was a prolific story-writer, who left a long legacy of disturbing and thought-provoking stories. This is certainly one of the most memorable.
Stephen King fans will recognize his deliberate pastiche to the Tick Tock Man out of the Dark Tower series, and they probably have chalked it up to that odd mixture of humour and horror that he often uses; but I believe King understood the deeper implications of the Tick Tock Man’s tyranny, and while there certainly was and is an element of ridiculousness in the character (and the one who whom he drew the parallel in the Dark Tower,) I think his intent was all horror.
Everyone should read this story.
April 4, 2018
Nuclear Fusion on Brink of Being Realised, say MIT scientists
By Hannah Devlin
The dream of nuclear fusion is on the brink of being realised, according to a major new US initiative that says it will put fusion power on the grid within 15 years.
The project, a collaboration between scientists at MIT and a private company, will take a radically different approach to other efforts to transform fusion from an expensive science experiment into a viable commercial energy source. The team intend to use a new class of high-temperature superconductors they predict will allow them to create the world’s first fusion reactor that produces more energy than needs to be put in to get the fusion reaction going.
Bob Mumgaard, CEO of the private company Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which has attracted $50 million in support of this effort from the Italian energy company Eni, said: “The aspiration is to have a working power plant in time to combat climate change. We think we have the science, speed and scale to put carbon-free fusion power on the grid in 15 years.”
Read the full article at The Guardian.
April 3, 2018
Writing with Colour: Description Guide for Skin Tones
By Mod Colette
We discussed the issues describing People of Color by means of food in Part I of this guide, which brought rise to even more questions, mostly along the lines of “So, if food’s not an option, what canI use?” Well, I was just getting to that!
This final portion focuses on describing skin tone, with photo and passage examples provided throughout. I hope to cover everything from the use of straight-forward description to the more creatively-inclined, keeping in mind the questions we’ve received on this topic.
So let’s get to it.
Read the full article at Writing with Color.
April 2, 2018
April 1, 2018
March 31, 2018
Book Review: The Big Front Yard by Clifford D. Simak
The Big Front Yard by Clifford D. Simak
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Read for the 12 in 12 Challenge and the Big Fun in a Little Package Novella Challenge.
This story won the 1959 Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
This story is a fun speculation about what happens when ordinary folks in a small town are the first to make contact with an alien intelligence. It’s lighthearted, fun and perfectly plausible. I see that someone else here was reminded of The Tommyknockers, and I was as well, so I suspect that, like with many other classic science fiction stories, Stephen King read it and then said, “And what if it had gone a different way?”
I enjoyed it quite a lot! It didn’t blow my mind or anything, but I suppose that’s probably because the idea has been revisited since many times, although never has it been as done as well.
Well worth the read!
March 30, 2018
The History of Cultural Groups in the Wyrd West
This essay details the history of various cultural groups in the Wyrd West, and how and why they developed the way that they did.
With the fluctuating, and often regional, changes in physics after the Cataclysm, a lot of modern technology that we take for granted in today’s world were rendered useless; or, worse, dangerously unreliable. Telegraphs, for example, work in some areas and not others. Societies have replaced mass transportation with steam trains once again, because they are the most effective, reliable technology for the purpose over the fluctuating regional challenges.
These changes also created significant shifts in climate. In general, the North American continent warmed up. This was disastrous in the Southern United States, who were beleaguered with droughts, hurricanes, and shifting ecosystems. Canada, overall, came out ahead, with more arable land as much of the Arctic melted. It didn’t escape unscathed; for instance, much of the BC Interior reverted to grasslands and tangled wilderness.
Canadian and American society were, for the most part, woefully unprepared for the conditions of immediate survival following the technological, and subsequent societal, collapse. Traditional ways of life had to be re-discovered. In general, the groups with the greatest survivability were the ones who were already somewhat prepared, or whose structures allowed them to get prepared quickly.
Canada’s indigenous peoples, as a whole, suffered less than many other groups. The reasons are threefold. The first is that there are significant groups of indigenous peoples who still maintain the skills needed for a traditional way of life. The second is that since much of the greatest damage of the Cataclysm was in large cities, traditional sovereign indigenous territory, especially in isolated areas such as the Treaty 8 territory, was comparatively less affected, and often benefited from the changes to the climate, becoming more hospitable. The third was that indigenous spirituality was more suited to the new conditions of the changed world, and this gave them a leg up in dealing with the spirits running freely in the land.
Survivalist sects also did comparatively well. Often this category includes fundamentalist and “heretical” Christian groups that emphasize practical and traditional skills, such as the Mormons, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Mennonites, the Quakers, and so forth. Unsurprised by the apparent fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, they simply went on as they always had, trading cars for horses. Their beliefs were strongly challenged by the changed spiritual conditions of their world, but for the most part, they adapted. Some came to view them all the spirits as demons, while others simply accepted that God had created many creatures, but humanity still had dominion over the Earth.
Another group that did well were the Neo-Pagans, for the same reason; for many Pagans, there was a powerful emphasis on rediscovering traditional skills, so they were better prepared than the average person when the Cataclysm came. Their spirituality was affirmed rather than challenged by the changed spiritual conditions of the world.
A third group that did well in the initial days of the Cataclysm were aggressive Neo-Nazi terrorist groups. They, too, were equipped with traditional skills, and they were also equipped with large arsenals. In the early days, since horses had degenerated in 21st century society into hobby creatures mostly maintained by the wealthy and a handful of farms, wars were fought for possession of them.
Indigenous peoples, rightfully distrusting Caucasians, refused to deal with them except in the greatest necessity. So the Christians and the Pagans banded together for mutual protection against the Neo-Nazi groups. They were aided by Asian families with traditional magic and traditional fighting skills; and by Sikh warriors who had maintained their traditional fighting skills. Eventually the Sikhs became known entirely by the name of that warrior caste, the Khalsa.
At about this time, humanity began encountering the first elves, dwarves, gnomes, and so forth. Their reaction was mixed. Neo-Pagan groups embraced them, while Christian groups were confronted with either expanding their definition of “humanity” or declaring them creatures of the devil. Neo-Nazis also, surprisingly, had a mixed reaction; many who followed Old Norse beliefs in the manner of Neo-Pagans regarded them as an affirmation of Ragnarok, and had no quarrel with them; while others expanded the targets of their race war. This caused a deep schism in their ranks, significantly reducing their threat to the other surviving groups.
For their own part, the other peoples, who were interlopers from other dimensions, had mixed reactions to humanity. Some found themselves at odds, others found reasons to work together for mutual survival. Some disdained humanity, others loved them, and still others viewed them as an existential threat, leading to anti-human racism.
No one knows where the Gunslingers began for sure, but legend has it that a group of Neo-Pagan witches and Heathens from the BC Interior, who happened to include a large number of historical recreationists and retired military personnel in their numbers, formed the Order to protect the disparate peoples of their valley. They quested for the legendary weapons of the Gunslingers and Desperados of history, in some cases stealing them from abandoned museums, in other cases letting spiritual guidance direct them to the sites where they lay buried and forgotten. Forced to migrate inland due to radioactive fallout and climate change, they eventually found themselves in the heart of Canada’s bread basket, Saskatchewan, and settled down to form a new life. Bandits and murderers also arose, but under the protection of the Gunslingers, they held off most of the depredations and began to rebuild society.
Sometime during this time, elves discovered that their faerie steeds were not thriving in this new dimension, so some of the faerie steeds of the elven tribes made an agreement with the Gunslingers to breed to the common horses of this world and thus, preserve some of their intelligence. The resulting equines became the first Gunslinger horses.
March 29, 2018
Story Review: The Star by Arthur C. Clarke
The Star by Arthur C. Clarke
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Read for the 12 in 12 Challenge.
This story won the 1956 Hugo for Best Short Story.
This, along with A Case of Conscience by James Blish, is a story from a similar period in which the author confronts the apparent opposition of astrophysics with faith. The 50s were a time of amazing developments in physics and astrophysics, and I imagine that the discoveries must have seemed overwhelming, and challenging to a God-centered universe as detailed in Judeo-Christian faiths. Of course many people have found ways to resolve that conflict since then. But even now, I imagine that some people (perhaps the evangelicals in particular) would find the ideas presented in this story directly challenging.
Well worth a read, if for no better reason than to consider the effects of such science fiction on present-day religious and scientific thought.
Reading this review might be interesting to provide a contracting voice in confronting the confrontations that Arthur C. Clarke presents.
March 28, 2018
Bacteria Eats Heavy Metals, Excretes Gold Nuggets
By Michael Irving
If the goose that laid the golden egg had a real-life counterpart, it would be C. metallidurans. This hardy little bacterium consumes toxic metals and excretes tiny gold nuggets, but how and why it does so has never been fully understood. Now, German and Australian researchers have peered inside the microorganism and figured out that mechanism.
C. metallidurans has carved out a nice little niche for itself, usually living in soils full of heavy metals, which are toxic to most other microorganisms. But this bacteria has evolved a defense mechanism to help it not only survive but thrive under those conditions, and its ability to turn toxic compounds into gold is well known enough to once earn it a place in an alchemy art installation.
Read the full article at New Atlas.
March 27, 2018
Book Review: Enemy Mine by Barry B. Longyear
Enemy Mine by Barry B. Longyear
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Read for the 12 in 12 Challenge and the Big Fun in a Little Package Novella Challenge.
This book won the 1979 Nebula and 1980 Hugo and Locus Awards for Best Novella.
I saw the movie many years ago. In the days of VHS, I got a copy and watched it over and over again until the tape was stretched and there were lines of colourful static running through parts of it.
This is a story of how two sworn enemies are forced to work together to survive, and thus, become the best of friends, even family. It’s powerful, and we still need it now every bit as much as we needed it in 1980.
I have read the original award-winning novella as presented in the book The Super Hugos, not the adaptation from the screenplay adapted from the novella, and it’s even more beautiful and powerful than the movie, perhaps. In part, I think it’s because it was portrayed in such plain language. Longyear’s POV character, Willis Davidge, is a soldier. He’s very plain-spoken. There’s no flowery language involved in his journey; just the facts, presented as he sees it, and it’s amazing.
This story (from its movie format) almost certainly has influenced my writing and my love of sci-fi. I think you’ll see elements of it in the work I’m currently doing.
Please do yourself a favour and find this original novella, and read it.
