Bobby’s Comments (group member since Mar 15, 2013)

Bobby’s comments from the Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy group.

It says " >spbbpptthh< " The definition is a little vague. Something about admitting that the other person is right and letting them "win" the perfectly pointless thread.

This is going to take years, isn't it?

In the fine print, I think the rules state you have to at least use words.

You weren't supposed to tell me.

I'm actually working on having disagreements with people with more grace, wisdom and equanimity. Any ideas? Wait, don't tell me. I

Hahahaha. Well, I've made a solemn vow to never let myself get caught up in such a way again buuuutt...I've made that vow before.

You know, the best way to do this is to start an argument with someone. Tell them their opinion sucks, a book they love sucks, a book they hate is actually GREAT, they should love it, and they're morons for not loving it or some such and you can just carry that argument on forever. Trust me, I know and it's not pretty.

Spooky1947 wrote: "as a kid, it had to be the Lock Ness Monster...i guess that falls under "folklore" more than myth, and MAYBE something odd is in the Lock, but it sure isn't a bunch of dinosaurs like I thought (hop..."

I bet we're around the same age. When I was a kid all of that, the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman, UFO's, were big news. It broke my heart as one by one, they've been debunked. When the guy who made that Bigfoot film came out and admitted it was a hoax right before he died, I was like, "What are you doing? Why did you tell us?"

Not that anybody cares but found it.

The Golem: A Jewish Legend

http://www.speechstuff4kids.com/media...

WOW. Seriously, what a question. There's another question somewhere in this group about the first science fiction/fantasy book you ever read and I'm pretty sure I said The Martian Chronicles. And I can't help thinking, in regards to this question, about the first story, "Ylla". What was it that got me so intensely? A sense of wonder, a sense of romance, there was something that I understood, experienced, recognized, remembered even though I was only a boy and couldn't have experienced anything quite like that yet. That one story and Ray Bradbury has been a favorite ever since (it didn't hurt that Bradbury could hit that same note again and again and again). Many people have talked about the sense of wonder (check), escapism (check) and Jake talked about the ability to explore ideas in a way that our physical world doesn't allow us to(check, check, check). There are times when I can see the human condition clearer through a science fiction or fantasy lens. I'm a classic "not religious but spiritual" type and what I take that to mean is that I'm searching. I was raised a Christian but I'm not any more but there is a hole there where I'm looking for something to fill that space. Science fiction and fantasy come the closest to giving me a sense of what it is I'm looking for.

Something like that. I don't know.

Hell of a question.

Angelica wrote: "I know I have said this a thousand times over before but I will also probably die saying it: Sci-Fi has no rules which is what makes it so awesome. I feel like people who fan-kid other genres are s..."

Um, yeah. What she said. Angelica, you should write.

Randy wrote: "I was always partial to the Golem, since it could be an ultimate force for good.

I did like the "weeping angels" from the Blink episode of Dr. Who."

The Golem! Nice one! I remember being captivated by a children's book about the Golem.

Can't seem to find it on Goodreads, though...

The first one that really caught my attention as a kid was the hydra. The whole cut-off-the-head-and-two-more-take-its-place thing was really thrilling in that way that such things are when you're six. I'll be damned though, if that metaphor doesn't come up over and over again in life whenever something unpleasant just won't go away.

A close second was another Greek legend: Medusa.

Charlton wrote: "Would this be the right forum for The Rocky Horror Picture Show?It did have some really good music and what to became some well known actors."

And it is science fiction...

Val wrote: "Can't believe I forgot Red Dwarf - that's for reminding Bobby! Red Dwarf - Series 1-6 + 10 :)"

My pleasure, Val! Yeah, love that show. I think the Wilma Flintstone vs. Betty Rubble conversation is one of the great comic dialogues of all time.

Movies:

Alien

The Thing (From Another World)

Blade Runner

The Terminator

The Incredibles

The Matrix

Star Wars

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad

Road Warrior

Television:

Red Dwarf

Star Trek (Kirk, Spock)

The Twilight Zone

X-Files

The Greatest American Hero

The Six Million Dollar Man (I haven't this one and the previous since I was a kid and it's probably a good idea not to go back).

Xena; Warrior Princess

Star Trek the Next Generation

The Outer Limits



Honorable Mentions

Raiders of the Lost Ark (Is it science fiction or fantasy? Definitely one of my all time favorites.)

For All Mankind (not science fiction but gave me that same feeling)

2001: A Space Odyssey (More of an intellectual thing. I don't know that it gave me the sheer exhilaration of the others.)

(I really LOVE to make these kinds of lists! I do! It's ridiculous.)

Spooky1947 wrote: "how about Wizards? it was a very good animated movie, did great at the box office for a week...Star Wars was released the very next weekend after Wizards hit and killed it...

another good animated..."

I also LOVED WIZARDS!

Laurel wrote: "The Empire Strikes Back. I was in second grade, the movie was in theaters (okay, I just gave away my age!), and my radical evangelical christian parents thought that Star Wars was the work of the ..."

Sounds like a great brother!

Spooky1947 wrote: "i look at it this way...at Harlan's age he can sue me, put me in the poor house, have me locked up, ect, but hes too old to kick my @$$ anymore...

even so, we still love ya Harlan...just calm down..."

You better hope he never finds out about you scamming the SFBC...

;)

Jim wrote: "Bobby wrote: "I'd be careful about calling Harlan Ellison a "leech". ..."

Cameron said it & I said I tended to agree in that case. It's not the first time anyone has said it & it won't be the las..."

Simmer down, slugger. I wasn't saying anybody did or did not have the right to say whatever they want. There's a huge history of writers, musicians, painters and other artists not getting their due or dying broke and hungry soooo...I'm not gonna lie, I tend to err on the side of the author. From my own experience I can tell you that if the artist doesn't look after his own interests no one else will. And like I said, I've heard Harlan's a difficult guy and it doesn't sound like I would want to know him.

But the fact of the matter is, I only really know him, ever need to know him, ever want to know him as reader to author. The only part of him that I'm personally familiar with, is his best self. And in that capacity, he has always come across as one of the most influential and evocative speculative fiction writers who ever lived.

Spooky1947 wrote: "yep, but at the same time all the non-SF people thought is was some great-super-mystical movie and i guess that helped sell it...even so, that 10 minutes should have stayed in"

I'm jealous. I have to see this version. Though, I have to say, I never missed it. I actually felt like it was pretty -- well, not clear exactly-- but I got it. Monolith, ape man looking at bones, monolith, ape man looking at bones, monolith, ape man picking up a bone, monolith, ape man hitting other bones with bone -- monolith was responsible for man's first use of tools! Now when I type it out it sounds dumber than it did when I first saw the movie but I always felt like I got it.