Sunday, July 17, 2005
 
I have finally got around to restyling and beginning to sort out my neglected SFF.net site. In the process, I discovered how to fix certain elements on the page, like a head-bar and navigation sidebar, so I get the benefit of frames without losing the navigation information. I've used div tags to block out the page, in this particular case into classes of banner, sidebar, and main. Banner and sidebar have position: fixed. There are a few glitches: images and links are visible through the header and jumping to within page tags puts the target at the top of the page, ie, underneath the banner. And it requires a more recent browser; I have to look at it yet in an older browser to see whether it degrades gracefully, or not. But in Firefox and IE, on a Mac, it looks pretty good.


Saturday, July 16, 2005
 


Friday, July 15, 2005
 
A big "thanks!" to SciFi writer Derryl Murphy for dropping into the NorSpec writers meeting, July 9, 2005. Derryl generously gave of his time to discuss markets, editing and authors' rights with NorSpec members at the Kizmet Cafe, in Prince George, where the group met in July. Derryl's collection of short stories, Wasps at the Speed of Sound was recently launched at Art Space, in Prince George.


Thursday, July 14, 2005
 

A brief, very civilized discussion on SFCanada this spring, about the dread "definition of science fiction" left me feeling mildly disgruntled. I am therefore grateful for articles such as Claude Lalumière's feature Fear of Fiction: Campbell's World and Other Obsolete Paradigms. I remember feeling excluded by Campbell and company's vision of science fiction as a young adult, when I was reading them like they were gospel. The "Golden Age" paradigm in which nothing changes much but the science toys or planetary setting, is twice as wrong now. In the 1950s, it made sense. Science, as a powerful agent of change, was still pretty new and exciting to the average reader. By the time I was reading about it in the 1970s as a science student with literary aspirations, it was hard to digest. As a science fiction author in the 21st century, I agree with Claude that the "Golden Age" vision of SciFi is something we ought to have the courage to -- respectfully -- reject! My reasons differ from his, in their details, as any two people's might.


To simplify my reasons for rejecting the "Golden Age" vision, and cast them in a context appropriate to the "Reality Skimming Blog", I'll cite my frustration concerning my own fiction. My understanding of the SF mission was that one should tells stories about settings and conditions that are really different from our own, but still close enough to be a meaningful arena in which to set human experience. SF readers, I presumed, were keen to experience something really different and new. I soon found that, to the contrary, just like anyone else, SF folks have a hard time taking in new information. Changing the facial lumps or markings on faces is coool, and inventing a new gun is fine, but proposing changes to social systems? Noboby gets that! And taking a serious look at how to prevent total warfare destroying civilization? Weird. SF is about making faster, better, more destructive weapons or security systems ... right? The first impulse of most SF readers presented with either the Sevolite or Reetion systems of social control, as presented in the Okal Rel Universe series, is to insist someone would "get around them". To treat it like a game where the objective is to find the cheat. Now, I am not denying that there are people who will do exactly that. Any system that proposes a serious restriction on the means and methods of mass destruction has to deal with the question of what to do with sociopaths and rugged individualists of all stripes, good and evil. But the very question of how to avoid mass destruction if you are capable of it seems to offend a lot of typical SF people, as if using the genre as a vehicle to limit technological "progress" in any and all directions, is heresy. Speaking as someone who grew up in the 70s, wondering how world leaders could be so completely nuts to even seriously contemplate destroying all life on Earth for any reason whatsoever ... I'm convinced that problems of social control are way more vital to our existance in the long run than any advance in the hard sciences. And no ( * heaving a great sigh * ) I don't mean social control of the 1984 sort. That's definitely bad-evil-big-government-conspiracy stuff. I mean seriously thinking about, and dramatically exploring, how to strike a workable balance between collective rights and those of the individual, in societies with the potential to inflict mass destruction. Methods, in essense, for how to live in a glass house when we are so damn prone to throwing stones.



Thursday, July 07, 2005
London Bombings July 7
 




Compassion for the victims. Wisdom for our world. May we hang on to the courage to be free, and dare to defend our values, not sacrifice them to fear.



Sunday, July 03, 2005
Westercon, second day (and after)
 
Somehow I managed to produce my last post in triplicate; serves me right for messing with the template, trying to contribute to the Technorati thread on Westercon.

Second day (yesterday) consisted of 3 panels sat on, none listened to, two books bought, one bank found, one old stamping ground revisited. The first panel was "Part time writer", four writers, all from BC (does that says something about BC funding for the arts, BC writers, or simply about the networks) talking about writing when you have a full-time day-job (the basic condition of the majority of writers, since as Derryl Murphy pointed out, the mean annual income of SFWA members from their writing was in the $2000-$3000 range). The panelists were Derryl Murphy, whose first short story collection Wasps at the Speed of Sound is just out; Nina Munteanu; and Mark Anthony Brennan, and myself). Discussion ranged over how to make the switch from daytime work to nighttime work, how to recharge oneself, writing every day versus writing in bursts, how the daytime work fed into the nighttime work, Canada Council Grants, writer's retreats, protecting time and space, the freedom to be noncommercial vs the risks of being noncommercial.

[Continued, August 21] The next panel was Earth as a Model for Other Planets, which went in unexpected directions. I should have read the panel description a touch more carefully, to realize that it specificially evoked prehistory as a model. I came prepared to look sideways; however co-panellists were Blair Peterson, James C. Glass and Larry Niven, and we got all the way down to the molecular, discussing the properties of water in supporting life, as well as back to Snowball Earth.

Making a Human Alien (third day) was another strong panel that covered a lot of ground. Memory's a little foggy, but I think the roster was Danita, Blair, Kathryn Myronuk, and Hayden Trenholm, all of whom came with background in genetics, medicine, or policy, and all of whom came at the idea of human bioengineering from different directions - feasibility, vs. lack of feasibility, individual procreative choice vs. social good. Much of the discussion took on a technical feasibility vs. post-9/11 paranoia theme: Would the need to experiment and cull - acceptable in plants, unacceptable in humans - restrict the rapid implementation of these methods in humans, or would cheap and rapidly automated biotechnology land us in a scenario similar to what we are seeing today with the internet and computer viruses, with biohackers, bioterrorists, and garage virus engineers rampant?

On the Monday I managed to pause in my social whirl and attend two panels, the first being the future of Tor books, and the second the alternative energy panel. I made it in time to hear the last three paragraphs of Dave Duncan's reading.


Saturday, July 02, 2005
Westercon, First Day
 
Arrived late Thursday night. So far the score is No. panels given, 1, No. panels attended, 0. I am abashed, because there were several panels I would have gone to but that I had a couple of items left over from the week at work to take care of that I thought could be done within an hour. Slight misjudgement there. I am determined I have left work behind me now.

The one panel I sat on was a relaxed 9 pm panel on "SF Mind Control" with a good-sized, active audience. The other panelists were Donna McMahon and Danita Masian (whose first novel, Rogue Harvest, had its launch today). We had as much real world reflection as SF: cults, Bountiful, propaganda, Nazis, cold war, office life, conformity, the "7-up" series of documentaries, religion, gender socialization, criminality, biological basis of behavior; what was socialization, what was indoctrination, and what was mind control; whether the Internet was something that gave us immunity from the kind of media control that fascist and Bolshevik regimes exercised. Books and films mentioned: The Manchurian Candidate, 1984, Brave New World, We, The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Puppet Masters, Stepford Wives, Dances with Knives.

I also caught up with people - having lived in Calgary from 1995-2000, and attended at least 5 Con-Versions over 8 years, there are a great many familiar faces - and having 4 days instead of the usual 2 is making that a much less scrambled affair. I've made it into the Dealer's Room, which at the last con I went to (V-con) I never even did, and I might make it into the art show. This year they're offering guided tours with a docent, which I think is an excellent idea.

Calgary is extraordinarily green and puddled, and you ask locals about it and they just shake their heads and groan. I've heard sad stories about flooded basements and destroyed books, including stocks of the writers' own. Mosquitos are plentiful with all the standing water, so there were opening night jokes about mosquitos bearing off some of the guests. A zealous parent outside the Y nailed not only her wriggling child but my passing self with citronella. Prince Edward Island Park was flooded, so the Shakespeare in the Park has moved to Mount Royal - but it alas does not start until after I leave. Stampede is impending, with even the swank downtown hotels mounting plywood saloon faces and all the guests appearing at opening in white 10-gallon hats.


HOME