Yesteryear's Future

Thoughts Provoked by A.C.Clarke’s Death

Carma — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:58:00 +0000

You may already know this — in fact, if you are any kind of SF fan, I know you know this — but Arthur C. Clarke has passed away. He was 90 years old. That’s how old my maternal grandpa was when he died.

I’m not sure why I made that connection, but I did. This leads me to the idea behind all good stories. You know the ones I’m talking about. Those stories that you remember for years after reading them, almost as if you read them last week.

Why is that?
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Semi-Off Topic Pet Peeve

Carma — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:22:15 +0000

Have you noticed a growth in the number of T.V. shows about U.F.O.s lately? They seem to be proliferating in the wake of the ghost-related shows.

Anyway, I was watching one in the background the other day and I noticed a bit of poor word usage that seems to be common among the, for the lack of a better term, “U.F.O. Community.”

The speaker was talking about a sighting and saying that he didn’t know whether the object in question was a U.F.O. or not.

Now, let’s step back a minute. What does the term “U.F.O.” mean? It means “unidentified flying object.” Therefore, if the object is flying and you don’t know what it is, it is, by definition, a U.F.O.

What I believe the speaker was trying to say was that he didn’t know if the object in question was of alien origin or not.

It really bothers me that people use “U.F.O.” to be synonymous with “flying saucer” or “alien aircraft.” They are not the same. They may overlap, but they are not the same.

Erg! There’s my rant for the month. Do you have any pet peeves that you’ve come across within the science fiction community? Please share them as a comment to this post.

The Future Is Now

Carma — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:50:19 +0000

I think I talked about this before, but a lot of what was once far-out science fiction is common place today. Yes, we’re not all driving flying cars and we don’t have colonies on the Moon or Mars, but there is still much about life today that was pure imagination yesterday.

Here are some articles I found around the ‘net that talk about this subject:

Life … but not as we know it
By Richard Watson, The Sydney Morning Herald

Hunter: Technology keeps own pace
By David Hunter, KnoxNews.com

One Giant Leap, Followed by Decades of Baby Steps
By Dennis Overbye, The New York Times

Space Suit History

Carma — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:51:51 +0000

Space suits, which are an extension of underwater suits, have a long history in both fiction and real life. Project RHO has a pretty interesting pictorial history of the space suit that include a bit of both fact and fiction.

The page includes photos from NASA and illustrations from the pulp magazines. It’s a pretty interesting read, too.

The website has several pages dedicated to various topics such as future history, artificial gravity, side arms and more.

Explore “Atomic Rockets” here.

Science Fiction and Fear

Carma — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:47:54 +0000

A lot of science fiction stories explore different aspects of fear, most especially the fear of loss:

loss of self or identity,
loss of autonomy or freedom,
loss of values held dear,

and more. One of the classics that has been reinterpreted numerous times, including last year’s Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig film, The Invasion,, is The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney.

Written in 1955, the book has inspired four films and, doubtless, more to come. I found this very interesting article about the history and the different ways in which human duplicates have been used in fiction and film at the National Post. Check it out — it is quite interesting:

Scott Van Wynsberghe: A brief history of body-snatching