Are slans fans?

It's Wednesday again...

A couple of months ago, I re-read "Slan" by A.E. van Vogt.

It's an absolute classic of the golden age of John W. Campbell (the man who invented modern science fiction) and the Astounding magazine (where it was serialized, before it was published in book form).

Robin of Sherwood

It's now Wednesday again!

A few moons ago, Richard "Kip" Carpenter, the creator of the amazing historical fantasy TV show, "Robin of sherwood", died, 82 years old.

Carpenter also created the "Dick Turpin" TV show, which I remember having watched some episodes of in the mid 1980s, and he has done some other things I might have seen, such as "Black Beauty" (not sure if I ever watched a television version of that, but possible) and maybe some version of "The Borrowers" (I recall having watched something that was like "The Borrowers"on Danish or Swedish television, but the chronology doesn't fit - I have a sense that what I recall was from when I was younger, so probably a show with a similar premise but not based on Mary Norton's novels. Tiny people is a good visual gimmick for a film or show). But it is for "Robin of Sherwood" that he will never be forgotten.

FAQ

for the OdinsDay blog

Frequently Asked Questions for

www.peter34.blogspot.com

On Genre Protocol Acquisition

It's Wednesday again...

Some weeks ago, Sven posted the first ever comment on my blog. He asked how readers learn the genre protocol. I replied that that was a very good question...

B&B does it the hard way

It's Wednesday again...

Last month, I re-read "Heart of the Comet", written by David Brin and Gregory Benford. Very often such collaborations are really the work of the junior writer, one less popular and perhaps less skilled, with the senior writer contributing nothing to the project except some celebrity veneer and geek cred, and perhaps a few basic ideas for the actual writer to chew on, such as frequently happened late in Arthur C. Clarke's career.

I don't think this is the case here, however. Brin is only 9 years younger than Benford, and had already clearly surpassed Benford with the brilliant space opera novel Startide Rising. Style-wise the novel reads like a Brin, with many brief scenes written from the point of view of different characters, but I have no reason to speculate about this not being a true collaboration between equals.

Important Public Announcement!

It's Wednesday, and this is quite important!

... It isn't entirely true, but it isn't entirely wrong either; and it is most definitely important.

Literature as a genre - asking questions of texts

It's Wednesday again...

Some of my dear readers may have noticed that I very often go out of my way to avoid using the term "literature", and instead talk about "written fiction". I'm not being eccentric, though. I have a point.

Literature is a genre all of its own, just like fantasy or science fiction or spy thrillers are.

On the wrongness of hobbits

It is Hevensday today...

Fantasy and science fiction are characterized, more than by anything else, by taking place in worlds that are significantly different from the world that the writer (and reader) lives in.

The characters who live in such a world need to make choices; that's how personality is shown. That's what personality is: The values, morals, preferences and inclinations, of an individual, as seen in the choices that he or she makes.

The reader must be able to appreciate and evaluate these choices, form an opinion of them, and one criterion for good fantasy or good science fiction is that the choices must be dependent upon at least some of the ways in which the world of the story is different from the world that the writer (and reader) lives in¹. In order to make this evaluation of the character, the reader must therefore know how the world works, how the new or strange or otherwise different things in the world works. The reader has to know the rules.

How can the reader come to know the rules?

Horror, the easy genre 1/2

It's Wednesday again... 

People often use the term speculative fiction, or the acronym SF, about the genres of fantasy, science fiction and horror, but horror is the odd man out. It doesn't fit. It has relatively little in common with fantasy and science fiction, whether from the perspective of the writer (or worldbuilder or GM) or the reader (or player or other consumer), whereas fantasy and science fiction have a lot in common with each other.