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David Johnson
04-20-2011
06:23 UT
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~
Jim Rhino Sparr wrote:
> Granted the anachronism for that song, but Foxx would
> undoubtedly have had something analogous to paraphrase.
I
think that's true but I also think, getting back to our discussion of
one of the rationale's offered for Scalzi's Fuzzy reboot, that what's
really happening when Beam's writing seems "anachronistic" is not that
it doesn't fit the future science fictional era he is writing about but
rather that it doesn't fit with own comtemporary era in which we are
reading him. I suspect there are many contemporary readers who might
never have realize that this particular reference--and therefore indeed
the very title of Beam's yarn--was "anachronistic" because they did not
realize that it referred to an earlier, actual historical era.
Beam's
writing, because of his interest in history, is full of these sorts of
tidbits. These are the things that truly make Beam's writing
"anachronistic" more so than his "backward" sc-fi tech or his quaint
1950s America cultural accoutrements because these are the things that
locate his narrative in a particular historical era. As you say, a Foxx
Travis likely would have had an analogous phrase but only a character
with mid-20th Century American sensibilities would cite the lyrics of an
old Wobbly song used to criticize the Progressive Era Salvation Army.
Speak on, Grandfather of Grandfathers.
David
--
"And
you know what English is? The result of the efforts of Norman
men-at-arms to make dates with Saxon barmaids. . . ." - Victor Grego (H.
Beam Piper), _Fuzzy_Sapiens_ ~
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Jim "Rhino" Sparr
04-19-2011
18:03 UT
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Granted the anachronism for that song, but Foxx would undoubtedly have
had something analogous to paraphrase. Poetic expressions of cynicism
toward religious promises have appeared in every civilization since
Ancient Egypt, and will no doubt continue.
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David Johnson
04-19-2011
13:48 UT
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login:
fromIP: E127.0.0.1
~
Re-reading "Oomphel in the
Sky" recently I was struck by Foxx Travis's final reaction to the great
ruse Miles Gilbert uses to gain cooperation from the _shoonoon_:
"You will eeeeat ... in the sweeeet ... bye-and-bye,
You'll get oooom ... phel in the sky ... when you die!"
This is a take-off of the old Wobbly anthem "The Preacher and the Slave," often known as "Pie in the Sky":
http://www.folkarchive.de/pie.html
This
would seem to be another Piper anachronism for surely even if the song
somehow managed to survive into the Federation era there's no way Travis
might have recognized it's connection to early socialists (or could
have expected, even if he was a Harkaman-like ancient history buff, that
Gilbert and Edith Shaw might have recognized his reference).
Speak on, Grandfather of Grandfathers.
David
--
"Naturally.
Foxx Travis would expect a soul to be carried in a holster." - Miles
Gilbert (H. Beam Piper), "Oomphel in the Sky" ~
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Alan Gutierrez
04-06-2011
05:36 UT
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I've just finished the new cover for Piper's "Space Viking". In
this version (different that the Michael Whelan one), and after reading
the book for the first time, I felt such rage for Elaine Karvall's cold
blooded murder at the hands of Andray Dunnan, that I just had to show
her on the cover, to set the tone for Lord Trask's quest for
vengance...At any rate it, and the new "Fuzzy" cover by Wolfgang Diehr,
are on my site http://www.alangutierrez.com on my "People Of Science Fiction" page. Edited 04-06-2011 05:37
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Otherwhen@aol.com
04-05-2011
00:08 UT
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login:
fromIP: E127.0.0.1
Excellent point, David. What's "in"
today, in 25/50/100 years, will be no more current than Beam's vision
from 1960. In fact, I'd bet real money that our current emphasis on
things being Politically Correct in 50 years will look quaint, or even
kooky to future generations.
Beam, like Robert Louis
Stevenson, wrote his novels in a direct prose style that will make his
writings readable and relevant far into the future, since much of
what he has to say is about people and civilizations which don't
change much despite 'current' fashions in culture, technology and
literature.
After all, people still read Verne and Wells,
even though their stories were written over a century ago and their
technology isn't current and, in some cases, preposterous!
John F. Carr
I think this is a good point and also one that Scalzi raised
from a somewhat different angle in his interview about ~Fuzzy
Nation~. But this idea that some story of the future "doesn't
fit"
our contemporary sensibilities because it includes elements from the
era when it was written doesn't make a lot of sense to
me. It seems all that this should tell us is to be _wary_ of
including our _own_ contemporary sensibilities in any story
about the future.
Who knows if the Terran Federation of the Seventh Century,
Atomic
Era, will look more like the 1950s Commonwealth than like today's
early 21st America? Maybe that tobacco in Pappy Jack's
pipe has been genetically engineered to no longer be
carcinogenic. Maybe the Federation's historical experience of
the
Atomic Wars--and frontier planet colonialism generally--have resulted
in a sort of "reversion" of the more equitable gender
roles we take for granted today. We don't hiccup when Ben
Rainsford in installed in "Government House" (rather than the
Governor's Mansion); we instead understand the term to make
sense with respect to the history of the fictional setting. So
why should we hiccup when an electronic starship control is
called a "vernier"?
Yeek!
David
--
"A girl can punch any kind of a button a man can, and a lot of
them knew what buttons to punch, and why." - Conn Maxwell (H.
Beam Piper), _The_Cosmic_Computer_ ~
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David Johnson
04-04-2011
20:40 UT
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~
Jon writes:
>I'm not saying any of the stories are inappropriate, I'm not
>going to make my girls wait until they're 20 or sign a waiver to
>read them if they want, but it *was* a different era.
I
think this is a good point and also one that Scalzi raised from a
somewhat different angle in his interview about ~Fuzzy Nation~. But
this idea that some story of the future "doesn't fit" our contemporary
sensibilities because it includes elements from the era when it was
written doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It seems all that this
should tell us is to be _wary_ of including our _own_ contemporary
sensibilities in any story about the future.
Who knows if the Terran
Federation of the Seventh Century, Atomic Era, will look more like the
1950s Commonwealth than like today's early 21st America? Maybe that
tobacco in Pappy Jack's pipe has been genetically engineered to no
longer be carcinogenic. Maybe the Federation's historical experience of
the Atomic Wars--and frontier planet colonialism generally--have
resulted in a sort of "reversion" of the more equitable gender roles we
take for granted today. We don't hiccup when Ben Rainsford in installed
in "Government House" (rather than the Governor's Mansion); we instead
understand the term to make sense with respect to the history of the
fictional setting. So why should we hiccup when an electronic starship
control is called a "vernier"?
Yeek!
David
--
"A girl
can punch any kind of a button a man can, and a lot of them knew what
buttons to punch, and why." - Conn Maxwell (H. Beam Piper),
_The_Cosmic_Computer_ ~
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Jon
04-04-2011
16:32 UT
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>Anything Beam wrote is quite acceptable for kids, especially today's
little hellions shooting each other in Halo or committing felonies in
Grand Theft Auto. Get real!! Piper stories "robust"? Not hardly.
Yes,
I'd say they're "robust" compared to the relative pablum that gets
released now. Those games can all pretend they're aimed at an older
market, but I'd bet there's a lot of 'wink wink' around the boardroom
table when the target demographic gets discussed.
I'm not saying
any of the stories are inappropriate, I'm not going to make my girls
wait until they're 20 or sign a waiver to read them if they want, but it
*was* a different era.
A friend of mine has a story about her
dad, when he was a kid, him and his buddy took their .22 rifles to go
hunt squirrels, they took city transit and no one looked twice. Try
that today, they redact your ass to Guantanamo. Winnipeg held the 1999
Pan Am Games, there was a piece in the paper about how a guy who
competed when they were here prior to that, in 1969, in the pistol
competition. The '99 Games almost needed a DNA scan for the waivers, 30
years prior he'd taken the pistol case & had it under his plane
seat.
It's a different era, that's all I'm saying.
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Jim "Rhino" Sparr
04-04-2011
01:14 UT
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One of my favorites, too. Kids with guns helping to start a revolution? That's ROBUST!!
And
don't forget the fraud in Starman Jones, the general bloodymindedness
in Between Planets, as well as the numerous questionable occurrences
(people beheaded? Thorby hiding out in a cathouse? Und so weiter...)in
Citizen of the Galaxy. The Door Into Summer had a nudist camp. ALL of
these were Heinlein juveniles in my jr. high school's library. Anything
Beam wrote is quite acceptable for kids, especially today's little
hellions shooting each other in Halo or committing felonies in Grand
Theft Auto. Get real!! Piper stories "robust"? Not hardly.
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David Johnson
04-04-2011
01:05 UT
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login:
fromIP: E127.0.0.1
~
Jon Crocker wrote:
> the secretary getting brain-wiped during
> interrogation... Did anyone ever get charged for that, I
> wonder?
I imagine President Fawzi ensured there was a complete investigation once he was in office! ;)
Remember Ashmodai! Remember Belphegor!
David
--
"Good things in the long run are often tough while they're
happening." - Otto Harkaman (H. Beam Piper), _Space_Viking_
~
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David Johnson
04-04-2011
01:02 UT
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login:
fromIP: E127.0.0.1
~
Gilmoure wrote:
> Over at Clarkesworld magazine, John Scalzi is interviewed by
> Jeremy L.C. Jones about Fuzzy Nation, H. Beam Piper, writing and
> a number of other topics.
>
> http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/scalzi_interview/
Neat
stuff. Kind of unsettling that he still had to get permission from
Penguin to do his Fuzzy reboot. Makes sense, of course, but still. . .
.
Looking forward to reading ~Nation~ when it comes out next month.
Yeek!
David
--
"At
the time of his death, H. Beam Piper was writing at the top of his
form and certainly with the best of his contemporaries." - John. F.
Carr, Introduction to _Empire_
~
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David Johnson
04-04-2011
00:38 UT
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login:
fromIP: E127.0.0.1
~
Tim Tow wrote:
> I would like to see children\s adaptations of other Piper
> stories. Ones that I think would make the most appealing
> children's tales would be: Cosmic Computer and Omnilingual.
Yes,
"Omnilingual" would be good but I'm with Jon on ~Computer~: seems
like a tough yarn to turn into a children's story. Even if you could
get past all the violence and dastardly deeds how do you get past the
fact that the protagonist is engaged in a huge lie as a central plot
element?
How 'bout "Naudsonce"? Seems to me that would work much like
"Omnilingual."
I thought perhaps "Oomphel in the Sky" too at first but then it also
has the protagonist engaged in an elaborate
charade. . . .
Speak on, Grandfather.
David
--
"Why
Walt Disney bought the movie rights to ['Rebel Raider'], I've never
figured out. Will Colonel Mosby be played by Mickey Mouse, and General
Phil Sheridan by Donald Duck? It's baffling. However, I was glad to
get the check." - H. Beam Piper
~
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Mike Robertson  04-04-2011
00:24 UT
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I'm wondering what you think is more "robust" in Heinlein's Red Planet
than Piper's writing. I remember Red Planet well as its one of my
favorite Heinlein juveniles.
Mike Robertson
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Jim "Rhino" Sparr
04-03-2011
23:07 UT
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Almost everything Piper ever wrote could be adapted for juveniles. BTW,
he never wrote anything as "robust" as Heinlein's Red Planet or the
drinking scene in Space Cadet, both of which flourished as juveniles.
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John Carr
04-03-2011
18:19 UT
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Hi David,
The artwork you posted is not the cover for "Last Space
Viking," but the preliminary colork sketch for the "Space Viking"
hardcover reissue, which Pequod Press will be releasing in May! My
fault, I didn't make it clear....
Alan is working on the detailed cover artwork for the dust jacket.
Anyone interested in "The Last Space Viking" can see the finished artwork at www.h-beampiper.com
John
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 04-03-2011
15:31 UT
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 ~Space Viking~ by Alan Gutierrez Edited 04-03-2011 18:38
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David "PiperFan" Johnson 04-03-2011
15:29 UT
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~ John Carr (www.hostigos.com) has asked me to post an original
color sketch from Alan Gutierrez (alangutierrez.com) for Pequod Press'
reissue of ~Space Viking~. It's coming in the next post and you're
going to like it! David ~ Edited 04-03-2011 18:38
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Jon Crocker 04-02-2011
19:08 UT
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>I would like to see children’s adaptations of other Piper
stories. Ones that I think would make the most appealing children's
tales would be: Cosmic Computer and Omnilingual. I'd love to see
more Piper out there too, but I think parts of Cosmic Computer might be
a little, um, 'robust' for children's fare. Combat with tactical
nuclear weapons at Barathrum, for example, the secretary getting
brain-wiped during interrogation... Did anyone ever get charged for
that, I wonder? Edited 04-02-2011 19:11
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Gilmoure
04-02-2011
17:29 UT
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Over at Clarkesworld magazine, John Scalzi is interviewed by Jeremy L.C.
Jones about Fuzzy Nation, H. Beam Piper, writing and a number of other
topics.
<http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/scalzi_interview/>;
"A
lot of young readers under the age of 30 haven't read Piper. When I put
up on my site that I'd written a book based on H. Beam Piper's Little
Fuzzy, a bunch of my readers went out and checked out Little Fuzzy at
Project Gutenberg or they downloaded it for the Kindle or the Nook. All
of a sudden, there were more people reading Piper that day than there
had been the day before. The object here is not to put a stake in
Piper's body and say, "I am the Fuzzy master now!" That would be stupid.
The original reason I wrote this book was for fun, but now that it's
actually come out, it says to people, "This is a great story. Check out
the guy who actually thought it up the first time. Check out his stuff
because it's so good."
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Tim Tow
04-02-2011
14:55 UT
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Capsule Review of the Adventures of Little Fuzzy
The Adventures of Little Fuzzy
Adapted by Benson Parker, Illustrated by Michael Whelan and David Wenzel
45 pp. Plant & Munk/Grosset & Dunlap: 1983
A
delightful read that introduces the Fuzzy-verse in an approachable
format for the young reader. The book features many illustrations, most
in full color, is what would today be called a chapter book, a book
aimed at readers in mid-Elementary school.
I would like to see
children’s adaptations of other Piper stories. Ones that I think would
make the most appealing children's tales would be: Cosmic Computer and
Omnilingual.
Perhaps with the Scalzi re-imagining of the Fuzzy-verse, we may see of these come out.
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Messages 846-844 deleted by author 03-26-2011 12:57 PM |
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Tim Tow
03-22-2011
09:48 UT
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> I going to have to rent ~The Box~ now
Tell me what you think after you see it.
---Spoilers----
The
movie does also touch upon psycho-history and a lost Martian race too,
adding a bit more science fiction backdrop to Mattheson's original
story.
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