After my sampling of Suske en Wiske last month, young F was anxious that I should get a decent impression of the more recent stories in the series, and lent me this one from 2008 in which our heroes fly to the newly established Belgian base in Antarctica to investigate strange goings on there (the story is therefore in part advance publicity for the actual base, which opened for business in 2009). As with De Apenkermis forty years earlier, the core sf element is meteoric radiation which causes animals to acquire human intelligence and makes them conspire to take over the world; as with Het Aruba-dossier, poor aunt Sidonia is sidelined from the story from the beginning and doesn’t get to travel. Indeed, Suske and Wiske themselves are almost left behind and have to smuggle themselves into Antarctica. (This gives rise to one of several metatextual moments in the book, when Suske indignantly asks whose names are on the front cover anyway; at another point it is so cold that the speech bubbles freeze as they leave the characters’ mouths.) I do admit that it is a bit cleverer and actually funnier than the other volumes I read, though the entire problem could have been solved pretty quickly by Jerome working to Professor Barabas’s orders, with Suske, Wiske and especially Lambik just getting in the way (when Lambik gets hit by meteoric radiation, he suffers an explicitly Hulk-like transformation and gets in the way even more). The Suske en Wiske line doesn’t look to be in immediate danger of fading away.
Monthly Archives: July 2014
Links I found interesting for 23-07-2014
- Who is to blame for Iraq’s problems?
In case you’d forgotten.
- How the Israel-Palestine Peace Deal Died
Excellent reportage.
- Dutch Foreign Minister on MH17 crash
“Did they look each other in the eyes one last time in a wordless goodbye?”
- Migration Stereotypes
Looking at the facts.
July Books 3) Beowulf, tr. J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Christopher Tolkien
There are sometimes diminishing returns in publishing material that a long-dead writer never saw fit for publication; sometimes, when the work is put away in a drawer for the rest of the creator's life, it is the right decision. Adam Roberts has written of his disappointment with this publication of Tolkien's translation of Beowulf, though I actually found there was enough here to keep me entertained. As well as a 200-page prose translation of the poem itself – which did give me some new insights, in particular in that Tolkien is not at all shy about the Christian content – we get Tolkien's lecture notes on the first two-thirds of it, which are full of fascinating and wide-ranging Anglo-Saxon speculation (Scyld Scefing's name points to ancient corn cults, for instance).
We also get "Sellic Spell", a reworking of the Beowulf story by Tolkien to get nearer what he would have liked the original version to be – a very interesting riff on ancient tales, which I think is in the same respectful spirit of innovation as, say, the 2005 Icelandic version starring Gerald Butler, or the 2007 Robert Zeleckis animated version whose script was co-written by Neil Gaiman. It's an interesting insight into how Tolkien conceived of story-telling, and a snapshot, or a series of snapshots, of his own take on the poem that inspired his best known academic work and clearly lay behind his writing.
Let's be clear, Seamus Heaney's 1999 translation is far superior, but also veers a little further from the original meaning, if creatively so. Here's a good example from lines 286-289 of the original, where the watchman on the beach resiles with dignity from his initially hostile reaction to Beowulf's arrival:
Weard maþelode, ðær on wicge sæt,
ombeht unforht: "æghwæþres sceal
scearp scyldwiga gescad witan,
worda ond worca, se þe wel þenceð."
Heaney's translation:
Undaunted, sitting astride his horse,
The coast-guard answered, "Anyone with gumption
And a sharp mind will take the measure
Of two things: what’s said and what’s done.["]
Tolkien:
The watchman spake, sitting there upon his steed, fearless servant of the king: ["]A man of keen wit who takes good heed will discern the truth in both words and deeds[."]
Tolkien's lecture notes, recasting the spoken sentence:
"A man of acumen, who considers things properly, will naturally show discernment in judging words and deeds."
Note the differences:
- Tolkien's translation is potentially ambiguous as to whether the watchman or the steed is the fearless servant of the king! His "fearless" is anyway not as good as Heaney's "undaunted", in that the original "unforht" clearly refers to the relationship between the speaker and Beowulf; Heaney's coast-guard is standing up to a suspicious bunch of armed men, Tolkien's watchman is just generally not frightened. And the king, mentioned by Tolkien, is not mentioned in this part of the original, though I guess he's implied as the employer of an "ombeht"; Heaney takes it as read that we understand who the coast-guard works for. (I am tickled by the link to Dutch "ambtenaar", meaning "civil servant", which comes from "ambacht", which now means something different but was originally the same word as "ombeht".)
- Tolkien is consciously archaic: "spake" instead of "answered"; "steed" instead of "horse". Heaney uses the good colloquial word "gumption" rather than "keen wit" or "acumen" to translate the standard that the coastguard sets himself.
- In both the translation and the lecture notes, Tolkien dissipates the force of the final line's "worda ond worca" – "words and deeds" is not bad in English, but doesn't have the same ring as "what's said and what's done"; more importantly, the fact that the sentence starts with "æghwæþres" flags that there's a choice involving two things coming up (yeah, I am simplifying a bit), and Tolkien's "both words and deeds" tagged on at the end loses that emphasis, whereas Heaney builds up to it and delivers a punchline.
Of course, it's deeply unfair to make the comparison. Heaney produced this towards the end of a long career, shortly after winning the Nobel prize; Tolkien knocked this off as a teaching aid in the 1920s, years before he started on his best known writing, and with no intention of ever publishing it. We Tolkien completists will not be too disappointed by it.
Links I found interesting for 22-07-2014
- Competing J.R.R. Tolkien Biopics
Out next year, perhaps.
July Books 2) Millennium Shock, by Justin Richards
A decent enough story of the Fourth Doctor meeting up with an older Harry Sullivan at the end of 1999, to prevent aliens exploiting fears of the Millennium Bug to Conquer The Earth. The Fourth Doctor does need a female companion, though, it’s not quite the same just with Harry (who misses Sarah; don’t we all). Justin Richards is this generation’s Terrance Dicks, in that he’s written more Who novels than anyone else (indeed, than anyone except Dicks if my count is correct); this is a case of him doing a decent job.
July Books 1) Napoleon Bonaparte for Little Historians, by Bou Bounoider
We picked this up at the commemoration of the Battle of Wavre. It's pretty awful; not just a case of the English being an imperfect translation from the French, but I suspect the French original is as poorly structured and rambling as the English version. Readers will, for instance, be startled to learn that "Wellington was an Englishman, a bit like Paddington Bear." None of those things is quite like the other. Wellington was born in Ireland, and Paddington Bear was a) from Peru and b) a bear. The book is aimed at the 6-12 age group, and they will like the illustrations but may not learn much from the text.
June Books 28) The Goblin of Tara, by Oisin McGann
A competent retelling for today’s younger audience of the story of Aillén the Burner from the Boyhood Deeds of Finn MacCool, enlivened by McGann’s own illustrations.
June Books 27) The Memoirs of Elizabeth Frankenstein, by Theodore Roszak
Won the 1995 Tiptree Award. I wasn't quite sure what to expect; it's not terribly closely related to Shelley's own Frankenstein (and I'm baffled by the numerous online reviews whining that it's not a "sequel" – most of the book is set before the action of the original novel, so if anything it would be a prequel; but in reality it is an extended meditation on the character of Elizabeth Frankenstein and what might have shaped her life and Victor's to their date with destiny. It provides an unexpected background of the creation of the monster in the obsession of the senior Baroness Frankenstein with alchemy, and her manipulation of Elizabeth (who is presented as Victor's adopted sister, as well as his eventual wife) and Victor as part of her own grand plan, which inevitably grinds to a halt against Victor's interest in science rather than alchemy, though he shares the goal of creating a new form of life (and indeed is more successful). Poor Elizabeth is nastily manipulated by everyone, though I was amused by the outraged scholarly apparatus purportedly provided by an older Robert Walton (who, as everyone forgets, is the narrator of the framing story in Shelley). Inevitably one must compare with Mists of Avalon, which is the same sort of book (reframing of familiar legendary material through perspective of an alternative, more female-centred and largely fictional belief system). I think Roszak is a bit more disciplined than Bradley, but is also drawing on a smaller canvas which may make that easier.
June Books 26) Dawn, by Octavia E. Butler
I thought this was a fascinating and gripping book, with Butler exploring symbiosis and slavery – topics she often returned to – in the context of renewing humanity after future disaster and alien intervention. In particular, her portrayal of human/alien intimacy, both physical and emotional, is pretty vivid without being titillating. Also commendably short. First of a trilogy; will look out for the other two.
Facebook friends map
Using the methodology here, but using Gephi's newer Force Atlas 2 generator:
Interesting that the Balkans are so far from science fiction; and that my year group at school are so clearly differentiated from the year below (and likewise for CUSU). "FH" = Fisher House (Cambridge Catholic chaplaincy); "dip" = postal diplomacy players of the 1980s; "ALDE" = European liberals; "NDI", "ICG" and "ID" are previous and current employers; "TRNC" = northern Cyprus.
Being on television (locked)
A lot of you were surprised to see me on the news last night –
This is how it happened. My office is right next to Associated Press’s office in Brussels. Normally this has the practical effect that we get access to the kitchen at the end of the corridor, which is technically part of their lease, and occasionally they are receptive to taking stories from us. The AP office has diminished sadly in my time in the building, and though I am never quite sure how many people work there it’s certainly fewer than it used to be.
Bishr Al Touni, one of their journalists, popped into my office on Tuesday to say that there was a Dutch court case about Srebrenica coming to judgement Wednesday morning. Did I feel I could say a couple of words about it? We obviously didn’t know the verdict now, but they wanted to get a reaction from me as soon as the verdict was out. I had a fairly clear calendar for Wednesday morning – just a lunch engagement which as it turned out didn’t even happen – so I agreed.
Ten years ago, in my previous job, I would in fact have been the automatic choice for anyone in Brussels wanting to film a quick talking head about Bosnia. My job then was much more one of being a public intellectual and commentator than it is now, and my work had a Bosnia focus which it now lacks. However, my former employers have abandoned Bosnia in some confusion, and there’s almost nobody left in Brussels in a position to say anything about the place; the receding tide of interest has left me exposed after some time of being safely under the surface.
Anyway, AP came across the corridor just after the verdict was announced, filmed me apparently working (actually writing an email to Anne) and then asked me to turn to camera to give an off-the-cuff reaction, where I don’t think I did more than state the bleeding obvious. The final piece is a pretty standard news story – film of the event, archive film of the event to which it refers, cut to expert commentary who is in a sense the voice of the informed viewer, saying the thing that people will mutter over coffee or in the pub. I knew my role and I played it, shook hands with Bishr and his colleague Sylvain, and got on with work. (Which then consumed me for the rest of the day.)
I spotted the piece on EuroNews mid-afternoon and linked it from facebook and Twitter, and just at that point a visitor arrived in the office and stayed until hometime; when I got home I was feeling queasy from lunch and went straight to bed after dinner without checking the internets. (Feeling better now.) So I woke up to find numerous messages on Facebook about it –
Well done to AP for putting together a marketable package so swiftly after the verdict came out. Presumably, EuroNews, BBC, ABC, Terzake, TA3 and all the others will have paid them a significant chunk for the piece. (I haven’t seen a penny of it, and I don’t really expect to.) It’s a bit shameful that the BBC didn’t have their own talking head available; I can think of at least five people in London who I would defer to on this subject.
But bear this in mind when you are watching news items like this: the talking head chappie (or chappess), who looks like the reasonable person in a confusing story, may simply have been roped in from across the corridor at the last moment. Broadcast media, for a piece like that, are much more interested in getting a piece that looks good and makes an impression on the viewer than they are in the content. It’s always worth questioning why we are being show this particular image or person or soundbite; news doesn’t just happen, it is constructed by journalists.
Wednesday reading
Current
[Doctor Who] So Vile a Sin, by Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman
η1
How Languages are Learned, by Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina Spada
Last books finished
[Doctor Who] Millennium Shock, by Justin Richards
ε1
Beowulf, tr. J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Christopher Tolkien
ζ1
De Sterrensteen, by “Willy Vandersteen” [Peter Van Gucht & Luc Morjaeu]
The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
Ireland Under The Tudors vol 2, by Richard Bagwell
Last week’s audios
[Doctor Who] Second Chances, by John Dorney
Current: [Doctor Who] Destroy the Infinite, by Nicholas Briggs
Next books
Ireland Under The Tudors vol 3, by Richard Bagwell
Brussel in Beeldekes
Crash, by J.G. Ballard
[Doctor Who] The Book of the Still, by Paul Ebbs
Links I found interesting for 15-07-2014
- Why the next climate treaty is vital for my country to survive
Marshall Islands Foreign Minister Tony de Brum explains.
- The Fourier transform lets you have your cake and understand it
Integrating for fun and profit.
- When Fandom Falls Apart: DashCon Edition
The symbolism of the ball pit!
June Books 25) The Lives of Tao, by Wesley Chu
The last of the novels in the Hugo voter packet, included for the John W. Campbell award. I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t all that impressed. Apparently every historical achievement of humanity was really done with the help of alien psychic symbiotes, which I find a rather depressing concept. There is a visit to Dublin with absolutely no credible local coloration. The writing was competent enough, but I have problems with the basic concept and the detail.
Links I found interesting for 14-07-2014
Hugo for Best Pro Artist 2014 – correction
I foolishly omitted Fiona Staples from my write-up yesterday as her work is not in the Best Pro Artist folder in the Hugo voter packet; however, it is in the Best Graphic Story folder, and basically you should go buy it anyway. Thanks to
June Books 24) Nexus, by Ramez Naam
How did this happen? I was almost all caught up with bookblogging, and then slacked off for a week or so; and I’m still half a dozen books behind for June. I guess last week’s fairly frenzied attempts to meet with new and returning MEPs didn’t help. This coming week is a Strasbourg week which will give me a bit more slack.
Anyway, diligent blogging is the answer. (Also the fact that it’s now 13 July and I’ve only read three bloggable books so far this month will also help.)
Nexus is a rather interesting update of a classic cyberpunk theme, the upgrade to humanity which is being developed and helped by our heroes and blocked by The Man. It reminded me a lot of Neal Stephenson, except much shorter and with rather more rounded characters. I was particularly impressed by the in-your-face portrayal of the EU/USA as the bad guys in terms of constraining the new technology, though perhaps a little less convinced by the relatively benign portrayal of the Chinese government in that regard.
I had heard of Nexus because it was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award this year, and scored rather well on Goodreads, with almost as many readers and a higher average rating than this year’s star novel, Ancillary Justice. (It did less well, but still decently enough, on LibraryThing.) I found it good though not quite as good as Ancillary Justice
Going viral
Twice in the last few months I’ve had the (pleasant) experience of a post going viral on social media. back in November, my extract from an interview with Tom Baker in Big Finish’s Vortex magazine picked up over a thousand direct retweets and perhaps half as many again indirect retweets. This week, as I was watching the disappointing Argentina-Netherlands match, I spotted a picture of the current Pope and his predecessor on Twitter, each apparently praying for their country to win. Amusing, I thought, but premature; the match wasn’t over yet. But I saved the image anyway, and the second that Maxi Rodriguez thumped the ball into the back of the net, I retweeted the original tweet where I’d found it, and as an afterthought also posted it to Facebook without comment.
Sometimes one just happens to hit the Zeitgeist. Of those 439 shares, only 33 (as far as I can tell) are people who are actually friends of mine on Facebook. That means that on average each of those 33 shares gave rise to another dozen or so. No doubt there will be many others who, like me, saved the image locally and reposted it.
It’s a bit embarrassing because I have no idea where the original image came from, unless the original tweeter made it herself (and it doesn’t really seem like her style). So my profound and sincere apologies and gratitude to the artist, if he or she should ever read this.
Lessons from this for attempting a viral tweet or Facebook post:
1) Strong visuals are key. The Tom Baker story is just a block of text, but it tells a very moving tale in a few words. The picture of the popes has no text at all, but hangs on a very few very recognisable images – the popes themselves, the flags.
2) Timing is everything. The Tom Baker post came just a week before the Whonivesary, at a time when attention on Doctor Who was possibly the greatest it has ever been, and Tom Baker’s unexpected return to the screen boosted the post even more. And you can’t do much better than post a joke about the World Cup final in the first few seconds after it has been decided who is playing in it.
3) It’s very difficult to plan ahead. Both of these were whims posted just before I went to sleep. I have put a lot of stuff online, and most of it is my own content rather than page-grabs from magazines of other people’s memes. Very little of it gets this sort of attention. I deliberately followed both the above rules with my posts about Sarajevo three weeks ago; but with much more modest effect. Sometimes it’s just a matter of good luck; though of course it can also be true that the harder you try, the luckier you get.
The Hugo and Retro Hugo artists
I always feel slightly incompetent at discussing art; I know what I like, but have some difficulty articulating why. However, I'm not going to let that stop me from giving my views on the finalists for this year's Hugo for Best Pro Artist and Best Fan Artist, and for the 1939 Retro Hugo for Best Pro Artist.
To begin at the beginning:
1939 Retro for Best Pro Artist
1) Margaret Brundage.
It's all variations on the same theme (see Weird Tales covers here, here, here, here, and here) but there's a great use of colour and characterisation. You feel that these imperilled women all had interesting lives before the story began, and if they are lucky will continue to have interesting lives after it ends.
2) Virgil Finlay.
Similar stuff to Brundage (see here and here) but less of it to choose from, so I give Brundage the edge.
3) Alex Schomburg.
There's something refreshingly honest about Schomburg's line drawings (more in the Retro Hugo voter packet). They may not be Great Art but they tell a story.
4) Frank R. Paul.
In narrative terms this is a decent enough illustration of Kuttner's story (which is a finalist for the Best Novella category), but I find it a bit lacking technically. A bit disappointing – Paul was deeply influential on the field but this is not his best year.
5) H.W. Wesso.
The human figures are good enough, but he doesn't really seem to be trying with the more sfnal elements of the art. (See more here, here and here.)
2014 Hugo for Best Fan Artist
1) Sarah Webb.
I must say that Webb's folder of art, in the Hugo voter packet, really quite took my breath away. It’s as good as the material submitted by the Pro artists. Apparently she is only 19. (Confusingly, there seem to be at least two older artists with the same name – see here and here.)
2) Mandie Manzano.
Manzano may lose out from not having her work in the voter packet, but her website is here and well worth a look. I assume that it's not actually stained glass, but she has got that effect rather well, making her figures very expressive even without facial features.
3) Brad Foster.
This comes back to the more traditional fanzine / fanac illustrations, always quirky and eye-catching.
4) Steve Stiles.
Similar to Foster, not making any great claims for itself but entertaining enough.
5) Spring Schoenhuth.
I voted her much higher previously, but we have very little to go on this year – website under construction, and just a couple of pieces on the Loncon site. So it’s impossible to form a good judgement.
2014 Hugo for Best Pro Artist
I found this a particularly difficult category. All the finalists have submitted excellent work to the voter package.
Edited to add: That is, with the exception of Fiona Staples, whose work on Saga is in another category. I had forgotten that she was nominated, so have re-ordered my votes accordingly.
1) Fiona Staples.
I’m not sold on the plot of Saga, but I am sold on Staples’ superb art. I hope she wins.
1) 2) Don dos Santos.
I love the characterisation of his figures, and the art is uncluttered and clear. Just shades into my top second spot.
2) 3) Julie Dillon.
Brilliant use of colour and shade. Very tough call between her and Dos Santos for me.
3) 4) John Picacio.
A series of intriguing, not-quite-human figures.
4) 5) Galen Dara.
Technically accomplished, just the colour/line combination didn;t really work for me.
5) 6) John Harris.
Almost no human figures, as compared to the other nominees, so one really is judging chalk and cheese here. In a set of artworks which only included other grand landscapes, I might well have ranked it higher; I liked the pieces a lot, I just liked the other finalists a little more.
So that’s what I think. But reasonable people can disagree.
You can vote in this year’s Hugos, and the 1939 Retro Hugos, by joining Loncon 3 at http://www.loncon3.org/memberships .
2014: Best Novel | Best Novella | Best Novelette | Best Short Story | Best Related Work | Best Graphic Story | Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) | Best Professional Artist | Best Fan Artist
1939: Best Novel | Best Novella | Best Novelette | Best Short Story | Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) | Best Professional Artist
Links I found interesting for 10-07-2014
- This is what happened when I drove my Mercedes to pick up food stamps
No comment.
- Brazil World Cup humiliation by Germany should serve as a call to arms
The Guardian’s take – sane but detailed.
- The Most Shocking Result in World Cup History
Nate Silver crunches the numbers.
- How Germany destroyed Brazil
Blow by blow, from the BBC.
Wednesday reading
Current
The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
Beowulf, tr. J.R.R. Tolkien, ed. Christopher Tolkien
[Doctor Who] Millennium Shock, by Justin Richards
Ireland Under The Tudors vol 2, by Richard Bagwell
ε1
Last books finished
γ1
Napoleon Bonaparte for Little Historians, by Bou Bounoider
δ1
Last week’s audios
Masquerade, by Stephen Cole
Next books
Ireland Under The Tudors vol 3, by Richard Bagwell
How Languages are Learned, by Patsy M. Lightbown
Brussel in Beeldekes
Crash, by J.G. Ballard
[Doctor Who] So Vile a Sin, by Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman
Books acquired in last week
Napoleon Bonaparte for Little Historians, by Bou Bounoider
My Real Children, by Jo Walton
Links I found interesting for 09-07-2014
- We go forward
*sniff*
Links I found interesting for 07-07-2014
- “To My Fellow Filthy Rich Americans: The Pitchforks Are Coming”
A man who almost gets it.
- This Summer’s Most Unread Book
Piketty. Sort of.
- Caitlin Moran: my sex quest years
Hilarious!
The Battle of Wavre
Most weekday mornings I pass through Wavre by train; I usually get the southbound service from our local station, and then change at Ottignies for the inbound train from Namur/Luxembourg/Switzerland, which conveniently stops just outside my office.
For military historians, Wavre is also the location of the other battle on 18 June 1815, the same day as the Battle of Waterloo. Here 17,000 Prussians held down twice as many French and succeeded in letting Blücher’s troops cross the Dyle farther north in time to reach the main affair 16 km to the west. The Battle of Wavre ended on the morning of the 19th with a tactical French victory, but by then they had lost the war. The Prussian commander’s chief of staff was Carl von Clausewitz; he started writing On War the following year.
With the 200th anniversary coming up next year, the re-enactors are out in force. Most weekends they congregate around Waterloo (understandably – it was more important and is easier for most people to get to), but this weekend they were in Wavre. I’m not hugely into wargaming these days, but this was an important sidebar to one of the most important battles of European history, so F and I went down to have a look this morning. Although the battle actually ranged between Limal to the south-west and Basse-Wavre to the north-east, a front of about 5 km altogether in length, the re-enactors sensibly constrained themselves to a couple of fields just beside the Walibi amusement park.
One has to be impressed by the care that has been taken to reproduce the uniforms, from the cavalry officers riding well-trained horses (there are a lot of very loud bangs) to the chaps sitting around a campfire with authentic-looking cooking implements.
Having said that, not all of the uniforms on display appeared to be Napoleonic:
I did get a strong sense that the participants – who had bravely bivouacked out the night before, despite thunderstorms – included a fair contingent from France, and indeed the French ambassador to Belgium made a speech at the opening of the event. The commentator also mentioned participants from the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. (Though not Germany, whose troops crashed over the Dyle again less than a century after 1815, and again in 1940.)
I also spotted (but failed to photograph) two people toting Scottish bagpipes; I’m not aware that these were used by either the Napoleonic or Prussian armies, so I guess they may have been re-enactors who normally bring them to Waterloo of a summer weekend, given that the Scots were pretty visible there.
Anyway, I imagine there will be a lot more of this sort of thing happening in the run-up to the bicentennial next year.
The Retro Hugo Short Fiction finalists: my votes
Following up my post yesterday about how to get hold of the Retro Hugo finalists in the short fiction categories, these are the conclusions of my reading.
Best Novella
This is by some margin the best of the fiction categories. I know that some argue that the novella is SF's natural length; I don't have strong views on that myself, but this list is good supporting evidence.
5) “The Time Trap” by Henry Kuttner – a very pulp story, with not only a lost city in the Arabian desert but also time-travel, an Evil Queen and a Heroically Nude Heroine. Yet it's very readable, absolutely carrying on the tradtions of Rider Haggard in a new sfnal era.
4) “A Matter of Form” by H. L. Gold – I hadn't read this before, and in fact I'm not sure that I had read anything by Gold before, though of course I was aware of his importance in the history of the genre as an editor (and also that he shared my birthday, 26 April). But it's a very good if rather downbeat story about a man whose personality is swapped with a dog's by a disreputable scientist, and his efforts to reverse the situation.
3) Anthem by Ayn Rand – Actually one of her most accessible books, set in a totalitarian society where individuality has been repressed. The gender politics are still somewhat dodgy, but it's a reasonable stop on the literary path from We to Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World. If Rand had restrained her later writing to this sort of pithiness, the world would be a better place. (NB one of two pieces by women, of the twenty fiction pieces nominated.)
2) “Sleepers of Mars” by John Wyndham/John Beynon – I noted previously Wyndham's miscounting of the Soviet Republics, but this is actually rather an attractive story, Bradbury before his time, with the central characters being the Russian cosmonauts (though in fact they include a Ukrainian, a Kyrgyz and a politically exiled Scot) and an opening-the-tomb narrative with a surprising and downbeat ending.
1) “Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell/Don A. Stuart – This really is a classic, and I expect that it will win by a country mile. I previously read it as a teenager, before I'd read Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness (which is surely one of the sources). It is a bit clunkier than I had realised, but the increasing sense of paranoia, and the image of the blood test betraying the hidden monsters, are very powerful.
Best Novelette
5) "Rule 18" by Clifford D. Simak – a story about using time travel to ensure the racial purity and excellence of the defending team in an interplanetary sports game. Native Americans play a key role. It is topical because of the World Cup, but it really isn't very good.
4) "Hollywood on the Moon" by Henry Kuttner – takes our plucky cameraman hero with his spunky girl sidekick (her chin is frequently mentioned) from the Moon to Ganymede (the asteroid, not the Jovian satellite) for thrilling adventures. There are no girls in Africa.
3) “Pigeons From Hell” by Robert E. Howard – a horror story rather than SF, much anthologised but marred for today's readers by repeated use of the word "Nigger" (and there is a Magical Negro too, not surprisingly). Likely to win if only because it's the best known.
2) "Dead Knowledge" by John W. Campbell/Don A. Stuart – impressed me with its intense escalation of horror, a story of astronauts landing on a world where everyone appears to have killed themselves rather than allow something awful to happen. Again, the end didn't quite work for me.
1) "Werewoman" by C.L. Moore – a breathless evocation of bodily transformation, lyrically written; with a slightly offkey ending. It's at a completely different level to the other short fiction. (NB one of two pieces by women, of the twenty fiction pieces nominated.)
Best Short Story
5) The best that can be said of “Hollerbochen’s Dilemma” by Ray Bradbury is that he got a lot better after this, his first published story. While the idea (a time-sensitive man foresees his own death, but not how it will come about) is OK, if not especially startling, the execution is, to be polite about it, unpolished. Bradbury was 17 when it was published, which must make him the youngest ever Hugo or Retro Hugo finalist, so some allowance can be made for him, though not for those who nominated it.
4) "How We Went To Mars" by Arthur C. Clarke is also pretty awful; a one-joke story about a pompous English village club who invent an interplanetary rocket, stretched well past breaking point. An early Clarke and not one of his greatest.
3) I have always hated stories about cute anthropomorphic robots, for as long as I can remember. "Helen O'Loy", by Lester Del Rey, is the archetype of such stories (and probably pt me off them when I first read it at the age of 13 or so). It will probably win.
2) "The Faithful", by Lester Del Rey, is a story about how Man's subject races keep the faith after Man's extinction. It does not survive a post-colonial reading terribly well.
1) "Hyperpilousity", by L. Sprague de Camp, struggles with gender and ethnic stereotypes, and tries a little too hard to be funny, but does have an interesting idea at its core: what would it mean for human society (where "human society" = "New York") if we all started growing body hair and so stopped wearing clothes? For my money, it is the best of this bunch.
You can vote in this year's Hugos, and the 1939 Retro Hugos, by joining Loncon 3 at http://www.loncon3.org/memberships .
2014: Best Novel | Best Novella | Best Novelette | Best Short Story | Best Related Work | Best Graphic Story | Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) | Best Professional Artist | Best Fan Artist
1939: Best Novel | Best Novella | Best Novelette | Best Short Story | Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) | Best Professional Artist
June Books 23) The Shakespeare Notebooks, by Goss, Morris, Richards, Richards & Sweet
This is a bold step by BBC books: a set of sketches which basically all revolve around the same joke, the Doctor (and the Whoniverse) intruding in the fictional world of Shakespeare’s plays. The authors include James Goss, who for my money is the best current writer of Who prose, and Matthew Sweet, who brings a certain lit crit depth to proceedings (not to neglect Jonathan Morris and Justin Richards who are both reliable writers of Who fiction). The fifth writer is an undergraduate.
Combining Shakespeare and the Doctor is not new. On TV, quite apart from the 2007 story The Shakespeare Code, references to the Bard go back to his appearance on the Time-Space Visualiser which the First Doctor ripped off from the Space Museum in 1965. Actually the first reference in the Whoniverse is even earlier, in The Dalek Book from June 1964, in which young Daleks are told that “THE SHAKESPEARE PLAYS AND SONNETS WERE WRITTEN BY OUR EMPEROR”. I listed the Who/Shakespeare crossovers of which I was then aware back in 2009.
Although this book is basically 200 pages of the same joke, there are some really good twists on it. One would need a certain amount of familiarity with both sets of canonical texts to appreciate all of it – the insertion of Romana into Pericles is actually really funny but only if you know that particular scene from Pericles, which is not exactly Shakespeare’s best-known play. But A Midsummer Night’s Dream is much better known, and the recasting of the Rude Mechanicals as Sontarans performing a stage interpretation of the events of Horror of Fang Rock is brilliant. And the recasting of the Master as Mephistopheles to Marlowe as Faust, rewriting Shakespeare’s plays to remove him and the Doctor from history, is a genius touch – the Master gets some hilarious lines too.
Most of the rest is predictable but entertaining – I could have skipped the sonnets myself, though I see that other readers liked them. Worth the money anyway.
Links I found interesting for 04-07-2014
- Lionel Messi Is Impossible
The numbers prove it.
Three Suske en Wiske books
Having invoked them in my discussion of Flemish dialect the other day, it occurred to me that I had never actually read any Suske en Wiske, Belgium’s other favourite comic strip after Tintin, so I borrowed one of F’s collected sets. Assuming that these three are typical, the stories revolve around the adventures of the title characters, a boy and girl; Wiske’s aunt Sidonia; their friend Lambik, who is a less alcoholic and less nautical version of Tintin’s Captain Haddock; their other friend Jerom, who is possessed of supernatural strength and a peculiar turn of phrase; and Professor Barabas, whose researches are often a starting point for the adventure. The strip was drawn for decades by Willy Vandersteen, who then handed over the reins to Paul Geerts, who himself has now retired, though the Vandersteen brand remains on the masthead. The height of the Suske and Wiske stories is apparently considered to be the “Blue Albums” dating from the time of Vandersteen’s short-lived partnership with Hergé in the late 1950s; these three stories all post-date that period.
This dates from 1965, and features a lot of the considerations of the time: radiation from a passing meteor causes intense heat (at the start of the story, forgotten after a couple of dozen pages), intelligent apes rising to take over the world, a daring spacewalk, explicit reference to James Bond. I was also a little surprised to see our gallant companions travelling to, of all places, Northern Ireland by submarine.
The ape who they meet on the Irish shore explains that he had to leave the circus after it went bust when all the clowns and acrobats went into politics instead.
The rise of the apes reveals some awfully dodgy racial politics, not for the last time I’m afraid. The whole story is rather disjointed and episodic, thrilling episode following thrilling episode without really referring back to earlier events. Like most Suske and Wiske strips, this was originally written for newspaper publication, but it rather felt as if Vandersteen was making it up as he went along.
This story, written in 1984, takes the gang to the South Pacific island of Amoras, a magical place where Wiske is in fact queen as the result of an earlier visit, a new and wonderful version of Antwerp is being built, and there are incidentally no black people. The villains, a woman who dresses as a witch and a bloke who dresses as a Sinister Foreigner, have been evilly building, shudder, modern-style apartment blocks in Antverpia, and lead a gang of henchmen who wear metal flowerpots on their heads (the head henchman has a little flower stuck into his so that you can tell which one he is). Other characters include the ghost of Suske’s great-grandfather and a little dog who helpfully pees on things (a line used also on one occasion by Hergé).
Suske and Wiske save the day by befriending the intelligent mortar-munching termites (whose leader is the titular Amoris) which have been unwittingly undermining the foundations of the replica of Antwerp Cathedral on the island (have you been following this so far?); the termites instead are unleashed on the villains’ modern apartment blocks, which collapse to general appreciation. What their potential inhabitants may have thought of this is not reported. I suspect that this is a fairly typical adventure, and it is a little more fun than I have made it sound.
This 1994 story is much less far-fetched, with the only sfnal elements (apart, as usual, from Jerom’s preternatural strength) being an undersea base and Professor Barabas’s ‘Terranef’, a cousin of the Thunderbirds’ Mole. The Belgian airline Sabena will have ground their teeth at the prominent product placement for their Dutch rivals KLM; apparently there was a long-running connection betweem KLM and the Vandersteen empire, though it must be admitted that once you have decided to transport your central characters from our part of the world to Aruba (which, as you know, Bob, is one of the islands of the former Netherlands Antilles) you’ll probably do it via Schiphol rather than Zaventem.
This version of Aruba actually has got quite a lot of black people, and they are all seen dancing in the street at carnival time; none seem to be in the police or employed on the villains’ undersea base (apart from the stereotypically multiethnic council of villains which is behind it all). There is a scientific McGuffin which is barely used in the plot, and a researcher whose name is Vorser, which means researcher. I thought it was a bit more low-key than the other two, and also slightly shorter; Professor Barabas spends most of the story in hospital, and Aunt Sidonia is sidelined rather abruptly before the group goes to Aruba.
I hope that more recent Suske en Wiske strips have moved with the times; they will have had quite a lot of catching up to do.
Getting hold of the Retro Hugo short fiction
Like a lot of people, I excitedly downloaded the Retro Hugo Voter Packet when it became available this week; and like a lot of people, I was sorry that it didn’t include more of the finalists in the fiction categories. Unlike a lot of people, I’m aware of the hard work and immense difficulties faced by the Hugo team in assembling it, and shared some of their frustration in tracking down permissions and reproducible copies. One can make a case to the publishers and authors of today that including their work in the Hugo voter packet is a gain for them in terms of future sales; it’s rather more difficult to make that case convincingly for work that has been on sale since 1938 (or not, in a couple of cases), and whose authors are no longer in a state to care about future sales.
Thanks to ISFDB, I have compiled this list of all of the publications including the finalists in the short fiction categories, including the ISBN numbers where they exist. You may well find, as I did, that you already have some of the relevant anthologies on the shelves – particularly for the much-collected “Who Goes There”, “Pigeons from Hell” and “Helen O’Loy”. A couple of the stories can also be found online; I haven’t dug very deeply (the links to “Hollywood on the Moon” are copied from the Retro Hugo voter packet). Myself, I was able to acquire Science Fiction: The Great Years, eds. Carol Pohl and Frederik Pohl, Sleepers of Mars, by John Wyndham, and The Autumn Land and Other Stories, by Clifford D. Simak, without too much difficulty or cost. I do hope that my making this post doesn’t suddenly drive prices up!
Anyway, here you are. Пожалуйста!
Best Novella
Anthem by Ayn Rand
In voter packet
In print: ISBNs 0452281253, 0451191137, 1434100359 and many others
Online at Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1250
“A Matter of Form” by H. L. Gold
Big Book of Science Fiction, ed. Groff Conklin
Assignment in Tomorrow, ed. Frederik Pohl (044778699125)
Science Fiction: The Great Years, eds. Carol and Frederik Pohl (0575017848, 0722169248)
The Classic Book of Science Fiction, ed. Groff Conklin
The Mammoth Book of Classic Science Fiction Short Stories of the 1930s, eds. Waugh, Greenberg, Asimov (0948164727)
Great Tales of Classic Science Fiction, eds. Asimov, Greenberg, Waugh (0883657554)
Perfect Murders (coll) by H.L. Gold (0895561301, 978080323359)
“Sleepers of Mars” by John Beynon [John Wyndham]
Sleepers of Mars (coll) by John Wyndham (0340173262, 045042023X)
“The Time Trap” by Henry Kuttner
In voter packet
Evil Earths, ed. Brian Aldiss (0297770055, 0860078892, 0380446367)
Girls for the Slime God, ed. Mike Resnick (0965956903)
Thunder in the Void (coll), by Henry Kuttner (9781893887534)
Armchair Fiction Double with The Lunar Lichen, by Hal Clement (9781612871424)
“Who Goes There?” by Don A Stuart [John W. Campbell]
Adventures in Time and Space, eds. Healy & McComas (0345253744, 0395254965, 0345277473, 0345289250, 0739422146)
Towards Infinity, ed. Damon Knight (0575003723, 0330234315)
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, vol 2A, ed. Ben Bova (038504576X, 0765305348, 038000385)
Starstreak, ed. Betty M. Owen (0590312642)
13 Short Science Fiction Novels, eds. Asimov, Greenberg, Waugh (0517476460)
The Mammoth Book of Short Science Fiction Novels, eds. Asimov, Greenberg, Waugh (0948164220)
Cinemonsters, eds, McSherry, Greenberg, Waugh (0880385049)
Movie Monsters, ed. Peter Haining (0727815466)
The Mammoth Book of Classic Science Fiction Short Stories of the 1930s, eds. Waugh, Greenberg, Asimov (0948164727)
Great Tales of Classic Science Fiction, eds. Asimov, Greenberg, Waugh (0883657554)
Between Time and Terror, eds. Weinberg, Dziemanowicz, Greenberg (0451454529)
Science Fiction Classics, ed. Forrest J. Ackerman (1575000407)
Toward Infinity, ed. Damon Knight (0671650934)
The Science Fiction Roll of Honour, ed. Frederik Pohl (0394486773)
The Best of John W. Campbell (0345249607)
Foundations of Fear, ed. David G. Hartwell (0312850743)
Worlds of Fear, ed. David G. Hartwell (0812550021)
The World Turned Upside Down, eds Flint, Baen, Drake (0743498747, 9781416520689)
Who Goes There? (coll), by John W. Campbell (0883553651, 088355450X, 0899667341, 9780575091030, 9780575129023)
The Mammoth Book of Body Horror, eds. Kane & O'Regan (9780762444328)
“Dead Knowledge” by Don A. Stuart [John W. Campbell]
Who Goes There? (coll), by John W. Campbell Jr (0883553651, 088355450X, 0899667341, 9780575091030, 9780575129023)
The Thing and Other Stories (coll), by John W. Campbell
A New Dawn (coll), by John W. Campbell (1886778159)
“Hollywood on the Moon” by Henry Kuttner
Online at http://www.unz.org/Pub/ThrillingWonder-1938apr-00012, continued at http://www.unz.org/Pub/ThrillingWonder-1938apr-00027 and http://www.unz.org/Pub/ThrillingWonder-1938apr-00029
“Pigeons From Hell” by Robert E. Howard
In voter packet
The Weird Writings of Robert E. Howard, vol. 2
The Dark Man and Others (coll), by Robert E. Howard (044775265095, 0586042938)
Weird Tales, ed. Leo Margulies (0515048771)
The Book of Robert E. Howard (0890831637, 0425044491)
Pigeons from Hell (coll), by Robert E. Howard (0890831890, 0441663206)
Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors (coll), by Robert E. Howard (0671656414)
The Horror Hall of Fame, eds. Silverberg & Greenberg (0709049021, 0881848808)
Young Blood, ed. Mike Baker (0821744984)
The Black Stranger and Other American Tales (coll), by Robert E. Howard (0803273533, 0803224214)
The Robert E. Howard Omnibus (11588739422)
The Haunter of the Rings and Other Tales (coll), by Robert E. Howard (9781840220858, 9781447407683)
The Best of Robert E. Howard vol 2 (0345490209)
The Day They Hanged My Best Friend Jimmy, ed. Barry J. Gillis (9780968593776)
Heroes in the Wind (coll), by Robert E. Howard (9780141189437)
A Thunder of Trumpets (coll), by Robert E. Howard (9780809571703)
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard (978159063327)
Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! ed Otto Penzler (9780307740892)
The Century's Best Horror Fiction 1901-1950, ed. John Pelan (9781587670800)
Blessings from the Condemned, ed. Robert Friedrich (9781499609264)
“Rule 18” by Clifford D. Simak
The Autumn Land and Other Stories (coll) by Clifford D. Simak (0749301856)
“Werewoman” by C. L. Moore
In voter packet
Horrors Unknown, ed. Sam Moskowitz (0802755348, 0425030636)
The Edge of Never, ed. Robert Hoskins
Dark Imaginings, eds. Boyer & Zahorski (0440531187)
Echoes of Valor II, ed. Karl Edward Wagner (0312931891, 0812557522)
Northwest of Earth (coll), by C.L. Moore (9781601250810, 9781607518594, 9780575119369)
“The Faithful” by Lester del Rey
In voter packet
…And Some Were Human (coll) by Lester del Rey
First Flight, ed. Damon Knight
Now Begins Tomorrow, ed. Damon Knight
Early Del Rey (0385027400)
The Early Del Rey vol 1 (0345 25063X)
The Road to Science Fiction #2, ed. James Gunn (0451617363, 0810844397, 0451618599)
First Voyages, eds. Knight, Greenberg, Olander (0380775867)
Isaac Asimov Presents The Best Science Fiction Firsts, eds. Asimov, Greenberg, Waugh (0760702543)
The SFWA Grand Masters, vol 3 (0312868774, 0312868766)
War and Space (coll) by Lester del Rey (9781886778764)
“Helen O’Loy” by Lester del Rey
In voter packet
…And Some Were Human (coll) by Lester del Rey
Beyond Human Ken, ed. Judith Merril
Assignment in Tomorrow, ed. Frederik Pohl (044778699125)
The Coming of the Robots, ed. Sam Moskowitz
Master's Choice, ed. Laurence M. Janifer
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, vol 1, ed. Robert Silverberg (0722178298, 0380007959, 1568658788, 0765305364, 0765305372, 0380449331, 0980007959)
18 Greatest Science Fiction Stories, ed. Laurence M. Janifer (0448053756, 044812128X)
Assignment in Tomorrow, ed. Frederik Pohl (044778699125)
3000 Years of Fantasy and Science Fiction, eds de Camp and Crook de Camp (068840006X)
Modern Science Fiction, ed. Norman Spinrad (0385022638, 0839823398)
In Dreams Awake, ed. Leslie A. Fiedler
Science Fiction and Fantasy, ed. Fred Olbrecht (0812006518)
Souls in Metal, ed. Mike Ashley (0709158912, 0515045462)
Robots Robots Robots, eds. Geduld & Gottesman (0821206885)
The Best of Lester del Rey (0345273362, 0345329333, 034543949X)
Science Fiction: Masters of Today, ed. Arthur Liebman (0823905373)
The Analog Anthology #2, ed. Stanley Schmidt
Analog Readser's Choice, ed. Stanley Schmidt (0385276818)
Robots and Magic (coll), by Lester del Rey (9781886778887)
“Hollerbochen’s Dilemma” by Ray Bradbury
In voter packet
Horrors Unseen, ed. Sam Moskowitz (0425025837)
Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury, vol 1 (9781606350713)
“How We Went to Mars” by Arthur C. Clarke
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (057507065X, 0312878214, 1857983238, 0312878605, 0312878214, 1857983238, 0312878605)
“Hyperpilousity” by L. Sprague de Camp
In voter packet
Omnibus of Science Fiction, ed. Groff Conklin (0517453703)
Science Fiction of the Thirties, ed. Damon Knight (0380009048)
The Best of L. Sprague de Camp (0345254740, 0345329309)
The Road to Science Fiction #2, ed. James Gunn (0451617363, 0810844397, 0451618599)
Links I found interesting for 03-07-2014
- ‘West Wing’ Uncensored: Aaron Sorkin, Rob Lowe, More Look Back
Sidney Poitier as President?
- The Other Side Of Monty Python
Why it worked then, and won’t now.
- Mystery Solved? Why There are No Lunar ‘Seas’ On The Far Side Of The Moon
Baked by the young hot Earth.
- UN Climate Summit: The Chance to Prove That We Are Climate Leaders
President Loeak’s call to action.