Digital Dreams
Hi. I still use LJ, follow my friends and similar, but I've moved my main host to Dreamwidth now, and am crossposting everything to here, but asking people to comment there.
Mat Bowles.
It's still fully interoperative, the OpenID comment functions there are good and improving, and I can follow everything from both sites easily.
Mat Bowles.
It's still fully interoperative, the OpenID comment functions there are good and improving, and I can follow everything from both sites easily.
It's the revised 'preferred' version, so it's long for a Heinlein and, apart from the obvious
not aged very wellproblem, it seems to suffer in some way. I'm not, actually, enjoying it. I'm about 1/3rd of the way in for those interested. So I thought I'd ask you guys what you think of him and the book.
Poll #1340941 R A Heinlein
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 38
Stranger in a Strange Land
View Answers
Read the original
18 (50.0%)
Read the revised unedited version 6 (16.7%)
Liked the original 13 (36.1%)
Liked the revised version 5 (13.9%)
Disliked the original 2 (5.6%)
Disliked the revised version 0 (0.0%)
Have heard of but not read 11 (30.6%)
Have never heard of 4 (11.1%)
What is this reading thing? 1 (2.8%)
Heinlein
View Answers
Have read some of his books 25 (65.8%)
Have read all of his books 5 (13.2%)
Agree with his politics 3 (7.9%)
Disagree with his politics 18 (47.4%)
Find the politics sometimes gets in the way of the book 17 (44.7%)
Can't read his books because of his politics 1 (2.6%)
Can enjoy his books despite his politics 17 (44.7%)
Who is this Heinlein guy anyway? 7 (18.4%)
[1] The only books by
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
autopope that I haven't yet read are currently waiting for me to go pick them up. If you're not sure, let Crooked Timber explain Why you should read Charles Stross as part of their Stross book event which I linked to earlier in the week but perhaps didn't push enough. I've not had time to read all of it yet, but what I have read is cool. Especially the Nobel Laureate geeking about the parallel worlds fantasy books...[2] I read Citizen of the Galaxy and I think a couple others as a teen, and enjoyed what I can remember, I mean to reread at some point. I've read Starship Troopers both as a teen and an adult, and find it a great fun entertaining book with some dodgy politics; I'm one of those rare beasts that prefers the film because of the politics, even if Verhoeven did mess that up quite a bit. Farnham's Freehold is, however, a bit of pulpy trash best consigned to the dustbin of outdated books.
autopope's Jennifer Morgue. It's a damn fine James Bond pastiche with casinos, yachts, a submersible car and Great Old Ones—I commend it to the By random chance, It was revealed today that my good friend
innerbrat, despite being a smart, educated Brit in her mid twenties, has never seen a Bond movie. Now, while I am tempted to complement her parents for managing to raise her and not once have ITV on on a bank holiday, I am completely and utterly amazed that she has managed to never see a Bond movie. Given that I am always aware of the potential problems caused by the small numbers fallacy, I thought I'd find out if she's actually less unusual than I think. Poll time:( Poll: Bond, James Bond )
See, I read the books mostly when I was a kid (I distinctly recall reading a fair few while on the caravan holiday in France, which dates it to 1986 just before I turned 12 and started grammar school). I can remember both enjoying reading them and being surprised at how different they were to the films—Bond got married in one, and was getting over her assassination in the next, there was distinct character development and Moneypenny was a bit part.
They were, without doubt, a product of their time, which is why the new films are even further away from them, even if elements (Bond's character) do seem closer than the earlier films. At times I consider going back to reread them, then decide life is too short and I've got far too many other books to read (like the rest of
autopope's books for a start). Anyone else read enough of them as an adult to have an opinion one way or t'other?Jennie posted a slightly different poll rating the movies awhileback for those of you that are poll obsessed or merely didn't see it.
1. Does it have at least two women in it,See? How easy is that to fulfil as an objective? Everything should pass that one, right? Shame it's not true. Shame that, in reality, a huge amount of stuff, including stuff with strong female lead characters, fails it. Even authors that consciously try to ensure their work isn't sexist manage to fail it regularly, as Charlie Stross has found out. It seems though, that despite many of the writers gender neutrality failings, Doctor Who doesn't do too badly, even taking into account the added complication of the significant central character being male.
2. Who [at some point] talk to each other,
3. About something besides a man.
Of course, the test isn't perfect—there are some perfectly good films where none of the characters are realistic, male or female, and in some it would be innapropriate to try to fulfil it. But for most shows or films, that are supposedley 'realistic', don't you think it should be a fairly normal thing to manage? Charlie's conclusion goes further than I think I would, but he's probably not too far off[2]:
The current decade is characterized by ... a socially conservative culture, of retreat from liberalism, and a strong anti-feminist backlash. Our popular media, far from being the bastions of liberal values ... are actually belwethers of popular culture, ... reflecting our culture's normative values back at us ... What they're showing this decade is really rather disturbing if you happen to agree with the core feminist ideological belief that women are real people too, not just baby factories and sex objects.Given that I watch a lot less TV than most people, and even fewer films, is he right?
TV has always been bad ... but of late, the messages coming at us out of the mass media are nothing short of toxic. If movies and TV objectified people of colour the way they do women, the only reasonable conclusion one could draw would be that a concerted propaganda campaign was under way to return us to the unquestioned institutional racism of the 1950s.
[1] Or scary, or just Plain Wrong, depending on how bad the film or show in question actually is. I'm pretty sure it was
innerbrat that first made me aware of it.[2] I'm excising a lot of text from this quote, marked by elipses, I do think the whole post is worth reading in its own right though.
-
This, is ridiculous. Completely and utterly stupid. The paranoia at LAX when I was there in 2002 was both palpable and misplaced, but a t-shirt with a picture of a grrt big robot now isn't allowed? They'll be banning Oscar Wilde quotes next
-
Complete with added bonus art auction for the Alzheimers trust. This are Good
-
This is a rather cool thing to be doingâ”a bunch of big name SF authors have signed a vinyl MonQee (no, I'd not heard of them either) and are auctioning it off for the Match it For Pratchett thing. Which we like.
-
And here are some pictures and a list of authors for it.
-
I wrote this 18 months ago, but I've linked to it increasingly recently to explain points, so I'm bringing it to the top. The electoral system encourages broad church coalitions and two main parties. Every vote is thus, in some way, tactical.
-
Charlie goes back over Fermi's classic 'if they exist, why aren't they here' paradox with a bunch of possible explanations.
-
Follow up from Fermi - Father Gabriel Funes, said intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space - the Vatican is organising a conference next year to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the author of the Origin of Species, Charles Da
-
Very very cool. Link to part one of some production stills and mock ups of the CGI original design Cylons from the Razor TV movie. Part two, witht he gold cylon, is worth clicking through to.
-
For those that wanted them from last time, Jen's now posted the whole article.
Now onto some Google Külness. Google Mars. It's like Google Maps, but on Mars! Really does bring into relief what KSTR meant when he talked about the great northern sea. After that, How to Make Gmail/Gcal Rock; I especially like the open a compose window in the sidebar bookmarklet, very handy.
Things that make you proud to be British that you'll miss when overseas. Note to the colonials, inhabitants of rebel provinces and other types reading this; yes, we really are that weird.
autopope fanboying (again). Charlie has 15 minutes of fame (and a few more years to follow) with an article on the BBC technology website about the future of history and how we're only just leaving the Dark Ages. Follow up interview on BBC Radio Wales on the Adam Walton show, about half an hour in, it'll be on Listen again for the next 7 days from at some point later this evening, I caught all but the first minute or so.Hmm, still lots of Doctor Who wank throughout fandom, so instead I bring you The Empty Goth, and a useful translation phrasebook for any Doctor Who forum (or in fact pretty much any BB ever, as I rarely go to Who forums and I recognise 9/10s of the idiocies). That last was via pretty much everyone already, but you never know. What do you mean what wank?
judge_death has the full story. Sort of.Last up, the Origins Awards, including a win for
jonhodgson and Deadlands: Reloaded, which makes them double plus good. Which means I have to use a Fineas icon for this post in celebration, it's not like I'm short of them.ps. Ignore this link, it's not here. Oh, alright, go have a look.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif){kind=small}
devils_kitchen proves that political party websites don't have to look like something from the late '90s with his build of the UKIP Ealing site for the by-election. Ouch, I just linked to UKIP approvingly. I'll go and repent now—the content remains crap you'll be pleased to know.autopope Stross got invited to give a talk on Shaping the future, and gave us a tour de force. Once again showing why he's been nominated for a Hugo again, for the nth year running. I believe coincidentally, bagrec has another poll, on what predicted technology we'd get but haven't got. No prizes for guessing which one I voted for.On the subject of polls,
Vote Purple!
Go on, y'know you want to.I have more to follow, including a discussion in Eurovision and some great stuff on China Miéville, but now, I sleep. Well, actually, that's a lie, but I'm not posting any more. Probably.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
londonbloodbowl at the moment. That's if I get time after work tomorrow, given I'm planning on taking part in a world record attempt in Trafalgar Square. But the point of that link was to point to the fact that Charlie Stross has released Missile Gap for free download, which given my liking of everything I've read by autopope so far (I even like his politics) is a Good Thing.Awhileback, I mentioned
el_staplador is on a pilgrimage through Spain and suggested you go read her journal, which she's mostly updating via internet cafe. Only, um, I spelt her user name wrong (oops), so to make up for that, here's the story so far - pre-departure planning one, two, three and four. Actual reports from Spain: SORPRESA!, In brief, This could be the weirdest place in which I have ever updated LJ..., ¡Castrojeriz!, ¡Carrión de los Condes!, Thank goodness for wonderful refugios..., It's a long way to Santiago,It's a long, Goodbye, goodbye, I wish you all a last goodbye... and Yes, but you don't go!. If yuo wondering if the links are worth following, have an exerpt: Note about refugios: yes, they're vaguely like youth hostels, but they are reserved exclusively for pilgrims ... it costs anything from €3 to €8 for the bed, plus about €3 for breakfast if they happen to do it there, although some seem to rely entirely on donations... They can range from the really basic and horrible - the one at Hornillos de Camino, for example, was filthy, cramped and disorganised ... and the shower was so cold that I wished I'd had some lustful thoughts to make it worth it.
Lastly, for those wondering? Yes, my girlfriend is crazy, personally I think it's one of her more endearing features...
Spent most of the week either at my parents, Rob's or in bed with a book or a DVD. Didn't buy any electric cards last weekend, so couldn't use much that required power until Anne upstairs came back, me silly fule. Got some book tokens from my sister (she's learning), some Dr Who DVDs from my parents, and chocolate plus some cash from both grandmothers. Went and bought myself Dr Who series II and Torchwood Pt I boxing day, natch. Also bought myself the
grrm paperback, which I'm halfway through, rather good so far. autopope's second novel is, I think, better than his first, and definitely the sort of SF I want to be reading, made me think and entertained. This is good.Torchwood? Will do a proper review style thing when I'm caught up, but initial reaction? OMG yes. More please. Flawed, at times the plotting is daft, and a bit too twee in a few ways, but overall impressive, and better than 90% of other stuff out there. Also, Gwen has a rather nice arse, shame they took her out of the uniform. And Tosh is cute as well. Sorry, I'll, um, go back to reading my feeds and friends list...
autopope fans...OK, I'm reading this at the moment, and really enjoying it. Unfortunately the copy I've got has a misprint, and has two sets of the same pages and is missing about 50 pages (in my copy, pages 200-250ish).
So, knowing that there are people reading this that have read it and like it, can someone summarise the plot points I may have missed? (and apologies to those on The Culture List who've seen these Qs already)( Cut for some spoilery questions about the plot )
Really enjoying it though, I can see what all the fuss is about now. I really like the idea of the diaspora and the Eschaton, and the basic background is sound. I undertand there's one sequel, which I'll get soon; anyone want to recommend any of his other stuff (I DL'd the e-books at work today, I'll see if I can read them through at some point)
Feeds
Introspection
There probably ought to be a Creative Commons licence in here somewhere but in the meantime consider this permission to quote me (link) & link to what I write.
If you decide to keep reading, please do say hello, let me know where you found me from, etc. I promise not to bite (well, unless you want me to...)
| Blog: |
| Mat Bowles |
Topics: |
| politics, humour, miscellania |
Designed by matgb
matgbProfile
- matgb
- Mat Bowles
- Mat Bowles