tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.comments2024-01-29T15:41:12.310-08:00Rich Puchalsky's blogRich Puchalskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10543499708727953026noreply@blogger.comBlogger241125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-764842110109204382024-01-29T15:41:12.310-08:002024-01-29T15:41:12.310-08:00I believe Crowley thinks THE TRANSLATOR is margina...I believe Crowley thinks THE TRANSLATOR is marginally Fantasy (not SF, I wasn't clear) because of some of the Russian parts, which refer to a somewhat literalized "soul" of a nation (or something like that.) And he was, I think, leaving room for the novel to be read either as just across the Fantasy border, or just using fantastical metaphors. (Unlike FLINT AND MIRROR, another historical novel which pretty straightforwardly mirrors real history, but which includes definite fantasy elements, such as selkies and John Dee's magic.)<br /><br />Yes, you're right, eliminating fixups would eliminate a lot of novels that really were written as novels. I would argue, however, that in the case of THE DYING EARTH, even though the stories were all written together and first published in book form (with one story also more or less simultaneously published in a magazine), the stories work more as separate pieces. But, though the stories in CUGEL'S SAGA were (at least many of them) published separately, I suppose they might work as a novel too, with a common main character (unlike THE DYING EARTH.) (I've never read CUGEL'S SAGA back to back, just the original stories, many in their magazine form.) But this is narrow parsing of definitions, and not a hill I'll die on!Rich Hortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07659613066689174738noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-707874835438840112024-01-29T11:27:36.161-08:002024-01-29T11:27:36.161-08:00I'm not sure why I've never liked Vernor V...I'm not sure why I've never liked Vernor Vinge that much: I think what he writes would have been fine if he'd written it earlier. It just seems to me like a form of SF that has been done quite a bit. <br /><br />As to whether one should like recent works: I hold firmly to the theory (cribbed from Adam Roberts' history of SF books) that there was a sea change sometime around Star Wars where SF increasingly became expressed in a visual rather than textual medium, and that written SF has kept expanding in terms of the number of works but has not really been important in terms of where the genre is going.Rich Puchalskynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-33860742518008172202024-01-29T11:19:18.287-08:002024-01-29T11:19:18.287-08:00It's not just whether the collection is part o...It's not just whether the collection is part of a whole: it's based on the writing process. Because a large majority of SF and fantasy used to be published first in magazines, eliminating fix-ups would eliminate a very large number of early SF novels. The core question in my opinion is whether the author republished stories as is or re-wrote them to form a more coherent or larger whole. (For rare cases like The Islanders, it's neither of these: the work was written as a whole from the start and never was published or meant to be read as individual stories.)<br /><br />For 1980 I would have chosen Engine Summer (I mentioned it as a runner-up) but On Wings of Song had been actually nominated for a Hugo, and I was trying to agree with the Hugo process in cases where it was close enough. Basically I picked nominated works over non-nominated ones in cases where I might have argued but not really thought that a wrong pick had been made.<br /><br />I also thought The Translator was good: I'm surprised that Crowley thinks it's SF. The only Crowley that I could never get into for some reason is the Aegypt series.Rich Puchalskynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-10521988674169675692024-01-29T09:54:44.118-08:002024-01-29T09:54:44.118-08:00Well, yes -- many of those "collections"...Well, yes -- many of those "collections" are to one extent or another parts of a whole so I'm willing to leave up to you how to treat any individual one.<br /><br />I wanted to add that my favorite Crowley novel is ENGINE SUMMER (it's one of my favorite novels of all time) and so that would have been my pick for 1980; which is not to deny that ON WINGS OF SONG is very good too. (Indeed, I read THE FOUNTAINS OF PARADISE decades after it came out and I thought, hey, that's a better novel than I expected! -- though not as good as the Crowley or the Disch.) I do like LITTLE, BIG (and it's due for a reread), and also THE TRANSLATOR -- which is not SF though when I said John Crowley remarked "Are you sure?". (I like or love every Crowley novel, really -- but those three are at the top for me.)Rich Hortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07659613066689174738noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-52492211415075549352024-01-29T09:42:11.062-08:002024-01-29T09:42:11.062-08:00GJ: White Queen was 1993; personally I liked AFUTD...GJ: White Queen was 1993; personally I liked AFUTD, but if you didn't, WQ is a fine alternative. Divine Endurance is 1984, and I'd take it over SR, and I kinda agree that awarding Dying Earth to '84 is cheating. Icehenge was 1984, too. You skipped 2015 I've just noticed; consider Uprooted or Ancillary Sword (Justice was better, 2013, probably worth evicting Yet Another Banks for). I think you've inspired me to arrange my own list into a per-year raking.<br />FWIW, I've found it harder to like recent works; I can't tell if that's because books are getting worse, or just taste is shifting, or because now I'm getting old I only really like reading stuff I already know.William M. Connolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05836299130680534926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-80448626884482095292024-01-29T09:38:24.198-08:002024-01-29T09:38:24.198-08:00Thanks: I'm sure that I missed things from 199...Thanks: I'm sure that I missed things from 1998. For post-20th century books in the list I think I took them from LibraryThing, which is not a good source for publication dates. I should fix that.<br /><br />The question of "collection of short stories vs novel" is complex for SF because SF has so many "fix-ups": cases in which short stories were re-written and combined to make a novel length work. In the case of a fix-up, I think the result is actually a novel. That's the category I'd put the Dying Earth books into. For The Islanders, I believe that it was written as a whole: it's a novel that pretends to be a collection of stories. This doesn't make it an actual collection of stories any more than an epistolary novel is actually a collection of letters. <br /><br />I'll look out for the Pangborn book.Rich Puchalskynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-15625434117845544552024-01-29T09:31:26.293-08:002024-01-29T09:31:26.293-08:00Thanks -- although I sometimes referred to individ...Thanks -- although I sometimes referred to individual works as the first to come up with particular technological ideas, it's not really a major criterion for this list. I'll look out for this book though.Rich Puchalskynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-53865026893047936002024-01-29T09:29:16.497-08:002024-01-29T09:29:16.497-08:00I looked at your previous list just now: it remind...I looked at your previous list just now: it reminded me that I should read more Gwyneth Jones. I wouldn't consider the disagreements to be that great: for one particular one -- whether to include Little, Big -- I include it for a better reason than just a personal liking for Little, Big. Part of what I'm trying to do is evaluate SF by the standards of a more general interpretive community, and Little, Big is considered by that community to be Crowley's best work. Harold Bloom wrote an introduction for it in its 25 anniversary edition.Rich Puchalskyhttps://rpuchalsky.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-23241816138954801072024-01-29T09:03:08.923-08:002024-01-29T09:03:08.923-08:00For 1998 I would suggest Michael Swanwick's JA...For 1998 I would suggest Michael Swanwick's JACK FAUST and M. John Harrison's SIGNS OF LIFE -- while noting that Harrison's THE COURSE OF THE HEART (a very good book) was published in 1992, not 2005. <br /><br />You disqualify FOUR WAYS TO FORGIVENESS (correctly, I think) because it's a collection (and indeed there is a fifth story in the same series) -- on those grounds, I'd also disqualify INVISIBLE CITIES (though it's very good), all the DYING EARTH books (also very good), and THE ISLANDERS (another very good one!) <br /><br />Some of the translated works suffer from the quality of the translation -- for example, rather famously the first translation of Lem's THE INVINCIBLE was by Wendayne Ackerman of all people, and not from the original Polish but from the German. I believe there has a been a better translation more recently. <br /><br />I agree with many of your choices, disagree with many -- and that is, I suppose, as it should be. For 1955 while THE LORD OF THE RINGS is an obvious choice, and the actual winner is execrable, there was one quite good SF novel published in 1954 that would have been a good alternative (and that did win the International Fantasy Award) -- A MIRROR FOR OBSERVERS by Edgar Pangborn.Rich Hortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07659613066689174738noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-47378949704927617822024-01-29T04:27:33.483-08:002024-01-29T04:27:33.483-08:00Phol
Age of the pussyfoot
1965
As far as I know he...Phol<br />Age of the pussyfoot<br />1965<br />As far as I know he was the first to come up with the job of 'influencer' and also 'the joystick' which is a lot like the modern smartphone<br />As a novel it is .. ok tho.andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07311993288675111834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-9001192083335248072024-01-28T13:34:04.391-08:002024-01-28T13:34:04.391-08:00Interesting, thank you. I disagree a lot; with the...Interesting, thank you. I disagree a lot; with the Hugo's and with your alternatives; these things are inevitably subjective. I find I commented my list at your previous list, https://rpuchalsky.blogspot.com/2022/12/55-good-sf-fantasy-books.htmlWilliam M. Connolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05836299130680534926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-55307998782204347152022-12-16T03:35:13.704-08:002022-12-16T03:35:13.704-08:00My list is http://wmconnolley.blogspot.com/2022/05...My list is http://wmconnolley.blogspot.com/2022/05/scifi-and-fantasy-reviews.html. I still can't understand why people like Little, Big. To me, it just dragged on pointlessly, despite the excellent premise. Whereas Engine Summer is wonderful.William M. Connolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05836299130680534926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-6878734909424465892022-06-24T08:51:46.481-07:002022-06-24T08:51:46.481-07:00Adam complained on Twitter that "I hardly eve...Adam complained on Twitter that "I hardly ever get comments on (which is to say I hardly ever get readers of) these blogs, so I feel the occasional exception deserves mentioning." https://twitter.com/arrroberts/status/1536024945892925444<br /><br />This is sad for him, but it's his own fault: after several go-arounds, we know now that our comments are going to be deleted along with the blog when he goes to publish the pieces in book form.Gareth Reeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405124248006286547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-64355895462427336882017-08-01T18:07:18.829-07:002017-08-01T18:07:18.829-07:00Hi Bruce, I tried to write a reply and some peculi...Hi Bruce, I tried to write a reply and some peculiarity of the comment screening (necessary to avoid spam) bounced it off my own blog. So I'll reply with an actual post. If I have the energy.Rich Puchalskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10543499708727953026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-34592449830122582742017-07-30T18:47:42.671-07:002017-07-30T18:47:42.671-07:00Don't know what ecological value means, becaus...Don't know what ecological value means, because I don't know what value means.<br /><br />"It predictably produces the exact results that we see around us now." Inevitability? History only happens one way. Degrees of freedom, zero. Information value, zero.<br /><br />Interpretation of the configuration of the world as the latest step on a path with unknown destination is capable of yielding knowledge, but you have to work at it a bit more subtly than "what is, is of necessity". Notice coincidence, messiness. The world as it is, is many things, many of them the consequences of contingent choices made in ignorance of the world as it was.<br /><br />Past performance is no prediction, of course, but if what you want is to draw people into an hypnotic trance when you can feed them an ideology, you may need the fatuous more than knowledge. Actually understanding, which comes with a lot of painful doubt, and feeling a common understanding in social communion -- these go in different directions. Millenialism is stupid, but . . .<br /><br /><br />"There is no reason to use money" money is not about scarcity. Money is about time. And debt. And loose coordination of scale. <br /><br />Money you may need to 're-work, but if you are serious, money and debt are way too useful in the absence of scarcity in loosely coordinating activity to just chuck the challenge. If you really think ecological value is the proper ground, then there is your gold. And if you want to minimize centralization but still scale coordination, you need a central bank to backstop all the local scorekeeping. "Man owes a great debt to nature" may be just the fatuousness you need.<br /><br />Bruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-10521874804479069912017-03-09T11:22:53.561-08:002017-03-09T11:22:53.561-08:00I wrote this poem years ago, when SEK was alive. I...I wrote this poem years ago, when SEK was alive. I rejected it from self-publication then, but it means more to me now. I thought to put it here because <a href="https://wellsattheworldsend.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-wheels-of-chance-bicycling-idyll.html" rel="nofollow">this post by Adam Roberts</a> reminded me of it.Rich Puchalskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10543499708727953026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-41069907963489058652017-01-30T19:21:47.334-08:002017-01-30T19:21:47.334-08:00I missed this comment before and only saw it when ...I missed this comment before and only saw it when I looked back 2 weeks later. I just looked up this Dworkin Report, and it is amazing. Here is the first piece of overlooked evidence connecting Trump to Russia from it:<br /><br />"According to a 1987 Interest Rate Observer article, President-elect Trump says he likes the people in Russia, and the people like him."<br /><br />That's Exhibit 1. I'm afraid that pressing time concerns mean that I won't have time for the other exhibits.Rich Puchalskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10543499708727953026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-65453940356736230222017-01-29T16:59:15.650-08:002017-01-29T16:59:15.650-08:00This is clearly an unsolved problem. But I've...This is clearly an unsolved problem. But I've written about it in my series in this blog on Occupy. There are / were lots of more organized approaches tried, and they didn't succeed. The reasons for that? Basically a) repression, b) lack of theory for people to coalesce around, c) actual failures of previous top-down left organization.<br /><br />I don't think that showing up at protests really is virtue signaling in the same way that scolding people on the Internet is. It's actively dangerous. It may or may not be misguided, but when virtue signaling involves risk it becomes something more like actual virtue.Rich Puchalskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10543499708727953026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-40031010637923095312017-01-29T13:02:02.987-08:002017-01-29T13:02:02.987-08:00As with the women's march, we could be seeing ...As with the women's march, we could be seeing mobilization without political organization -- a gift to left-neoliberalism, but useless for substantive governance. <br /><br />It isn't enough to get people to show up to demonstrate their own virtue. There needs to be enough organization to nurture critical thought and commitment.Bruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-22797086940124852222017-01-21T19:20:29.399-08:002017-01-21T19:20:29.399-08:00Thanks, Bruce. I'm really not sure about your...Thanks, Bruce. I'm really not sure about your use of "reactionary" -- perhaps "reactive" -- since by convention progressive and reactionary are antonyms and attached to the left and right of the center, whether or not progressives actually want a return to a previous, idealized state (usually presented as a way station towards improvements). And not all protest is reactionary, of course: some people protest to try to push the situation towards a better one that they are working towards.<br /><br />So I prefer to talk in different terms about what the goal of protest or resistance is. If the liberal goal is a return to neoliberalism, then there is no left/liberal alliance. There may be protests near each other, both against Trump, but really they are working at cross purposes. People on the left have a variety of sayings about this, such as the one about liberals preferring to surrender to fascism rather than socialism. And really, historically, the reason that fascist movements succeed isn't that fascists overcome the middle, it's because the middle including the center-left would rather have public order than any of their ideals.Rich Puchalskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10543499708727953026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-33226688421666941852017-01-21T15:32:55.354-08:002017-01-21T15:32:55.354-08:00Bourbons one better: they learn nothing and rememb...Bourbons one better: they learn nothing and remember nothing.Bruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-37202698590321294092017-01-21T15:29:28.803-08:002017-01-21T15:29:28.803-08:00fascism is fast approaching and ... we'd bette...<i>fascism is fast approaching and ... we'd better be polite about it</i><br /><br />It is a good line. I smiled.<br /><br />The call for protest and #theresistance seems reactionary to me and almost by definition the reactionary seeks a return to the status quo ante, but one more imagined than real. These center-left reactionaries -- the nice, well-intentioned obscure ones more than the cynical and more prominent practitioners of the dark arts of media manipulation -- go the arch-reactionaryBruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-9322525151534092422017-01-20T05:50:28.931-08:002017-01-20T05:50:28.931-08:00Thanks, William. Yes, I substantially agree with ...Thanks, William. Yes, I substantially agree with you, but I should also mention that the author is presenting this view as informed by historical study of fascism, and therefore not Godwin's law because Godwin's law doesn't apply when you're talking about actual Nazis. The article is based around the idea that something like a Reichstag Fire really may occur. I'm skeptical, but in appeal-to-authority terms I'm not a historian.<br /><br />I will mention that as far as I do understand it historically, fascism succeeded because the vast middle, including the moderate left, is susceptible to appeals to public order. I think that not making claims that play into that is important. Rich Puchalskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10543499708727953026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-24820244083662980112017-01-20T04:38:17.159-08:002017-01-20T04:38:17.159-08:00A piece called "Keep Calm and Protect Democra...A piece called "Keep Calm and Protect Democracy" which is one long panic of the "ZOMG fascism" and fails Godwin's law is self-contradicting. A prerequisite to any of this is some calm from the author.<br /><br />I'm seeing so much ZOMG stuff that it is self-defeating; there is so much noise that if anyone *did* find out something really exciting, I might not notice, because I've got so used to ignoring it all.William M. Connolleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05836299130680534926noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1991402668327441142.post-84385118336421099622017-01-15T22:20:14.399-08:002017-01-15T22:20:14.399-08:00Have you read the Dworkin Report? #connectingdotsHave you read the Dworkin Report? #connectingdotsJustin Ray Castillohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12431854315115838832noreply@blogger.com