No Idea How This Intro Will Turn Out
You see, I watched a vlog from 'Sci-Fi Odyssey' on Youtube, which was called '68 Philosophical Sc-Fi Books To Melt Your Brain', with a very striking thumbnail. Art!
I checked and there's no attribution for the image, but SFO does state he uses stock illos, so this is probably one and no, there is no Reverse Image Search available.
ANYWAY SFO put up a list of 68 sci-fi novels and Your Humble Scribe was wondering how many I've read, or seen the film/television series based on said works. So, because I painstakingly wrote out a list, you are going to get a whole Intro bloviating about them, like it or not.
No. 68: The Sun Eater by Chris Ruocchio (2018). Never heard of it. Space opera about the human Solian Empire battling the alien Cielcin across the galaxy.
No. 67: Solaris by Stanislav Lem (1961). Yes! Conrad has read it, but only once back in the Seventies. Quite surprised at how old it is. The central conceit is that the ocean on the planet Solaris may be sentient and is attempting to communicate with humans in orbit. Not very successfully, it turns out. Art!
Well worth watching
Yes, I've also seen the original film. I might have a copy of the remake amongst my stack of charity-shop DVDs.
No. 66: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell (1996). I have heard of sparrows, not that we get many in a garden patrolled by Edna, just not this one. It's about a first contact mission that goes disastrously wrong, leaving only a Jesuit priest as the sole survivor. Sounds deep, philosophical and utterly not my cup of tea.
No. 65: Sphere by Michael Crichton (1987). This is where old age and gin take their toll. I don't think I've read the novel. I have seen the film, which I remember little about, apart from a speech from the Peter Coyote character going on about being stuck in an environment full of exotic gasses and not finding it fun. Art!
No. 64: Dhalgren by Samuel Delany (1975). Haven't read but am aware of it. It explores modern life through a character called 'The Kid', who visits the city of Bellona, which has been shattered by an undefined catastrophe. I remember an interview with Delaney in 1975 where he said the first edition had a couple of lines that linked it to his first novel, "The Jewels Of Aptor" but which were later edited out. Art!
No. 63: The Lathe Of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin (1971). One I have picked up in paperback thanks to the cover artwork, yet never read. I have seen the film version in case you were wondering. It's about a chap whose dreams can affect reality, whose therapist is attempting to subvert. Art!
Striking, nicht wahr?
No. 62: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu (20080. A double-whammy here, as I've read the first of the trilogy and seen the very good television adaptation, starring that most excellent son of Manchester, Benny Wong. It concerns the incredibly destructive existence of an alien race, whose world orbits a triple-sun system. Liu is crafty enough to never describe what these aliens look like and manages to mix in the Cultural Revolution and involve China, rather than America, as a major player. Art!
What? No Benny?
No. 61: Blindsight by Peter Watts (2006). Again, never heard of it. Hmmm. Described as 'dense and philosophical', which to Conrad sounds rather like 'Horribly complicated for the sake of it'. A first contact at the edge of the Solar System, to put it in a nutshell.
No. 60: Echopraxia by Peter Watts (2014). Hmmm, him again. Once again I've never heard of it. It seems to be set in the same universe as 'Blindsight' but is more intent on filling in the background of late 22nd century humanity, in terms of evolution, biology and technology. In case you were wondering, and even if you weren't, 'echopraxia' is the mimicking of another person's movements after they have moved.
No. 59 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818). Another double, or treble, whammy as yes, I've read the original, and seen the Universal films and that one starring Robert De Niro, too. Possibly the modern equivalent of the Faust legend, here you have Viktor Von Frankenstein patching together a 'man' from bits of dead bodies, powered and brought to life by galvanism. Art!
Gosh, 750 words and only about one-seventh of the way through. We shall have to pick this up later. I bet you can hardly wait.
Roll On The Ruffian-Roistering!
Yes, another entry from 'Daractenus' on Twitter and his list of Ruffian Urban Hellscapes. Art!
Ruffian roads stronk!
This is Saratov, capital city of the Saratov oblast, a port on the Volga River, with a current population of 878,000. It used to be 900,000 but, you know, the Special Idiotic Operation. Principal export seems to be mud. The name 'Saratov' is derived from the Tatar for 'Yellow Mountain', 'Sary Tau'. More like Sorry Tau. Fifteenth largest city in Mordorvia and they can't afford to metal roads. Tut.
Yes, I Used This Photo Before
Art!
HA! NOW YOU CAN'T UNSEE IT!
I picked this one up on Twitter, not from the original Tweet but from one by Chari Jacobs. Conrad cannot do better than copy and paste her Tweet -
I now have an enhanced nickname for Donnie Dorko - the 'Saggy Senile Sepia Sackbut' and offer this photo as evidence. One doubts that DJ Tango bothers with self-reflection very often, but the onset of his father's dementia must crop up in the small hours. Art!
Captain Kirk has been shaking too many hands, the poor man.
Shifting Stuff
Yes, we are back to the logistics of the Western Front post-1916 and the appointment of Sir Eric Geddes as a railway expert, because he was - you may be ahead of me here - and expert on railways, with over 20 years of experience in running them. Info cribbed from Janet Macdonald's 'Supplying the British Army in the First World War', which I cannot recommend too highly. Art!
Ol' Geddy, as well as Field Marshal Haig, were big fans of light railways, which had gauges of either 30 cm or 40 cm. They began to be used widely as Geddy took over their administration, taking supplies or men from railheads to dumps much closer to the front lines. Light railways were more efficient than horse or motor transport but were more vulnerable to Teuton shellfire, so tended to be used at night.
Light railways really came into their own in 1917, when the front lines were practically static. Geddy ordered 1,200 PROUD IMPERIAL miles of track and 200,000 tons of sleeper for light railway construction, to get 30 or 40 cm rails as close to the front lines as possible. By September of that year they were carrying 200,000 tons of supplies per week. Or, to put it another way, over the 16 months to year's end, 3.2 million tons, most of which was ammunition. Now you know why No Man's Land looked as if it had been nuked. Art!
One example of the narrow gauge that Janet gives is of that running from Arras, which could send out up to 150 trains per night to the front line.
Money may be the sinews of war, but logistics is the muscle and railways made up most of that.
Finally -
Let's go with another Biercism.
"Fable,n: A brief lie intended to illustrate some important truth.
<long fable about a hippo and an apple redacted>
This fable teaches that Justice and Generosity do not go hand in hand, the hand of Generosity being commonly thrust into the pocket of Justice."
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| Tiny hippo or huge apple? Only you can tell! |
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