All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
ZMan takes the Dean of Science Fiction to task on his concept of a soldier only franchise in “Starship Troopers.”
Of course he’s rightly basing it on the book but even the highly toxic spin that the director took with the movie still made it a fun experience to watch them zap those bugs. Hopefully some of Heinlein’s better novels and juveniles will be brought to the screen the way they deserve.
For fans (and detractors) of the book there is a lively discussion in the comments of the post.
Happy first day of Fall here at the Autumnal Equinox.
So, I looked around at the news to see if anything jumped out at me. Meh. Lots of stuff is going on. The Texas AG sat down with Tucker to talk about the impeachment hit the DOJ put out on him and how it failed. That was pretty interesting but I wasn’t in the mood for that level of wonkery.
There are all kinds of articles about Menendez but I’ve got a weak stomach so the little bit I’ve done already is about half the fatal dose for that stuff.
But then I was watching a YouTube video by a sf critic called Bookpilled, where he listed what he considered the top science fiction books in his opinion. The list was fairly interesting:
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
The Stars My Destination / Tiger! Tiger! by Alfred Bester
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin
Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith
City by Clifford D. Simak
Hothouse by Brian Aldiss
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Blood Music by Greg Bear
The Dying Earth by Jack Vance
Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge
Blindsight by Peter Watts
So, because the list seemed thoughtful, I went onto one of his other videos. This one was called Battle of the Hard Sci-Fi Classics [100 Book Challenge #35-40]. In this “challenge” the host read one or more books by the “Big Three.” The works he read were “Rendezvous with Rama” and “2001: A Space Odyssey” by Arthur C. Clarke; “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” by Robert Heinlein; “I, Robot” and “The Gods Themselves” by Isaac Asimov.
Well, I’ll say Bookpilled was not particularly impressed by these golden age authors. Clarke and Asimov were damned with faint praise but his true scorn was reserved for poor old Bob Heinlein. Scathing would be a mild description of his comments about the Dean of Science Fiction. Not amused.
And that brings me to the point of this little essay. The reviewer Bookpilled, is a Millennial. His sensibilities were formed in a different world from mine. Now, much of his criticism of Heinlein (and of the other two authors to a lesser degree) center around the merits of the works as literature. He finds fault with the characterizations of the protagonists, the seeming simplicity of the plot devices and even with the level of foreshadowing of events.
And in a lot of ways, the criticism is justified. Heinlein’s characters were very often “types.” The wise older man, the talented but naïve young man, the omni-competent hero, the socially awkward scientist. And some of his books, especially in the later years were less successful as “works of art.” But Bookpilled didn’t just give “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” low marks. He was viscerally outraged by almost everything in the book. He was especially upset about Heinlein’s handling of sex. And, granted, sex is one of the truly weakest aspects of Heinlein’s writing, especially (apparently) from the point of view of Millennial readers. But it’s interesting that his writing is completely unreadable for this apparently enthusiastic science fiction reader. Why is this? Frank Herbert is approximately of Heinlein’s generation but Herbert’s Dune is on Bookpilled’s top fifteen list of all time science fiction books. So, what’s the deal?
I think the generational difference is that when science fiction was a new art form its audience was entirely made up of young men. And the aspect of the work that earned it praise was almost entirely its capacity to inspire enthusiasm and wonder about the future. Whether it was interstellar space travel, nuclear power, or alien life forms the loftiness of the prose and the depth of characterization were almost unimportant to the success of the story. And so, when these older stories are read by 21st century critics they are not amused. It matters not at all that “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” is probably the first story to consider a political revolution between Earth and a space colony. He’s read a host of books that took this concept and then updated for the present reader.
In these updated versions, the protagonist may be a black trans-lesbian with anti-white-colonial credentials and the computer will be the disembodied mind of Che Guevera or Woody Allen or someone else, depending on whether it’s an earnest political story, a comedy or something I can’t even imagine. And the “diversity” allows the author to virtue signal to his audience the correctness of his story. And if he’s a talented writer it allows him to add exotic points to the writing.
And that’s fine. Every generation has its own art. I think the important thing for me to note is that there is a place today for art that does not follow the template of the current day. Bookpilled is a guy that looks like he’s somewhere in his early thirties. So, his sensibilities are in line with his generation. Now, I think he’s probably a fair example of his cohort and I’ll even say he’s probably not hostile to the world view of his parents’ generation. He just sees things from his point of view. But if he can enjoy Dune, Mote in God’s Eye, The War of the Worlds and even Frankenstein then he is reachable through art that speaks with a very different voice than his here and now literature.
So as an incipient science fiction author I think it behooves me to understand my potential market. These young people are intelligent (well, at least the ones I want to reach). Probably good writing, even if it comes from a different world view will interest them if it can provide sympathetic characters and interesting plot. But if my plot challenges their world view it will need to be persuasive. I won’t be able to win them over with exposition. I’ll need to show them what I want them to understand. That’s the challenge.
Well, why not? Propaganda for its own sake is pretty awful even if it’s of your particular stripe. So, Bob Heinlein be warned. The Millennials have lost their patience and if you’re not careful they’ll take back your grandmaster’s hat and robe. Get a copy of “Fifty Shades of Gray,” a highlighter and drop all the dears!
Reviewing Aliens and hearing from folks who remembered it fondly got me thinking about what readers here consider the best sci-fi movies. So, of course, I went to YouTube. And here’s the list.
Now, right off the bat, I disagree with several of the picks. Neither “Planet of the Apes” or “The Day the Earth Stood Still” would be on my top ten movies list. Planet of the Apes isn’t my idea of a sci-fi movie. And The Day the Earth Stood Still is commie propaganda. So, there’s that.
Some of the other movies are pretty good ones. Now as for the order and any additional movies to pad out the top ten I’ll have to give it some thought. But I think it’s a good talking paper to inspire discussion of what each of us considers to be good sci-fi movies.
Now here’s another list (see below). This is IMDB’s “TOP 100 Sci-Fi Movies of All Time.” There are a few commonalities between the top ten of this list with the former list. But one interesting thing I noticed is that once you get past the top of the list the sequels start piling up. Between sequels to “Back to the Future,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Predator,” “Jurassic Park,” “Star Trek” “Alien,” “Terminator” and “Star Wars” we’re looking at a lot of retreads.
What it made me think was that there really aren’t that many really good science fiction movies. There are definitely a lot more good science fiction books than there are good movies. Which I guess is kind of hopeful if you’re an optimist. For instance, I saw that they’ve made a movie out of Asimov’s Foundation stories. I saw the coming attractions. Honestly, I couldn’t tell anything about it at all. It could be great. It could be awful. But at least it’s a new movie. It’s not a sequel.
So, I guess being a science fiction movie fan is all about being an optimist. And in the larger world of science fiction/fantasy movies we were rewarded in the early 2000s with the Lord of the Rings movies. So that tells me miracles can happen. Maybe one day a true fan of Heinlein will reboot “Starship Troopers” without the nazi iconography or might even film “Have Spacesuit Will Travel.”
So, this will be an open thread to get some comments. If you’d like to give your top sci-fi movie list or what story you’d like to see filmed in the future put it in the comments. Later on, I’ll add some more of my own thoughts on what is a proper science fiction movie and what isn’t.
A last question for the audience. Is “Escape from New York” really science fiction?
It’s a funny thing I had never seen Aliens in its entirety until today. Somehow, I missed the first half hour of the movie and only came in when the main action was beginning. So finally, I have the correct basis on which to judge it.
I won’t synopsize the plot because it’s an Alien movie so the plot is for Sigourney Weaver to outlive the rest of her fellow humans battling the aliens before ultimately jettisoning a xenomorph into the vacuum of space.
As in the original “Alien” movie Sigourney Weaver is Ellen Ripley a commercial astronaut who works for the evil Weyland-Yutani Corporation. Fifty-seven years after the first Alien attack Ripley is discovered still in suspended animation in the shuttle craft that she used to escape the destruction of her ship the Nostromo.
The evil Weyland-Yutani Corporation was very unhappy about her blowing up their ship but when they find out that their terra-forming colony on the planet that the alien was found on has gone silent they send “space marines” and Ripley to fix things. They also send Paul Reiser playing smarmy corporate yes man, Carter Burke to provide the requisite “greedy corporation wants xenomorph for bioweapon” subplot. And finally, they throw in an android to show that despite what happened in the first movie, androids can be pretty swell people too.
And finally, to soften up Ripley’s Rambo impression, they throw in an orphaned little girl named Newt that Ripley rescues a few times over the course of the movie, proving that a modern woman truly can have it all.
So, the producers pull out all the stops. Aliens are popping up everywhere in the industrial complex that serves as the venue for this first-person shooter game. Bits of aliens and “molecular acid” are sprayed everywhere and one by one the marine platoon is picked off by the monsters. Until finally we’re down to Ripley, Newt, android and the pick of the Marine crew, Corporal Dwayne Hicks played by the ever-popular Michael Biehn. But during the final rescue of Newt on the planet Hicks is wounded by molecular acid and from then on, all the heavy lifting is done by Ripley. Which she performs with panache, culminating in the above mentioned obligatory spacing of the mother alien (of course there’s a mother alien).
So, what did I think? Well, I have some quibbles. The plot contrives it that the marines can’t use their heaviest weapons because the industrial plant is a “thermonuclear” power plant and if any of their explosive charges rupture a heat exchanger line the whole plant will detonate. Since it’s a cinch that all the colonists (except Newt) are already dead why are they bothering to throw away their lives in this death trap. As Ripley so astutely recommended, “I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.” Also, they overdid it with the strong female characters and weak male ones. Yeah, I know, I know. “There’s nothing wrong with that.” But honestly it is insulting and stupid.
But taken all in all the movie does provide an exciting action-adventure/science fiction/horror experience. I won’t claim it’s my favorite but it is a worthy representative of its genre. I will give it a recommended status.
(Spoiler Alert – Skip down to last paragraph to avoid spoilers and read recommendation)
Ad Astra (Latin for “to the stars”) is a science fiction movie starring Brad Pitt as astronaut Roy McBride whose father Clifford McBride (played by a decrepit looking Tommy Lee Jones) is inexplicably firing anti-matter particles back at Earth from the orbit of the planet Neptune. The anti-matter will eventually destroy Earth so Roy is supposed to go to the Moon to catch a ride to Mars to broadcast a message to his father asking him not to destroy Earth, or something. The why and how of all this is very odd. Clifford has been MIA for twenty years on a mission called Lima that was somehow supposed to be looking for extraterrestrial intelligence (from somewhere near Neptune!).
Eventually we learn that Clifford murdered his crew long ago because they figured out, he was crazy. When Roy gives his message on Mars Clifford doesn’t agree to cease and desist so the military outfits a mission to nuke Project Lima to erase the threat. Somehow (but not believably) Roy stows aboard the rocket (after it blasts off) and without really trying he kills the whole crew that were trying to kill him. Now he flies to Neptune and confronts his father who is completely nuts. He sets the nuke and thinks he’s convinced Clifford to return to Earth with him. But when push literally comes to shove, Clifford unshackles himself from Roy and heads off into empty, empty space.
Finally, Roy uses a hatch panel to protect himself while he takes a shortcut through the rings of Neptune and then somehow the nuclear blast that destroyed Project Lima was able to provide most of the kinetic energy to return him to Earth before Roy dies of old age. And despite all the astronauts he killed getting out there the military decides to forgive and forget and so Roy finishes off by reciting some kind of humanistic spiritual affirmation statement of some kind or other and then gets back together with his ex-wife Liv Tyler.
Now maybe that sounds quite odd for a science fiction story. And it is. This is a somewhat confusing rigamarole. So let me give my thoughts on it. The visual effects are quite good. Some scenes in low Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and aboard spacecraft are a lot of fun to watch. But there are (I kid you not) space monkeys! Which I kinda/hafta frown upon. So, two points off. Brad Pitt’s character starts out as an apparently emotionless robot who always saves the world from disaster without getting his pulse above eighty. By the end he’s crying about his crazy father being crazy. Tommy Lee Jones’ character is crazy so there’s not much there. Donald Sutherland has a small part and he’s always crazy. So, this movie doesn’t make a lot of sense. For instance, how is Tommy Lee Jones investigating other life in the universe from Neptune. Neptune is too incredibly cold for anything to live there. And it’s not like it’s any closer to the stars than Earth. Alright, I’ll stop making fun of the movie. It’s a crazy movie, but like “2001: A Space Odyssey” it’s a visually enjoyable movie if you don’t care too much about the plot. I recommend it for hard-core sci-fi film lovers who can live with space monkeys.
Make a start. Make a start. Well, I’ve caught up with my chores. All the distractions and alarums and excursions have kept me from writing. Well, what can you do? Life is like that.
But what to write about? I’m looking for something upbeat. I don’t want to talk about the crime epidemic or the 2024 race or even transgender pushback. I’ve expended enough venom on those to last me awhile. I’d rather think about something fun.
So, how about asteroid mining?
Until recently talk of this was restricted to science fiction fans. Heinlein had asteroid miners in his juvenile novel “The Rolling Stones” and it was a staple of many writers in the last century. But now it’s going from fiction to fact as NASA is talking about sending a mission to an asteroid that is believed to be composed almost entirely of metal. There’s a mission to send an unmanned mission to reach Psyche 16 in 2026.
Psyche 16 is a small world with a diameter of 140 miles. Its mass has been estimated at 2.29 ×1019 kg. That’s about 0.0004% of the Earth’s mass. But that’s an enormous mass.
Now visiting Psyche 16 is a far cry from actually mining gold and platinum from this worldlet and getting it to Earth where it has value. But it’s a start. The actual mechanism for recovering the metals that make up Psyche 16 is an interesting problem. Depending on how fast it is going relative to Earth, changing its orbit has the potential to be a human existence-ending event for planet Earth. Remember, the dinosaurs allegedly bit the dust because a fair-sized asteroid crashed into Earth sixty some odd million years ago. So, diverting large asteroids should be something done with the utmost of careful planning and the least amount of change to our space environment.
The two choices I come up with are moving it into a stable orbit close to Earth or crashing it into the Moon. Overall, I favor the Moon idea. Maybe I’ve been influenced by Heinlein’s story, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.” In that tale the Moon colonists uses a rail gun to boost payloads to escape the Moon’s gravity and splash down in the oceans of Earth. I’m sure that much more careful thought would need to be done to ensure that this kind of logistical method is possible but I’m guessing from a risk perspective where an extinction event is one of the risks it would probably be preferred to leaving that big rock moving close to Earth.
In the article someone did a back of the envelope calculation and came up with $10,000 quadrillion as the value of the metals in Psyche 16. Of course, why it would be expressed that way instead of as $10 quintillion is unclear to me. But they bring up the point that this would wreck the Earth’s economy by destabilizing the value of gold and other metals. Well, this seems like a silly statement. Extracting even something as valuable as platinum from the Moon and bringing it back to Earth will not be economical unless the price of that metal increases by orders of magnitude.
Digging gold and platinum out of the Earth is the economical choice and will be for the foreseeable future. But if someday there is a need for metals that can no longer be found on Earth, then maybe asteroid mining might become a thing,
So, wasn’t that more fun than talking about trannies again? Feel free to comment on my moon crash option. I assure you I haven’t thought through this option much at all so we can dissect it as an occasion for fun. Have at it.
Spring has arrived with its endless supply of muck and slop and just in time with it the town has gone topsy turvy. Revolution has broken out. The Old Guard and the Young Turks are having a set to and I’m caught in the middle. I’ll be working more and making a little extra money but being of an extremely lazy nature I’d prefer the opposite. But there are some interesting aspects to this turn of events. New England town democracy in action is a bizarre force to observe. The fact that the Old Guard is putting up a fight is almost unheard of in this neck of the woods. I’ll have a ringside seat for the proceedings so it may make an interesting story when all is said and done but I expect that much angst and hard feelings will spill over into everyday life.
But at the same time, it will also cut into my blogging time, in fact it already has. And on top of that I’ve mended my ways and now have begun applying myself to my fiction writing. I cranked out four thousand words over the last three days and that has also cut into my posting. But that’s all to the good. The story is expanding and becoming more interesting. I’ve definitely decided to nuke my hero’s base at some point. I mean what’s a science fiction story without an atom bomb somewhere? No one calls them atomic bombs anymore. It’s nuke this and nuke that. Thermo-nuclear. Who came up with that name? Thermo- implies heat. Are there any cold nuclear explosions? I guess if they ever figure out an actual cold fusion process, we could talk about it but anyway I think I’m going to nuke my base.
I’ve had to write some personal scenes into the book. The hero gets to see his family for the first time in a long while and there are grandkids and his son’s widow and that was tricky. I think I did alright which surprised me. I’m not a very touchy feely kinda guy but I could see that leaving out his relationship with his family felt fake. So, there you go, human interest. What’s next, an Oprah interview for our hero? I’ve even added an AI character. That’s actually kind of fun. It’s funny once you get going these things kind of write themselves in. Anyway, the story is percolating along.
But all this stuff really just enhances the blogging. You can’t just write about national stories all the time. It’s just too much of the same thing. We’ve got to be in the story too, or what’s the point? I could just listen to Tucker Carlson or some other talking head. That’s why I like when some of the guest contributors have something to add. I like to get some other angles on things and I’m sure that’s the same with everybody else.
I think the whole Trump indictment story is both a ridiculous joke and at the same time an important object lesson. It’s important that everyone on our side realize that this is not our country anymore and it doesn’t work by the rules we were told apply. The people in charge change the rules as needed. They don’t play fair and they play as rough as needed. And if the January 6th prisoners aren’t enough to convince you of that just wait till Donald Trump gets his treatment.
So anyway, busy, busy, busy but still keeping my nose to the grindstone. Wow, that sounds painful!
I’ve been trying to speed up my writing but there’s always something distracting me. but I thought it would be fun to post a little part of a scene.
“After the meeting, Director Sparks called Chastain and told him to meet him at Sparks’ temporary office in the Pentagon. When Chastain arrived Sparks briefed him. “We can’t play around anymore. I’ve been given unlimited resources to catch this man. I want you to act as the lead. There will be three separate teams. One will investigate the physical evidence at the Hoover building site to figure out what the hell we’re up against. The second team will pursue the cyber trail of whoever released the video. That leak must be plugged. But most important, the third team will find Boghadair. You will have first priority on all the surveillance infrastructure, public and private. You can write a blank check for whatever you need but I want that man in custody within the week. If not, your head is on the block. And that’s not a joke. If Boghadair isn’t in shackles in a week from today you’re done.” Chastain bit back some bitter words and said, “Okay, I’ll need a command center with a room where I can crash; bed, shower, kitchen. Tell me the cost center numbers I can charge to and give me the contact information for my three team leads. I’ll find Boghadair for you or you can have my job. But I wonder what else I’ll find. Apparently, this thing is a lot bigger than one man.”
Sparks handed him a briefcase. “All the documents are on a drive. There’s a folder with all the contact information and the codes you need to access the databases and the systems you’ll need. I also want a list of government officials that Boghadair might target and conjecture on the order of attack. I want that list by tomorrow morning.” Chastain nodded his head. Sparks growled, “That’s all.” And Chastain left the office and walked out of the building. As he was leaving the building he thought, “You’re at the top of that list you fool.”
As Director Sparks left his temporary office that night that very idea occurred to him. He was headed home to a gated community in one of the most expensive suburbs of Washington. And he was scared. He decided to travel back to his home by a different route. Taking this circuitous route and seeing no cars following him he slowly calmed down and by the time he was within a mile of his home he felt foolish about his fears. When he was caught at a red light that usually never changed on him he was a little confused. Then he noticed that the video display on his dashboard shifted from the typical menu view to a video feed. He could see a man in the driver’s seat of a car. After a second or two he realized he was looking at an image of himself. He was for a second stunned and by the time he comprehended his peril the bullet was already entering the side of his head. When his foot slipped off the brake his car rolled into the intersection and was struck by traffic going through the intersection. The local police were on the scene rather quickly and alerted the FBI based on the car’s license plate number. Late that night the report reached George Chastain and his first thought was, “I guess I should let the Attorney General know he’s next on the list.””
Gee, it’s fun killing bad guys. It just feels right. Well, on to the Attorney General.
It looks like the modern special effects representation of the landing from Destination: Moon or some other Heinlein story. Forget about battery cars Elon. Do more of this.
Falcon 9’s first stage has landed on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship pic.twitter.com/CPoMMzPDgS
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) February 17, 2023
I’ve returned to the land of the living. My eyes track. I can walk through a doorway without colliding with a doorjamb. I can even keep up a conversation without sliding sideways off my chair onto the floor. Next week I climb the Matterhorn. Bravissimo!
I looked through the news feeds. And, so help me, I even considered watching the Georgia run-off. But there just wasn’t anything the least bit interesting. I even considered pulling a Jussie Smollett. I was going to claim that a Canon camera enthusiast sent me a derogatory e-mail making fun of my many bison photos of the day. But my hard-bitten honesty just wouldn’t let me do it. I love those bison!
I thought, “I’ll just write about something I like.” After all that post about nuclear war had some great comments and that stuff really interests me. Why not do something like that? So that’s why this is coming out of left field. I just didn’t feel like beating a political drum that’s already been beaten to a bloody pulp.
So, for a theme I’ll select the question, “What’s the most important component of a good science fiction story?”
Is it the tech? Is it a good plot? Is it well written characters? Or does it absolutely require some balance between the three?
Let’s explore this a little bit. Start with tech. I suppose that space opera has lost a lot of support among the modern readers of science fiction. Stuff like the Skylark of Space, The Legion of Space or the Lensman books are probably disqualified as too naïve and hopelessly early 20th century for anyone under sixty to consider reading. But is the inexplicable faster than light (ftl) drives of these stories any less plausible than whatever also implausible ftl drives are currently being used by modern science fiction writers? I’ve got to say I don’t think they’re disqualifications. I’d say the rule is it just has to be self-consistent with whatever “rules” you’ve made up for the tech. So, it doesn’t have to be somehow scientifically accurate. It just can’t be bone-headedly stupid. What it does have to be is convenient. The technology has to allow the plot to evolve the way you want. If space travel takes centuries, then don’t kill off too many good characters by leaving them back on Earth. Or if time travel can only go backwards then don’t leave your spare batteries for your ray gun in your other pair of pants when you head back to the neolithic.
And the tech should be a fun toy for the reader if you can manage it. I always loved how Heinlein lovingly designed his “torchships” and made the passenger and service areas of his ships seem well thought out. But I also know of authors whose tech is basically a black box and for all we hear we could be sitting inside the fuselage of a jet plane.
While tech is necessary (after all it is sf) it’s not the deciding factor whether a story works.
Well, how about characters? Yes, they are important, in the sense that they must at least exist. But I’ve read some supposedly classic science fiction where the characters are as flat as pancakes (Asimov and Clarke come to mind). Now this may no longer be the case. I’m not sure. I enjoy a good amount of character development in my fiction and I’ve been able to find it. But I could easily believe there could be a very good story where character was in short supply.
What about plot? Well, I could imagine a story that had a strong tech component and interesting characters but the plot was almost minimal. Maybe like some of Bradbury’s short stories like the one where the Ladies’ Sewing Circle is trying to ignore the impending nuclear holocaust by concentrating on their work. It’s all character. But I guess you still have to say there’s a plot or more like a scenario.
I feel like, for the most part, and except for very odd stories, the sine qua non of a good science fiction story is a good plot. If your tech is passable and your characters are at least bearable but you have a plot that rolls along and interesting stuff happening then you have a chance. But you can have great tech and witty, erudite, droll fellows populating your world and if not much of anything is happening except talk, then your readers will throw the book against the wall (or the digital equivalent) and go look for something better. And that’s that!
Now I know there are many sf fans in the audience. I’d love to hear your comments, especially if you disagree. I’m always interested in the opinions of sf readers. The floor is now yours.