science fiction

China buys 2023 Worldcon 1

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The 2023 World Science Fiction Convention will be in China, a country notorious for suppressing dissent, persecuting minorities, restricting communication, and monitoring its citizens. Worldcon sites are selected among bidders by members of an earlier Worldcon, as just happened at Discon. It appears that the selection was the result of a large number of votes sent in from China from people who purchased supporting memberships. In other words, China bought the Worldcon.

Science fiction is the realm of speculation, exploration of ideas, and examination of alternatives. The idea of a Worldcon in such a repressive nation is absurd. Hopefully few fans in free countries will have any interest in this charade, and they’ll sit it out.
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This entry was posted in News and tagged books bookstores science fiction on by | Open »

There’s a new update on GoFundMe on Uncle Hugo’s Bookstore. As you may recall, it was destroyed by arson during the Minneapolis protests, most likely by someone taking advantage of the confusion rather than a legitimate protester. But they’re still working on finding a suitable location for a new store. In the meantime, you can buy books from the website.

They’re really going for the long haul. As I’m writing this, Uncle Hugo’s has an event scheduled for July 31, 21021.

I have no association with the store. I’m just a fan supporting other fans.

Book discussion: Slan

This entry was posted in Book discussion and tagged books science fiction on by

Promotional note: I think I’ve finally got my social sharing buttons working, after switching to a different plugin (Kiwi Social Share). Please take advantage of them to let your book-loving friends know about these posts. Or copy and paste the URL of this article, which seems simpler to me.

Once again, my topic is eugenics in science fiction. It was popular and respectable in the early twentieth century. Numerous writers presented supermen, including Superman himself. A. E. Van Vogt’s Slan published in 1940, was a very popular instance. My copy has a 25 cent price on the cover and is about as old as I am.
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Book discussion: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

This entry was posted in Book discussion and tagged books fiction liberty science fiction on by

Cover, The Moon Is a Harsh MistressRobert Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is one of his most enduringly popular novels, especially among libertarians. Doing these book posts gave me an excuse to read it for the first time in many years.

I could write a dozen essays on different aspects of the novel. Can a computer “wake up”? What are the implications of Professor de la Paz’s philosophy of “rational anarchism”? Why did Mike go away at the end? For this piece, I’ll look at Lunar society, how it’s organized, and how tenable the idea is.
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Book Discussion: Brave New World 2

This entry was posted in Book discussion and tagged dystopia fiction science fiction on by

Brave New World coverThe early 1930s were a bad time for people who loved freedom. The Communists had taken over in Russia, as had the Fascists in Italy, and the Nazis were fast gaining power in Germany. The world economy had just crashed. In 1932, Aldous Huxley published Brave New World, his novel of what the totalitarian future might be like.

It hasn’t held its popularity as well as Orwell’s 1984, but it may be a better prediction of the future. In Huxley’s dystopia, there are no secret police or torture chambers. The police use tranquilizers rather than lethal bullets. People are punished by reassignment rather than death or prison. It works because everyone is brainwashed from birth and controlled by drugs. Organized rebellions don’t happen. The models for 1984 were Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia. Brave New World is closer to modern China.
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Book discussion: Fahrenheit 451 1

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“It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed.”

Those are the opening words of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. They could also have been the words of whoever torched Uncle Hugo’s Bookstore in Minneapolis. (The crowdfunding campaign to restore it is still active.)

The arsonist might have gone on, as the protagonist’s thoughts do: “You weren’t burning anyone, you were burning things! And since things really couldn’t be hurt, since things felt nothing, and things don’t scream or whimper … there was nothing to tease your conscience later. You were simply cleaning up.” The goons who write in defense of looting and burning regularly say there’s nothing wrong with destroying mere property.
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Book discussion: Frankenstein 2

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With this post, I’m aiming to start a series of book discussions. I didn’t say book reviews; I’ll include old classics, forgotten works, and new books, depending on what I’ve been reading lately. Some of them might not even be in English. My aim is to post one article a week. We’ll see. I’m not going to promise until I’ve turned out a few.

Some of the books I’m thinking of covering are obscure, but I should start a series strongly, so the first book I’m covering is one everyone has heard of: Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. It’s widely considered the first science fiction novel. Most people know the story from the movies rather than the book, but the movies tend to play up the sensational aspects. The heart of Shelley’s tale is responsibility, abandonment, and retribution.
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