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Science fiction

Started by Dave, June 25, 2016, 01:37:52 PM

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Dave

Quote from: Waski_the_Squirrel on June 27, 2016, 04:44:39 PM
Quote from: Gloucester on June 27, 2016, 06:24:56 AM
Can you tell us whst name you write under, Waski?

So far, I write just for fun. I haven't tried to publish. Some day, if I feel like I write something that's good enough I might try.

Yes, I really do write novels for fun. I'm strange. ;)
Not strange at all, er, unless I am sort of strange as well... I used to write sort of explanations of sciency things for fun, or for the pleasure of writing - assembling ideas and concepts in a meaningful way. That the few friends who read them quickly gained an understsnding of, say, volume v density (Archmedes) was a bonus. No market though.

Have you never thought of offering them to Amazon under a pseodonym? I know a couple who have done this, even if Amazon offered the first ones at £0.00! Please, though, get your work proof read with editorial advice offered before doing so. There have been a coulple of sci-fi stories I have bought that had great plot themes but loads of typos spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors (to a pedant like me) on every page. I could notvreadvthem, onevwas republishedvafter another reader rewrote it for the author!

(I would never use an onscreen keyboard for serious writing - buckets of typo errors for me!)

I am currently working on a similar basis with a local author who is writing about the old buildings of our village and the history behind them. We have similar writing skills but I am the objective eye who has actually covered most of the village history already, but never published other than articles in the village magazine (which I edited for 7 years.)
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Recusant

Quote from: Waski_the_Squirrel on June 27, 2016, 04:27:27 AM
I've always loved science fiction. When I was a kid, my parents got exasperated with me only checking science fiction out of the library and tried imposing a quota on me. I ended up winning that standoff through childish stubbornness. I think they decided that the greater good was that I read. I was checking books out of the adult section of the library by second grade (and not that adult section, though I did learn some of that as well from my reading.

I got into science fiction very young, myself, and also encountered parental opposition to this proclivity. My mother read a couple of the books I'd got from the library and was dismayed at some of the concepts they contained, like consciousness transfer from one being to another. Luckily she didn't get her hands on any of the somewhat smutty New Wave books, which might have lead to a serious embargo!

Though like joeactor I generally prefer hard SF, I'm not that particular and can excuse many things if the writing is good. I've lately tended toward the modern space opera writers like Alistair Reynolds and Iain M. Banks.
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Essie Mae

The only science fiction I have read since my teens is 'Oryx and Crake' by Margaret Attwood.  She looked at the scientific possibilities arising from then current areas of research and knowledge, and wrote a post-apocalyptic novel based on it. It was a bit pessimistic, (spoiler alert), but ended with a note of optimism.

The Day of the Triffids was the most memorable I remember. I guess this is what you would call soft science fiction and it got very political in a communist way at the end if I remember rightly.
Hell is empty and all the devils are here. Wm Shakespeare


Dave

Quote from: Essie Mae on June 27, 2016, 08:11:12 PM
The only science fiction I have read since my teens is 'Oryx and Crake' by Margaret Attwood.  She looked at the scientific possibilities arising from then current areas of research and knowledge, and wrote a post-apocalyptic novel based on it. It was a bit pessimistic, (spoiler alert), but ended with a note of optimism.

The Day of the Triffids was the most memorable I remember. I guess this is what you would call soft science fiction and it got very political in a communist way at the end if I remember rightly.
You should read, "The Handmaid's Tale" by Atwood, Essie - more "alternative future fiction" than science. Even the film was quite good.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Dave

Quote from: Recusant on June 27, 2016, 08:00:43 PM
Quote from: Waski_the_Squirrel on June 27, 2016, 04:27:27 AM
I've always loved science fiction. When I was a kid, my parents got exasperated with me only checking science fiction out of the library and tried imposing a quota on me. I ended up winning that standoff through childish stubbornness. I think they decided that the greater good was that I read. I was checking books out of the adult section of the library by second grade (and not that adult section, though I did learn some of that as well from my reading.

I got into science fiction very young, myself, and also encountered parental opposition to this proclivity. My mother read a couple of the books I'd got from the library and was dismayed at some of the concepts they contained, like consciousness transfer from one being to another. Luckily she didn't get her hands on any of the somewhat smutty New Wave books, which might have lead to a serious embargo!

Though like joeactor I generally prefer hard SF, I'm not that particular and can excuse many things if the writing is good. I've lately tended toward the modern space opera writers like Alistair Reynolds and Iain M. Banks.
Banks is brilliant, have to look out for Reynolds, don't remember comming across him.
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Essie Mae

Quote from: Gloucester on June 27, 2016, 08:28:16 PM
Quote from: Essie Mae on June 27, 2016, 08:11:12 PM
The only science fiction I have read since my teens is 'Oryx and Crake' by Margaret Attwood.  She looked at the scientific possibilities arising from then current areas of research and knowledge, and wrote a post-apocalyptic novel based on it. It was a bit pessimistic, (spoiler alert), but ended with a note of optimism.

The Day of the Triffids was the most memorable I remember. I guess this is what you would call soft science fiction and it got very political in a communist way at the end if I remember rightly.
You should read, "The Handmaid's Tale" by Atwood, Essie - more "alternative future fiction" than science. Even the film was quite good.

I did both and agree.
Hell is empty and all the devils are here. Wm Shakespeare


Dave

In terms of the situation that is, unfortunately, becoming an everyday experience for some, it seems that the US government retains a sci-fi author as a consultant on future trends in warfare. This is according to "Boston calling", a prog on BBC Wotld Service but I csn't cortobirste it online.

However I did find this:

QuoteLast year, the U.S. Marines launched a sci-fi writing contest, ultimately publishing three entries that explore potential future warfare scenarios.
The U.S. military isn't the first to use science fiction as a creative planning tool — institutions like Lowe's, Hershey, and Del Monte have already employed sci-fi consultants.
https://futurism.com/from-sci-fi-to-reality-the-future-of-warfare/

QuoteWHAT BETTER WAY FOR THE MARINES TO PREPARE FOR FUTURE WARS THAN WITH SCI-FI?
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/better-way-marines-prepare-future-wars-sci-fi/

I might suggest that, if they want "out of the box" consulting they could look into the sc-fi ideas about society and the Internet, some "predictions" are already coming true.


Ah, just heard that bit of the prog again, seems David Brandt and another gave a talk on possible "apocalyptic aftermaths" other than the concept of the nuclear winter. Wish I could hear that talk,
Tomorrow is precious, don't ruin it by fouling up today.
Passed Monday 10th Dec 2018 age 74

Biggus Dickus

I didn't know where else to put this. I even thought of starting a new thread possibly titled, "Fake News", or " Funny National Enquirer Stories".

But science fiction is as good a place as any for this crap. (And I used to respect the "The Telegraph", not sure what's going on over there in the UK anymore when you read cockamamie stories like this one)

...And what the bloody hell are "Cataholics"? Do they have a pope? Seriously, I just can't take it. :-X Ugh.


:puke:Cats are nice and enjoy spending time with humans, study finds  :puke:



"Some people just need a high-five. In the face. With a chair."