Comments on: Late Night Review

By: Science Fiction Special at Asymptotia

Science Fiction Special at Asymptotia — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:55:47 +0000

[...] for literature as well as film and TV when it comes to science fiction (see a related discussion here), many of which are humorously done, and will be familiar to many readers from their [...]

By: Sidewalk Colours at Asymptotia

Sidewalk Colours at Asymptotia — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:39:35 +0000

[...] the way, I’ve updated my earlier post with photos from the LA Times Festival of Books, as [...]

By: Clifford

Clifford — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 05:09:07 +0000

yes, indeed…… but I suspect the psychological challenge in having some on at all is an issue… but so far since I’ve done a bit of “brush clearing” on the trees yesterday (more to be done later this week) I’ve not heard the critter. Let’s see if it happens another night running. Might just be the change in the weather…

-cvj

By: Yvette

Yvette — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:29:29 +0000

Well unless you get truly heavy-duty ones you still hear enough from your surroundings, ie it doesn’t cut out EVERYTHING. I’ve never had an issue hearing my alarm for example, but then I’m also an exceptionally light sleeper.

By: National Physics Day at Asymptotia

National Physics Day at Asymptotia — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:56:39 +0000

[...] also missed Earth Day on Sunday, what with being preoccupied with the Festival of Books and so forth. So I’m a bad earthling [...]

By: Clifford

Clifford — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:56:09 +0000

Hi Yvette!

Thanks for the sympathy on this… I just had another night of being up in the wee hours trying to startle the thing to shut up… I considered earplugs, but I am bothered by the idea of not being able to hear my surroundings while I sleep. Guard-dog delusions or something…. Also, hearing alarm clock becomes a challenge…. Although I usually get up before it, so maybe not a problem… Hmmmm.

-cvj

By: Yvette

Yvette — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:41:54 +0000

Pity it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird, eh?

(No really, there’s a meerkoet/coot nest being built on an abandoned boat right in the canal in front of me, so between that excitement and the rest of the waterfowl I understand your pain. And recommend earplugs!)

By: Clifford

Clifford — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 02:43:29 +0000

Hi Jude,

Nce to hear from you. It has been a long time. Actually, the same discussion about SF and fantasy that you refer to has not really gone away either. People just got bored with it and realized that it got to a point where it did not matter so much due to acceptance by mainstream culture. Various authors tried to position themselves differently, by adopting the term Speculative Fiction, – the wonderful Margaret Atwood is a notable example – but to be honest the situation did not really change, it just became an uninteresting discussion. I think the same will be true of graphic novels (the term itself being an analogous repositioning term to some extent) and so forth…

Cheers,

-cvj

By: Jude

Jude — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:21:58 +0000

Wow. The graphic-novel-as-valid-and-underappreciated-literary-form discussion reminds me of reading science fiction in the 1960s and 1970s, when all we seemed to talk about–fans and writers–was how underappreciated science fiction was. It seemed then that only a few works broke into the mainstream–logically, Flowers for Algernon; irrationally–Stranger in a Strange Land. Eventually, I think everyone got tired of the discussion, and eventually we even almost accepted what used to be a pejorative term–sci fi–instead of our preferred term, SF. And I was just a fan, not a writer. It must have been worse for the writers. As long as you don’t burn out completely, this is probably the pace you need to be keeping at this stage of your career and life. But the persistent dry cough makes it sound as though your body might “think” otherwise.