Mindwebs: They and The Exhibition

They

A classic tale of paranoia.

Have I ever mentioned how SF, especially older SF, is the place to look for sympathetically drawn female characters? Probably not, because usually it isn't


The Exhibition

This is one of those oddly bureaucratized economies people liked back in the old days, although at least this one is polite. I cannot help but wonder if the problem is that there are far too many artists in this setting (perhaps because the economy is entirely automated and art is the only thing left for humans) and far too few gatekeepers.

I didn't really care for the last sentence.

Mindwebs: Garden Of Time and The Maze

Garden Of Time

Ah, the lamentable plight of aristocrats faced with the rabble. Although I am not sure the rabble was in any way aware of the aristocrats.


The Maze

I could tell this was either from the 1970s or some loony toony right winger in the recent past from a detail that turns up early. I strongly doubt the validity of this research program's results.

Also, I was actually surprised when the rapes started. A modern story (or at least a modern novel) the odds are pretty good the author will sprinkle in a few but in a story of this vintage I didn't expect it.

The Hugo Statistics

Thrill to the power of raw data!

The Hugo Winners f/m

Usual rules re fractional credit. I am ignoring the created by on GoT.

Total   Female   Male   F/T
17       10.1    6.9    .59

Is this a record for the Hugo?

The grim tyranny of the interwebs

Fear the lash of my opinion, brutally expressed where people who come looking for it can read it!

The bad news is that the Internet also makes it possible for a small number of readers with decided opinions about what constitutes “good” books or “real” science fiction to browbeat authors and especially would-be authors into believing that whatever standard they’ve set is the One True Way, and that they can’t write without doing X (whether X is hard-sf developed ideas, character arcs, action-centered plots, or whatever).

My understanding of the general effect my online opinions have on the shape of F&SF [1] can be demonstrated in a thought experiment. Imagine someone standing with an open umbrella in front of this:

I think on the whole I have about three orders of magnitude less effect on F&SF than that guy would have on that wave.

1: This is not a claim Wrede is talking about me.

Non-ironic kudos to Stanley Schmidt

He had to have known he was going to retire for some time and I bet if he had made his announcement before Hugo voting ended, the knowledge that this is quite possibly the final time he will make it onto the ballot as an editor might have put him over the top for the Hugo. Instead he held off until after voting ended.

Mindwebs: Test & The Nine Billion Names of God and The Meeting

Test & The Nine Billion Names of God

The first involves a test that by 1970s sf standards is not as draconian as it may appear to us; given the general tenor of '70s sf, liquidation immediately following failure was have been the better bet.

The second story is a justly famous Clarke about the utility modern technology can have for old societies. I do think the techies could have used a remedial customer relations course.



The Meeting

NOT recommended for parents whose children have developmental issues. You will regret listening to this.

As I recall, Pohl is writing from the perspective of the father of a developmentally challenged child; Kornbluth on the other hand was the go to guy for ideas focusing on how useful it would be to extract maximum utility from society's damaged members.

A hole lot of nothing

Seen due to Ivan Hodes:

According to astronomer Greg Aldering, the scale of the void is such that "If the Milky Way had been in the center of the Boötes void, we wouldn't have known there were other galaxies until the 1960s."

Mindwebs: Singularities Make Me Nervous

Singularities Make Me Nervous

A minor Niven about a man caught in a causal loop, a story driven by then-fresh speculations about the physics of black holes. I actually missed seeing it in Stellar One as the first Stellar I saw was Stellar Short Novels, which I picked up because it had a Dickson (1) so I didn't see this Niven until it was collected in Convergent Series in 1979. I have a complete run now but the first two I picked up after I found them used.

Although this isn't a particularly memorable Niven, there are memorable Niven short stories, which raises the question of how it is so few seem to be adapted to radio. I expect what I am noticing here being an artifact of most of the radio shows I've listened to thus far being from before his career began.

1: And as I recall del Rey's comments in "Introduction: An Endangered Species" made me track down Pohl's Star series or as many as I could find used in bookstores.