This Island Earth

Although some scholars find the roots of science fiction in ancient myths and fantastic poems such as A True Story by Lucian of Samosata, the fact is that science fiction depends on science which did not exist before the Enlightenment of the 18th century. The word “scientist” was invented by William Whewell in a moment of argument with Samuel Taylor Coleridge at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science on 24 June 1833. Coleridge insisted that these people did not deserve the title “natural philosophers” and Whewell replied with a parallel to art and artists: “We are scientists.” The first issue of Scientific American was published on 28 August 1845.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often cited but her own three versions tell only of Victor Frankenstein's explorations of medieval paradigms and the narrator is emphatic in not revealing his methods, lest they be duplicated with inevitably horrible consequences. Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg insisted in To Understand the World, that science depends on experiments which are purposefully unnatural arrangements to isolate the essential distinguishing actions of objects. Considering that thesis, we must grant that Victor Frankenstein pursued science, not mysticism. 

Jules Verne and H. G. Wells are commonly credited as the first narrators of adventures based on new scientific theories and their applications. Prior to them, John Leonard Riddell, chief melter at the New Orleans Mint, and a professor of chemistry at the New Orleans Medical College (which became Tulane University), published Orrin Lindsey's Plan of Aerial Navigation in 1847. Presaging the “golden age” of science fiction before the 1960s, the trip to the Moon is supported by laborious footnotes providing calculations, even for recycling breathable air by the same chemical methods used today. Riddell’s explanation of anti-gravity drive is necessarily sketchy though no more so than our faster-than-light warp drives. At a lecture at Michigan State University about 1976 or so, Gene Roddenberry said that when they need gravity on board a starship, they flip the gravity switch to On. 

In the book and movie, The Right Stuff, a news reporter first asks, “Do you know what makes these birds fly?” and an Air Force pilot starts to say, “Why the aerodynamics alone would take…” and he is cut off. “Funding,” is the reply. “No bucks, no Buck Rogers.” Every pilot at Pancho’s cantina knew exactly what was said. Later, the line is repeated by an astronaut arguing with a NASA administrator: “… and to the American people, we’re Buck Rogers.” 

This Island Earth is a 1955 American science fiction film 

produced by William Alland, directed by Joseph M. Newman 

and Jack Arnold, and starring Jeff Morrow, Faith Domergue, and Rex Reason.

The 1952 novel by [Raymond F.] Jones was originally serialized 

in the science fiction magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories as three 

related novelettes: "The Alien Machine" (June 1949), 

"The Shroud of Secrecy" (December 1949), and "The Greater Conflict"

(February 1950). Jones had taken the novel title from a line
in Robert Graves' poem "Darien":

It is a poet's privilege and fate
To fall enamoured of the one Muse
Who variously haunts this island earth

-Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Island_Earth

This Island Earth (NASA)
one of hundreds of science and
engineering titles de-acquisitioned by
the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

"This Island Earth. Edited by Oran W. Nicks. NASA SP-250. Washington, D.C.: Scientific and Technical Information Division, Office of Technology Utilization, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1970. x+182 pages. For sale by Superintendent of Documents, $6.00 (Library of Congress Catalog Card no. 73-608969).  Reviewed by Julian R. Goldsmith, University of Chicago, The Journal of Geology, Volume 80 Number 3, May 1972. Also reviewed in Science News, Vol.117, P. 348, 1980, among other citations.

Previously on Necessary Facts

From Texas to the Moon with John Leonard Riddell 

Fantastic Voyages: Teaching Science with Science Fiction 

Monsters from the Id 

Psychohistory from Asimov’s Foundation to Big Data 

ANDROMEDA, STRAINED

I accidentally borrowed the 2008 remake of The Andromeda Strain from our city library. Long ago, after seeing the 1970 movie, I read the book. I do not know whether to attribute the failings to the depths of postmodernism or shallows of popular culture. The remake was flawed on many levels but overall the writers were incapable of updating a story that was already modern 50 years ago. Perhaps the significant advance in our knowledge is the set of organic molecules--including amino acids--found in interstellar space.

Critics Consensus - Infected with an overloaded plot
and clunky techno-babble, The Andromeda Strain is a
remarkably dull mutation of its source material.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_andromeda_strain/s01

Chains of hydrocarbons are known in the Orion "Horsehead" Nebula (Barnard 33).  Many papers have been published about the hydrocarbon molecules detected there including propynyl (C₃H₂), ethynyl (C₂H), and butadinyl (C₄H). 

1970 Movie Poster

Even more interesting is the evidence that these short hydrocarbons are the result of ultraviolet radiation breaking down more complex polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) such as naphthalene (C₁₀H₈) and anthracene (C₁₄H₁₀), which we now know to be abundant in the universe.

• "Over 130 molecules have been identified in interstellar space so far, including sugars and ethanol. But amino acids are a particularly important find because they link up to form proteins, the molecules that run, and to a large extent make up our cells." -- AMINO ACIDS FOUND IN DEEP SPACE - 18 July 2002 - here: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2558-amino-acid-found-in-deep-space/
• Amino Acid Formation on Interstellar Dust Particles -  EGS - AGU - EUG Joint Assembly, Abstracts from the meeting held in Nice, France, 6 - 11 April 2003 - Abstract here: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003EAEJA.....5100M/abstract
• AMINO ACIDS DETECTED IN SPACE - Physics World, 11 August 2003 - here: https://physicsworld.com/a/amino-acid-detected-in-space/

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

BioBash: Chamber Replicates Success 

Epigenetics 

Monsters from the Id 

Teaching Science with Science Fiction 

When Worlds Collide

Over the course of a couple of weeks, I watched the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn while reading about Bronson Alpha and Bronson Beta approaching Earth. 

Good science fiction depends on good science. The narrative starts out strong. By the climax, I was less sanguine about the empirical evidence and theoretical explanations. All of the characters are men, except the daughter of the physicist; and she is named Eve. The hero, Ivy League athlete Tony Drake, came before Ivy League athlete Flash Gordon (1935). Pluto had been discovered in 1930. So, the fact that unknown planets exist beyond our system was common news. What if one entered our solar system? What if we knew that it would destroy the Earth? 

Paperback Library Edition
1962-1970
J. B. Lippincott 1932

The world of 1932 is not unfamiliar, though some of the cultural norms were best left in the past. It was interesting to discover that atomic power and space travel were presented as attainable. The scientists who have formed the League of Last Days hide their activities with phony press releases about making progress smashing the atom. (Ultimately, the scientists do develop a fission engine to power their spaceship.) According to Eve Hendron: “We could send a rocket to the moon to-day if it would do any good, if anyone could possibly live on the moon when he got there.” Whatever its flaws this book may have created the disaster genre. Certainly, it was echoed in Lucifer’s Hammer by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven (1977). 

 

Eve Hendron is presented as a computer. She performs calculations, reducing the data from photographic plates for her father, industrial physicist Dr. Cole Hendron. To me, that indicates that the work of the women computers at the Harvard Observatory was known to the common culture. She explains to Tony that with three observations, an orbit can be plotted, adding that they have hundreds of determinations and know much about the planets. After all, she continued, “Tony, you remember how precise the forecast was in the last eclipse that darkened New England. The astronomers not only foretold to a second when it would begin and end, but they described the blocks and even the sides of streets in towns that would be in shadow. And their error was less than twenty feet.” 

 

From that scene the book tracks another theme, the religious implications of the complete destruction of the world by one planet coupled with the chance for rescue (if not salvation) by flying to another planet. The characters, especially Tony Drake, often speak reflectively (though inconclusively) about the theological impact of doomsday. The chances of this event happening were astronomically against it. The planets had to have to passed close enough and at the right velocities to be captured by the Sun and then not merely fall into solar orbits but strike the Earth. Moreover, when Bronson Alpha obliterates our planet, it gains enough velocity to leave the system, which I found difficult to accept because of the energy considerations. But that’s how miracles work: if you could understand them, they would be mundane, not be miracles.

 

Also miraculous was the release from the Earth’s mantle of a metal that could withstand the forces of atomic energy. The want of such a metal destroyed the French spaceship which fell back to Earth when its engines melted. The Americans believe that they alone survived in two ships. Part Two, After Worlds Collide, is an epic conflict against the communists and fascists who also succeeded to Bronson Beta. It is a brave new world on several levels. As in Huxley’s myth (also 1932), the scientists here decide that monogamy is counterproductive. With their small gene pool of 100 to 200 survivors, they decide early on to make serial mating mandatory.  

1951: George Pal Productions

I believe that the collapse of the world and its regeneration along radical lines was a result the Great War that destroyed the 19^th century. Optimism was dead. I have on my shelf a find from a library sale, The Marvelous Record of the Closing Century by Charles Morris, 1899, American Book and Bible House, Philadelphia. I can hear its tone in contemporaneous works on more focused topics by William Graham Sumner, James Ford Rhodes, Charles Beard, and Henry Cabot Lodge. Today, it is derided as “the Whig theory of history” that social evolution is social progress toward liberalism, democracy, and globalism, of trade and commerce replacing war and conquest. For me the hallmark of that is The Romance of Commerce by H. Gordon Selfridge, 1918, John Lane the Bodley Head, London. 

 

The wars of the 20^th century may be ending. We thought they were over when communism fell. In 1990, we underestimated the God that did not fail, the actual religionists, the Muslims, Hindus, and Christians who refuse to enter the brave new world. The return (and eventual exit) of 21^st century new nationalists—Donald Trump, Narendra Modi, Viktor Orban, among too many others—was predicted in another science fiction work, Islands in the Net (1988) by Bruce Sterling. 

 

I had a hard time finding this book. My city library no longer shelves it. One ABE Books seller cancelled an order. You can tell from the cover art that this was a late 1960s paperback reprint. I read it pretty hard, making a lot margin notes and tags to longer notes in the front. I found a lot here to enjoy, consider, and reflect on.

 

Paragraphs of narrative have the conspiracy of scientists planning the biology and ecology of their next home. The sociology of science is a continuing thread. It was also telling that in 1932, the wealthy had not been affected by the crash of 1929. What we now call The Great Depression actually had not yet begun—and I have other facts to support that claim. They even mention in passing the relative value of gold versus common stocks during times of panic. Market panics pass. This one did not.

 

Previously on Necessary Facts

Forbidden Planet 

Firefly: Fact and Value Aboard “Serenity” 

Star Trek: Discovery and the Conflict of Values 

Armadillocon 41 

 

Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers

Arguably Heinlein’s last juvenile novel, the story is a shoot-‘em-up. I got lost in the jargon of military organization. I accepted at face value that as a corporal Juan Rico could not be promoted to assistant section leader over his platoon assistant leader, but I still have no idea what that means. Reading Heinlein’s philosophical arguments are the reward for being immersed in his futures. The movie version of Starship Troopers made the case more succinctly and forcefully than the book: When you vote, you call upon the full power of the state to do your bidding; and no one should do that who does not understand what it means. The Socratic dialog in the book that delivered the justifications for requiring military service as a condition of full citizenship was easy to jump in and argue against.

That theorem has a corollary: You cannot vote while you are in uniform. According to Heinlein's philosophy, until you complete your military obligation, you have not earned the right to vote. In real life, Ulysses S. Grant, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George C. Marshall, and George S. Patton refused to vote while serving in the Army. (See "I Fight for Your Right to Vote. But I Won't Do It Myself," by Maj. M. I. Cavanaugh in the New York Times for Oct. 19, 2016 here.)

The minor premise of Heinlein's command doctrine is interesting to consider, and we have come to absorb some of it: everyone who wants to serve has a role. After graduating from Annapolis (1929), Robert A. Heinlein was cashiered from the Navy (1935) for tuberculosis. He recovered and lived a normal active life. Today, although military fitness standards have just gotten tougher, amputees with prosthetics have been returned to active duty, even to combat. 

I saw the movie on disk a couple of years ago, but very many years after reading the book. So, I read it again. I was looking for the story of the senior Rico, Emilio, the hero’s father, who enlisted after Buenos Aires was nuked. Emilio Rico was a corporate CEO from Harvard Law School. But his portrait is a shadowgraph. My intent was to write his story as a project in placing and selling military science fiction stories. “Write what you know” is the basic rule. I know the old man who enlists late in life but the Harvard lawyer is an alien. 

Most of the book delivers Heinlein’s vision of the ideal boot camp. The infantry fighting is out of army field manuals. (Joe Haldeman's Forever War is the better ground battle.) Heinlein served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Lexington. Sgt. Juan Rico’s time aboard the Rodger Young is easy to understand and identify with. Write what you know.

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Haldeman's "Forever War" (3 of 3)

Ayn Rand and Star Trek 
Documentation is Specification 

The Economic Value in a Liberal Education 

Money as a Crusoe Concept 

Captain America: the original is still the best

We watched Captain America: The First Avenger the other night. It was my fourth viewing. Yesterday, I brought home Winter Soldier, which I sat through a couple of months ago, and Civil War which I had not seen yet. The first movie continues to hold up well. The second was better than I remembered, but not stellar. The third installment was largely a waste of two-and-a-half hours.  

Serial fiction must identify and cross a boundary that separates the uninformed reader from the true fan. The theory of mythology insists that we know the characters: the warrior, the wanderer, the orphan, the magician… Some heroes are born that way and die still blessed even though fallen or taken down. Siegfried is an easy example. Others struggle their whole lives as did Heracles. When you have a boatload of them, as in The Iliad, Argonautica, and Star Trek, the narrator is under some burden. 

 

Captain America: The First Avenger reviewed here.

If you could travel through history you could take the story of Captain America: the First Avenger to just about any castle or camp. You would need more rhyming couplets to explain how Hydra infiltrated SHIELD. I had to consult the oracles at Google and Wikipedia to put Hawkeye in the Civil War and that was all: he was just a character with some attributes. He has no compelling backstory. Similarly, I know of Ant Man, but never followed him and was unaware that resizing himself and other objects is one of his super powers. (Where does the mass go or come from?) The Scarlet Witch, Vision, Black Widow, Rhodey/Rhodes,... they are just a bunch of people with special powers and could be anyone with any powers. That aspect of the movie was definitely for the true fans. But the same unmet challenge afflicts the Star Trek universe: if you do not know the crew before you see the movie, you are ignorant. On the other hand, for all of its flaws, the continuing Star Wars saga makes use of such disposable characters. 

That photojournalist Peter Parker uncritically accepted Tony Stark’s glib talk about Steve Rogers is disturbing. It would have been even worse if the kid had been approached by a wily Hydra salesman. 

The putative cause of the Civil War is the legalization, licensing, and control of “enhanced individuals,” a theme already developed in the Marvel universe through the X-Men. It was explored by The Watchmen. It even pitted Batman against Superman: “They sent me to bring you in.” “You always were a Boy Scout.” It was cited in Haldeman’s Forever War  (1974), where high-IQ kids were drafted first. The identification, nurturing, and therefore control of the gifted is known in public education from the turn of the previous century with the work of Lewis Terman. (See NecessaryFacts here.) It is an interesting theory, one too close to fact in an era of presidential doublethink and double talk. 

However, the “save the cat” school of screenwriting insists that every twisty turn lead to another twisty turn. In this case, in addition to the United Nations, we have one otherwise ordinary but understandably bitter man, Helmut Zemo. He tricks and overpowers a Hydra psychiatrist. (Hey, your shoe is untied!) On the other hand, Tony Stark has spent his life never finding out why his parents just never made it to the airport, as if they suffered a perpetual flat tire down a dirt road with no farm houses in sight. At least Helmut Zemo put two and two together. 

 Zemo: My father lived outside the city, and I thought we would be safe there. My son was excited. He could see the Iron Man from the car window. I told my wife, “Don't worry. They're fighting in the city. We're miles from harm.” And the dust cleared, and the screaming stopped. It took me two days until I found their bodies. My father still holding my wife and son in his arms... And the Avengers? They went home. I knew I couldn't kill them. More powerful men than me have tried. But if I could get them to kill each other... 

That the loss of innocent lives led to the Sokovia Accords to corral the super beings is no comfort (understandably). But did Spiderman sign them before he joined Ironman's team? As a minor, can he? What about the hundreds of other enhanced individuals? 

The middle story, Winter Soldier, held up better to a second viewing. The cast of characters is manageable. But the eye candy of Ragnarok escalates from cataclysmic conflicts in street traffic to the titanic destruction of three aerial carriers (each about ten times the area of football field or maybe 8000 times the volume of a stadium) that crash into the Potomac River without the inconveniently equivalent displacement of water. And it is the same amount that had to have been sucked into the submerged hangars when they opened to launch the helicarriers. 

The premise of Winter Soldier is purely Cold War. From our point of view, it was easy for Hydra to infiltrate the secret laboratories of the USSR. The Russians probably still feel the same way about us today. Pythagoreans, Freemasons, Jesuits, Dr. No, Thrush, Kaos, Dr. Evil … so many have trod that path that it is a superhighway with rest plazas.  

Captain America: The First Avenger must have its own problems. But they remain much smaller. The Red Skull flies toward New York and Chicago in his Valkyrie, a machine similar to the real XB-70 nuclear bomber of the same name wrecked in a collision on its maiden voyage in 1964. 

The original Captain America is lost to time because his world of 1940 is not ours now. As he said to Sam Wilson at the opening of Winter Soldier: “Well, things aren't so bad. Food's a lot better; we used to boil everything. No polio is good. Internet, so helpful.” But what we understand of him is constant, continuous, immutable. The problem is that he sometimes gets lost in the noise and confusion of computer graphics and franchise licensing. 

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACT

Superheroes Live in Cities 

The Pretense of Sociology 

Neal Adams at Dragon’s Lair 

Superman: American Alien 

  

Armadillocon 40, Part 1

Once again, we had a great time at Austin’s very literary science fiction convention. They have no filkfest singing, no television stars as guests, and no costume party. Instead, they bring together publishers, editors, writers (past, present, and future), artists, and readers. We spent Friday night through Sunday afternoon attending panel discussions and workshops about the art, science, and craft of speculative fiction, fantasy, and horror. On Saturday, I delivered a presentation, “From Texas to the Moon with John Leonard Riddell” about the first working scientist to publish a science fiction story, here. 

 

David Afsharirad

Although the first sessions began at 2:00 PM, I started Friday at 6:00 o’clock in the evening with readings of flash fiction by David Afsharirad, editor of Annual Best Military and Adventure Science Fiction.He does not write military SF himself, and these three stories were quirky and cute encounters. I then walked the dealer’s room and said hello to people with interesting displays that I would come back to on Saturday.

Socializing is important. So, assuming a long night of literary discussions over drinks, nothing starts early. 

The first panel discussion that I attended on Saturday was on the current state of the Star Trek franchise. The panelists were not screenwriters, or movie reviewers. Only one had published an open Star Trek story though another had an early work published that was "about Commander Data but with a different name."

At 11:00, I sat in on “The Fine Art of Moderating a Panel,” easily, the best presentation at the con. Marguerite Reed moderated. The panelists were Tex Thompson, Patrice Sarath, and Rebecca Schwartz. Reed said that moderating is like being a host at a dinner party. “You are choreographing a conversation,” she said. Bad moderation leads to monopolized conversations, disrespect, and comments instead of questions. Good audience participation requires that you lay down the ground rules as you would with kindergarteners. “We are not here to listen to you. You are here to listen to us.  Questions are not comments. Questions end with a question mark.” Tex said that there comes a time when you have to “pour them a nice tall glass of shut the hell up.” The moderator should know the panelists and develop lines of questions that will draw out their expertise. Keep in mind that the moderator is not the star. Your job is to bring out a variety of viewpoints. I asked for their tips for panelists. Research the topic. “Pop your watch:” time your responses. Know why you are on the panel. Be informative. Take notes before you speak to answer. Do not go rogue. Do not try to moderate. The session closed with suggestions for alternatives to the panel format such as round tables, dinner brigades, and breakfast bars.

Official Opening and Welcome Session Friday 7:00 PM

At Noon on Saturday, I attended a lecture on orbital mechanics, “Rules of the Road for Flying in Space” by Bob Mahoney. Bob tied the physics to the elements of plot with an animated PowerPoint presentation. An orbit is a clock and a ticking clock brings suspense. Limits to motion are the framework for action. Changes in orbit let you change the plot setting. There was much more and I took a page of notes with drawings.

After my talk, I had a few hours to spend in the dealers room. I bought the current volume of Military SF and Adventure. David Afsharirad autographed it and re-inscribed the three that I bought last year. They and about 20 more books from other tables will be going out to a Texas National Guard battalion stationed overseas. We also bought a steampunk necklace for our daughter’s birthday from Vyktohria.

At 5:00 on Saturday, I attended “Cyberpunk: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times,” chaired by T. Eric Bakutis with panelists Lauren C. Teffeau, Christopher Brown, and David L. Yang. It was a good session for me. I enjoyed cyberpunk in its day. For one thing, I was working for Kawasaki Robotics. Closer to now, I continue to read William Gibson’s later works. The subgenre still rings with truth: “The street finds its own uses for things.” Among the many recommendations from the panel was a story about zombie appliances, Ann McDonald’s “The Revolution Will Not be Refrigerated.” The devices in our Internet-of-things can be and have been taken over and used for denial of service attacks. The future is here, even though I never got that blue mohawk I always wanted.  

Cyberpunk Panel

As much as I enjoyed what was offered, I felt that the panel was behind the times, unaware of other real-world instantiations of the fictional projections from the eighties and nineties. Somewhat later, I chatted with another attendee who shared my views, and we exchanged good words about do-it-yourself biopunk in the real here-and-now. 

At six o’clock, I attended “The Fine Art of Writing for Games,” moderated by T. Eric Bakutis, with David Chang, Ari Marmell, and Aaron Orive. It is not a market for me, but I was curious. Writers with book credits get preference. Design is not writing but writing is part of the process. Learn how to script.

Panel discussions, readings, and book signings went on all day ending only at 10:00 PM. But I get up at 4:30... 

Bright and early Sunday morning at 10:00, I rushed to Collecting. The moderator was Scott A. Cupp, with help from Jeremy Brett (curator for SF&F archives at the Cushing Library of Texas A&M) and Troyce Wilson. This was a waste of time and I left halfway through, disappointed by the moderator’s droning monologues about his great purchases. The American Numismatic Association granted me a couple of literary awards and I actively read and write for the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. Back in the 20^thcentury, before being hired as an editor by Coin World, I attended several talks by Clifford Mishler, former president of the ANA and president of Krause Publications. According to Mishler, a true collector, whether of coins, stamps, automobiles, or rock ‘n’ roll vinyl, pursues completeness, condition, rarity, and value. At our conventions, we grade and grant awards to museum-quality displays that demonstrate “the collector’s ethic.” Anyone can buy anything with enough money. What counts is knowing what to pursue and staying on the track. So, I was primed to learn about collecting science fiction books and other memorabilia, but reality took a different course. At 10:30, I joined Science 2018. 

Moderated by John K. Gibbons with panelists C. Stuart Hardwick, Bill Frank, and Bob Mahoney, the session was less informative but more thoughtful. Like the cyberpunks, the panelists seemed not to know as much about today’s science. That was how I met my collocutor on biopunk. However, a running argument between Hardwick and Mahoney gave me a lot to think about then and since. Hardwick said, “We are having a medieval argument about something far in the future that we need to think about now.” He meant morality; and to him, there is no sense in debating right and wrong about something that is going to happen anyway. Mahoney disagreed insisting that if we do not commit wrongful acts, then those possible events will not happen. Hardwick replied that regardless of what we think, someone is going to clone humans (or whatever) and we need to plan for it. Time ran out….  In the Q&A, I asked the panel for their sources and they cited Science News, AAAS emails, and New Scientist. 

I then went to “Learning to Write.” Moderator Marguerite Reed had help from Cassandra Rose Clarke, Trakena Prevost, Emily McKay, and Amanda Downum. They all recommended Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. Clarke suggested getting started by writing fan fic. Several endorsed the Online Writing Workshop well worth the $50 per year. 

“Since 2000, OWW has been helping people become better writers. Our members have made over 1,500 sales to print and online publications, won many awards (including the Hugo), and appeared in Best Of anthologies. Dozens of members have sold novels to major publishers.” --https://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com

A member of the audience cited Scribophile: “The online writing group, writing workshop, and writing community where writers get quality critiques and feedback on your writing.” -- https://www.scribophile.com/

McKay recommended NaNoWriMo, and finding local meet-ups.

After a bit of lunch, I went to Once and Future Military SF at 1300 Hours. 

(Review continues in the post below this.)

PREVIOUSLY ON NECESSARY FACTS

Armadillocon 39 

More on The Forever War 

Forbidden Planet 

Monsters from the Id 

All Volitional Beings Deserve Rights 
Firefly: Fact and Value Aboard Serenity

ARMADILLOCON 39

On August 4-5-6, 2017, the 39^th annual Armadillocon science fiction convention brought possible futures and alternate pasts to Austin. A friend of mine said that it is “a very literary con” and it lived up to that. On the second night, I saw a couple in Steam Punk dress, but there were no other costumes, no t.v. or movie stars, just books, authors, artists, editors, publishers, and, of course, readers. We had a great time.

Armadillocon prides itself on introducing the best new talent. The GoH (Guest of Honor) was Nisi Shawl. Her steampunk novel, Everfair, is set in an alternate Belgian Congo that is - going on the reviews; I have not read it - inclusive to minorities of gender and color. In addition, as is customary, there was a Fan GoH (A. T. Campbell III). Other special guests were Mark A. Nelson (Artist GoH), and Trevor Quachri of Analog (Editor GoH). Fantasy writer Tamora Piece was the Special GoH.

Armadillocon website: 

http://www.armadillocon.org/d39/ 

You can edit the URL to see the archives back to 1994:

http://www.armadillocon.org/d16/ 

And, of course, Wikipedia has good background: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArmadilloCon 

The con is sponsored by the 

Fandom Association of Central Texas

(FACT): http://www.fact.org/

The panel discussions were all about the craft and business of writing, from how to get an idea, to how to turn an idea into a story, to how to sell to Analog (or anyone). Laurel and I attended several panel discussions together and split up for others. 

 

Brad Foster of JabberwockyGraphix.com
Artist, Panelist, and Pictionary player

“Writing Golden Age Fiction Today” (billed as Lou Antonelli, Alan J. Porter, James Reasoner, Adrian Simmons, but with Shane Friesner and Keith West filling in for Adrian Simmons) was interesting to me because I have an unfinished anthology, Millennium Wonder Stories, set the present, but as if written in 1937-1939.  Like any good story, the action must be plot driven, fun, and adventurous, with a touch of romance. It has to be “a story that moves.” Introducing a new world is key. A weird menace with “a Scooby-Do ending” (unmasking the threat) is one way to frame those.  A point made in other panels was that a plot is not “an extended conceit.” In a Golden Age story, there are no moral ambiguities. We get the future we deserved, not the one we got.

 

One of Many Panel Discussions
(Barbara Ann Wright was inspirational.)

Also on the first night, I went to “Timeless versus Tired Tropes.”  Like a riff in music, a trope is a recurring shorthand: the plucky girl, the evil corporation, the mysterious elf, star-crossed lovers, coming of age, bad-assed robot, first person smartass, alien invasion, the dream sequence.  Panelist Ari Marmell said, “A trope is a cliché done well.” Steven Brust suggested subverting the trope, changing the reader’s expectations. Panel chair Shawn Scarber offered the city as a character.

Friday night closed with an investigation into the sidekick, “Frodo had Samwise, Han had Chewie…” with Michael Ashleigh Finn, Josh Roundtree, Patrick Sullivan, Rhonda Eudaly, and Skylar White. The sidekick can be relatable or inspirational, a friend whose presence relieves the author of writing interior dialog. It opens the opportunity for a story about the friendship. The relationship can be unequal or equal. The sidekick can also be a stand-in for the audience. It is also possible to “subvert the trope” as was done in Without a Clue in which Dr. Watson is the protagonist.

 

Kurt Baty built a replica of the Antikythera Device with LEGO

Saturday opened with Kurt Baty’s presentation on the Antikythera Device. The topic was a little far afield, though science is essential to science fiction. Kurt focused on the machine. I noted that the Antikythera Device does open up both alternate history and lost history as story devices. What would “wine punk” science fiction be like? A world of Daedalus hang gliders, mirror-and-lens burning rays, bronze gear calculators, for a society that speaks of geometry and astronomy. In the real world of the time, a legal slave could be a lawful millionaire.

Laurel and I went to “Writing 101.” They suggested taking a common domestic event and twisting the story, and other advice.

I went to the Guest Editor interview while Laurel was at “Pantsing versus Outlining.”  (“Pantsing” is writing by the seat of your pants, not the now-criminal harassment we suffered in our childhoods.)  I followed the Guest Editor interview with “How to Sell to Analog (and other Markets)” while Laurel attended “Sitting Pilates for the Sedantary.” We met up again for “You Have a Great Idea for a Story—Now What?” Laurel went to “Serial Killers: Books that Ended a Series” while I walked out of “Technology – Art – Business” which was supposed to be about how recent advances in graphic arts technologies have changed the markets, but turned out to be about where to get free copies of programs that let non-artists find out why they are not artists. 

 

Tristan Thorne of Sinister Smile, local publisher of
eBooks, Paperback, or Hardcover
on Demand or Otherwise.
I bought one their scifi anthologies and
showed him my "Millennial Wonder Stories."

We both attended the session, “Novel or Short Story?” chaired by Louise Marley, with T. Eric Bakutis, Urania Fung, Michelle Muenzler, Patrice Sarath, and William Browning Spencer. We both took a lot of notes. Among the good information was an introduction to where to find markets. Laurel does more reading than I do, but we both benefited from learning about the meta-lists of markets. That was all explored again in depth on Sunday with “Short Story Markets.” That presentation started off rough with the panelists just naming markets in random conversation until another frustrated guy in the audience finally pointed to the easel and flipchart.

The same problem struck the presentation on Cartography which I walked out of. I completed my master’s degree with two classes in geographic information systems. I was looking forward to this. But I was astounded (and not in a Golden Age way) by a panel on Cartography without any graphics.

On Sunday, Laurel was at one of the very many readings by authors that are the structural skeleton of the convention.

Meanwhile, I attended “Clarke Centennial: 2001: A Space Odyssey.” I had a few problems with their opinions. It seemed a common assumption that HAL 9000 typified “technology out of control” a harbinger for petroleum which will kill us all with global warming. Quoting Dr. Chandra, I replied, “HAL was told to lie, by men who find it easy to lie.” Then, I lost my cool over global warming. However, I did meet panelist David Afsharirad who edited three volumes of “Year’s Best Military SF” for Baen Publishing Enterprises. I found him later in the dealers room. (He was buying at a table, not selling from one.) I bought all three volumes. He autographed them for me, inscribing them to my units in the Texas State Guard, the Maritime Regiment, and Domestic Operations.

Hard SF
From New Atlantic Industries.
Find them on Facebook, 
and of course, at 
http://www.newatlanticindustries.com/

Laurel and I closed out the show with “What is This Thing Called Plot?” The panelists were Lou Antonelli, Michael Bracken, Urania Fung, Joe R. Lansdale (chair), Louise Marley, and Barbara Ann Wright. They recommended Blake Snyder’s “Save the Cat” website for screenwriting (http://www.savethecat.com/) and his “15 Beats” that pace a story.

We picked up a ton of art cards, bookmarks, and other freebies, including self-published little stories. I bought a cool t-shirt, “Book Wyrm” in rich colors depicting a dragon in front of stacks of books. I also was happy to find a spin-off X Files/Star Wars poster (“I want to believe” with the Millennium Falcon for the flying saucer) from Vyktohria, who also draws pin-ups (website here). This was Laurel’s first scifi con. I went to a trekker con in Livonia, Michigan, back in the 20^th century. All in all, we both benefited, and we brought home a lot to talk about, even a week later. One reason for this write-up is that we are still transcribing our notes in order to facilitate discussing them. We don’t do that for computer security conferences.

Previously on Necessary Facts
2017 Austin Energy Regional Science Fair

Fantastic Voyages: Teaching Science Through Science Fiction

Monsters from the Id

All Volitional Beings Deserve Rights