Showing posts with label Bladerunner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bladerunner. Show all posts

Monday, December 28, 2020

SFL Archives Vol 16b readthrough update 01

100% completion, 149 bookmarks

-Movies & tv series mentioned: TERMINATOR 2, GREYSTOKE, NAKED GUN 2.5, HOOK, STAR TREK 6, ALIEN 3, ADDAMS FAMILY, HIGHLANDER 2, DISNEY BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, THE FINAL COUNTDOWN, MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN, THE ROCKETEER, CIRCUITRY MAN, SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN, THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, THE FISHER KING, EVIL DEAD 2, C.H.U.D., HARDWARE, HELLRAISER 3, CAST A DEADLY SPELL, BATMAN 2, SUPERMAN 4, SAPPHIRE AND STEEL, BLADERUNNER DIRECTORS CUT, THE BLUE LAGOON.

-Stories and books mentioned:  HALO, TEKLORDS, HERALDS OF VALDEMAR, BARDIC VOICES, MARTIAN RAINBOW, TEKLAB, LIFE DURING WARTIME, LOST ART, FOUCAULTS PENDELUM, THE TIME BENDER, THE WORLD SHUFFLER, MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN, KILLDOZER, PIGS IS PIGS, EYE OF ARGON, THE ROCKETEER, LOST CITY OF ZORK, THE GENERAL, BOOK OF EBON BINDINGS, SKYFALL, OUT ON BLUE SIX, DAMAINO, EARTH ABIDES, STAR ROVER, RAISING THE STONES, TRAVELS IN HYPERREALITY, A HISTORY OF SECRET SOCIETIES, THE NEGOTIATOR, GORD THE ROGUE, LUNAR DESCENT, GODEL ESCHER BACH: AN ETERNAL GOLDEN BOND, NEEDFUL THINGS, THE TROUBLE WITH LICHEN, MAN WHO AWOKE, THY NEIGHBOR'S WIFE, IN PURSUIT OF VALIS, HARPY HIGH, CASTLE PERILOUS, RATS AND GARGOYLES.

-Pop culture references: Lily Marlene, Punxsutawny Phil, PostScript, Nanptechnology, Eye of Argon, Hayes 1200 smart-modems, Whole Earth Catalog, the BBC tape library archives purge, C.H.U.D., SKYNET, whoever the "Cabana Boys" are, ROM, SpaceKnight, Captain Jacks Rum, the SciFi Channels initial slate of scheduled programming, Paul Reubens masturbating in that movie theater, Madonna, the American tv series pilot of RED DWARF, the movie book option to 'THY NEIGHBOR'S WIFE"

-Death notices: Gene Roddenberry.

-SFLer's from almost everywhere in the world are popping up. Japan, Australia, Africa, Europe, India, Turkey, Scotland, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Indonesia, navy.milnet, etc. 

-Repeated instances of public sex happening at TimeCon 1991, along with another extreme SF&F convention called EROTICON SIX, tailored to the BDSM enthusiast crowd. Keeping with this trend, discussion of SF Porn, and there is many examples I'm not going to re-transcribe here.

(2020 note: If you are curious to see what was mentioned, word search SFL Archives Volume 16B for "SFPorn".)

-Commentary on George O Smith's THE EARTH ABIDES features the very first time an author is called a Nazi, or an authors work is declared Aryan propaganda in SFL Archives history.

-The forgotten SF works of Jack London

-The details finally leak about how Jerry Pournelle lost his ARPANET access forever.

(2020 note: Pournelle lost his ARPANET access back in 1982 or 1983, and I wondered exactly how Pournelle lost his ARPANET access a few times earlier in my SFL Archives readthrough summaries.)

-Discussion of Umberto Eco's published stories, more specifically how to catch all the layered secret society references in Eco's FOUCAULTS PENDELUM.

-Michael Straczynski is noted as having been hired to write the pilot episode for a reboot of the 1980's "V" series.

(2020 note: The description of what happens in the JMS written pilot sounds a lot like what happened in seasons 2 & 3 of BABYLON 5.)

-How various SLFer's would go about designing SKYNET to make it work better and remove any possible pesky time-traveller hijinks.

-The beginning of TERMINATOR movie franchise dueling timelines discussion: Does Terminator 2 invalidate Terminator 1? How did the T-1000 travel back in time? Are the dates off? Does John Connor seem to old/too young for the dates GoodArnie recites to Dyson & Sarah Connor?

(2020 note: Thanks to the SFLers repeatedly mentioning organic sacks, sort of want to see a scene where the T-1000 travelled back in time inside a giant pumpkin. Which if you stretch things might result in a PEANUTS The Great Pumpkin/TERMINATOR franchise mashup that I would pay to see.)

-BLADERUNNER: DIRECTORS CUT discussion vs the original 1982 theatrical release. Various scenes been cut and added. SFLer's claiming it is Ridley Scotts final vision for the film. Mention is made of Mary, the All-American Mother Replicant.

-Everything terrible inside the Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle & Michael Flynn novel FALLEN ANGELS. Cannibal black people, slavery, global warming is fake, hero SF&F fandom saving everyone, evil treehuggers, hard men making hard calls, different versions of slavery, other libertarian things, etc. 

-SFLer's note that H Beam Piper's theft of Robert Heinlein's flat-cats in the H Beam Piper LITTLE FUZZY stories are not theft because according to Heinlein his "flat cats" are just Ellis Parker Butler's "dago pigs" with the serial numbers filed off.

-The before-before times for 1991 SFLers, when Isaac Asimov wasn't so openly pompous about himself in AISFM editorials and hadn't totally iced John W Campbell out on co-creation rights for the THREE LAWS OF ROBOTICS

-Science Fiction stories of the 1920's, '30s, '40s, '50s being incomprehensible to modern 1990's readers due to dated references to vacuum tubes, physically cutting antennas, toggles, etc. On the same note, SFLer's start debating the merits of 1991 SF&F magazines, and none of the commentary makes sense to a 2020 reader.

(2020 note: Funnily, steampunk & maker communities mean that some of those long-dead technologies mentioned aren't so dead anymore. On the other hand, Analog magazine is dead? Asimov Magazine is dead, Amazing Stories is super-dead, Pulphouse is probably dead, etc.)

-The people of usenet group rec.arts.sf-lovers get tired of seeing messages posted from non-usenet users/the SF-LOVERS mailing list gateway onto rec.arts.sf-lovers, and vote to sever the two-way mirroring. The SFL Archives mailing list-moderator grudgingly disconnects the two-way link after months of delays, then re-enables a one-way gateway link on the down-low for "content/This mailing list moderator position gives me internet power" reasons

-The former co-heads of BOSKONE 25 Jim Mann & Laurie Mann become super-toxic about conventions when discussion about the voting for WorldCon 1994 comes up. Sadly conventions is all that Jim & Laurie Mann ever post about in the SFL Archives. Their toxicity comes from the Mann husband-wife adopting a "I see nothing negative. I hear nothing negative. I know nothing negative." towards their own preferred conventions/friends conventions, but then proceed to drag up dirt regarding competitors conventions.

-A resurgence of Marion Zimmer Bradley discussion.

-STAR TREK 6 went over well with most of the SFL. The main cast of TOS seeming to act out of character, wonky special effects, design spec changes of the Enterprise, those damn gravity boots from ST5 appearing, Kim Cattrall's character not having a standardized Vulcan name, Michael Dorf & Christian Slater cameo appearances, how TNG series canon effects ST6/how ST6 effects TNG series canon, etc. 

 George Takei's 15 minutes of screen-time as Captain of a non-Enterprise spaceship had many vocal SFLer's hoping for the adventures of Captain Sulu (while sidelining or preferably killing Kirk) in a possible Captain Sulu spinoff tv-series.

-Raymond Feist ripping off the TEKUMEL setting comes up again repeatedly. The same person from SFL Archives 1987 & 1990? is back making the same "I have a document with 300 points of similarity between Tekumel & Feist's Riftwar books". Stuff like metal poorness, laquered armors, identically described lizardous subraces, city names, geography, etc. A few SFLer's make the claim that Feist wasn't ripping off Tekumel directly, Feist was merely stealing the setting/characters/plotlines of the homebrew RPG campaign of  a un-named GameMaster that Feist had a character in...and that the un-named GameMaster running the homebrew RPG campaign was the person with the all Tekumel/D&D/Tunnels & Trolls sourcebooks, not Raymond Feist. 

(2020 note: I really don't care what the true background behind Riftwar is. Many SF&F authors have based some of their works off of other authors or sometimes incorporate one or two interesting tidbits from RPG sourcebooks. It's the wholesale copying without acknowledgement that bothers me, especially if Feist ripped off the work of a un-named GM for 10+ books)

-First mention of R.A. Salvatore in the SFL Archives, along with the rumor that Salvatore also writes under a pen-name.

(2020 note: I have no idea, and refuse to look this up. Want to say that R.A. Salvatore has released roughly 40 books since the 1990's, so if he was also writing under a pen-name too, that is impressive output.)

-PRESERVE YOUR SOFTWARE AT ALL COSTS. THE REST IS MEAT. vs PRESERVE YOUR HARDWARE AT ALL COSTS. THE REST IS NOISE. 

-A advertisement for CONFLAGRATION 1992, a convention catered towards SF pornography and so much more.

------------------------------

Date: 10 Aug 91 18:24:32 GMT

From: davep@milton.u.washington.edu (David Ptasnik)

Subject: CONFLAGRATION ChiCon Room Party


Everyone is invited to the CONFLAGRATION room party at ChiCon.  Look for

our signs for the day, time, and room number at the Hyatt!

                                      

       CONFLAGRATION

The Convention Your MAMA Warned You About

  UNDER 21 NOT ADMITTED!

      June 19, 20, 21

   1992

     Alderbrook Resort

     Union, Washington


Guest of Honor

ANDREW J.  OFFUTT

Creator of "Shadowspawn"

Author of "Conan" Novels


Author Guest

VICKI MITCHELL

Star Trek Novel "Enemy Unseen"


Artist Guest

PHIL FOGLIO

Hugo Award Winner


Fan Guest

JOY DAY

Costumer Extraordinaire


Master of Ceremonies

JON GUSTAFSON

Professional SF Art Appraiser & Expert


Special Appearance By

JOHN CLEVE

"Spaceways"and "The Crusader" sagas


JUICY PANELS

JUICIER FILMS

FILTHY FILKING

WEENIE ROAST

MASQUERADE

BONFIRES

DEALERS

GAMING

ARCADE

BhEER

WhINE

ORGAzMS

HOSPITALITY

PARTY COTTAGES

UNCENSORED ART SHOW

SATURDAY NITE ART AUCTION

BEACH SIDE RESORT

OUTDOOR FUN

INDOOR POOL

JACUZZI

TENNIS

FISHING

SAILING

GOLF


No one under 21 will be admitted to the Northwest's ONLY

Adult Science Fiction Convention.


IS THAT A SPACESHIP IN YOUR POCKET,

OR ARE YOU JUST THINKING ABOUT CONFLAGRATION?

For something new and fresh in a Fantasy and Science Fiction Convention, we

cordially invite you to attend CONFLAGRATION in June of '92.  Our

convention will be an SF and Fantasy convention with traditional panel

discussions and activities, famous people to talk to and learn from, and a

whole bunch of outdoor fun at a gorgeous waterfront resort.  CONFLAGRATION

will include adult themes, and will be restricted to adults over 21 (photo

ID at the door, please).  We think you will really enjoy the opportunity of

taking a weekend off at one of the nicest getaway spots in the Northwest.

Plus you will be able to do it in the company of people who understand and

share an important aspect of all of our lives: fandom.  Enjoy every aspect

of SF and Fantasy without having to look over your shoulder for fear of

offending a mundane, or setting off a riot among the kids.  Register early,

we could be sold out before the convention.

Dave and Cindy Ptasnik, co-chairs


HERE ARE THE SORDID DETAILS -

FEEL THE HEAT:

At the Alderbrook Resort on the breathtakingly beautiful Hood Canal.  The

entire resort will be ours!  No kids, no mundanes, no inhibitions.

Sleeping bags and extra towels OK'd by the resort.  For reservations call

1-800-622-9370.

A credit card or personal check will guarantee reservations.

About 1 1/2 hours from Seattle in Union, WA.

About 2 1/2 hours from Portland.

Canadians use those kilometer thingies, and nobody knows how far anything

is from there.  This is a very nice (AAA recommended) facility.  Virtually

every room and cottage has an amazing territorial view of mountains, water,

and forest.  2nd and 3rd floor rooms all have balconies.  Ground floor

rooms are wheelchair accessible.  Some rooms are designed for use by the

differently abled.


SUBMISSIVE BEHAVIOR:

The staff at the Alderbrook Resort has had it's collective passion enflamed

by our coming.  They haven't had this much fun since the transvestite

convention.  Costumes are encouraged in all resort areas, including the

restaurant and lounge.  They even seemed to pant a little at the thought of

well armed virtually naked barbarians.  Small pets (no, a sheep is not a

small pet) are welcome with some conditions (ask the resort).

FOREPLAY:

Registration will be strictly limited to 350 (um) members.  Please register

under your legal name, you may also provide a badge name.  Info:

CONFLAGRATION

12345 Lake City Way

Suite 2001

Seattle, WA  98125

1-800-989-2001

206-527-2001 (Canada and Seattle area)

Please send SASE for return correspondence, there will be progress reports.


PROS:

They do it for money AND satisfaction!

Andrew J. Offutt is the finest, funniest, and downright steamiest author we

have ever encountered at a con.  From his Conan novels to Shadowspawn of

Thieves' World, Uncle Andy is the master of lurid Heroic Fantasy.  His

readings are an absolute must-hear.  The ladies will swoon over his sexy

soft drawl.

Vicki Mitchell is the hottest new best-selling author in the region, and a

true veteran of Star Trek warfare.  Meet this rising star, and learn how to

work with publishers and studios.

Phil Foglio, a recent transplant from the Midwest, is the illustrator of

the M.Y.T.H. Adventure series, and creator of Xenophile (the only explicit

American comic published in Sweden).  Let's give the author of Buck Godot a

warm (maybe even cozy) Northwest welcome.

Joy Day is one of the best costumers and most dedicated fans around.  She

has won countless masquerades nationwide, as well as a major award at a

WorldCon.

Jon Gustafson is the only professional appraiser of SF and Fantasy Art.

His knowledge is encyclopedic, which explains why he wrote the artist

biographies for The Doubleday Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.

John Cleve will make a special appearance to discuss sex and science

fiction.  The author of Spaceways (the red hot 19 volume series of Playboy

books) and the positively lustful five volume Crusader epic will light your

fire.


Are you a Pro?

Drop us a line, we would love to have you participate in CONFLAGRATION.

VENUS BUTTERFLY:

Not even the National Endowment for the Arts would fund this Art Show and

Auction.  Libidinous contributions will be solicited from the finest

artists in the nation.  (The sculptures ought to be particularly

interesting.)  Bring your wallets for this one, we are encouraging artists

to send originals.  Even better, we will be holding the Art Auction on

Saturday Night.  If you don't get your first choice at auction, we will

have special Sunday Sale prices to let you fulfill your flaming desire for

the real thing, original art.

Artists: Give it to us straight, we can take it.  Unchain your wildest

fantasies for this uncensored presentation.  Show us how well you are hung.

Call or write for a copy of our art show guidelines.

BAZAAR OF ALL EARTHLY DELIGHTS:

Where Anything may be for sale.  Our dealer room will have a limited

number of tables specially selected for your Every Need or Desire

(Batteries not included).

Dealers:  send a description (or better yet a dirty picture) of your

goodies.  6' x 2.5' tables will be $10 each, membership(s) purchased

separately.  We will give a preference to theme appropriate wares, and

will try to balance our selection of merchants.  If you are not

selected, your money will be promptly refunded.

WATER SPORTS:

Wet and wild.  Sailboats, paddle boats, inner tubes, water ski tows, crab

pots, fishing gear and more will be available on the Resort's 80 foot

(that's a big one) dock.  Salt water swimming in a large roped off area

and beachcombing are free.

TALK DIRTY TO ME:

. . . in the panel rooms.  Try the panel on kissing techniques, or how to

get a bust in the mouth.  After all, that's what you're really after at

these things, right? (Hey you, with the pocket protector, stop that!).

It's guaranteed to get pretty steamy.

THERE'S A VOYEUR IN THE FOYEUR:

If you like to watch, come to the video room.  Flesh Gordon is just the

beginning.  You won't see this stuff on the Disney Channel.

THE WET SPOT:

Don't avoid this one - a HUGE indoor pool in its own building.  There is

even a jacuzzi that sits 22 (or more) friendly people.  The management

requires that something be worn at all times in the pool, like, say, a

wristwatch or earrings.  There will be a special swim for overweight

people, we can be rather shy around you skinny types.  Bring your best for

the Outrageous Inflatable Pool Toy Competition (Now where did we put those

Love Ewes?).

SHOW AND TELL:

Create your wildest costume ever for our red hot Masquerade!  No lip

synching.  No pre-judging.  No censorship.  Let your conscience be your

guide (do whatever it says you shouldn't).  Bribing the judges is

encouraged.  Awards will be given for Hottest of Show, Hottest SF, Hottest

Fantasy, Most Provocative, Most Humorous, and Least (that's right, just

Least).

ORGY CENTRAL:

Gamers do it in groups.  The festivities will be indoors and outdoors (at

last gaming comes out of the closet).  Scandalous Scavenger Hunt (it's not

OK for the ribbed condom to have been used); Clothing Optional Volleyball

(just kidding); Explicit Role-Playing tournament; Jello Snarffuling (it

sounds just as disgusting as it sounds).

GROUP GROPE:

Sex, er, uh, six cottages have been specially set aside for room parties.

If you plan to have such a party, please request one of these cottages when

making your reservation.

CLIMAX ROOM:

Our hospitality cottage will be an ultimate delight of sinful pleasure.

Chips, dips, BhEER, WhINE, PB & J (not on the sheets, please), coffee,

popcorn, candy, cake, soda pop, and munch, munch more.  We'll even have

REAL food.  Join us at our complimentary BONFIRE AND WEENIE ROAST on Friday

Night!  (Talk about oral gratification.)  Oh yeah, and our own signature

drink, The Orgazm.  We hope you will find this the most hospitable offering

on the convention circuit, with longer hours, and more good stuff all the

time.  There will be no "kitty" begging for Hospitality Suite donations.

You've already paid for the food and drink by registering.  Take your

smoking outside, that's for after the climax.


SEE YOU THERE!!!!!!!!!

------------------------------

Thursday, November 26, 2020

SFL Archives Vol 14 readthrough update 01

SFL Archives Vol 14

7.5 mb raw text file

30 % completion, 45 bookmarks.

-Robert Tappan Morris's Internet Worm attack of 1988  gets mentioned as a brief sidenote in the SFL Archives.

(2020 note: This has been one of things I've been waiting to show up since Vol 02 or so of doing this SFL Archives readthrough attempt.) 

-SFLer's ask "What is the earliest historical fiction that you know of?"

-STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION Picard vs STAR TREK: THE ORGINAL SERIES Kirk comparisons start happening. One SFLer uses the 1988 George Bush vs Michael Dukakis presidental election debates as to how they perceive Kirk & Picard.

(2020 note: This is one of the things I thought would happen ASAP in the SF-LOVERS mailing list once Star Trek: TNG aired. That it took midway through season 2 of TNG to happen is gratifying.)

-Constant re-occurring BLADERUNNER 1982 the movie discussion. The oddball replicant count in the movie, differences in the movie vs the book, Replicant memories, and "are the pictures Deckard looks at in the movie holograms?" given how small things move in them/are visible changing up the viewing angle.

-Stephen King book discussion: The Gunslinger book 2: DRAWING OF THE THREE comes out, and minor discussion of a Stephen King short story about matter teleportation (Jaunt?).

-First rumors of turning the WATCHMEN graphic novel into a movie start up, and some SFLer's think it a Watchmen adaptation might work better as tv-series.

(2020 note: Both possibilities happened, eventually, only extremely later than SFLers of 1989 expected.)

-Background details about why the movie BUCKAROO BANZAI 1984 is never getting a sequel. TLDR: 20th Century Fox f*cked themselves over multiple times, especially selling off ALL the videotape rights of Buckaroo Banzai 1984 for a pittance, then watched in impotent anger as the buyer of the videotape rights made a 2000% profit when Buckaroo Banzai went to videotape. 

-An explanation of exactly what roles & duties story/book packagers perform liasioning between literary agents, authors, and publishers; using Byron Preiss as an example.

-Three movies under production in early 1989 all using deep underwater settings/similar sounding plots: DEEPSTAR SIX, THE ABYSS and LEVIATHAN.

-J. Michael Straczynski anecdotes about behind the scenes production problems for the 1980's  revamp of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. SFLer's also note Straczynski's work as story editor for the now mostly forgotten CAPTAIN VIDEO childrens tv series.

-SFLer's start discussing "O LUCKY MAN!", a 1973 UK movie, and everything about it/in it sounds extremely bizarre. 

-Gay characters in SF (and Fantasy) discussion. Lots of interesting examples come up.

-Philip K Dick discussion, 1989 edition: PKD's paranoia about a home invasion, the ongoing changes of how PKD viewed the home invasion as his mental health declined, and one of PKD's "Dark-Haired Girls" comments on her PKD experiences in the early 1970's.

(2020 note: Not sure, but I think this the same Dark-Haired Girl that commented on her experiences with PKD back in Vol 03?/Vol 04/Vol 05? It was deeply fascinating and amazing when the DHG related PKD's plan to confuse/fuck the narcs that were constantly monitoring him.)

-A unofficial "CAN YOU OUT CYBERPROSE WILLIAM GIBSON/other cyberpunk writers?" SF-LOVERS challenge is issued, and as of mid May 1989, no SFLer has responded to the challenge.

(2020 note: Finished reading SFL Archives 1989, and no one rose to the challenge.)

-People managing the Hugo Awards nominations & vote counting process feel compelled to post about the existing procedures multiple times and insist nothing will go wrong for the 1989 Hugo Awards nomination & vote counting process, like what happened at WorldCon 1989.

-PLAGUE style stoy discussion, which seem very on-point from a 2020 perspective, with a resurgence of juvenile focused novels and television entertainment. 

-First SFL Archives mention of the 1989 movie TOTAL RECALL starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

-Julian May's PLIOSCENE COMPANION collection discussion, with special note made of how Julian May had most of the series planned out, and how the entire series setting was inspired by a kickass cosplay outfit Julian May designed/wore at a 1970's sci-fi convention.  

-THE TIDES OF GOD by Ted Reynolds discussion causing minor meltdowns by SFL people regarding religion, free will, and the Dark Ages only being European subcontinent based, not global. 

-Suzette Haden Elgin's OZARK TRILOGY being written as a direct response to all the sexist and dimissive behavior by male Sci-Fi writers towards women at convention panels.

-1989 anecdotes of how Glen Cook composed and wrote most of his stories/novels while working at General Motors, with special note taken of the timing required to perform his assembly line duties and write while on the assembly line

-A poll of what science-fiction tv series SFLer's thought were the worse of all time results in LOST IN SPACE "winning" the poll. A SFLer notes that no recent sci-fi related TV series got mentioned, and listed out a whole bunch of recentish 1980's sci-fi tv shows that had aired on US network television such as SMALL WONDER and OUT OF THIS WORLD

-A SFLer who requested stories abut the "introduction of anti-matter in science-fiction" comments on the responses they received from SFLers. 

(2020 note: the hurtful note when mentioning how a SFLer told them to look in the OED Supplement Vol 01 for references to anti-matter are the main reason I bothered mentioning this.)

-One SFLer noted the subgenre of "black vehicle scifi tv series of the 1980's" using AIRWOLF, STREET HAWK, and KNIGHT RIDER that all seemed to revolve around similar plots and setups.

-THE DESERT PEACH -a comic book about "The Desert Fox's pretty brother", based on Dona Barr's large fund of insider stories on the German army.

-Color coded convention badges/how various professional & amateur conventions handled convention security.

(2020 note: All these things will seem extremely quaint for people used to wifi networking & RFID badges at "modern" conventions.)

-Anecdotes of using a Larry Niven style RINGWORLD as Wargamer battle-royale setting. And how everything got derailed when one wargamer had howitzer's on their army list, and the opponent protested to the GM about needing special rules to adjust for the "coriolis forces experienced on a  Ringworld". Years later, allegedly, these two wargamers are still working out a "general set of equations for computing the trajectory of an object launched from the surface of a Ringworld."

-A college aged Jeff Vogel, who would go on to create the GENEFORGE & AVERNUM & EXILE & AVADON series of games posts about the TSR Dragonlance settings and the Dragonlance novels written.

-RED DWARF tv series part two: which covers most of the events/episodes of Red Dwarf series 1.

-Ed Greenwood at GENCON 1988 explains to a SFLer why his Forgotten Realms novel SPELLFIRE was so disjointed. Apparently, Greenwood wanted to make Spellfire mostly about his author-insert Elminster and Elminster's family in a Nine Princes of Amber way, but the TSR book editors said no.

(2020 note: It would take 6 more years for Ed Greenwood to get the first of his many "The Mary Sue adventures of Elminster" published, during the final stages of TSR's "publish everything, we need the quarterly product release statements to look amazing". 1 year later, TSR went bankrupt and got bought by Wizards of the Coast.)

-John Cramer uses the Internet to post a "open letter reply" to comments made about his "hard SF novel TWISTOR".

(2020 note: Authors posting open letter comments were not a common thing on the Internet at this point in 1989, so I felt this was of special archival interest.)


Monday, September 7, 2020

SFL Archives Vol 05 readthrough

SFL Vol 05 was a extremely quick read in comparison to the first SFL 4 volumes. Almost every third SFL Digest update started with apologies to the SFL subscribers for extended downtime/missed SFL Digest updates caused by hardware failure.

-Everyone has opinions on the Dean Machine Drive/Analog magazine fiasco, which I am currently 3% clued in about (and climbing) just from reading the ongoing not-Mad posts from BigName people on the subject. 

(2020 sidenote: Back in the 19th century, someone claimed to have detected people living on the moon, attributing the discovery of Moon lifeforms to world famous astronomer John Herschel. 19th century hoax https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Moon_Hoax

The Dean Machine Drive is a similar thing, a fake news event to drive up sales when readers want to know more/debunk the published story. (an Analog Magazine article about a weight reducing prototype spacedrive). Only it was the godfather of pulp scifi, John W Campbell, in full "I WANT TO BELIEVE" mode backing up the Dean Machine Drive bullshit claim. )

-Robert Heinlein's FRIDAY came out, and gets very mixed SFL reviews, even from the Heinlein Defense squad. One particularly virulent Heinlein Squad poster drops the mask completely and blames "incorrect usages of grammar" inside FRIDAY as the *WINK* real reason *WINK* why they hate Heinlein's FRIDAY.....as in "how dare this female main character dare to use feminine pronouns when describing things in book."

-More STAR TREK 2 movie chat, with press tours about Spock dying yes/no driving talk about still a pipe-dream Star Trek 3.

-Someone complains about getting sent 12 duplicate issues of the latest SFL digest, and the impact of having to store 12 copies of the SFL Digest email on their system, even for one day. Remember, the overall computer resources and network bandwidth of 1982 were a rounding error of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the computing power and bandwidth available to the year 2020.

-EMPIRE STRIKES BACK gets scheduled for a 1982 wintertime re-release in theaters, while A NEW HOPE gets teased as being re-released to the theaters for the 3rd or 4th time since it originally came out in 1977

-I originally thought that "FOONLEY" computer system chat was some kind of delayed April 1st 1982 SFL joke, but no. Judging from the series of not-Mad rebuttal comments, I theorized that the Foonley computer architecture was the precursor of what became the RISC/SPARC computer architecture.....however I was doubly wrong. Foonley architecture evolved into MIPS, an also-ran competitor project to RISC. 

-STAR TREK 2, E.T. , and POLTERGEIST came out. Many reviews of Star Trek 2 & E.T. have been posted, Star Trek 2 questions, etc.

-A few U.S. based people complain about commercials suddenly being shown in theaters before the actual movie They-Paid-2-see starts. One or two people from Europe reply saying that has been common practice for a while in Europe.

-One of the original SFLers from it's 1979 mailing list inception started up a San Francisco Bay area precursor to Nick at Nite. 

-Positive feedback on Spielberg's E.T. came in hard as SFL Vol 05 came to an end

-One thing I failed to mention in the SFL archives was that ever since the movie adaption of Philip K Dick's "DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?" aka "Bladerunner 1982" got announced, there has been massive confusion because the title "Bladerunner" comes from a completely different story/author, aka THE BLADERUNNER, a 1974 novel by Alan Nourse. So half the people discussing Bladerunner have been talking about Alan Nourse's story and getting confused when PKD's Electric Sheep gets discussed and vice versa with PKD's Electric Sheep discussion and Alan Nourse.

(2020 sidenote: Alan Nourse was a actual medical doctor slash scifi writer whose stories tended to involve medical themes. No lies, the plot and storyline of The Bladerunner 1974 seems eerily prescient of what is going on in 2020 right now/what seems to be the future of health care, and I am going to track down a copy of it asap.)

originally posted between July 12th -July 15th in the SomethingAwful forums Science Fiction Fantasy Megathread 3

SFL Archives Vol 04 readthrough

1981 was a murders row of now-iconic movies. John Carpenter's THE THING just got teased for a mid 1982 release(stoked for SFL reactions), while Dino DeLaurentis DUNE got mentioned as recently entering pre-production. In addition to the movies already mentioned in SFL Vol 03 posts, CONAN THE BARBARIAN 1982 was initially slated for a December 1981 release date.

-The pre-release press announcement of BLADERUNNER came out, and Bladerunner chat has already started breaking SFL poster's brains.

-Additional RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK chat focused on how long the Nazi submarine trip took to the sub-base island and how Indy stayed in place outside the sub and WHY did the sub go into dive mode before the movie switched into map view.

(my take: Because the Nazi's just raided a ship and wanted/needed to run the f**k away undetected before any Sea-cops arrived, )

-Reated chemistry nerd debates about non-digestable reversed pair chemical compounds entering FDA testing that I am guessing will officially be known to history as "NUTRASWEET"

-Release of proposed HDTV specifications causes similar heated debate among the SFL hardware enthusiasts. In Yoda speak, "Begun the graphics wars have".

-In August 1981 someone worries about/predicts whatever the f**k the Sad Puppies attempt a few decades later with the Hugo Award

-The trickle of barely disguised ad product-reviews in SFL archives kicked off by the sneery toned MENSA recruitment ad has turned into a stream

-The first occurrence of Flame On/Flame OFF in SFL archives

-DolphinF**ker discusses immortality and the various goals they have left to accomplish before dying....interspecies sex with aquatic mammals is oddly (or not so oddly) left off their life-goal list

-(august 1981) 3 spaceprobes are currently in the works for the upcoming close swing-by of Halley's Comet 

-The runaway growth of STAR WARS fandom continues to mark it's mark in the SFL archives. Despite a murderer's row of fantasy and scifi movies being released in 1981, discussion about Star Wars lore/character lineage/bounty hounters/spoilers/naming conventions and Star Wars trivia grow and grow in the SFL archives, often requiring special SFL Digest SPOILER tags.

-Graphics fans will be interested to know that "aliasing" and "anti-aliasing" get mentioned for the 1st time in the SFL archives (that I can recall) when SFL users post their SIGGRAPH 1981 attendance reviews.

-Spoilers about the upcoming STAR TREK 2 movie where Spock dies/not dies, and the SFL talk that ensues. Gene Roddenberry the Bitter continues a decades long "notMad" pout.

-A few self proclaimed Cinematographic Historians start offering trivia challenges to see what earlier movies Lucas/Spielberg/others ripped off in certain visually stunning scenes Lucas/Spielberg/etc shot. No one cares, almost no one responds; especially after the 1st round of trivia question answers prove to be really stupid, even for 1981.

-Special effects people who worked on Star Wars 1977 + maybe also Star Wars 1980 notice that Star Wars fandom isn't subsiding and start pimping themselves/scamming SW fans at SIGGRAPH 1981 with faked Return of the Jedi "test" footage.

-In the year 1981 SFL chat has been bringing up a long long dead fantasy author. This decades dead author was supposedly more than a slight influence on JRR Tolkien. Besides that. the only reason why I mention this is because the same phrases and wordings people use to describe Gene Wolfe's writing style and stories are getting mentioned in similar ways for this long long dead fantasy genre author. For people interested, the long dead fantasty genre authors name is E.R. Eddison.

-The mailing list maintainers fessed up to lots of behind-the-scenes admin stuff about failing hardware, mis-configured scripts resulting in delayed/missing/duplicate/erroneous SFL Digests being published. Since bandwidth/computing power back in 1981 was a rounding error of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the bandwidth/computer power the year 2020 have, these were serious issues.

-Using RotLA examples, Film insurance/film insurance payouts got explained.

-Hardware failure explained why '50s/'60s/'70s juvenile entertainment chat got cut off so abruptly in the SFL Vol 03 archive. 2 special makeup issues of the SFL Digest were sent out, composed entirely of March 1981-June 1981 'juvenile entertainment' SFL submissions

-A small digression into sharing and listing out the various known Pseudonyms genre authors had used up. Much of this info will be found at https://www.isfdb.org

-An upsurge in discussions of Marion Zimmer Bradley published work, and MZB in general, which I power-skimmed over heavily.

-Every San Francisco resident/former resident of San Francisco chimed in when someone asked the SFL Digest if EMPEROR NORTON was made up.

-The SFL archives message that inspired me to re-read the SF-LOVERS Digest from the beginning, this time taking notes


quote:

    Date: September-ish 1981

    From: REDACTED at RE-DAC-TED

    Subject: SF-Lovers Query


    My 13 year old son is reading the GOR series.

    I have heard that it is not only badly written (which I expect), but also overly sexist, Sado-masochistic, and violent.

    Has anybody read it? Any comments on it?

    REDA CTED-


originally posted between July 6th -July 12th in the SomethingAwful forums Science Fiction Fantasy Megathread 3