tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post7009102851110907413..comments2024-03-27T22:39:08.396-04:00Comments on Sweet Freedom: FFB: HAWKSBILL STATION by Robert Silverberg (Doubleday 1968 et seq.); LOOKING BACKWARD 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy (Ticknor and Co./Houghton Mifflin 1888 et seq.)Todd Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-87208035528485988722015-11-10T17:35:21.442-05:002015-11-10T17:35:21.442-05:00Thanks for your comment on the correct way to abbr...Thanks for your comment on the correct way to abbreviate "science fiction." I addressed my uncertainty of this, a tad tongue-in-cheek, in my review of <i><a href="http://tinyurl.com/pbdmdcp" rel="nofollow">Black Cloud</a></i>, which I posted this morning.Mathew Pausthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06157135006791553019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-4365771163924422742015-11-10T13:44:47.089-05:002015-11-10T13:44:47.089-05:00Terrific post, Todd. I'm always intrigued by &...Terrific post, Todd. I'm always intrigued by 'time travel' books from the past or just books from the past which predict the future, they so usually get it wrong - most of the writers had fully expected humans to evolve in a positive way as well I suppose. Though as you say, in LOOKING BACKWARD, the wiring up of almost every home was a very forward thinking idea. <br /><br />I most especially love pictures of houses of the future or cities of the future. They always make me feel as if we failed these artists by not being inventive or brilliant or creative enough. <br /><br />Also, thanks for the brief and intriguing look into your family's colorful (and sadly violent) family history. I know very little about my own grandparents though they were alive when I was a kid. (They lived in Puerto Rico and I grew up in Manhattan.) As I get older, I realize just how much I wish someone had told me about their lives. Or maybe they did and I simply forgot.Yvettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08919246184376538331noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-17802615379178254032015-11-06T18:24:56.155-05:002015-11-06T18:24:56.155-05:00I was rather surprised at how compelling both were...I was rather surprised at how compelling both were, even as a young reader...Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-40077450485853821252015-11-06T18:18:08.977-05:002015-11-06T18:18:08.977-05:00You're bringing a lot of good memories back wi...You're bringing a lot of good memories back with invoking HAWKSBILL STATION and LOOKING BACKWARDS. These are top-notch works. Silverberg's time travel novels are always thought-provoking. Bellamy's book is a classic.Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04546161337366365635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-80786595651644561062015-11-06T16:55:10.347-05:002015-11-06T16:55:10.347-05:00Apparently so, Matt, thanks. Patti will have to fi...Apparently so, Matt, thanks. Patti will have to fix it. SF is the preferred abbreviation for those of us who remember too well the casual hostility toward sf common as late as the 1970s, and still prevalent in certain circles today, which seized upon "sci-fi" as a tag for all the world's Godzilla movies and decided that was the level of sophistication common in the field, or, as Kurt Vonnegut put it, many chose to misconstrue the drawer of sf for a urinal. Imagine referring to my-fi or contempo-fi or even, for historical fiction, hi-fi (which Forrest Ackerman, a lover of all the levels of bubblegum in sf, created "sci-fi" to rhyme with). Fred Hoyle is an interesting figure in sf, as a guy with as much influence in the sciences as anyone who turned to the fiction (even if his support of Gamow's steady-state theory has been not the prevailing model), while not altogether the best (nor the worst) fiction-writer to attempt prose fiction...I'm impressed you've never read any sf? No Vonnegut, no Crichton, no Wylie, no Ishiguro, no Atwood, et al.?Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-90829119710505522702015-11-06T16:20:09.822-05:002015-11-06T16:20:09.822-05:00Reading The Black Cloud for next Fri. I believe it...Reading <i>The Black Cloud</i> for next Fri. I believe it's <i>my</i> first scifi novel. (btw, your link in Patti's list is corrupted) Mathew Pausthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06157135006791553019noreply@blogger.com