Category Archives: Themes

Terror (1989)

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This book caught my attention because of the title. The spine of the book was sticking out and it read “Terror” in a really small font and I thought, “wow thats really bad graphic design” so I picked it up. 

Little did I know, this book was based in my obscure hometown, Hilo, and the details of my town in this book were so accurate, down to Hawaiian culture and myths. 

I tried researching whether the author, Frederick Pohl, had lived in Hawai’i for any amount of time but I couldn’t find anything. There was just a mention of him going on a cruise through the islands once. 

But for some reason, he mentions Hawai’i occasionally in his other works and knows a strange amount about the geology and history of the islands, probably from the extensive research he had done for this book.

The premise of the book is strange. It centers around two terrorist groups; one is a group of locals/Hawaiians that are anti-colonial and want white people and their impact off of the islands. The other group is the US government which is conspiring to insert a nuclear bomb into a dormant volcano near the islands in order to create an explosion as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs, in order to create a cloud of dust that would lower the grain productivity of the Soviet Union. It’s pretty absurd and I would love to know how it ends, but I am a bit past halfway done and this post is already overdue. 

I am kind of confused as to whether this is definitively SF but if it is then it may be colonization, apocalyptic, and hard SF due to the chapters of pure scientific explanations. 

I don’t recommend it but it isn’t necessarily bad or too offensive, more funny. 

I like that there is so much research into Hilo and volcanoes, and I don’t really like how there was a solid paragraph justifying why the main character (white mainlander) couldn’t tell apart “orientals” which were so abundant here haha.

Pohl, Frederick. “Terror” (1986). New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 1989. 

Living Spaceship

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Interior passageway of the living spaceship Moya.

Howdy! I thought I’d share this cool picture of the interior of the living spaceship Moya from the SF TV series Farscape. In the show, Moya is a sentient bio-mechanical creature that the main characters, a rebellious collection of fugitive aliens and one human, live in. According to the show’s twitter account, “The shapes of Moya’s hallways and passageways were based on a Spanish architect and designer, Antoni Gaudi.” Moya is one of my favorite characters/ aspects of the show as she has a compassionate and quirky personality. The show itself is unique and has a lot of personality, I would definitely recommend!

 

A Specter is Haunting Texas, by Fritz Leiber

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In the bookshop, this book was barely discernible from the hoards of sci-fi  pulp common in the 60’s, the mention of the author earning a Hugo and a Nebula piqued my interest however. Fritz Leiber rang a bell in the back of my mind, and with the ridiculous sounding summary, evoking “Giant hormone-fed Texans”, which was hopefully indicating a satire. In addition this was a great copy from 1971, this book, on its 50th anniversary deserved a read.

Scully, or Christopher Crockett La Cruz. Hailing Circumluna, a space station populated by refugees that left earth when World War III broke out. Living in space has left Scully in an 8 foot tall exoskeleton. Even though of considerable size himself, he finds himself dwarfed by the supremacist hormone-fed Texan civilization that apparently emerged out of a nuclear WW3, even though they had been in secret control of the US since joining in 1845 (which assured survival in WW3). Unable to fulfill his initial mission of securing his family’s mining rights, Scully finds himself at the center of the revolution breaking out in the “Mexes”. Even though uninterested, he engages in the revolution for its value for him as an actor. This all occurs while he balances a romantic triangle, trying to find the woman he will return to Circumluna with.

Fritz Leiber’s novel is an example of satirical pulp science fiction. The book, as the cover suggests, falls into the romantic category pretty quickly as well with a love triangle being quickly established. The world-building is very interesting, but it remains soft science fiction, with technology just serving as a way for Leiber to establish the dystopian situation. At times, the political satire can feel dated, as it is strongly anchored historically, with direct mentions to figures like LBJ.

I will try to not spoil too much or those who are interested in reading the book. What I will say is that with how crass the terms, situations, and portrayals of Leiber can be in this book. Arguably racist at points, Leiber is definitely falling into some casual sexism, with no female characters passing the Bechdel Test. Leiber’s potential critique of anglo-supremacy, through the absurdity of the Texans, is at many points lost due to the unpalatable descriptions and stereotypes presented. Especially when Scully’ reason to oppose this whole slave-based system, its not an ideological opposition, he wants to act.

Under this context, one redeeming quality of this satire, could be to read beyond its critique of texans, and the American supremacy they represented. In this case, Leiber’s crass satire that is generally “too much”, as well as the lack of a real conclusion in the end of the novel, could point towards a more wide ranging meta critique of the genre. This meta critique might read too much into the purpose of this story however. More probably than not, it is a half baked satire, using the comedic license of the satirical genre to present racially charged unpalatable jokes.

If cyborg romance, 60’s political satire, and crazy names like Elmo Oil-Field, are in your essential list for any novel I would recommend reading this, if not looking for a life changing message. If you intend, to open an intricate social critique of 60’s American society, you wont find it here. As it stands within its genre, it is better written than other contemporary works, the Hugo seems justified. In the end one wonders whether Leiber took the comedic license a bit too far.

book cover

Work Cited:

Leiber, Fritz. A Specter Is Haunting Texas. New York: Bantam Books (reprint: Galaxy Science fiction, 1968), 1971.

Cosmic Engineers

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Cover of Cosmic Engineers by Simak

I chose this book because it was my favorite cover art of any of the books I had seen in The Green Hand, and I wanted to read more of Simak’s work. I absolutely love the bright colors, the mountain range in the background and the cute little planet right of the robot’s head. I would absolutely draw something like this background, so naturally I had to read the book. I just the wish the story had as much personality as the cover. The story follows a group of humans, most notably two space journalist Herb and Gary and a woman, Caroline, who they woke from suspended animation. Caroline was aware throughout her 1,000 years in suspended animation and spent the time training her brain and developing new concepts about spatial relativity and the physical nature of space. The humans are called to by a group of robots, the Cosmic Engineers, who are trying to protect the universe and need the help of beings with creativity (something they don’t possess). Together the humans and Cosmic Engineers, well it was mostly Caroline, they prevent two universes from colliding, stop the bad guy aliens and go home happy.

This story is an optimistic space opera written in the Golden Age of SF and contains a multitude of interesting SF elements. Some interesting elements include the idea of robots outliving their creators but remaining devoted to them, the concept of humans abandoning Earth, anti-government and pro-individualism. The evil aliens in the story are a thinly veiled allegory for wither German National or Soviet Socialism. From the anti-collectivist sentiments and glorification of humanities’ creativity and brave heroism, is evident that the author was writing this story as an American 1964.

I’ll start with my favorite aspects. The main scientist is a woman who not only saves our universe but saves another universe and actually creates universes. She is far from the damsel in distress that most stories in the Golden Age of SF portray. I also loved the optimistic and positive portrayal of humanity. So much SF reveals the ugly flaws of humanity or imagines alien races that are far superior. Yet in this story, humanity is refreshingly celebrated as uniquely creative and adventurous. However, it could be a little hard to get through. The characters are flat, and the plot just chugs forward without any tension to keep the reader engaged. I got lost in the inconsistent details of the plot and accidentally ended up skimming some parts. There just wasn’t any depth or sentiment in the writing.

I looked at the publication page and it turns out this was originally a short story that Simak wrote in 1939 but he adapted it into a novel. I think it should have stayed a short story and I would be interested in reading it. However, I am not sure I would recommend the novel and would perhaps direct people to some of Simak’s better, richer writing. I am frustrated because the concept of a genius woman saving the universe and celebrating humanity is something I love. But I guess you really can’t judge a book by its cover; for such lively and colorful cover art, the story was grey.

 

 

Original Publicaiton as a Novel:
 Simak, Clifford Donald. Cosmic Engineers. Gnome Press, 1950.
Version I read:

Simak, Clifford Donald. Cosmic Engineers. Paperback Library, 1970

Green Hand Book Review: Venus Plus X

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Sturgeon, Theodore. Venus plus X. New York: Dell, 1979.

 

I chose Venus Plus X by Theodore Sturgeon because the cover first caught my attention. The book covers that I looked at before finding the book dealt with space but I thought this one looked cooler. The pages were also colored, which most of the other books did not have. After reading the little blurb on the cover, I quickly found out that it dealt with the theme of gender and its erasure of it. Within this course, I found that the topic of power relations, including race, gender, and sexuality intrigued me the most–and this book seemed to fit my interests. In class, we also mentioned Sturgeon a few times but did not read any works from him so I thought this book would be perfect!

 

Venus Plus X follows the trope of a confused time traveler everyman coming into consciousness in a futuristic isolated community. In this community called Ledom, all of the members are gender-neutral and hidden from the rest of society; there is some ambiguity as to whether or not this society is utopic or just a means for human preservation. The protagonist Charlie Johns explores culture and technology, with interesting discourse about patriarchy, religion, reproductive practices and rights, and outlook on life. This story runs concurrently with an (underdeveloped) story of a “progressive” contemporary American family of the 60s who came off as only a foil. When it is revealed that the members of society are intersex and the process of how the members become intersex, the protagonist is disgusted and homophobic. While attempting to travel back to his time, it is brought to light that Charlie did not arrive through time travel. He’s a “control” person maintained by the Ledom for research purposes. He lives on the outside of civilization since he can’t be assimilated into Ledom society. The story ends with a nuclear bomb being set off but Ledom survives because of their technology.

 

This book was published amid Golden-Age SF with themes of sex, gender, sexuality, religion, technology, and human preservation. I think this book is interesting when looking at the context of the time period: It precedes both the Sexual Revolution and Second-Wave Feminism in the latter part of the 1960s. In this way, Venus Plus X is in some way a proto-feminist reading of society, where the core of the novel is an argument that the presumption that women and men are very different is wrong and socially destructive. Some ideas and dialogue are definitely antiquated but the messages are still applicable to our society today. It is also a story about human survival because the story also coincides with the middle of the Cold War, with the idea of forward-thinking technology and preservation.

 

I would recommend this book to people who like slow exposition stories. The book was quite slow at times and I found myself skimming through some parts. The latter half of the story is definitely where it picks up!

 

Extra notes: Venus Plus X was a finalist for the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Dolphin Sex: Book Review of Startide Rising

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When book hunting at Green Hand, I wanted to find a book that was good in the sense that it had been awarded something or came highly recommended. After some digging, I came across US author David Brin’s Startide Rising which won the Hugo and Nebula Awards (according to its cover). It is a sci-fi epic about a human expedition, led by dolphins that have been uplifted to human intelligence (there is also an uplifted chimpanzee scientist), that has uncovered secrets to the origins of life in the universe, a secret many alien empires are persuing and are fighting over in the space above the downed ship. On a water planet (conveniently for a crew of dolphins), the humans and company must survive and escape to Earth without getting captured with plenty of politics and competing philosophies at play. It is the typical “trapped with time running out” story that includes clear-cut heroes loved by all trying to do the best in the world they can. There are also comments on the process of uplifting and echoes of the consequences of playing God with nature that veer quite close to social commentary. That is what makes the book great with enough backstory to make Tolkien jealous and personal politics and strategizing to give Game of Thrones a run for its money with an interesting story. The downside, as the title suggests, is the weird moments of over-sexualization. I could’ve enjoyed the book just as much without the dolphin-human romance and the perspective of horny dolphin thoughts.

Overall, I’d recommend the book if you’re willing to take it with a grain of salt; it can be cringe-inducing at moments, but it does do a good job of making an entertaining sci-fi epic with some deeper thought if you want to go that far.

Citation: Brin, David. Startide Rising. New York: Bantam Books Inc., 1983.

Cover:

Startide Rising (The Uplift Saga, Book 2) | Science Book a Day

 

La Machine – France

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On New Years Day I was visiting Toulouse, France with my dad and we went to a museum hosting the work of the group La Machine, a “street theater” group that creates large-scale machinery for performance. The group’s creations remind me a lot of the steampunk genre of sci-fi we talked about briefly in class, which features retro steam-powered machines over more modern, electronic ones.

Their website has tons of information about and images of their works: a giant spider which was part of a performance through the streets of Toulouse, their newest design “Heron Tree” and many more. I’m fascinated by how the group incorporates the steampunk aesthetic into so many different aspects of performance (giant animals, natural objects and musical instruments to name a few). The site describes the animals as performers which “feed an unusual vision of theatre, reading movement as a language, and in turn a source of emotion. The operators, engines, animals and musicians intermingle, confront and tune in with each other, thus creating images that change our relationship with the city, suddenly transformed.”

They have so many projects it’s impossible to capture them all in one post. On my visit to the museum, I was lucky enough to ride on this giant centaur they had created out of wood and machinery. It was extremely detailed (you can see the steam coming from its nostrils, the chest moved up and down as it “breathed” etc.) and it moved around the property, operated by two individuals who used VR and motion sensors so the machine would mimic their movement.

There’s so many other intriguing parts of the museum and I highly suggest checking out the site for a bit (especially their musical performances). I thought this group and their work really connects to this class and expands the steampunk genre into the theater/performance realm. We haven’t seen many live performance pieces (other than Defekt, of course) so I thought I would share their super unique work!

Star Trek and non-biological beings and souls oh my!

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Hi guys, resident Trekkie here! I kept thinking about Star Trek in class yesterday (like I usually do) because the intersection of robots/androids/non-biological beings, religion and who has a soul is often explored so I thought I’d share some examples I thought of!

In TOS episode “The Ultimate Computer” the M5 super computer believes in God and ultimately cuts its own power after determining for itself it has committed grave sins and does not deserve to live.

Throughout TNG series they repeatedly explore and question the nature of the android Data’s existence. The episode “The Measure of a Man” is focused on whether or not Data is a sentient being, does he have autonomy with rights and does he have a soul? The crew of the enterprise and the audience would definitely say yes due to our emotional connection to him.

In Voyager, the ship doctor is a hologram and as the series progresses he seems to become a sentient being. Similar with Data in TNG, the nature of The Doctor’s sentience is continually called into question and explored. Is he owned by Starfleet or is he an autonomous lifeform? By the end of the series it appears very clear, at least to the crew of Voyager (and me), that The Doctor is a sentient being. The series eventually creates the category of “photonic lifeforms” which includes sentient holograms such as The Doctor. The distinction between sentient holograms and non-sentient holograms is also explored. In connection with today’s class, the relationship between religion and holograms is specifically explored in the episode “Flesh and Blood” where other sentient holograms are religious radicals in a way and rise up against their biological creators. Their leader considers himself a prophet and even creates a new religion for his fellow “Children of Light”. Their religious zealousness and crusade for freedom is so human that it serves to reinforce the sentience of these photonic lifeforms.

The question of what is a soul and who has one is often explored in Science Fiction. These explorations of the nature of sentient existence shake us out of binary thinking and leave us to ponder what other forms life can take on. Who are we to dictate who has a soul?

Star Trek characters The Doctor (blue: a sentient hologram) and Data (yellow: a sentient android).

A Clockwork Orange – Book Review

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Blog Overlord Post #3

A Clockwork Orange is a name that is likely familiar with most of you, as it has been made famous by Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film . I personally had never seen the movie when I stumbled upon this book in a small book/music shop in Peekskill, New York called “The Bruised Apple” (if you find yourself in that town, you should go!! If not for the books then for the records or the pinball machine). I decided this book, being rather short and well known, would be “a nice easy beach read for vacation!” So I bought it and boy… nie have I made a worse assumption!

A Clockwork Orange, the book, is written with roughly 10% of its contents in the completely made up words of the fictional language “Nadsat,” which are derived from Polish/Russian slang. This language is meant to display the odd mindset of the delinquent teens who are the center of story, and builds on one tenet I personally first encountered while reading Stranger in a Strange Land, but as a class we uncovered in The Octavia butler “Speech Sounds” introduction from WES: that being the “Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis” that one’s language determines how one thinks and acts in the world.

Here’s a blurb explaining some of Nadsat and its roots (I’m sorry it’s from Wikipedia but I printed a similar list from wikipedia while reading the book to decode some of the language that I had trouble grasping. I think its a good look into it for those who haven’t read this yet!):

“these terms have the following meanings in Nadsat:

droog (друг) = friend; moloko (молоко) = milk; gulliver (голова) = head; malchick (мальчик) or malchickiwick = boy; soomka (сумка) = sack or bag; Bog = God; horrorshow (хорошо) = good; prestoopnick (преступник) = criminal; rooker (рука) = hand; cal (кал) = crap; veck (“человек”) = man or guy; litso (лицо) = face; malenky(маленький) = little

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(novel)#Use_of_slang )

The list goes on and on… The language is extensive.

As for the plot, our main character, Alex, and his “Droogs”, go about committing “ultra-violence” while under the influence of “moloko-plus” (milk with drugs) in a dystopian future version of London where adult society is cooped in their houses at night due to teenage gangs running the streets at night, until one day Alex gets arrested (I won’t say how) and his gang is busted. In jail he is selected as the first prisoner to be used in the “Ludovico Technique,” an operation that removes the urge to commit violence from the brain, but also eliminates choice from a human’s life — arguably making them inhuman. As the text puts it, “When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man.” While the rest of the book is mostly just Dystopian Fiction, the “Ludovico Technique” element of the plot I think qualifies as sci-fi-esque at the very least. In the final chapters of the book we see how society reacts to the use of this technique, and how Alex’s life is drastically effected. We also see how Alex’s “Droogs” change over the time that he is in jail. Ultimately the book concludes with Alex regaining his ability to choose (again, I won’t say how), but you will have to read it yourself to see whether he chooses love or violence.

I thought this book was very jarring to read due to the graphic nature of violence, however the conversation it inspired between me and my friend who read it about how important choice is within human nature, and what being “a clockwork orange” means, was really engaging but I wouldn’t say fun. The books takes 3-6 hours to read I am so unsure of whether it was worth it but definitely cant say it wasn’t?  At the very most, it may be interesting to engage with the themes it brings up and to see the original text that Kubrick adapted if you have already seen the movie. However, don’t feel bad if you pass on this, and if you haven’t seen the movie don’t bother and don’t read this book if you wish to avoid work that imposes awful scenes on the reader.

This book was banned from several high schools in the 1970’s… and the Author himself wrote this of it.

“We all suffer from the popular desire to make the known notorious. The book I am best known for, or only known for, is a novel I am prepared to repudiate: written a quarter of a century ago, a jeu d’esprit knocked off for money in three weeks, it became known as the raw material for a film which seemed to glorify sex and violence. The film made it easy for readers of the book to misunderstand what it was about, and the misunderstanding will pursue me until I die. I should not have written the book because of this danger of misinterpretation.”

This being said, PLEASE do not read this if you are at all in a fragile or sad mind state. If you do read it, I suppose keep that Burgess quote in mind that he is NOT trying to glorify sex and violence, and try to get to the bottom of what his message is meant to be.

In short: I honestly couldn’t stop reading A Clockwork Orange due to wanting to know what happens to the main character in the end. I read it in two sittings, despite the fact that it was gruesome, and legitimately hard to read due to the extensive brutality throughout most scenes in this novel. It left me in a pensive but very dark mind state. Mainly I think I couldn’t stop reading because the made up language is creative and presents what I think is the only “fun” and oftentimes laugh-worthy aspect of this book. It does manage to provide humor amidst darkness, I must admit. The book also prompts philosophical discussion regarding choice and language that is worthwhile. I can’t quite recommend this but I can’t quite Dis-recommend it either. Overall: 5/10, so Toss a coin perhaps? Or just go for it if you have a draw towards the controversial and are in a good enough place to deal with 180 pages of pure evil bound together.

Welp, there you have it. A Clockwork Orange, folks!

TRIGGER WARNINGS BEFORE READING THE BOOK: Murder, Sexual Assault/Rape, Police Brutality:

Before reading this book it important to know that “ultra-violence” includes Murder, and Sexual Assault, and that police brutality is present in this book. The scenes of violence are extremely graphic, excessive, and frequent.

Burgess, Anthony. “A Clockwork Orange”. 1962.

 

Star Trek

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Photoshopped/ digital art of different Star Trek characters.

Created using Photoshop and Procreate. Original character images found on getty images.

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before!”

After about the fifth time my parents laughed at a reference in a movie and brushed it off as “oh it’s a reference to Star Trek,” I demanded they introduce me to the iconic show. My mom picked out her favorite episode in the Original Series, “The Trouble with Tribbles” and I was hooked. Nine years later and I’m taking a Science Fiction class as a senior in college all because of those pesky tribbles. I may not know how to speak Klingon or have a cosplay costume ready to go in my closet, but I have come to the conclusion, alongside many others, that Star Trek is the greatest science fiction franchise of all time. It continues to stand the test of time with the current Star Trek canon including eleven TV series (with more on the way) and thirteen feature films. But why is it so great?

Star Trek, to its core, embodies hope. It’s had a purposeful mission from the beginning, not only to boldly go where no one has gone before, but to show viewers that the future can be good. It portrays an optimistic vision of humanities future where the defining characteristic of humans are our curiosity. In this vision, humans are dedicated to science and exploration, of both space and themselves. Star Trek imagines an Earth without war, poverty, or pollution where technology works FOR us rather than against us. The current geopolitical tensions that rule our world’s governments are described as petty squabbles that have been solved and left behind in humanities’ dark past. Star Trek shows how peace and discussion are far more interesting than war and violence. Differences are respected and actively depicted as good. Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek was invested in showing how humanities strength lies in our differences.

Star Trek has embraced diversity from the beginning, not only in the stories but in casting. In the Original Series, Nichelle Nichol’s Uhura and George Takei’s Sulu were main officers on the bridge. As the first black woman in a position of respect and power on an American television series, Uhura was unprecedented in 1966. Famous endorsements of Uhura came from Martin Luther King Jr. encouraging Nichols to continue playing the role after the first season and Whoopi Goldberg who was inspired as a nine-year-old watching the show for the first time. Ahead of its time, the 1968 kiss between the Uhura and Kirk is, among much debate, often cited as the first interracial kiss on television. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine put a black man in charge through Avery Brooke’s Sisko and the next series Star Trek: Voyager has Kate Mulgrew’s Janeway as a female captain of the crew.

The franchise came into itself on television in a time where special effects were limited and so although most of Star Trek is in space, it devotes itself to talk over action. While the more recent series and films can take advantage of incredible special effects to give viewers the space battles and martial arts scenes we want, at its core the focus is still on asking big questions. Each episode and movie explore different philosophical issues. What does it mean to be human, Klingon, Vulcan, non-corporeal, immortal or an android? With many hours to explore ideas and questions, Star Trek tackles a wide variety of themes and tells many different types of stories such as mysteries, romances, horror stories, spy stories, workplace drama, family stories, and so many more. Many episodes explore emotions. What are they, when or how do we give into them, repress them, or make use of them? Vulcans repress them through their pursuit of pure logical thinking, while Data, a perfectly logical android seeks to be more human and emotional like his friends. Star Trek: The Next Generation has two regular characters who function as therapists for the crew, Deanna Troi as ship counselor and Whoopi Goldberg’s Guinan as the wise and ageless bartender.

Something that always stood out to me was how the characters of the show are “cool” because they are intelligent and good at what they do, not because of wealth or looks. They are curious and ask questions, determined and passionate about what they do. In their pursuit of interplanetary goodwill and space exploration, they unapologetically ask “why?” and “what if?” As the resident Trekkie of the class, I wanted to share why I love it and continue to go back to it. Star Trek embraces the awe and wonder of the universe that is at the core of what science fiction means to me.

** If you want to get into the franchise but don’t want to watch eleven series and thirteen films, I recommend watching the recent trilogy that features a younger version of the original crew in a different timeline! The cinematography, special effects and music is stunning! (Star Trek, Star Trek: Into Darkness, and Star Trek: Beyond)

Sources/ inspiration for this post:

Roddenberry, Gene. Star Trek. 1966-present.

Lloyd, Robert. “’Star Trek’ Is the Greatest Sci-Fi Franchise of All. Why It’s Stood the Test of Time.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 28 Oct. 2021.