On Saturday, April 16th I attended the Cosmix show at the Planetarium in downtown Bradenton. I drove 20 minutes to this planetarium with my friend Zach, really not sure of what we were going to go see nor had either of us ever been there. When we arrived we came to find out the Planetarium is actually a pretty cool place, they have several different models of skeletal structures from all different time periods, including a completely awesome mammoth that was at least 20 feet tall. This made me realize that I had never been to an actual museum where they had dinosaurs on display, and the nostalgia had risen in me, having been a fan of dinosaurs since I was a child. Anyways, on to the Cosmix show.
We arrived just on time and walked into the dim room, lit only by the ambient light provided by the projectors that were displaying the video, and sat down into the chairs that reclined much further than that of a normal chair. I was mostly expecting to see an actual planetarium show with the stars and planets displayed on the building's massive dome, and I was actually looking forward to it since I'd never been to one. I was surprised to find it was more of small film festival type thing that made me neither happy nor really disappointed as I'd never been to one of these either.
The first few videos weren't overly impressive since, I work at a music store and I know a lot of musicians that write much more technically merited electronic music than what was on display in the videos. Speaking of the first few videos they seemed kind of like windows 2000 screen savers with low polygon renders and low res texturing. But then came on, “Thread Theory” which was a some what boring visual experience made infinitely better by the way in which it was displayed on the big dome instead of on a normal flat monitor. What really made this one shine was the fact that all of the music was done by a live musician which I'm always a fan of, it wasn't the most technical of performances, but it was definitely a smooth sound that would fit in any ambient progressive listener's library.
A few of the other videos caught my attention as well, one of them by Trisha , I don't remember the name of the video, but her use of the screen's half spherical shape to signify the passing of mail across the different lines I thought was pretty creative and entertaining to watch as you recline back in your chair. Another one that stood out was PJ's, being one that seemingly creating an anmation by a series of time lapsed still image captures from an entire night and compiling them. Dr. Steiling's “Panorama” was one of the most interesting videos of the night, throughly enjoyed it all the way through and it's 50's vibe made me think of the game Bioshock in it's style. The final video of the night “Take the ride...” was a stand out for me, especially using the planetarium as a medium the video was almost entrancing as it's kaleidoscope pattern kept increasing it's speed more and more until it was almost unbearable to look at any longer and then it burst away and displayed a very fitting quote by Hunter S. Thompson.
All and all I thought it was a unique experience and I'm glad I went, I'm also intrigued to go again and see an normal planetarium event there as well.
-Dan
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Oryx and Crake
For literary speculation week, I decided to pick up Oryx and Crake, a novel by Margaret Atwood. This novel can be classified as and fit into a number of different genre's but I think post-apocalyptic science fiction probably fits it best. But, apparently the author herself has been said to label it as speculative fiction instead because it doesn't deal with “things that have not been invented yet.”
I noticed two main themes to Atwood's novel; the first being a distant future where earth's been effected by global warming to the point that coastal cities don't even exist, and it's impossible to live for any substantial amount of time outside in the sun. Most of the wealthier areas of the world are protected under places known as compounds, but there are places where the poor unprotected people live called the Pleeblands.
The second major theme has to do with the 3 central characters. The novel is mostly a single character driven novel in the form of Snowman, but most of the novels contents are contained with in his past where there are 3 main characters. In the past he is known as Jimmy, his “best” friend is Crake, and his lover (also Crake's) Oryx. The flashbacks seemed to take up most of the story's text, but almost everything in the novel is substantial, a lot of the beginning of Jimmy's story is a little boring but towards the end it's actually pretty interesting how Atwood connects things, like the game's creators being so much more than anyone ever expected in the beginning.
I found myself much more interested in Snowman's survival, the new world that was created by the catastrophic event, and Snowman's interaction with the utopian people the Crakers. It isn't as if anymore thought was put into it over the flashbacks, since it's all very well done, Atwood has fully realized her dystopian future world in almost every detail. But, it's rather a preference, considering I'm very much a fan of the barren post-apocalyptic tale that we see in all kinds of games, books, and movies in the current generation I really latched on to that part of the novel. It seems like a prevalent part of the flashback sequences was the really odd sexual references and pedophilia that I found kind of disturbing and made me not want to read them as much.
Overall I feel that it was an extremely inventive tale with its allusion to scientific advances and ideas of the present that are pushed into the future to be developed and eventually cause the fall of man. This is almost a cautionary tale of sorts ,but even if it's not viewed as that, there's no denying that it's a great piece of literature in all aspects. I was interested to see if a sequel had been written and apparently the author has released a novel called, The Year of the Flood, which isn't a direct sequel but has a lot of connections to Oryx and Crake; I'll probably give this one a shot when time permits.
-Dan
I noticed two main themes to Atwood's novel; the first being a distant future where earth's been effected by global warming to the point that coastal cities don't even exist, and it's impossible to live for any substantial amount of time outside in the sun. Most of the wealthier areas of the world are protected under places known as compounds, but there are places where the poor unprotected people live called the Pleeblands.
The second major theme has to do with the 3 central characters. The novel is mostly a single character driven novel in the form of Snowman, but most of the novels contents are contained with in his past where there are 3 main characters. In the past he is known as Jimmy, his “best” friend is Crake, and his lover (also Crake's) Oryx. The flashbacks seemed to take up most of the story's text, but almost everything in the novel is substantial, a lot of the beginning of Jimmy's story is a little boring but towards the end it's actually pretty interesting how Atwood connects things, like the game's creators being so much more than anyone ever expected in the beginning.
I found myself much more interested in Snowman's survival, the new world that was created by the catastrophic event, and Snowman's interaction with the utopian people the Crakers. It isn't as if anymore thought was put into it over the flashbacks, since it's all very well done, Atwood has fully realized her dystopian future world in almost every detail. But, it's rather a preference, considering I'm very much a fan of the barren post-apocalyptic tale that we see in all kinds of games, books, and movies in the current generation I really latched on to that part of the novel. It seems like a prevalent part of the flashback sequences was the really odd sexual references and pedophilia that I found kind of disturbing and made me not want to read them as much.
Overall I feel that it was an extremely inventive tale with its allusion to scientific advances and ideas of the present that are pushed into the future to be developed and eventually cause the fall of man. This is almost a cautionary tale of sorts ,but even if it's not viewed as that, there's no denying that it's a great piece of literature in all aspects. I was interested to see if a sequel had been written and apparently the author has released a novel called, The Year of the Flood, which isn't a direct sequel but has a lot of connections to Oryx and Crake; I'll probably give this one a shot when time permits.
-Dan
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Transmetropolitan
When I looked at the reading list this week I wasn't entirely intrigued by Snow Crash, though I'm sure it's a fine novel, but I was pleasantly surprised to find something written by Warren Ellis that I had never heard of. I've respected Ellis' work on comics such as Hellblazer, Planetary, and some of his shorter runs on a few Marvel comics like his Iron Man collaboration with Adi Granov, Extremis.
Transmetropolitan written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Darrick Robertson is a literary masterpiece that should be read by any fan of the cyberpunk genre wether you like comics or not. This graphic novel seems almost personal to Ellis and is probably the best writing that I've ever seen him produce, as he depicts this perfect blend of Fear and Loathing in an almost Blade Runner world. The art of Darrick Robertson, though not my favorite style, is absolutely perfect for the story in practically every way. Ellis and Robertson's immaculate effort defines the cyberpunk genre completely, really leaving nothing out.
The tattooed, loud mouthed, pill-popping journalist Spider Jerusalem is perfect and quite a compelling protagonist for this cyberpunk tale. In the genre, protagonists are often patterned on the idea of the lone hero fighting injustice, such as Robin Hood, Spider is no exception. Most of the time the protagonist in a cyberpunk tale is manipulated and placed in a situation where they have no choice but to do what they're being forced to do, just as Mr. Jerusalem is forced to move back into the city he loathes in order to fulfill his contract with a book company. Every column Spider writes he skillfully, through either physical means or entirely through his words, reveals the corrupt nature of whatever it is he feels is unjust. He's not the typical protagonist however, he's unsanitary, a drug user, and I don't think I've ever heard so much poor language out of a single individual, but he's oddly likable.
The world in Transmetropolitan has high tech conventions and ideas, but it's still portrayed in a grungy manner opposite to the very sleek and clean utopian nature of traditional science fiction. The city that Spider inhabits is beautifully illustrated by Robertson, showing the cluttered streets, alien prostitutes, and all sorts of humorous drug and porn advertisements. There are things that are super high tech such as machines that can manufacture just about anything, and then there are things that are still oddly grounded to the present. For instance, many of the buildings are basically what we have presently, which is realistically not how buildings I imagine would be engineered in the future, having all of the other advances that the inhabitants of Transmetropolitan enjoy.
I'm now about halfway through the series, even though we were only required to read the first graphic novel in the series and I just can't get enough of Transmetropolitan. Every time I'm done with a chapter I wanna immediately jump into the next and find out what kind of messed up political or social corruption Spider will violently and skillfully uncover and expose next.
- Dan
Transmetropolitan written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Darrick Robertson is a literary masterpiece that should be read by any fan of the cyberpunk genre wether you like comics or not. This graphic novel seems almost personal to Ellis and is probably the best writing that I've ever seen him produce, as he depicts this perfect blend of Fear and Loathing in an almost Blade Runner world. The art of Darrick Robertson, though not my favorite style, is absolutely perfect for the story in practically every way. Ellis and Robertson's immaculate effort defines the cyberpunk genre completely, really leaving nothing out.
The tattooed, loud mouthed, pill-popping journalist Spider Jerusalem is perfect and quite a compelling protagonist for this cyberpunk tale. In the genre, protagonists are often patterned on the idea of the lone hero fighting injustice, such as Robin Hood, Spider is no exception. Most of the time the protagonist in a cyberpunk tale is manipulated and placed in a situation where they have no choice but to do what they're being forced to do, just as Mr. Jerusalem is forced to move back into the city he loathes in order to fulfill his contract with a book company. Every column Spider writes he skillfully, through either physical means or entirely through his words, reveals the corrupt nature of whatever it is he feels is unjust. He's not the typical protagonist however, he's unsanitary, a drug user, and I don't think I've ever heard so much poor language out of a single individual, but he's oddly likable.
The world in Transmetropolitan has high tech conventions and ideas, but it's still portrayed in a grungy manner opposite to the very sleek and clean utopian nature of traditional science fiction. The city that Spider inhabits is beautifully illustrated by Robertson, showing the cluttered streets, alien prostitutes, and all sorts of humorous drug and porn advertisements. There are things that are super high tech such as machines that can manufacture just about anything, and then there are things that are still oddly grounded to the present. For instance, many of the buildings are basically what we have presently, which is realistically not how buildings I imagine would be engineered in the future, having all of the other advances that the inhabitants of Transmetropolitan enjoy.
I'm now about halfway through the series, even though we were only required to read the first graphic novel in the series and I just can't get enough of Transmetropolitan. Every time I'm done with a chapter I wanna immediately jump into the next and find out what kind of messed up political or social corruption Spider will violently and skillfully uncover and expose next.
- Dan
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Blood Child
Blood Child by Octavia Butler is an obvious novel about "Male Pregnancy" in a way. Alien symbiotic worms use human males as hosts for their children and live in a sort of society together.
1. Questions you have about the story you read:
1. Questions you have about the story you read:
- What is the relative age between all the humans, and why do they prefer living a terrible life with in a preserve only being able to live if they become hosts to these symbiotic aliens?
- I don't particularly have any other questions about the story, it seemed like a pretty straight forward short story about a child being fearful of the symbiotic alien, but in the end accepts it.
- I think the story is asking questions about the moral issue of some sort of race taking over the human race and using us as we use animals everyday.
- Also, is it okay to subject our bodies to something unnatural and seemingly horrifying just because that's what our previous generations of deemed unobjectionable.
- Seeing the author's picture, doesn't exactly arise any questions, but it seems odd as she appears to be a kind black woman to be coming up with weird science fiction ideas. These sorts of ideas are often presumed to be coming from some creepy single male that is left to his own devices.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Babel-17
Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany is an interesting book to say the least. The novel uses a language as it's central point of focus, which seems pretty unique in the science fiction genre. Obviously I'm not saying that it's unheard of for a novel to be driven by an existing or made up language, since I've already pointed out that Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series is entirely based around the languages he forged; But in science fiction it's rarely taken into consideration.
Babel-17, once thought to be a code used by the enemy, is revealed as actually being an alien language with several interesting linguistic features. Apparently once one attains a grasp on Babel-17 it turns the user into an unwilling traitor, because the language alters the person's perception and even certain physical abilities rendering them incapable of unhindered thought. Delany's use of a language as a weapon of sorts, to me is extremely appealing and a fresh idea in science fiction, a genre (just like most any genre) that is exhausted with numerous novels that all share the same ideas.
The world in Babel-17 is really bizarre, but at the same-time oddly familiar to our own. Delany's use of body modifications and blatant references to sexual encounters were very progressive for the time in which the novel was written. The way they are portrayed are obviously fictional, but at the same time many of the things that Delany hints at are actually very much a reality in our own time. People in the present day are already obsessed with body modifications, such as tattoos and piercing, and it's not unbelievable to assume we will get to the point where human's will want modifications like the ones seen in Delany's novel.
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I hoped I would, because the world in Babel-17 is extremely fun and the language innovations are interesting. The main character, Rydra Wong isn't really that appealing to me, she's a poet and has definite skills in many human languages as well as a sense in decryption. But, all of her skills seem to have to do with languages and not much else which gives her a weak scholarly image. I think I would've enjoyed a more brave and classic hero that was still very intelligent and just as capable in the linguistics department as Wong. I did however enjoy a lot of Wong's the crew members so, that was a plus. The story is also seemingly a bit convoluted towards the end, when the story is reaching it's finale, but this isn't a major concern, as it still makes sense and doesn't detract from the novel as a whole.
Babel-17 is a well written and very original piece of science fiction... definitely worth reading if you're looking for a more contemporary edge (even though it was published in 1970) to the science fiction genre.
-Dan
Babel-17, once thought to be a code used by the enemy, is revealed as actually being an alien language with several interesting linguistic features. Apparently once one attains a grasp on Babel-17 it turns the user into an unwilling traitor, because the language alters the person's perception and even certain physical abilities rendering them incapable of unhindered thought. Delany's use of a language as a weapon of sorts, to me is extremely appealing and a fresh idea in science fiction, a genre (just like most any genre) that is exhausted with numerous novels that all share the same ideas.
The world in Babel-17 is really bizarre, but at the same-time oddly familiar to our own. Delany's use of body modifications and blatant references to sexual encounters were very progressive for the time in which the novel was written. The way they are portrayed are obviously fictional, but at the same time many of the things that Delany hints at are actually very much a reality in our own time. People in the present day are already obsessed with body modifications, such as tattoos and piercing, and it's not unbelievable to assume we will get to the point where human's will want modifications like the ones seen in Delany's novel.
I didn't enjoy this book as much as I hoped I would, because the world in Babel-17 is extremely fun and the language innovations are interesting. The main character, Rydra Wong isn't really that appealing to me, she's a poet and has definite skills in many human languages as well as a sense in decryption. But, all of her skills seem to have to do with languages and not much else which gives her a weak scholarly image. I think I would've enjoyed a more brave and classic hero that was still very intelligent and just as capable in the linguistics department as Wong. I did however enjoy a lot of Wong's the crew members so, that was a plus. The story is also seemingly a bit convoluted towards the end, when the story is reaching it's finale, but this isn't a major concern, as it still makes sense and doesn't detract from the novel as a whole.
Babel-17 is a well written and very original piece of science fiction... definitely worth reading if you're looking for a more contemporary edge (even though it was published in 1970) to the science fiction genre.
-Dan
Starship Troopers
This week I've finally read, Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein, a book that I've always desired to read, but never actually sat down and used the time, as I've now found I should have a long time ago. With Starship Troopers, Heinlein shows he isn't just a “hard science” fiction writer, but rather one more interested in military and general life, as well as politics. When I began to read the book, just as most people in our current generation, I had already been exposed to the movie and an animated television show when I was younger, both of which were almost entirely focused on the action between the infantry and bugs. Obviously these visual outlets are meant to feed the common person's desire to delve deeper into the technology and action aspects of Starship Troopers. In Heinlein's novel however, all of the actual fighting is more of a side note to the main plot, which displays the military life of a capsule trooper in the mobile infantry through the eyes of Jaun Rico.
As previously mentioned, Heinlein's novel isn't just science fiction, but it almost seems like a political essay. A size-able portion of the novel takes place in classrooms where Rico and other students engage in philosophical discussions with the teacher, whom in most cases seems almost like an outlet for Heinlein to speak his political beliefs directly through a character. Another interesting political point to the novel is the idea that suffrage is held exclusively for men and women who are willing to serve at least 2 years to the Federal Service. This is made possible by the fact that the Federation is a exclusively volunteer outfit and they're required to find a place for any person to signs up and wants to serve under the Federation. This undoubtedly led to the change in the United States' own military which was entirely a draft enlistment before Starship Troopers, which shows you how powerful of a writer Heinlein is.
Not only did Starship Troopers spark innovation in the United States' federal service but it also played a part in a number of different military concepts and innovations. Probably my favorite part about this novel is the Mobile Infantry's powered armor exoskeletons that powerfully upgraded the soldiers in practically every way. These exoskeletons have interestingly began real world research and development to give our infantry these same sorts of armor and abilities. Another notable innovation that I've noticed is the idea of using these entry capsules to drop the infantry where they need to be and then pull them out when the job is done. This is a tactic used in the military today, though not exactly in the same way, but I could definitely see the same convention employed if humans ever do move on to different planets and the technology is present.
Basically Starship Troopers was one of the essential science fiction novels that has gone so far as to change the way we live today and into the future. Heinlein's novel has affected much more than just that however, it's ideas and functions have been used over and over in science fiction novels and can even been seen today in many of the most popular video games such as Halo and Crysis or amazing viewers at the theater in movies like Iron-Man or The Matrix. Now I'm going to go continue working on my Starship Troopers book cover, be sure to check it out on my art blog when it's finished!
...AND here's a great technical death metal band with some nice science fiction keyboard textures and sampling, good bug fighting music!
The Faceless - All Dark Graves
-Dan
As previously mentioned, Heinlein's novel isn't just science fiction, but it almost seems like a political essay. A size-able portion of the novel takes place in classrooms where Rico and other students engage in philosophical discussions with the teacher, whom in most cases seems almost like an outlet for Heinlein to speak his political beliefs directly through a character. Another interesting political point to the novel is the idea that suffrage is held exclusively for men and women who are willing to serve at least 2 years to the Federal Service. This is made possible by the fact that the Federation is a exclusively volunteer outfit and they're required to find a place for any person to signs up and wants to serve under the Federation. This undoubtedly led to the change in the United States' own military which was entirely a draft enlistment before Starship Troopers, which shows you how powerful of a writer Heinlein is.
Not only did Starship Troopers spark innovation in the United States' federal service but it also played a part in a number of different military concepts and innovations. Probably my favorite part about this novel is the Mobile Infantry's powered armor exoskeletons that powerfully upgraded the soldiers in practically every way. These exoskeletons have interestingly began real world research and development to give our infantry these same sorts of armor and abilities. Another notable innovation that I've noticed is the idea of using these entry capsules to drop the infantry where they need to be and then pull them out when the job is done. This is a tactic used in the military today, though not exactly in the same way, but I could definitely see the same convention employed if humans ever do move on to different planets and the technology is present.
Basically Starship Troopers was one of the essential science fiction novels that has gone so far as to change the way we live today and into the future. Heinlein's novel has affected much more than just that however, it's ideas and functions have been used over and over in science fiction novels and can even been seen today in many of the most popular video games such as Halo and Crysis or amazing viewers at the theater in movies like Iron-Man or The Matrix. Now I'm going to go continue working on my Starship Troopers book cover, be sure to check it out on my art blog when it's finished!
...AND here's a great technical death metal band with some nice science fiction keyboard textures and sampling, good bug fighting music!
The Faceless - All Dark Graves
-Dan
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Warbreaker
Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson is definitely a novel written by an author with Tolkien roots, but with a desire to forge new paths out of the fantasy mold. It's evident that many of the novel's conventions, such as the switch from a more traditional type of magic to something called BioChromatic Breath, are attempts to breathe new life (see what I did there?) into the genre.
Magic isn't the only thing that's altered in Sanderson's world either, there is a whole new world to explore with politics, religion, and even controllable zombie armies that play a big part in the overall plot of the story. That being said, not all of these ideas are fully realized and some of them are even too tediously explained. Too much time is used developing the cheesy, though well thought out magic system, and hardly any time is used fleshing out the political system and even some of the pivotal characters in the story are underdeveloped.
With all of the different games, movies, media, and even changes in how we live our lives it's obvious that author's such as Sanderson would step up and write a novel heavily influenced by everything around him/her. The inclusion of many of these new takes and additions are obviously the product of an author living in our current generation. Many of these changes turn out to be refreshing, such as the use of literal zombie armies to wage war and though the magic system is gimmicky, it is nice to see a different take on magic (Though I haven't come close to tiring of Tolkien). One thing about the writing that seemed a bit off is the dialogue of the characters was very much the vernacular of modern people, yet the world in the novel seemed more like a mix between medieval european and greek cultures. The speech could have been much more thought out just as some of the other characteristics of the world had been and this change would have brought a significant change to the reader's emersion into Warbreaker.
It's intriguing that the book is capable of being a mediocre stand alone piece of fiction, but definitely seems like it would work better as a set of books. This way a lot of this book's holes could be filled in, it would even be nice to see this done with a prequel first, and then followed by a sequel to Warbreaker. I know when I first started reading it, I thought I had skipped a book or something because right from the beginning you're thrown into a political struggle between two powers that you have no previous knowledge about.
Sanderson is obviously a skilled writer, much of the novel is pretty well written especially the action/fight sequences and most of the main characters aside from a few were pretty well developed. The book dragged on through probably eighty-five percent of the story with a few interesting parts, I seemed to like following LightSong's parts, but the end of the book was excellent with more action and plot bending than I knew what to do with. I've been told that this isn't the best example of his work so I'm thinking about reading some of his other novels. I'm interested to see where our current generation is taking the fantasy genre, but Warbreaker just had a few things that just didn't play to my personal tastes.
- Dan
Magic isn't the only thing that's altered in Sanderson's world either, there is a whole new world to explore with politics, religion, and even controllable zombie armies that play a big part in the overall plot of the story. That being said, not all of these ideas are fully realized and some of them are even too tediously explained. Too much time is used developing the cheesy, though well thought out magic system, and hardly any time is used fleshing out the political system and even some of the pivotal characters in the story are underdeveloped.
With all of the different games, movies, media, and even changes in how we live our lives it's obvious that author's such as Sanderson would step up and write a novel heavily influenced by everything around him/her. The inclusion of many of these new takes and additions are obviously the product of an author living in our current generation. Many of these changes turn out to be refreshing, such as the use of literal zombie armies to wage war and though the magic system is gimmicky, it is nice to see a different take on magic (Though I haven't come close to tiring of Tolkien). One thing about the writing that seemed a bit off is the dialogue of the characters was very much the vernacular of modern people, yet the world in the novel seemed more like a mix between medieval european and greek cultures. The speech could have been much more thought out just as some of the other characteristics of the world had been and this change would have brought a significant change to the reader's emersion into Warbreaker.
It's intriguing that the book is capable of being a mediocre stand alone piece of fiction, but definitely seems like it would work better as a set of books. This way a lot of this book's holes could be filled in, it would even be nice to see this done with a prequel first, and then followed by a sequel to Warbreaker. I know when I first started reading it, I thought I had skipped a book or something because right from the beginning you're thrown into a political struggle between two powers that you have no previous knowledge about.
Sanderson is obviously a skilled writer, much of the novel is pretty well written especially the action/fight sequences and most of the main characters aside from a few were pretty well developed. The book dragged on through probably eighty-five percent of the story with a few interesting parts, I seemed to like following LightSong's parts, but the end of the book was excellent with more action and plot bending than I knew what to do with. I've been told that this isn't the best example of his work so I'm thinking about reading some of his other novels. I'm interested to see where our current generation is taking the fantasy genre, but Warbreaker just had a few things that just didn't play to my personal tastes.
- Dan
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