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  • [ReacTor] "Bad Books", and the Readers That Love Them

    From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to All on Mon Apr 15 14:21:37 2024
    "Bad Books", and the Readers That Love Them

    Inexplicably not titled "Why I Own Most of Hal Clement's Novels."

    https://reactormag.com/bad-books-and-the-readers-that-love-them/
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

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  • From John Savard@21:1/5 to quadibloc@servername.invalid on Wed Apr 17 15:40:01 2024
    On Wed, 17 Apr 2024 15:33:44 -0600, John Savard
    <quadibloc@servername.invalid> wrote:

    Since the high cost of newsprint has contributed to the decline of
    pulp genre fiction including pulp SF, this has given me a
    science-fiction story idea. A science fiction fan who wishes to bring
    back the good old days decides to go into silvicultural research.

    Hilarity, or at least something on the order of kudzu, ensues.

    Of course, the title "The Word for World is Forest" has already been
    taken, for a story of quite a different kind...

    John Savard

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  • From John Savard@21:1/5 to All on Wed Apr 17 15:33:44 2024
    On 15 Apr 2024 14:21:37 -0000, jdnicoll@panix.com (James Nicoll)
    wrote:

    "Bad Books", and the Readers That Love Them

    Inexplicably not titled "Why I Own Most of Hal Clement's Novels."

    https://reactormag.com/bad-books-and-the-readers-that-love-them/

    A great column!

    Why do I think this column is great? Clearly it's a bad column; it
    advocates wrongthink!

    Ah, but it scratches my itch! It defends the right to exist of genre
    fiction in general, and golden age pulp SF in particular! In
    *addition* to the lesser-quality, much derided, 'bad' science fiction
    of today which dares to offend the sensibilities of this more advanced
    time by attempting to cater to the same audiences as consumed pulp
    science fiction in days of yore.

    Despite the much higher price of newsprint these days, as well as the availability of the Internet, video games, and other distractions,
    which are the cause of print fiction being almost wholly conquered by
    those left-wing Arts graduates who insist on three-dimensional
    characters and all the rest of the ingredients of real literature.

    I remember, ages ago, reading a magazine article from a "Sunday
    Supplement" (actually came with the Saturday edition, as here in
    Canada our newspapers were influenced by old blue laws) titled "A Tree
    Grows in Brazil", I think, about how a super-fast growing tree variety developed to grow in Brazil was going to put the Canadian forestry
    industry out of business.

    Since the high cost of newsprint has contributed to the decline of
    pulp genre fiction including pulp SF, this has given me a
    science-fiction story idea. A science fiction fan who wishes to bring
    back the good old days decides to go into silvicultural research.

    Hilarity, or at least something on the order of kudzu, ensues.

    John Savard

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  • From Christian Weisgerber@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Fri Apr 19 15:11:14 2024
    On 2024-04-15, James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:

    "Bad Books", and the Readers That Love Them
    Inexplicably not titled "Why I Own Most of Hal Clement's Novels."

    https://reactormag.com/bad-books-and-the-readers-that-love-them/

    | Sometimes readers simply want ripping adventure stories inspired by
    | the unusual behavior of water at 374 C under a pressure of 218
    | atmospheres.[3]

    _Close to Critical_, I guess? It's been too long, I don't recall
    anything about it.

    "Unusual", of course, is betraying your biased viewpoint. Everybody
    knows that water is... a rock. (_Still River_, where the human is
    the very literally hot-blooded one.)

    | [3] Yes, yes, eutectic water/ammonia mixes are also cool.

    _Star Light_. Possibly others. Clement really had a thing for the
    properties of water/ammonia mixes, but I think _Star Light_ was his
    only novel basically built around that. And Dondragmer got to be
    more than the reliable second-in-command, although you could still
    get a paper cut from his character.

    --
    Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.inka.de

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  • From Robert Woodward@21:1/5 to Christian Weisgerber on Fri Apr 19 10:06:00 2024
    In article <slrnv252ci.17f0.naddy@lorvorc.mips.inka.de>,
    Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:

    On 2024-04-15, James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:

    "Bad Books", and the Readers That Love Them
    Inexplicably not titled "Why I Own Most of Hal Clement's Novels."

    https://reactormag.com/bad-books-and-the-readers-that-love-them/

    | Sometimes readers simply want ripping adventure stories inspired by
    | the unusual behavior of water at 374 C under a pressure of 218
    | atmospheres.[3]

    _Close to Critical_, I guess? It's been too long, I don't recall
    anything about it.

    "Unusual", of course, is betraying your biased viewpoint. Everybody
    knows that water is... a rock.


    Ahem, a gas - see _Ice World_.

    --
    "We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
    Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_. ‹-----------------------------------------------------
    Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com

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  • From Scott Dorsey@21:1/5 to robertaw@drizzle.com on Fri Apr 19 21:13:23 2024
    Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
    In article <slrnv252ci.17f0.naddy@lorvorc.mips.inka.de>,
    Christian Weisgerber <naddy@mips.inka.de> wrote:

    On 2024-04-15, James Nicoll <jdnicoll@panix.com> wrote:

    "Bad Books", and the Readers That Love Them
    Inexplicably not titled "Why I Own Most of Hal Clement's Novels."

    https://reactormag.com/bad-books-and-the-readers-that-love-them/

    | Sometimes readers simply want ripping adventure stories inspired by
    | the unusual behavior of water at 374 C under a pressure of 218
    | atmospheres.[3]

    _Close to Critical_, I guess? It's been too long, I don't recall
    anything about it.

    "Unusual", of course, is betraying your biased viewpoint. Everybody
    knows that water is... a rock.

    Ahem, a gas - see _Ice World_.

    Water is a liquid except under very unusual circumstances. I know there are places like "Buffalo" and "Michigan" where water can be seen in solid form
    but this is not normal and not to be encountered under conditions capable of supporting human life. Also it is ruins perfectly good whisky. Beware at
    all times of solid water.
    --scott

    --
    "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

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  • From John Savard@21:1/5 to Scott Dorsey on Sat Apr 20 08:50:09 2024
    On 19 Apr 2024 21:13:23 -0000, kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

    I know there are
    places like "Buffalo" and "Michigan" where water can be seen in solid form >but this is not normal and not to be encountered under conditions capable of >supporting human life.

    Our expedition to the planet Earth has shown that humans are more
    capable of adaptation to extreme environments than you give them
    credit for. For example, we have observed a place called "Canada".

    As another example, the political unit which contains both "Michigan"
    and "New York" (in which "Buffalo" is contained) also includes an area
    known as "Alaska", which does have numerous human occupants. However,
    it is possible that extreme cold has deleterious effects on human
    intelligence; we have noted the individual human "Sarah Paliln" who
    hails from "Alaska".

    They also have a competition called the "Iditarod" which some have
    taken to jocularly naming the "Idiot Rod", so this may indicate some correlation between the effects of extreme cold and risk-taking
    behavior, although that is far from being necessarily true;
    exaggeration to avail oneself of an opportunity for humor is known
    even among our race.

    John Savard

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  • From The Horny Goat@21:1/5 to lynnmcguire5@gmail.com on Thu May 2 00:13:27 2024
    On Tue, 30 Apr 2024 14:48:51 -0500, Lynn McGuire
    <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

    You have it backwards. I lived in Minnesota for 37 years, and know that
    0 C is defined as the temperature at which water temporarily goes into
    its liquid state.

    My Minnesota engineer programmer agrees with you.

    And having gone through 4 Winnipeg winters are amazed water ever goes non-solid...especially in downtown Winnipeg where the arctic winds
    blow through the towers of the downtown...

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  • From James Nicoll@21:1/5 to lcraver@home.ca on Thu May 2 13:22:33 2024
    In article <96f63j1g1clhp6nn1vr6b80men3ddo829d@4ax.com>,
    The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca> wrote:
    On Tue, 30 Apr 2024 14:48:51 -0500, Lynn McGuire
    <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

    You have it backwards. I lived in Minnesota for 37 years, and know that
    0 C is defined as the temperature at which water temporarily goes into
    its liquid state.

    My Minnesota engineer programmer agrees with you.

    And having gone through 4 Winnipeg winters are amazed water ever goes >non-solid...especially in downtown Winnipeg where the arctic winds
    blow through the towers of the downtown...

    Waterloo Region's transit system gives every sign of being designed
    by people who don't ever plan on using it. One glaring example is
    the bus stop at King and Victoria, which is a narrow island between
    the ION tracks and King Street. The buildings around the intersection
    focus wind down past the bus stop and because the island is so narrow,
    the pathetic shelter is completely ineffective. Rain is unpleasant,
    snow is also bad (1) but neither is as awful as freezing rain.

    That was the stop where I had to fend off some guy trying to strangle
    me. It posed an interesting tactical challenge, as I didn't want to
    be forced back onto the tracks and I didn't want to push the guy into
    heavy King Street traffic [2]. Happily, it turned out I am much better at blocking than he was at grabbing.

    The way the crowd came to my assistance after he ran off was very
    heartening.

    1: Especially last year, when the private contracter just didn't
    bother to remove the icy bank blocking the access end of the island.

    2: I had somewhere to be and at the least there would have been
    paperwork. Before anyone asks, I couldn't hit him with my cane
    without risking charges, as he was unarmed.
    --
    My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
    My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
    My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
    My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll

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  • From Joy Beeson@21:1/5 to All on Tue May 14 21:34:29 2024
    I'd make the definition still narrower: Fan Fiction is fiction
    written by a fan of a work *as a way of enjoying the original work*.


    When one *really* enjoys a work, one thinks about it afterward. The
    fanficcer takes it one step further and writes those thoughts down.

    Sharing fanfic is a way of talking about the story.


    --
    Joy Beeson
    joy beeson at centurylink dot net
    http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

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  • From Default User@21:1/5 to James Nicoll on Wed May 22 07:11:56 2024
    James Nicoll wrote:

    "Bad Books", and the Readers That Love Them

    Inexplicably not titled "Why I Own Most of Hal Clement's Novels."

    I think just a general "what's right with the book resonantes enough
    with the reader that the other things can be overlooked."

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