The Early Days of a Better Nation

Friday, February 06, 2009



Frankenstein and Co



I've written an introductory article on Sociology, Genomics, and SF which is now up at the Genomics Forum site. It is, I suppose, remotely possible that the article is not the last word on the subject, and even that it could be improved.

While you're there, have a look around the site - and don't forget the short story competition.



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10 Comments:

That's a nice pile of books for me to add to the wishlist, not that it needed expanding :) The White Plague seems very similar to The Screwfly Solution - never read the original but the adaptation for the Masters Of Horror series was a good laugh. Loved the plausibility vs. accuracy article you linked to, I've had many an IPA-fuelled pub debate over that one...

THE WHITE PLAGUE is a fine un-put-downable thriller. I wonder if it's scientifically up to date.
I own APEMAN SPACEMAN. A good anthology!

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The Strugatski link doesn't work and could be changed to this (which does), and Harbinist must be a typo (there I was expecting an ingenious connection to the Manchurian city so significant in the '20s and '30s!). It's nice to see my Kornbluth suggestion made the cut.

I think at least one of the Strugatski brothers got on the shit list of the state security organs at one point.

As for the IRA restoring paganism, its seems rather silly, given that in 1974 their paper carried a front-page story denouncing contraception as a British plot to undermine the Irish nation. Maybe it makes sense in that White Plague book, I don't know.

Here's what I SEEM to remember. The Strugatsky who was an astronomer got on that shit list. Don't ask me why. Also, their HARD TO BE A GOD was criticized by the State for supposedly describing a society whose historical development violated some principle of dogmatic historical materialism. Skipped some stage, I think.
Last year I bought a new copy of the book, since I had lost my first. I bought it just to check this very point! Now my books are several thousand kms away. Can anyone help me here?

The white plague is one of Herberts books that definitely sucks. I never finished it. Yet I devoured the Dune sextet.

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The Strugatski link I suggested appears only to have the prologue. From the way the original link failed, it seems that it was supposed to be this - and that does work, and provides the lot.

Thanks for that, P.M. Lawrence. BTW, I made a slip in my last post. I didn't mean to imply that I bought a NEWLY PUBLISHED copy. I don't know if such a thing exists. I bought a USED copy online. It's in storage now in some Dutch warehouse, so I cannot get at it. But I think it was the old DAW edition.

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