Deer Tick Posted August 24, 2013 Report Share Posted August 24, 2013 I wanna thank Dan and Wendee for this great idea for a podcast. Going away from the visual media and back to the basics with books is great. The realisation of the idea in the actual content of your podcast is great also and I wanted to register my praise. Having said that, I looked at the list of top 200 sci fi novels and noted something... Almost all of these books come from the English speaking world. All but Jules Verne, a couple Russians and a Polish author are represented who would have written in a language other than English. I feel like sci fi is such a big, mind expanding thing that I wonder how it can be that almost all of the greatest novels come out of "the English speaking world?" I think there is room for a huge discussion on sci fi elements in various works of classical literature, folk and fairy tales and other places that the list doesn't include, and like to hope that such discussion could be pursued in the future. Anyway, I noted that one book on the list of top 200 that was written in a language other than English, and that I would recommend is "The Futurological Congress" by Stanislaw Lem. It is a book that is fairly short and enjoyable to read and strikes me as having a very good translation to English by Michael Kandel. thanks, D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted August 24, 2013 Report Share Posted August 24, 2013 Thanks! It's true. The list is very English-centric. In fact, I was shocked neither Verne nor Lem scored higher than they did. While sf was dominated by English speakers for a long time, there are classics in almost every language. We will definitely keep that in mind. Fantastic point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rjoyadet Posted August 25, 2013 Report Share Posted August 25, 2013 Welcome D! I will have to check out the Futurological congress! I heard Michael Drout talk about how SF is a very English genre and mentioned how Lem is one of the few exceptions. I checked out the "Cyberiad" expecting to get a lot of Communist Propaganda, and was surprised at how different it was. With all its dark humor and absurd ideas, it seemed like something you would find on Adult Swim rather than in a manifesto. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rjoyadet Posted December 21, 2013 Report Share Posted December 21, 2013 Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges was influenced by Lovecraft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rjoyadet Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 I wanna thank Dan and Wendee for this great idea for a podcast. Going away from the visual media and back to the basics with books is great. The realisation of the idea in the actual content of your podcast is great also and I wanted to register my praise. Having said that, I looked at the list of top 200 sci fi novels and noted something... Almost all of these books come from the English speaking world. All but Jules Verne, a couple Russians and a Polish author are represented who would have written in a language other than English. I feel like sci fi is such a big, mind expanding thing that I wonder how it can be that almost all of the greatest novels come out of "the English speaking world?" I think there is room for a huge discussion on sci fi elements in various works of classical literature, folk and fairy tales and other places that the list doesn't include, and like to hope that such discussion could be pursued in the future. Anyway, I noted that one book on the list of top 200 that was written in a language other than English, and that I would recommend is "The Futurological Congress" by Stanislaw Lem. It is a book that is fairly short and enjoyable to read and strikes me as having a very good translation to English by Michael Kandel. thanks, D I just saw the trailer for a SF movie made in Kenya and got excited. http://youtu.be/ZKfLXcZ_7YE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deer Tick Posted June 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2014 Rjoy, That trailer looks fairly cool. I think that it having been made in a place so foreign to me, with people speaking English in such a different accent can help to make it feel more genuinely futuristic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rjoyadet Posted October 4, 2014 Report Share Posted October 4, 2014 Did anyone do anything special during banned books week? In Indianapolis the Vonnegut Library sponsored a visit from performance artist Tim Youd to transcribe Farenheit 451 where it was immediately burned. They also had a visit from the Kilgore Trout Band. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deer Tick Posted October 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 Didn't know anything about it until now... Found an NPR article about it online... They mentioned " captain underpants" as being one of the most challenged books. Oddly amusing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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