An overall idea (about language) and/or a book yet to be covered


Deer Tick

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

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