The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
Read More.
"Seldom does a storytelling talent come along as potent and fully mature as Mike Brotherton. His complex characters take you on a voyage that is both fiercely credible and astonishingly imaginative. This is Science Fiction."
-- David Brin
"Star Dragon is terrific fare, offering readers a fusion of hard science and grand adventure."
-- Locus Magazine
"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
-- Booklist starred review
"Readers hungry for the thought-provoking extrapolation and rigorous technical detail of old-fashioned hard SF are sure to enjoy astronomer Brotherton's first novel."
-- Publishers Weekly
"Mike Brotherton, himself a trained astrophysicist, combines the technical acuity and ingenuity of Robert Forward with the ironic, postmodern stance and style of M. John Harrison. In this, his debut novel, those twin talents unite to produce a work that is involving on any number of levels. It's just about all you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."
-- Paul di Fillippo, SCI-FI.COM
July 4th, 2010
I’ve been busy the last few days, but wanted to post something here on the 4th of July science related. After a little searching (not quite as easy as I make it sound), I found something very nice and educational to share:
Enjoy your freedom, your fireworks, and the science that makes them possible!
June 30th, 2010
I just realized this was online…I’d forgotten I’d done it!
I gave a talk about dark matter at the local science fiction convention Sagecon last April, and one of the reporters from the University newspaper interviewed me afterward. Enjoy!
June 29th, 2010
Some of these go back to before my Spain trip last week…
Newspapers retract “Climategate” story. Journalists, the lying right, and lots of others associated with this crap just suck. The sheeple and the true deniers will only remember the story, not the retraction.
Another slightly on target and slightly stupid article by Chris Mooney, about how scientists need to listen to the public. And by public, he partially means social scientists who study the public. He sets up some straw men and knocks them down (not hard but also mostly meaningless) and then pretends that he has a solution, which is slight at best. It isn’t like scientists should stop trying to educate the public about science. It is like people engaged in public policy — whether scientists, politicians, or other groups need to use multiple tactics to build consensus and understanding. Duh. But it’s like Mooney has a hard on for the scientists — the politically misguided public who ignores scientific results they’ve been made aware of gets a free pass, while the scientists who usually have little time and money for public education in our current system of jobs/funding are the scapegoats. And there’s this implicit notion, which I disagree with, that the public should have some kind of vote when it comes to science. Anyway… If only there were people who were scientifically educated and could make money communicating with the public…like Mooney! His personal failure has turned into a way to pass the buck, in my opinion. To wit, check out the epic fail above concerning the science journalists who got the story wrong and managed to sway the public against belief in global warming!
Here’s one response to Mooney. Here’s another.
Mooney’s big kick the past few years has been to be an “accommodationist” who purports to be an atheist but wants to sell a message to the religious that science and religion are compatible. Not because they usually are, but because he wants to pretend that they are to somehow improve science literacy. I think he’s incredibly condescending to the religious myself, and wrong because he seems to think that a person holding two contradictory positions simultaneously means that they’re not contradictory. Mooney likes to attack the “new atheists” for speaking what they see as the truth, as do others without any sign of self-awareness of their own hypocrisy (Paul Prather gets mad at atheists for lumping together Christians as one group — anyone else see how stupid this man is?).
And on another front…The Witch Speaks. More on angry Africans who think they know what writers should and shouldn’t write about Africa.
Five famous old-school arcade game glitches (with a movie). Cool. (Thanks Ben!)
Our courts are not totally insane. Creationists don’t get to offer master’s degrees in science. In related news, irrational people continue to be irrational.
Obama wants to go to asteroids in the 2020s, and Mars in the 2030s. I won’t say those are bad goals, but did you ever notice how recent presidents make space plans set for 20 years in the future, when they’ll be long gone, and we never seem to get there? Anyone remember what Bush the elder was pushing 20 years ago? It wasn’t where we are now, I tell you.
Who’s the Scientist? Kids’ opinions of scientists before and after visiting Fermilab. Cool project. Here’s their lead description:
“A scientist is hardworking, studious, detail-oriented, observant, intelligent, exacting, and patient. When I think of a scientist, I think of someone who sets out to find the facts without predetermining what the outcome is. During this process a scientist must be fair, honest and unbiased. A scientist must be exact by following all directions and recording every step and observation, so that the experiment can be reduplicated. He/she must check and double-check all of his/her work. A scientist is very important in our lives because all of the experiments he/she does in the lab can affect our health, environment, nutrition, and other aspects of our daily and future life.” . . . Marisa
The Ten Errors of Science Fiction from a political website. Hmm. Weird. First, it relies on generalities and seems like the author hasn’t read a lot of serious science fiction. The aliens in my novels do not suffer from several of his “errors” on this list, for instance. Then it starts to read like something a philosopher weenie might write, questioning every fundamental assumption possible, even ones that make sense in any reasonable context (e.g., why do aliens have to exist in a location?). I think the article is worth a look, but it’s hard for me to even be very interested in what would normally be up my alley.
Vanity Fair meets with Buzz Aldrin. He’s still cool.
Den of Geek on the evolution of science fiction.
Real-life Catwoman knocking over shoe stores in NYC. Where are the real-life superheroes to stop her?!
Fine SF writer and cool guy Steven Barnes seems to have fallen prey to the false equivalency of science and religion, and points at a forum where science and religion can meet (and the lead-in there is ridiculous, by the way, with the strawmen stereotypes that are poor at best). Unfortunately they already meet too often on school boards in Kansas and in public policies ranging from stem cells to climate change. Science and religion are in no way equivalent ways of knowing, one just top-down and the other bottom-up. Um, no. And why does science need to meet religion? Science is a methodology, the only reliable and tested way of developing new knowledge. Period. Religion has never reliably provided any truths that everyone can agree with, and usually insists that its claims are untestable and that is somehow a good thing. Such forums as linked above usually are places where insecure religious people try to claim science proves their claims, atheists go to laugh, creationists go to bash evolution, and a handful of religious scientists try to pretend that they haven’t turned off their scientific reasoning when thinking about the supernatural.
Dark matter and dark energy fictitious? I seriously doubt it, at least for dark matter. I think there are a few more things to test about dark energy before we swallow the mainstream story all the way. Another example of false controversy becoming the basis for a “science news” article.
In a related story, astronomer Martin Rees says maybe we’re not smart enough to understand the universe. Ok, fine, Sir Rees. I can say, maybe we are. Or our descendants, or the things we create to be intelligent a billion years from now. Or maybe he’s right. I don’t know why this sort of pot-smoker comment is a news story.
Now here’s something I like: teaching grade school kids engineering. This is a step in the right direction! On the other hand, here’s another article questioning whether a college degree is even worth it… It’s an economic discussion, which is one reasonable thing to consider but making money is not the only reason to get an education. And here’s another education-related link for me to live by: apparently highly rated professors are overrated. Go me! I can talk more about student evaluations another day…
Life-size wooden spacecraft sculptures. These are cool. I want one hanging in my house!
A brief guide to skeptical vandalism. Thanks Gay!
NASA warns about the dangers of upcoming solar storms. Sounds like an impending…solar crisis?
A couple of articles about proprietary data in astronomy and the particular case of Kepler and exoplanet candidates in the forthcoming dataset. New York Times article by Dennis Overbye, and another from Australia. I’m in favor of proprietary periods, and there will always be a little controversy over what exactly is fair, especially if terms change over time. Read the articles and form your own opinion.
War on drugs is actually a war on sex? Let’s stop them before they get to the rock and roll!
June 28th, 2010
I got home from Spain on schedule late on Saturday and seem to have mostly avoided jet lag on this end, but the travel home nearly soured my whole experience and I need to reflect on it some more.
First, I am a rather experienced world traveler, although it was my first time in Spain and my first time connecting through Heathrow in London.
Second, we all make mistakes and do dumb things no matter how smart or experienced we are.
Third, while I feel that most people are nice and will help others in many circumstances, some people are dicks, assholes, bitches, or just painfully indifferent.
Fourth, companies and systems of all sorts in this modern world suck a lot more than they should.
I’ll try to keep the account brief and to the point — or to these points — as I try to make sense of my journey. It’s important for me to do so because I expect to continue to travel a lot in the future and need to learn from the experiences. Hopefully some of you will learn a few things, or offer your own thoughts.
My trip started by checking out of my hotel and waiting for a colleague who was going to share a cab to the airport with me. He didn’t show after ten minutes so I left. I’d cut my cash short and spent an extra ten minutes at the airport hitting an ATM since I was a few Euros shy of the total. Only 20 minutes behind schedule, but I’d allowed plenty of time given that it was a small airport. I’ve almost never missed a flight, although I’ve cut it close way too many times to count by now because 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there and you’re suddenly in trouble.
I got in line at Iberia Airlines to check in, standing at the “please wait here line” a couple of meters back from the counter, with only one person in front of me. Great. Smooth.
Then all hell broke loose. An agent for the airlines showed up with a pack of people hounding him. All in Spanish, chaotic…10-15 minutes went by with him going behind the desk and fielding questions and the check in stopped as far as I could tell. I caught a few words about “flight to Madrid canceled” and “five-hour bus to Madrid.” I stood there thinking that I was screwed. No way to make it to Madrid, or London, or my direct flight to Denver from there. It was ok. Shit happens.
Then I heard a little more discussion. An EARLIER flight was canceled. Mine was ok. It was full though, and they weren’t letting anyone on it. Which worried me just a little as I was not yet checked in.
Eventually an agent was back at the counter and this Spanish man and his wife had pushed in front of me, to my left, and were starting to check in. Fine. Except that I realized everyone from the canceled flight was now in line behind THEM with their luggage to recheck for this bus. And the man’s wife had a dog, and they had to pay extra and his credit card didn’t work and then they had to get change for his cash…which took about ten minutes.
Well, I had been there before everyone else, and they should have been lined up behind me, but you will find that outside of the United States, people push and crowd and are not polite in forming lines or getting on buses, etc. As I moved to go next, this old woman in the long line went nuts and started yelling at me that I could not cut in line and had to go to the back.
I started to explain that I had been there first before everyone waiting and she kept cutting me off and saying “no” and telling me to go to the back of the freaking long line. I have a temper, although I only exercise it about once a year, usually in the face of buggy software or broken hardware. The other thing that makes me lose it are people who are arrogant, close-minded, WRONG and unwilling to listen. I screamed at her I had been there first, that I could let one person cut in front of me but not two, and I was going next. I picked up my suitcase and moved it in front of hers onto the conveyor belt. Her husband (the poor soul) was telling me “tranquilo, tranquilo!” to be calm, essentially. He should have talked to his wife but he’d probably lost that fight long ago. In hindsight, it was probably good that there wasn’t a check-in agent there just at that moment or I could have been in trouble. You don’t lose your cool with airline employees or police around, because they can fuck up your whole day.
I went next, and took less than a minute to get checked in, with my bag checked all the way through to Denver. I didn’t look back. In a half an hour I had gone from first in a non-existent line to having to fight not to lose a perhaps precious hour checking in.
I did feel bad about it later. Not for yelling at a stupid old woman, because she’s the type that needs people to stand up to her when she’s wrong, but because I did lose my temper. It’s hard to stay in control when the adrenalin surges, and it’s important to find ways of keeping that from happening. I was happy it finally shut her up. She should have realized that I was quite serious about my claims and felt wronged by her, but I’m unfortunately certain she believes I was an asshole American who just didn’t want to wait in line. We are all, after all, the heroes of our own stories.
An hour later, seated on the flight to Madrid, I met a nice local guy and we had a great conversation. It turns out he had checked in for the earlier flight, hours in advance, and then gone for a long walk to kill some time as he’d been advised the flight would be greatly delayed. When he’d returned, they had told him the replacement bus had already left, but that there was still one seat left on my flight, and he had been pretty happy.
In Madrid, I had another problem. Big European airports like Madrid and London Heathrow have a terrible system because they’re too big for their own good and didn’t properly invest in their technology. They make no announcements about flights over the PA and rely on notice boards for gate and times for their flights. Except the boards are so small, they don’t extend into the future very far and they expect you to wait in their shopping mall like areas until they notify you, then you have to notice and hustle like mad hoping there are no problems. Worse, for me, I didn’t realize that “terminal 4″ which was my only information could be “terminal 4″ or “terminal 4–satellite” — technically an entire other terminal a train ride away with its own outgoing immigration check. My 2-hour layover turned into 45 minutes notice that I had 30 minutes to make a 30-minute dash to make boarding before last call. Which I did, with 10-15 minutes to spare because the departure had been delayed 15 minutes.
That should have worried me, but it didn’t until I was on the plane and the pilot came on the PA to tell us that we’d missed our departure window and due to air traffic congestion would be delayed an hour waiting for the next one. He said he was frustrated and would push them to move us up. Which happened. It wasn’t an hour, but only 40-45 minutes. Then I started worrying about my layover in London.
It had only been 1:45 in the first place, and I knew I’d have to go between terminal 3 and terminal 5. They suggest at least 2 hours to do this normally, and suggestions are usually conservative so I felt ok with 1:45, but not an hour, or perhaps even less. I was wise not to feel ok.
We landed in London and took buses from the plane to the terminal. I overheard some people on the bus and discovered that there were some others — a group of students — also from Laramie, WY looking to make the Denver flight. At least I wasn’t alone.
I rushed like mad and we all made the second bus to take us to terminal 5. Another ten minutes there. Then we rushed like mad to go through immigration and security (my second time for both that day) to get to our gate. A couple of women working for British Airways were there to “help” us navigate. One of them looked at my boarding pass and told me there was no chance to make my flight and to get in a long line at the British Airways service counter to rebook.
Damn. It was late afternoon and the only direct flight to Denver. I didn’t see how I could get rebooked and not be delayed at least overnight there or in some connecting city in the USA.
Then the group of Wyoming students and their chaperons came through and I expected them to join me in line. But no…the same woman who had directed me to rebook pointed them toward the “fastlane” line and they ran over there. I took two breaths and got out of line to follow.
We blew through immigration, then had to go through security (also jumping to an expedited lane). I got my shoes back on and headed for the gate.
There was a big elevator and ANOTHER TRAIN to get there. Big international flight and already 20 minutes into boarding and rapidly approaching the “gate closed” moment which arrives 10-15 minutes before departure.
I’m running, the kids are running, the 50-something chaperons are running. I am not in marathon shape any more, especially stressed out with a heavy shoulder bag
A small but relevant aside. Can I ask why the hell do people get on the people movers and just stand there in the middle of them??? Lazy, inconsiderate or blissfully unaware, human obstacles…I truly, truly hate this and it makes me despair for my species sometimes.
We streamed in, and there were three check-in lanes with smiling people showing no urgency waiting to welcome us onto the flight. Almost. Two of the Laramie contingent got whisked aside for random searches and they had to reopen the plane door to let them on afterward.
About three times that day I had been sure I was not going to be on that flight, but I had made it.
A great flight attendant took one look at me, sweating through my t-shirt, and fetched me a cup of water. I actually had two before take-off. Also during beverage service I asked for more water and a red wine. He told me that they had two on the flight, and when I didn’t immediately pick one, he suggested I try both. It was the first time all day I actually felt like I had help from any employee who actually cared about me, or at least about doing a good job.
There were no problems back in Denver and my checked bag, which I had not seen since I’d lifted it onto the conveyor belt in Granada, Spain while fighting with the old Spanish bitch, was there waiting for me.
This is too long for anyone with internet-altered brains to still be reading, but let me say that the United States is generally the worst of all countries to fly into, and I can still say this after my recent experiences. We’re just not friendly, especially to foreigners. I am fine with security first, but that doesn’t mean it has to be all security and no smiles. And while in Spain I heard a story from one of the astronomers there about of friend of his who had visited New Mexico and flown back home to Spain after only two days very unhappy — a police man had her hauled away and held for two hours with a bunch of illegal aliens from Mexico because apparently a Spaniard with a tourist visa on vacation is suspicious. We’ve got idiots and assholes in the USA, too.
So what am I taking away from all this? Be responsible for yourself when you travel. Don’t get walked over. You can’t count on anyone to look after you or care about you the way you care about yourself. Appreciate the angels who appear miraculously and who do care and do help, but don’t expect them to be there. If I had been more of a sheep on the return trip, I might not be home yet. I am very polite, always try to follow the rules in heavily regulated and fascist environments like airports, and have a strong sense of justice and fairness…but I can’t let that get in the way of taking care of myself.
I know I’m cussing here and probably still sound pretty angry. I guess I am, although it’s a little more abstract and fading anger…and writing can exorcise demons sometimes if you let it. I’ll forget the bad feelings after a little time at home, and start looking forward to travel again. I really did like Spain, so many of the people there, and some very good times and good science. I like seeing other places and meeting other people, but I can’t say I like the travel.
Ironically, I watched the fine movie Up in the Air on the flight to Denver, about a man who loves to travel the friendly skies…and I had to smile. From that movie, here’s one final bit of good advice while traveling about doing what works not what is nice or politically correct:
I’m always up to hear travel horror stories if you have some (and who doesn’t?). I learn from them and have saved myself a few times a lot of trouble…
June 25th, 2010
It has been a busy week of science and socializing with a great group of my fellow astronomers. I learned a lot about starbursts that I didn’t, and probably that was the case for everyone. Slides from the talks will be posted online in a few weeks. Tomorrow morning, I head home again and I’m ready to be home. The jet lag has been rough and the late nights and early mornings, too.
A few quick observations about Granada, Spain:
It’s a clean, safe town with interesting people watching and architecture.
The women are beautiful.
At most bars, when you order a beer (2-3 Euros) they will also bring you a snack (”tapas”) and if you’re out drinking with friends, you don’t need to eat dinner.
The local beers and wines are good. The local foods are good. I’ve had gazpacho and paella in Spain, now, along with a number of other items I don’t even remember the name of.
The internet service in the Hotel Dauro is shitty and inconsistent (one reason no blogging this past week — seems a little better tonight).
I didn’t realize the shadow pattern would come out so weird. I had my cell phone and not my better camera, so it was hard to tell from the screen image. That’s the Alhambra in the background, and old Spanish castle.
Oh, and it’s a pain when websites help you out internationally by assuming that you’re a Spanish speaker and don’t give you any obvious way to get to the American/English versions. Google, you suck sometimes!
June 20th, 2010
I got in last night to Granada, Spain, to participate in an astronomy meeting, a relatively small international workshop of 60 astronomers presenting and discussing our research into extreme starbursts in the local universe. I waited too long to buy tickets and due to price issues (I hate to waste grant money!) I had a 3-stop trip here that took in total more than 30 hours. The trip went smoothly, all things considered, but I seem to have come down with my first cold of the year (lack of sleep, travel stress, planes full of germs and kids = no surprise). I also have to say, after my first layover at London Heathrow, that place is sort of horrible; it’s a giant crowded mall, and while the people watching is interesting if you can keep your eyes open, I appreciate the big low-key, low-stress airports a bit more now (although Madrid is so big and empty I was worried about my connection just by virtue of feeling lost). 3 Stops, 3 airlines, 3 countries, and my baggage and I made it fine.
Now it’s 3:30am now, just about the time back home when I would get my second wind for the evening and get a little work done, and I’m unable to sleep. The rule of thumb is that it takes about a day to adjust for every hour of time zone change, so I’ll be back in Wyoming in a week, thoroughly messed up with jet lag again. Modern life! It’s actually not too different from going on an observing run and shifting schedules, something I don’t do as well as I did when I was younger.
And speaking of modern life, and changes with not just age but our technology, I started reading a really interesting book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains by Nicholas Carr. I confess to the symptoms of our modern internet age that he describes. I skim rather than digest carefully. I get bored with focusing on one topic too long. I like little, quick fixes of information. These trends are not so good for me doing science or writing novels, and I’m going to think about them deeply. As much as I can manage. Oops! Need to respond to a text, or was that an IM, or just the urge to refresh a browser window to see if anyone mailed me…
Going to try to go back to sleep now…
June 18th, 2010
A few days ago I blogged about mainstream stories that I thought could be categorized as light versions of fantasy or science fiction. To qualify, the stories had to fail to reflect reality in some fundamental way without being obviously science fiction or fantasy. When that failure was over-the-top and great liberties are taken with reality, it’s mainstream fantasy (e.g., the movie 300). When the failure is a subtle one required to make the show work, but that isn’t how reality works, that’s mainstream science fiction (e.g., most detective shows, House, CSI). I use the word “fail” or “failure” but these things are done on purpose to specific effect.
I’ll start with repeating 300 here, a fantasized version of history, and intentionally so.
I’m not always such a huge Michael Crichton fan, as you may know, but his novel that inspired the movie The 13th Warrior was a brilliant piece of historical fantasy. There’s no magic or other elements common to fantasy. He just made up his own history and merged it in with conventional history. It really is cool.
CSI has led a generation of Americans who will sit on trials that there should always be forensic clues and that there’s huge amounts of money to be spent on pretty much any kind of crime.
House makes easy diagnoses look easy — doctors can tell at a glance what is wrong with someone. Again, infinite money to be spent. Corners to be cut. Rare diseases pop up all the time and are solved in an hour, usually saving the patient. Medical shows in general have convinced people that CPR works much more often than it really does.
Charlie’s Angels, as originally on TV did conventional stunts. When it moved to the big screen the fights and stunts started to defy the laws of physics.
Kill Bill is pretty obviously a fantasy. In additional to the conventions of Kung Fu movies, defying physics in the fight scenes, there is a very lovely bit about the airline that the Bride flies. They let you take on samurai swords and have holders for them on the seats! This is not the real world, even though it’s impossible to tell that from many other scenes.
Oh, another hugely popular mainstream fantasy: The Godfather. I remember hearing stories about real mafia getting a kick at how noble this movie made them out to be.
In the past, there were a lot of westerns and war movies that didn’t worry about getting anything realistic. They tended to reflect the propaganda of their times, with one-dimensional evil Indians and Nazis for our heroes to fight. I feel that both genres have veered hard for larger doses of reality in recent years. Think about Unforgiven that deglamorizes gun fighting, or Saving Private Ryan with its D-Day landing scene pulling no punches. The Hurt Locker looks like an another attempt at serious reality (although I have not seen it yet). War and death aren’t fun, is the message. But there are signs that this may be swinging back the other way with Inglourius Basterds, which is technically alternate history (and I won’t spoil it here if you haven’t seen it), but that’s what every fictionalized attempt at history really is, and even non-fictional history is only a reflection of past reality.
Tarantino’s partner in crime, Robert Rodriguez, has also pulled his over-the-top westerns with Desperado and the killer Mariachi gang toting guns and even rocket launchers.
Let’s finish up the list with something that’s obviously not very realistic, and very intentionally so, that mixes Frank Miller, Tarantino, and Rodriguez: Sin City. They make sure the cars bounce and careen along in ways that intentionally defy physics because they want a particular mood and style. That’s one of the more subtle things that isn’t real, but a clear indication that they’ve created their own world that is only superficially our own.
Any other suggestions of some big, popular shows or movies?
June 16th, 2010
With regards to the NAACP putting pressure on Hallmark to remove their “racist” black hole card, which I talked about over the weekend and called on Tyson to speak out, a friend pointed me at his Twitter feed.
Tyson wrote, in reverse order:
I can live with that. Read more astrophysics!
June 15th, 2010
There are more science comedians out there other than just my very funny friend Brian Malow, although he’s the one who got sciencecomedian.com. I was reading Physics Today today, and saw a short article about physicist comedian Norm Goldblatt. And looking for Norm Greenblatt’s act online, I came across something called “Science Laughs” that featured four science-based comedians performing a couple of years ago (at Wonderfest 2008 on campus at Stanford). He’s not bad, especially if you’re a science type. Enjoy!
Here are two others from this event, including Brian Malow:
I think humor is a great way to keep people entertained while they’re learning, ideally, and as I’m teaching a big intro astronomy course for non-majors, I’m going to steal some jokes and see if I can get my evaluations up a bit (they’re good, but there’s always room for improvement).
June 13th, 2010
I was thinking about the movie 300, Nnedi Okorafor’a detractors, and this recent blog post and comments therein. Thoughtful people get upset by art, whether it is a book, movie, or just about anything. I think there are good reasons and bad reasons to get upset. A good reason is when you’re disappointed because something had the potential to be great and it had fatal flaws that kept it from reaching that potential. A bad reason is when you’re biased, close-minded, and think that there’s an anti-something agenda in everything you see.
First, let me say that all fiction is fantasy. Historical fantasy, the hardest of hard science fiction, true crime stories, reality shows, everything. This point is easy to see when you think about it. To make any story, even reality-based stories, you edit. You cut out parts that are slow or boring. You change the dialogue to make it clear and easy to follow compared to how people really talk. You choose a perspective, how to display the story.
That’s all fine. That’s what makes writing stories art.
But then you can do even more. You can depart from reality as we know it. You can have the magic of fantasy. You can have the future predictions of science fiction. You can have unreliable narrators lying or omitting key information. You can have subtitles in movies. You can exaggerate, whether it is a string of amazing coincidences that move the story forward, stunts that subtly defy the laws of physics, business that defies economics, etc.
What is so clever about 300 is that it is an intentional exaggeration. Frank Miller isn’t trying to be true to history. He’s intentionally exaggerating. The evil priests have open oozing sores. The creatures are monstrous. The enemy looks like orcs. Their king is 10 feet tall. It’s MAINSTREAM FANTASY. Likewise with a movie like Charlie’s Angels, Shoot Em Up, or Crank. Everything is done with a wink and a nod as impossible stunt follows impossible stunt. They are not to be taken as literal reality at all, whether they’re messing with history, physics, whatever. They’re a form of fantasy.
So what then about mainstream science fiction? These are the stories that try to play by certain rules, whether they are reality based or only based on the story’s own internal self-consistency. Take CSI, for example. They try to abide by the rules of reality, but there are sums of money in that lab that are never seen by real labs, and there always seems to be a forensic clue that helps lead the investigators to a conviction. In any individual story, there’s no problem, but a pattern develops that isn’t our reality. Maybe the failed cases have been edited out, and never shown. Still, in the shows on tv the deck is always stacked in their favor. Juries now have unrealistic expectations about the quality and quantity of forensic evidence. Similarly with a show like House. In principle every story could happen, but House gets away with things time after time that he shouldn’t (medically, socially, economically, legally), and they pretty much always save the patient. Medical shows in general have much higher success rates for CPR than reality, leading to people having unrealistic expectations. These shows try hard to portray reality, but they don’t, and in an interesting way that makes me call it MAINSTREAM SCIENCE FICTION. Detective stories, medical stories, even lawyer stories, tend to fall into this category for me.
This is akin to the reason that I call Star Trek science fiction, and criticize the bad science it sometimes has, and give Star Wars a pass. Star Wars is a fantasy even though it has spaceships and robots. Star Wars isn’t trying to reflect reality in any way whatsoever. Even though it fails regularly enough, Star Trek does try. I’ll get upset with Star Wars for bad acting, stupid characters, etc., but not over the science. Star Trek, I’ll criticize the science.
A story like 300, I would say, beyond being mainstream fantasy, is not exactly a historical story. It’s inspired by a historical story, and has become it’s own version of that history without trying to be accurate in any specific reality-based manner. You can’t lump it in with science fiction or fantasy either, as it isn’t an alternate history like Inglourius Basterds. It’s an over-the-top stylized version of historical events, mainstream fantasy.
I think I’ll come up with lists of other examples over the next few days. Anyone want to suggest some?
Anyway, I think it’s inappropriate to criticize the history or politics of 300 the same way it is inappropriate to criticize the science of Star Wars. It’s just not that kind of story. It’s inspired by history, but it has its own version of it that is the story’s own reality. There are plenty of other stories that try to get everything right, even though it is impossible, and those should get the criticism.
June 12th, 2010
If you’re a minority of some sort that has experienced overt , subtle, or institutionalized prejudice, I feel for you and sympathize. Most people are minorities in one way or another or experience some sort of prejudice at one time or another, maybe not as often or as bad as others, but enough to sympathize. Being treated badly for any reason sucks, especially if it is because of something you have no control over, and something that isn’t bad in any way at all.
Still, that’s no excuse for being overly sensitive or ignorant and indignant over a slur that only exists in your own head. That kind of prejudice is impossible to stop, and unfair to complain about.
The LA NAACP has complained and forced Hallmark to remove a card because some overly sensitive person thinks “black hole” sounds like “black ho.” Ignorant assholes. I mean it. The card in question is about graduating from school and having the knowledge and power to take on the universe, including even ominous entities like black holes. Watch and listen for yourself.
You know what’s actually “demeaning?” It’s not the card. It’s the NAACP, and it’s demeaning to all people with a clue, and especially those experiencing real racism. Being ignorant and offended and using your history of racial discrimination to justify an idiotic claim demeans serious claims of racism.
Unfortunately it’s part of a pattern, with ignorance on display over and over again. Too many people are offended because of their own damn ignorance. Take for example the outrage at the use of the perfectly good word “niggardly” which has nothing to do with race. I’m surprised some of these same people aren’t trying to get the Constitution censored (it is intrinsically sexist and racist prior to amendments, but censoring it would lead to even more ignorance).
There’s unfortunately still plenty of examples of real racism. Astronomers using the term “black hole” is not one of them, and I don’t want to go back to the previous term “frozen star” because the eskimos took offense at that. The white dwarves will be after us next.
And more seriously, being smart and educated can let you take on black holes (as I posted earlier today).
God, this is so stupid. I’d like to see some black leaders step forward and decry this sort of nonsense. Not Obama — it’d be a waste of his time — but someone with a sense of reason and perspective. Neil deGrasse Tyson, maybe… Plenty of ignorant and easily offended white people out there, too, and I’m sure I’ll have a blog post or starlink about them again soon (e.g., fundamentalists upset about their children being educated properly).
June 12th, 2010
A big pile of starlinks, with some commentary as usual.
The Table of Contents for the Best of Talebones anthology, which includes my story “Jack in the Box.” Tiny killer clowns.
I caught an episode of the Science Channel’s new show Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. I mostly enjoyed it and it had some interesting stuff, although I’d seen a lot of it before from other sources. The topic was science and god/creation, which is touchy at best. It had to do with physics and a theory of everything, neuroscience explaining and inducing god experiences, etc., but with an angle that felt a little uncomfortable to me, like it was an attempt to bring in non-scientific religious folk into watch a science show. Which is not a bad thing, I guess, but not sure this would work anyway as I doubt such people watch the Science Channel. A bit of a coincidence pointed me to this article about why there is something and not nothing, in which author Father Raymond J. de Souza gets to reveal himself as a stupid, arrogant religious douchebag. Think I’m overstating the case? Try this:
Why is there something rather than nothing? No matter how clever you are, if you don’t have a compelling answer to that question, you can only aspire to knowledge — albeit impressive knowledge — but not wisdom.
Then he goes on to say science has no hope at this question, and starts praising theology and metaphysics…which also have no compelling answer to that question. As Socrates might say, no one is wise, and he was the wisest guy around for realizing that. de Souza then disses atheist Christopher Hitchens for being smart and not wise. I’m going to dis de Souza for being both stupid and unwise. I’ll go on aspiring to knowledge and acknowledging that no one is particular wise in the grand scheme of things. Religion provides answers and explanations, that as far as I can tell are not compelling in light of reason, experiment, or any other conceivable test. Or the answers/explanations are demonstrably wrong or the lies of charlatans. That some people believe them or find solace in them does not make them answers consistent with intellectual integrity.
At root, we’re still hunters. If you’re vegetarian, don’t read this.
How to Destroy a Black Hole. No, really! Going to have to look at this more closely. Surely there’s a science fiction story in this.
12 Greatest Real-Life Superheroes. Fun.
5 most impractical aspects of superheroine costumes. Model Ruby Rocket. Yum.
Batman is having Superman’s baby… Fans are weird.
China’s astronaut program not so problem free.
Jilited Flashforward fans to stage mass black out.
Powerful, portable laser is “real life light saber.” Not exactly. And I don’t think you can legally buy it as a toy, either, so stop drooling. Now, as an astronomer and professor, I could probably think of an excuse to buy it…hmm. My job is kind of cool.
Really cool infographic…highest mountains to deepest ocean trench.
Warren Lapine getting into a little controversy for putting disclaimers in front of things like the Constitution, about how material contained inside may not be consistent with modern values. Well, duh. Totally true. The original document says women can’t vote and when we count our slaves they’re only 3/5 of a person.
Author’s Guild on issues with Wiley’s abusing their writers. Sounds pretty bad for the writers. Wiley has their side of the story.
Sci-Fi TV writers on their process.
AI now picking stocks. This will get worse I suspect…
Some real science fiction: Courtney Love in nude fetish photos from her facebook page. Click at your own risk.