/* ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** Published at random intervals by Phillip Thorne ** Volume 3, Issue 13: Tuesday, 16 October 2001 ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** ** Flathead, fathead, flatworm, flatbed. Know the difference! [*] ** ************************************************************************* ** ************************************************************************* */ OBSERVATIONS & C: Toy boxes, Ackermuseum, Jeff Bezos for Taco Bell. ERRATA & O+A+A: "Cowboy Bebop" badge, "Yu-gi-oh!" not-as-simplistic. CON REVIEW: Worldcon panel: Coming attractions from Tor. ESSAY: Is "Star Trek" a morality play? Is it SF? Is it *good* SF? UPCOMING: "Smallville", "Q" marathon, Miyazaki's "Kiki", Zim. plus Legalese, acknowledgements and opt-in/out instructions. http://nsx.underbase.org/ - back issues http://nsx.underbase.org/index_plus.htm - synopses, reviews, analyses, etc. http://nsx.underbase.org/tv/ - Philadelphia and network TV listings mailto://nsx-discuss-l@underbase.org - post on this issue (if subscribed) http://www.underbase.org/ - additional databases /* *************************************************************************** ** OBSERVATIONS & COGITATIONS ** Consumable-durable and toy boxes. ** The Ackermuseum, "Doctor Who" as handy clip art. ** Jeff Bezos for Taco Bell. ** ************************************************************************ */ Manufacturer-consumer analysis usually distinguishes between CONSUMABLES and DURABLE GOODS: food, paper products, home cleaners; versus furniture, appliances, cars. Eoes this duality admit a place for INFORMATION? Books, computer games, movies -- these are products that require tangible storage and playback devices, but are inherently *in*tangible themselves. While only a limited number of (sensible) ways exist to package facial tissue or grapefruit juice, a novel can be issued as the written or spoken word, stored on paper, magnetic tape, CD, flash card or evanescent read-once download; to misquote Louis Henri Sullivan and the Bauhaus, multiple forms follow the same function. The notion of a child's "toy box" seems to presuppose that all said child's toys will actually *fit* in that container, much as a soldier's uniforms and gear are meant to fit in his foot locker. In our Age of Abundance, Affluence and Consumerism, this implies a *very* large box for the average child. For certain adult collectors, box == house. (For consumerism carried to an extreme, plus a literal invasion of a landlocked Asian country to impose western industrial consumeristic values upon it, see the novels _The Space Merchants_ (1952) and _The Merchants of Venus_ (1972), or the omnibus _The Merchants' War_ (1984), by Frederick Pohl and C.M.Kornbluth.) *** A recent Travel Channel program featured a guided tour of the ultimate repository of SF and horror memorabilia, the ACKERMUSEUM; home of venerable SF fan FORREST ACKERMAN. His abode is crammed and tiled with books (including 200 editions of _Frankenstein_), posters, and movie props (including a $30,000 puppet from "Gremlins II", donated by the director), many of them related to the 90 films in which Ackerman's played bit parts. (Well, it's a change from the channel's usual fare of beaches crammed and tiled with cancer-baiting sun-worshippers, anyway.) I happen to know that Ackerman has attended at least two Worldcons, because he proxy-accepted a tropy at this year's Hugos ceremony, and he appears in a photo of the first Worldcon, the 1939 NYcon I in New York. (I helped set up the History of Worldcon exhibit.) In that photo, he's garbed in a shiny Flash Gordon-style outfit with cape. "Hyperspace", a current three-part Learning Channel program on cosmology (hosted by Sam "paleontologist" Neill), illustrates the concept of space aliens (extraterrestrials, ETs, XTs, extraterrestrial biolological entities, EBEs, alien lifeforms, ALFs) with clips from -- get this -- "Doctor Who". Somehow, I suspect any XTs are more likely to resemble Ambassador Alpha Centauri (the Hermaphroditic Hexapod) than the Cybermen or Robots of Death. "Yeah, they're aliens all right, but they're legal." "Even the one eating the bubblegum off the sidewalk?" (...from a parody of "Cops" on the late FoxKids show "Spy Dogs", the series that I'm certain must've inspired the recent movie "Cats & Dogs".) *** Taco Bell is using the tropes of a PDA campaign to advertise their new "CQ" chicken quesadilla. "Supports both lunch and dinner platforms." One TV ad features Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com. What does this say to investors who are already worried about the company's earning prospects? *** [*] The other day I saw a flatbed truck, or more specifically, a semi truck with a flatbed trailer. The cargo lashed to the flatbed trailer was a second flatbed trailer. /* *************************************************************************** ** ERRATA & OMISSIONS, ADDENDA & ADMISSIONS ** Badge gone from "Cowboy Bebop". ** "Yu-gi-oh!" not as clichéd as I feared. ** ************************************************************************ */ In Issue 3.12's Upcoming, I alluded to TCN's irritating practice of displaying the ratings badge for the entire duration of "Cowboy Bebop". Having examined my accumulated recordings, I see that the practice has now ceased. In Issue 3.10's Upcoming, I dismissed the premise of the latest addition to the KidsWB slate of animé as "morphs into alter-ego, defeats bullies". My harsh assessment was based on the simplistic portrayal in ads and news coverage. As usual in animé, there's a lot more going on: In the world of the show, "Duel Monsters" is a popular card game (akin to "Magic: The Gathering"), popular enough to have national championships in a dedicated domed stadium with holographic projectors. A schoolboy, YUGI, is given an ancient Egyptian jigsaw puzzle by his grandfather (master player and owner of a game store), and when he assembles it into a golden pyramid pendant, he acquires magical powers. (He doesn't seem to notice his sudden growth spurt and voice deepening.) He also comes to the attention of the game's inventor, PERSEUS. In ep #2, Perseus challenges Yugi to a game (played magically over the TV), during which he explains that it was first played by the ancient Egyptians -- but with real monsters. So powerful were the magics that they threatened the world, and a brave pharaoh locked them away in seven so-called MILLENIUM ITEMS. Yugi's pyramid is one, Perseus owns another; and he's established the championships to winkle out the possessors of the other five. Perseus wins the match, and steals the grandfather's soul to ensure Yugi's attendance. In ep #3, Yugi joins dozens of other players boarding the cruise ship headed for the island of Duelist's Kingdom, with three DM-playing friends; he gets one aboard on a technicality, and the others sneak on. (It's a very strange ship, in that most of the passengers reside in a bunkroom. Well, futon room.) The first friend is motivated to win the cash prize, to pay for an operation to restore his sister's sight. He's also smitten by MAI, an attractive but cruel player who manages to win a private stateroom by playing a game with her own I-know-every-card-you- draw deck. Yugi is too trusting, and when asked by WEEVIL (a player who specializes in insect cards), shows him five rare, unbeatable cards; which Weevil pre-emptively beats by tossing them overboard. Easy acceptance may be blocked by a few bizarre stylistic decisions: Yugi and his grandfather both have purple eyes with white pupils (almost as offputting as the cross-eyed kids in "Cubix"). Yugi has a star- shaped purple coif with several jagged blond forelocks. The English voice actor for Weevil uses a grating tone that leaves no doubt Weevil is Evil. /* *************************************************************************** ** CONVENTION REVIEW ** Millenium Philcon: 59th Annual World Science Fiction Convention ** COMING ATTRACTIONS FROM TOR ** Sunday 13:00 ** James Minz ** ************************************************************************ */ Worldcon is one of the few conventions which publishing reps attend, hawking their upcoming titles. This year's con was visited by Ace/Penguin, Baen, Bantam, DAW, EOS, Roc, Del Rey, Tor, and Warner Aspect; I attended the last three panels. Tom Doherty Associates LLC has created a fourth imprint (brand) to join Forge (mainstream and historical), Orb (backlist), and Tor (SF and fantasy): STARSCAPE, for re-issues of classic engaging young adult titles, all of which have won multiple mainstream awards (many from librarians). [ http://www.tor.com/imprints.html - explains imprints, lines, lists, logos ] For its first half-year, Starscape will release two books per month, including Joan Aiken's _The Cockatrice Boys_ and _The Whispering Mountain_, Orson Scott Card's _Ender's Game_, H.M.Hoover's _Orvis_, Howard Pyle's _The Garden Behind the Moon_, Theodore Sturgeon's(?) _The Jumper_, and Jane Yolen's(?) _Briar Rose_. Major adult titles are also being reissued: Greg Bear's _The Forge of God_, Norman Spinrad's _The Void Captain's Tale_, and a hardcover edition of Michael Flynn's _In the Country of Blind_ (with an appendix of two articles from _Analog_ explaining his versions of Babbage engines and psychohistory). The late James White's eight "Sector General" space hospital novels are being collected in several omnibus volumes; the first three appear in _Beginning Operations_, with a new introduction by Brian Stableford. _Starlight 3_ is the latest in a series of anthologies of original fiction. _Probability Sun_ is the second in a trilogy by Nancy Kress (wife of Charles Sheffield), and _Augur's Teacher_ is the fourth "Earth: Final Conflict" novel, by Sherwood Smith. M.J.Engh's _Arslan_ tells how the US is conquered by a brilliant general from a minor country, and R.C.Wilson's _The Chronoliths_ shows society's various reactions when mysterious giant crystal monoliths appear all over the world, monuments to a conqueror as yet unborn. The author of _War for the Oaks_ failed to sell a screenplay of the novel, but this version includes three of the scenes as an appendix. Australian author Sean McMullen's Greatwinter trilogy (_Souls in The Great Machine_, _The Miocene Arrow_) concludes with _Eyes of the Calculor_. Sometime in the late twenty-first century, something happens that devastates humanity and sharply restricts our available technologies. By the 1695 GW (Greatwinter's Waning), humanity still doesn't know what that event was, but has long since adapted. The central culture in Australia uses wind- and pedal-powered trains ("paralines"), a heliostat communications network ("beamflash"), and the ambitious Highliber of the Rochester Library has reinvented the computer from ancient texts, using humans as components. (At the con's "Weird Technologies" panel, McMullen assured us he'd worked out the full details of the Calculor, but had cut the 12,000 words as extraneous.) TDA's Forge imprint covers mainstream and historical novels. _Over the Wine Dark Sea_ is the first in a four-book series by H.N.Turteltaub (Harry Turtledove), and follows a family of Rhodian traders 13 years after the death of Alexander the Great. /* *************************************************************************** ** ESSAY ** Is "Star Trek" a morality play? Is it SF? Is it *good* SF? ** ************************************************************************ */ At lunch one recent day, in anticipation of the upcoming premiere of UPN's "Enterprise", I made a concise statement that a coworker took issue with. Distilled, the vigorous argument that ensued (as witnessed by a third coworker) went something like this: Me: "Star Trek isn't SF; it's a morality play." Him: "All SF is morality plays." Me: "Star Trek aliens are merely mirrors of humanity." Him: "All literature is a mirror of humanity, since we can't interpret anything from outside ourselves." [1] Me: "I need to check the definition of 'morality play'." [2] Him: "This is a slippery slope." Or, further distilled: Me: "X (A, B, C)." Him: "Y (D, E, F)." At conventions, SF author Hal Clement likes to make the point that only a limited number of short human-pronounceable sound-sequences exist, which are forced to describe a far wider range of concepts; hence ambiguity results. I add, you can attempt to refine your concept with additional terms -- to circumscribe it with a corral of words -- but in a debate, your opponent is likely to pounce upon this as evidence of vacillation. Here's a truism: two things can have qualities that are identical, and other qualities that are different. The task of an author is to create characters that differ in some way from the reader; but in what aspects, and to what degree? SF authors, in particular, create human characters (ie /Homo sapiens/) who are *culturally* distinct (in time or space), or nonhuman characters who are *biologically* distinct. Whether the nonhumans are also *culturally* distinct is a question of the author's motives and skill -- he might be too lazy to construct any differences, or might use a human culture as inspiration, or might be specifically analyzing some aspect of human culture. In most of its stories, "Star Trek" takes the third course, which is why I called it a "morality play" and a "mirror". Emotionally-repressed Vulcans, violent honor-obsessed Klingons, treacherous Romulans, acquisitive misogynistic Ferengi, religious Bajorans; they all embody some exaggerrated aspect of human character, and are designed to do so above all other considerations. [2] In contrast, there are authors who create aliens (individuals and species) whose biology and cultural development share very few commonalities with any human motivation or society; these are what I call "interesting". [3] The fewer the commonalities, the greater must be the author's skill to convey the differences coherently. Certain irreducible universals are expected, however -- consumption of nourishment (energy and matter), senses, a reproductive drive -- and if not present, there'd better be a good reason. [4] For instance, a species might be unconcerned with "sex" if it reproduces parthenogenically, or a particular individual might be unconcerned with personal reproduction if that responsibility is carried by others (eg infertile worker bees), or a culture of immortals might not bother with it at all. [5] Basing a quasi-human alien culture on a familiar one (ancient Egypt, imperial Rome, feudal Japan), or alien biology on a familiar Earth creature (hive insects, pack animals) is less "interesting" than using an obscure culture or untrumpeted creature. (In other words, does the author's research extend beyond high school?) I dub these "Aliens Of Nonobvious Derivation". [6] "Star Trek", with its unimaginative aliens (and cultures), is *primarily* entertaiment ("space opera"), secondarily a morality play, and only rarely achieves any other goal of SF. In contrast, "good" SF *also* addresses moral questions -- usually human ones, whether or not human characters are present -- but its agents, the *imaginative* aliens (and cultures), are "anthropologically" captivating in their own right. *** [1] "All literature is a mirror of humanity." A term that describes everything, distinguishes nothing, and therefore has little value when classifying things. [2] According to _Webster's New World Dictionary_ (2e, 1975), a MORALITY PLAY is "any of a class of allegorical dramas of the 15th and 16th cent., whose characters were personifications, as Everyman, Vice, etc." ARCHETYPE: 2. a perfect example of a type or group. STEREOTYPE: 3. a fixed idea or popular conception, as about how a certain type of person looks, acts, etc. Aha. [3] One example of very un-human creatures: in physicist Robert L. Forward's _Rocheworld_ novels, the dominant lifeforms of a water planet at Barnard's Star are the FLOUWEN, multi-ton sexless blobs, highly intelligent but non-technological. They don't suffer age-related decay, but spend increasingly long periods "rocked up", cogitating on increasingly difficult mathematical puzzles. When a flouwen grows uncomfortably large, it seeks out one or more other obese blobs, and they combine their excess mass into a new individual, which is intelligent at birth but requires tutoring. They lack all typical human drives except curiosity. [4] Two "Star Trek" characters are a bit suspicious because they lack one of those fundamental commonalities of all living things: the consumption of nourishment. Lt.Cdr.Data (the android of TNG) and Constable Odo (the shapeshifter of DS9) are never seen to recharge or eat, and no mention is made of it. Actually, they do eat on occasion, but only for social purposes. [5] In the "Doctor Who" novel _Lungbarrow_ (written according to the unfinished master plan the TV series' final producer, Andrew Cartmel), the Gallifreyan civilization went infertile, and developed "gene looms" to produce new individuals, fully grown. Each family hence consists only of Cousins, their number mandated by the government; and while still physically capable of sex, the custom fell out of practice. When a Cousin expends his allotted thirteen lives, the family convenes at the ancestral House (a living, semi-sentient tree-based creature) for his Deathday celebration, the transfer of his memories to the Matrix, and the Looming of a new Cousin. [6] This year's Worldcon actually had a panel called "Under-Plundered Mythologies". /* *************************************************************************** ** UPCOMING ** "Smallville" premieres tonight 21:00 ** "Q" marathon on TNN ** Miyazaki's "Kiki's Delivery Service" on Disney ** "Invader Zim" Halloween ep ** ************************************************************************ */ Tonight, tue-16-oct-21:00, the WB premieres "Smallville", the latest in a long series of live and animated "Superman" adaptations. In this one, he's in high school in a town still recovering from the meteor shower that heralded his arrival. He can't fly, Lex Luthor is a friend, and Lana Lang is a love interest but wears a kryptonite pendant. This coming sun-21-oct-15:00, TNN ("America's Fastest Growing Network", but my local paper doesn't realize they're no longer "The Nashville Network" and still abbreviates them "Nash") airs a six-ep marathon of TNG "Q" episodes: "Hide and Q" (Q tempts Riker with the power of the Q), "Q Who" (meet the Borg), "Deja Q" (exiled Q learns about humanity from Data), "Qpid" (Robin Hood), "True Q" (Q evaluates the human child of two executed Q), and "Tapestry" (Q shows Picard why impalement was a good thing). Next wed-24-oct-20:35, the Disney Channel stages an encore airing of its English dub of "Kiki's Delivery Service", in which a young witch takes the customary journey into a mundane town to prove herself, puts her flying skills to good use, becomes friends with a dirigible-obsessed nerd, and temporarily forgets how to speak to her cat. KDS is one of the Studio Ghibli animé films to which it has US distribution rights. Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli's work ("Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind", "Laputa: Castle in the Sky", "My Neighbor Totoro", etc.) have a "magical" quality that is often compared to Disney's best. (Personally, I think it's a completely *different* magical quality.) Next fri-26-oct-21:00, Nickelodeon airs a new "Invader Zim" ep, the "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom". What macabre animated antics will the green alien, his insane robot assistant Gir, his human schoolmate and nemesis Dib, and Dib's Game Slave-playing sister Gaz get into? sun-14-oct-01:30 60m 17, "Earth: Final Conflict" s5 prem enc sun-14-oct-12:00 60m 17, "Andromeda" s1 prem enc sun-14-oct-13:00 60m 17, "Mutant X" ser prem enc tue-16-oct-21:00 60m WB, "Smallville" ser prem sun-21-oct-15:00 720m TNN, TNG "Q" marathon (6 eps) wed-24-oct-20:35 115m Dis, "Kiki's Delivery Service" (anim) fri-26-oct-21:00 30m Nik, Invader Zim: "Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom" sun-04-nov-20:00 30m Fox, "Simpsons" (anim) s13 prem sun-04-nov-21:00 60m Fox, "The X-Files" s9 prem thu-08-nov-20:00 30m Fox, "Family Guy" (anim) s? prem thu-08-nov-20:30 30m Fox, "The Tick" ser prem sun-09-dec-19:00 30m Fox, "Futurama" (anim) s4 prem /* ************************************************************************ ** Legalese ** Acknowledgments ** Opt-in/out Instructions ** *********************************************************************** */ The set of creative works herein reviewed and analyzed, including the subset {books, movies, TV shows, toys}, are the property of their respective copyright holders. No infringement or endorsement is expressed, implied or intended. The original reviews and analyses are themselves copyright 2001 by Phillip Thorne. In this issue, certain data (possibly not otherwise acknowledged) have been obtained, aggregated and synthesized from: Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda andromedatv.com Earth: Final Conflict efc.com Epguides.com epguides.com Tribune Media Services Excite TV tv.excite.com FOX Television fox.com The Internet Speculative Fiction Database sfsite.com/isfdb/ TNN: The National Network tnnonline.com If you're receiving this newsletter, you've probably intentionally subscribed to it, or possibly you're interested in special topical coverage, or maybe I've sent you a teaser issue. To subscribe and unsubscribe, follow standard mailing list protocol with the addresses below: Publisher: nsx@underbase.org Newsletter: nsx-l@underbase.org nsx-l-subscribe (to subscribe; blank subject) nsx-l-unsubscribe (to unsubscribe) Discussion list: nsx-discuss-l@underbase.org nsx-discuss-l-subscribe (to subscribe; blank subject) nsx-discuss-l (to post) nsx-discuss-l-unsubscribe (to unsubscribe) /* *************************************************************************** ** *************************************************************************** ** The Non-Sequitur Express ** http://nsx.underbase.org/ ** Volume 3, Issue 13: Tuesday, 16 October 2001 ** Copyright 1999-2001 Phillip Thorne, nsx@underbase.org ** *************************************************************************** ** ************************************************************************ */