tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1656921634940224775.post3604624808091093775..comments2024-02-11T15:29:31.409-05:00Comments on Richard's Pretension: Factive Fiction and Fictive FactRichard Bellushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108081864942272619noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1656921634940224775.post-13849272333364181382015-10-09T15:53:51.717-04:002015-10-09T15:53:51.717-04:00I missed (or possibly don't remember) that Lov...I missed (or possibly don't remember) that Lovecraft tale. I'm trying to imagine a soulful fly.Richard Bellushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10108081864942272619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1656921634940224775.post-88272858954179978732015-10-09T11:59:38.373-04:002015-10-09T11:59:38.373-04:00"A Necessary End" reminds me of a Lovecr..."A Necessary End" reminds me of a Lovecraft short story where an explorer finds this African fly that can kill you with its bite and then your soul transfers into the fly. So he decides to have his revenge on others that mocked him... and use the fly! It's all very pulpy but fun enough. I think it is called "Winged Death". Fly apocalypse might have appealed to Lovecraft. ;)<br /><br />"Darmok" was a real intriguing episode I saw it for the first time a few years ago and really got pulled into it. Might need to revisit it.Roman J. Martelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09545497713474664555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1656921634940224775.post-34973301649939542332015-09-30T15:34:40.467-04:002015-09-30T15:34:40.467-04:00Something about being a medical doctor seems condu...Something about being a medical doctor seems conducive to writing good fiction: Robin Cook, Michael Crichton, F. Paul Wilson, and others. Crichton's books are uniformly well-informed and exciting reads. Not all the movie adaptations have worked -- "Congo" was sappy and pretty bad -- but the novels shouldn't be prejudged by those -- the book "Congo" was pretty good. I liked "Prey," inspired by Drexler's warning about nanotechnology and grey goo.<br /><br />The writers for the series "Enterprise" evidently were Star Trek fans who were irked by some of the logical problems of the Star Trek universe as presented up until then. They came up with a few fixes.Richard Bellushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10108081864942272619noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1656921634940224775.post-35077010416030159952015-09-30T14:17:25.081-04:002015-09-30T14:17:25.081-04:00Sometimes I listen to a PBS radio show called A Wa...Sometimes I listen to a PBS radio show called A Way With Words: http://www.waywordradio.org/ You can listen to their podcast as well. But it's about origins of words or phrases. Sometimes I'm mystified by them as well. Eskimos have words for 40 varieties of snow. Americans use the word dog for that pet, while other cultures have other words they say to refer to that animal. Then we have the written language, which are symbols that also convey meaning. It sort of boggles the mind. <br /><br />I never thought about that aspect of Star Trek and the language, but it's sort of along the same path as why most of the species on Trek are symmetrical and human-like as well as being carbon based. I'm not sure why it's modeled that way, but maybe due to the constraints of a television budget.<br /><br />A Necessary End sounded interesting. One of the books on my reading list is Micheal Crichton's book Prey. I guess you might say it paints an apocalyptic story. Hard to steer clear of those metaphors. :)El Voxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05985563041511492981noreply@blogger.com