The SFFaudio Podcast #373 – Moby Dick by Herman Melville, read by Stewart Wills.
This UNABRIDGED AUDIOBOOK (24 hours 12 minutes) comes to us courtesy of LibriVox.org. Moby Dick was first published in 1851.
The next SFFaudio Podcast will feature our discussion of it!
Posted by Jesse Willis
Reading, Short And Deep #018
Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss A Pail Of Air by Fritz Leiber
A Pail Of Air was first published in Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1951.
Here’s a link to the PDF of the story.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
The SFFaudio Podcast #372 – June 6, 2016 by George Allan England; read by Julie Davis of A Good Story Is Hard To Find. This is an unabridged reading of the short story (52 minutes) followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Paul Weimer, Julie Davis, and Maissa Bessada.
June 6th, 2016 was first published in Collier’s in April 22, 1916.
Talked about in this episode:
as a story, a fine imagination about all the technologies we’ll have in the future, a time capsule to open after 100 years, storytelling aside…, accurate predictions?, a historical artifact, Looking Backwards, what were you thinking, nothing is accurate, a third right, if you squint real hard, a terrible plot, the sappiest romance, he foresaw Marilyn Monroe, he got texting, radio movies = television, any particular paragraph, technology and social change, alcohol isn’t made anymore, socialist pushing, prohibition, that experiment failed, smoking is still in fashion (but falling out of favor), unless you’re sanitized, he got Skype right (kinda), wouldn’t it be great if we could…, burning our clothes, everything is made of paper and only used once, paper underwear, it’s illegal to make noise or to be sick, as a dystopian story, “Repent, Harlequin!” Said The Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison, free public transit, everything is aluminum, everything is regulated, weather regulated, cloud seeding, from the Territory of Patagonia to the State of Labrador, the President of England, the 1970s push for the metric system in the USA, everyone is cooperating now, the United States of Asia, the Asian fleet is stationed in Hawaii, Japan or China, they made NAFTA really work, the TPP, a 2016 airplane that’s already broken, the anti-grav element, automation from a distance, the self driving car, the “Tesla” thing, more Philip K. Style, 250km per hour, the Trans-Atlantic aircraft, how amazing that would have sounded, he got some things right, why this story is so extraordinary, Philip K. Dick’s 2016, a slice of life from one day 100 years into the future, what he got right, 28 million people live in New York, a social trend that nobody predicted (except for Clifford Simak), Make Room, Make Room, Stand On Zanzibar, what Science Fiction is doing, the “where’s my flying car” or “where’s my jetpack?” phenomenon, obsessed with hygine, Purell everywhere, there’s no crime in this story, she was promised more rain, what makes one a great writer, the human element, the essence of the story, the role of women, a 1960s lady, and his heart melted, businesses actually paying their taxes, the kind of socialism we can get behind, everyone knows what everyone is doing all the time, everybody knows where everybody is, convenience vs. Big Brother, everyone has everything they need, children are to be seen and not heard, where’s the children, Brave New World without the drugs, Soma in the ozoneators, the women’s suffrage movement, the Prohibition movement, every leap year women got the opportunity to ask men to marry them, marriage, cellphones (or satphones) telepathy, a slidewalk as in The Roads Must Roll by Robert A. Heinlein, Iridium Satphone, an urgent telepathic call from Hong Kong, bluetooth technology, the Sub-Atlantic tube, a trans-atlantic tunnel, Channel Tunnel, email, video ads on the subway, newspapers are completely gone, how much would George Allan England like us talking about this story on this date?, headphones, what a world of wonders we do live in, to George, we’re not there yet (for non-commercial cremation), filling in New York harbour, we bend nature to our will, the big eugenics thing, the eugenics board, the fallacy of eugenics, Muhammad Ali, how fallible and foolish people are, alcohol going out of fashion, turning off alcohol would be like banning marriage, The Drunken Botanist, the benefits of alcohol, people in 9,000bc, the archaic art of letter writing, a little gesture of the time, investing in the characters, the PDF is a bit hard to read, muting the feminine philosophy, feminism, he will make more in the end, the images, did the art come first and the story follow?, etherically connected, centrally regulated atomic clocks, a Pickwick Papers situation, Charles Dickens, the illustrator died, monthly installments, the invention of the cliffhanger, Paul is related to Charles Dickens.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Reading, Short And Deep #017
Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss The Wolf by Guy de Maupassant
The Wolf was first published in French in 1889.
Here’s a link to the PDF of the story.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson
The SFFaudio Podcast #371 – Jesse, Paul, and Marissa talk about Clans Of The Alphane Moon by Philip K. Dick.
Talked about on today’s show:
1964, entertaining, gotta write this book, gotta take some drugs, more about his life than any other PKD books we’ve, when the slime mold gives him amphetamines, a mental breakdown, what the plot of the novel is, a bad scene out of It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, World, such a Philip K. Dick moment, A Scanner Darkly, Alphane vs. Earth, off the shelf stuff, breasts every ten pages, a breast heavy book, nipple dilation, a scathing look, her nipples reduced, a breasty book, the Irish actress, the ending, an insane moon full of norms, it’s going to work out, she almost bites his ear off, the love potion, a joke, release some of the air out of your tires, of course crazy people aren’t stupid, the clans are not the pushovers Earth thinks they are, worst CIA ever, going from crisis to crisis, the original short story, Shell Game, pare = paranoid, parallels, the script mostly about his own life, this is his life, murder, a simulacra, a comedy, women as decoration, Philip K. Dick self-aware characters, mancis = psychopaths?, pares live in Adolphville, Hebophreniacs = Ghanditown?, ObComs (obsessive compulsives), Schizs = Joan DA’rc, DaVinci Heights, Hamlet Hamlet, William Shakespeare, Hamlet as a Philip K. Dick novel, a commentary-guy, To be or not to be is a Philip K. Dick line, some of the best writing, briefly described aliens, Lord Runningclam, things are going to work out, geniusly brilliant hilarious funny and touching, no second or third agenda, socially inept slime mold, Shut Up Slime Mold, Lord RC sent me over, a venusian moss, pretty damn hilarious, time travel, cops, taking too much speed, what happened to the cop girlfriend who can go back in time?, Omega-13 (Galaxy Quest reference), a 12 by 12 foot area, like a real cop, a tiny little gun, a Philip K. Dick buddy cop movie with Lord Running Clam, rotoscope style, a TV clown (not a news clown), Bunny Hentman’s spaceship, wub fur slippers, homeopapes, a sanitarium 3 light years away, just because you have a mental disorder does that mean you can’t have a life?, three pares together, what was happening in PKD’s life during the time of this book’s writing, Dick had his wife committed, wracked by guilt, I’m the crazy one, who’s the crazy one, taking speed, the wife not supporting him, earn more money, if I can write faster…, a good book with serious problems, so many good ideas that are underdeveloped, Red Canada is full of simulacra, our reality, as soon as they can get drones that can walk around with faces on them, they look and act like people, getting into the ideas it is offering, Daniel Magaboom, the cylon problem, different kinds of people, reflecting how the characters act, love potions, exploring the ideas of autonomy, Galatic Pot-Healer, messages via your toilet bowl, raising a sunken cathedral, Glimmung, trying to be optimistic, furthering the agenda of beings all across the galaxy, Lord Runningclam does a Groot from Guardians Of The Galaxy, RBX303 is the blind best friend of Bunny, charming lechery, Lions Bloodregal, Bunny is behind it all, it’s all a shell game, Chuck Rittersdorf, crappy plans, that’s what happens, I don’t know what the plot of this book is, Chuck, Paul can be in the dep camp (Cotton Mather Estates), poor guy, Bains another name in The Man In The High Castle, the Philip K. Dick fan page, one funny scene, designed to be a comedy, a formal occasion to which you must attend you act like a simulacra of yourself, new Doctor Who, Gangers (dopplegangers), Sixth Column by Robert A. Heinlein, who’s on the list?, the saint psychotics, powers, when you talk to schizs you get the sense that things are different in their world, regular logic doesn’t apply, exploring mental issues (and doing a comedy piece), the big Steve Jobs thing, the reality distortion field is a real thing, the laws of social dynamics, physical impossibilities vs. social impossibilities, with think things are stable but they are fundamentally unstable, hugging the homeless, social reality, inverting social relations is possible, sort of a fantasy book for a minute, a metaphor almost, a mess that you can think and enjoy, works for us.
Posted by Jesse Willis
Reading, Short And Deep #016
Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss The House by Fredric Brown.
The House was first published in Fantastic, August 1960.
Here’s a link to the PDF of the story.
Posted by Scott D. Danielson