Did you read our post about how to get FREE SWAG from Tantor Media? If you did you know Tantor Media is actually delivering on its promise of a FREE AUDIOBOOK for feedback about their new website!
And now I’ve got the physical proof in hand!
After I checked out out their improved website I left some feedback (I actually suggested they start a podcast) and waited two weeks for my audiobook’s delivery. I picked it up at the PO Box yesterday. Two weeks isn’t too shabby for a delivery to Canada.
If you haven’t already go on over to Tantor Media, check out their new website, and get your own FREE audiobook by mail!
The Time Machine
By H.G. Wells; Read by Scott Brick
4 CDs – Approx. 3 Hours 58 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Tantor Media
Published: 2002
ISBN: 1400100771
They’ve also got their February 2010 catalogue available in a downloadable |PDF|!
After three recent podcasts (two for SFBRP, one for the SFFaudio Podcast) I’ve prepared a listening list of the topic of INVISIBILITY. Invisibility is, I argue, ultimately not a scientific phenomenon but rather a literary one. When we use the word “visible” we are referring to something that is either seen or see-able. I can say something is more (or less) visible than something else and be correct. This concept of gradations of visibility is quite legitimate, and doesn’t often lead to any conceptual difficulty. But, we also have a tradition of negating concepts that we think we understand well – and then expecting that negation to exist too.
For instance. First consider the concept of pressure. Then consider these two sentences:
“This bottle is pressurized.” <-(Looks ok)
"That bottle is unpressurized.” <-(Looks ok)
Now consider the concept of visibility. And consider two more sentences:
"This feather is visible." <-(Looks ok)
"That feather is invisible.” <-(Looks... no wait! It's not ok.)
So what's the difference between these two concepts and their respective negations?
First, there is the problem of a conceptual equivocation in the concepts. The adjectives "pressurized" and "unpressurized" actually refer to the contents (or lack thereof) in the bottle, and not the bottle itself. Whereas in the second pair the adjectives “visible” and “invisible” refer only to the feather.
No matter, as you might be thinking, is 100% transparent. This is not completely obvious. Air seems invisible to us, but in reality even air isn’t actually 100% transparent. One strange, if incomplete, definition of MATTER might be “that which cannot be invisible.” Invisibility, therefore, can be only properly attributed to the absence of something. A perfect vacuum would be perfectly transparent, but as you are probably now realizing a vacuum is not actually a thing. It is the absence of anything.
To be sure there can be, and certainly are: unseen feathers (a black feather in an unoccupied cave), feathers that are hidden (behind something else), or even a feather that is camouflaged to look like something else. And that is the extent of feathers and their non-visibleness. The only further kind of feather we could imagine that is actually invisible must therefore be a wholly fictional feather.
So when we say things like “a glass cup is invisible in water” we can only be speaking metaphorically.
What we really mean is that the glass cup is hidden from us, it is camouflaged. This kind of invisibility is no more persuasive than saying a large city is invisible to a blind man. The city is of course visible, it is just not visible to him. And likewise the cup is visible, just not to our eyes in that medium. So the question then becomes, is it ever conceivably possible to make a man non-visible in the medium of air?
And that’s when we come to my answer.
Only in fiction.
The best expression of this is probably in the movie Mystery Men (1999). Wherein the Invisible Boy is “able to turn invisible, but only when no one is looking at him.”
So here finally, in chronological order of imagination, are just a few of the many uses of the fictional concept of invisibility:
The Ring Of Gyges (extracted from Book II Part I of The Republic)
By Plato; Read by Sibella Denton
1 |MP3| – Approx. 31 Minutes [PHILOSOPHY]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: February 22, 2009 Gyges, a shepherd in the service of the king of Lydia, discovers a gold ring that can make him invisible. It, along with his covetous nature are the means by which he murdered the King and won the affection of the Queen.
Written 360 B.C..
What Was It?
Based on a story by Fitz-James O’Brien; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: Syndicated to radio stations including
Broadcast: October 10, 1943
Provider: Archive.org
The story upon which this radio play was based was first published in 1859. The Weird Circle was a 1940s half hour radio drama series that ran 78 episodes in syndication from 1943 to 1945 in the USA.
The Invisible Man
By H.G. Wells; Read by Alex Foster 13 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 4 Hours 54 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: 2006 The Invisible Man (1897) is one of the most famous science fiction novels of all time. Written by H.G. Wells (1866-1946), it tells the story of a scientist who discovers the secret of invisibility and uses it on himself. The story begins as the Invisible Man, with a bandaged face and a heavy coat and gloves, takes a train to lodge in a country inn whilst he tries to discover the antidote and make himself visible again. The book inspired several films and is notable for its vivid descriptions of the invisible man–no mean feat, given that you can’t see him!
Miss Pim’s Camouflage
By Lady Stanley; Read by Grant Hurlock 31 Zipped MP3 Files or Podcast – Approx. 7 Hours 49 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: September 28, 2009 Mid-WWI, staid Englishwoman Miss Perdita Pim suffers a sunstroke gardening and gains the power of invisibility. She becomes a super-secret agent, going behind German lines, sometimes visible, sometimes not, witnessing atrocities & gleaning valuable war information
Luke Burrage, in the second of two consecutive shows with me as a guest on Science Fiction Book Review Podcast, is talking about Smoke by Donald E. Westlake and other stories about invisibility. We thoughrouly examine the invsiblity meme, discuss its strengths and weaknesses and chat about possible upcoming topics of conversation!
SFBRP #079 – Smoke and more invisible men
1 |MP3| – Approx. 58 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: SFBRP.com
Podcast: Monday, January 18, 2010
Here’s what we talked about:
Luke’s The Invisible Man podcast (SFBRP#78), The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, Donald E. Westlake’s Smoke, invisibility, Freddie Urban Noon, crime, Smoke is an invisible man story done right, Memoirs Of An Invisible Man by H.F. Saint, Memoirs Of An Invisible Man (the 1992 film), invisibility in Fantasy (J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord Of The Rings), invisibility in Science Fiction (The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells), invisibility in a comic crime story, what are the problems with being an invisible thief?, humor, New York, Richard Stark, hard boiled crime, 5 Writing Lessons Learned from Donald Westlake, “When the phone rang Parker was in the garage killing a man.”, The Writing Excuses Podcast, Luke’s review of Makers by Cory Doctorow (SFBRP #74), big tobacco, Westlake’s way of telling a story “he went into the unspeakable kitchen.”, Westlake is a masterful writer of sentences, Peg Briscoe (Freddie’s girlfriend) is a competent confederate, how do you steal things when you’re invisible? (people will see the stolen goods floating down the street!), how do you sell stolen goods when you’re invisible? (you’ll need a confederate), invisibility is a small but well known meme, comparing the memes of invisibility and time travel, nailing small coffins and flogging tiny horses, The Man With The Getaway Face by Richard Stark, the Stark novels are faced paced and utterly absorbing, the differences between Stark novels and Westlake novels, The Hunter by Richard Stark, Payback (the 1999 film), more invisible men, Hollow Man (the 2000 film), Sony used a fake reviewer to shill its movies, unlikeable characters in novels vs. film, the concept of invisibility is a human concept and not a worldly phenomenon (and what that does to our perception of possibility), negating a phenomenon doesn’t create a new phenomenon, invisibility in The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy series, Jack Ward, The Sonic Society, Superman, why Superman is impossible, invisible men cannot smoke or drink or eat if they want to remain wholly invisible, Neil Morrisey, The Vanishing Man (1998), future memes and themes for podcasts: THE YELLOW PERIL, when will China take over the world? (soon), David Wingrove’s Chung Kuo series, The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer, the Judge Dee mysteries, Starship: Flagship by Mike Resnick, Kirinyaga by Mike Resnick |READ OUR REVIEW|, ***watch out for the false ending*** Alan Moore‘s The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Captain Nemo, Mina Harker, Allan Quatermain, the National Treasure series, Indiana Jones, 6 Insane Fan Theories That Actually Make Great Movies Better, the best television show ever made: The Adventures Of Young Indiana Jones, doing something with a television show that no-one has ever done on TV before or since, automating your podcast with Audacity, python.
Luke Burrage, in the first of two shows with me as a guest on Science Fiction Book Review Podcast, is reviewing and talking about The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells. Its a fun exercise, we run down the whole book and talk about other invisibility stories too. Have a listen…
SFBRP #078 – H.G. Wells – The Invisible Man
1 |MP3| – Approx. 58 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: SFBRP.com
Podcast: Monday, January 18, 2010
Here’s what we talked about: The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, the public domain status of the writings of H.G. Wells, Luke and Jesse in conversation, The War Of The Worlds, The Island Of Dr. Moreau, The First Men In The Moon, Luke’s review of The Time Machine, Sussex, invasion literature, mad scientist, horror, thriller, the village of Iping, invisibility, scientific invisibility, What Was It?, haunted house, the 2000 film Hollow Man, Smoke by Donald E. Westlake, the development of the invisibility meme, creating tension in a scene with exposition, Luke’s review of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, the Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan Raiders Of The Lost Ark story conference |PDF|, a Nazi monkey, Griffin (the titular Invisible Man) as an anti-hero, The Ring Of Gyges (found within Plato’s The Republic), invisibility as a cipher for moral character, invisibility is good for nothing other than spying, if you’re an invisible person you’ll need a confederate, The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Miss Pim’s Camouflage by Lady Stanley, WWI, Invisible Agent, WWII, isolation, moral isolation, anonymity, Eric Rabkin’s point about, refractive index, albinism, the sleight of hand that H.G. Wells uses in The Invisible Man and The Time Machine, The Crystal Egg by H.G. Wells, Mars, long distance communication, what is the serious problem with invisibility? [the answer is a DEFEATER for any truly HARD SF story], the background for The Time Machine is Charles Darwin, evolution and the class system, the background for The War Of The Worlds is invasion literature, war and colonialism, Eddie Izzard‘s colonialism through flags, the background for The Invisible Man is personal responsibility, isolation and moral character, Thomas Marvel (the tramp with an invisible friend), the parallels between The Invisible Man and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fawlty Towers, psychopathy, sociopathy, the one ring’s invisibility, invisibility for burglary is only half as useful as you’d expect, imagine the Sauron’s ring in the hands of Denethor, Boromir, or Gandalf!, the filmspotting podcast, visit Luke’s website!
How does a great audiobook company celebrate its 10 year anniversary? How about giving away a free audiobook?
Indeed, so to promote their 10th anniversary, test out their newly redesigned website, and get some feedback on their new ordering system, Tantor Media is offering a FREE audiobook by mail!
To get your free audiobook it looks like you’ll need to peruse the newly redesigned website and fill out a questionnaire. After that they’ll send you the audiobook by mail.
That is, you’d get one of these…
…your choice of either H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine or Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland.
Admittedly, not all of the available titles in this sale are unabridged, but they mostly are. There are a dozen SFF titles, plenty of crime, mystery and noir as well as a shelfload of history audiobooks. There are even a couple of audio dramas in there.
Here’s just a smattering of what excited me:
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; read by Ben Kingsley THE AENEID by Virgil; read by Frederick Davidson BABYLON BABIES by Maurice G. Dantec; read by Joe Barrett THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London; read by Ethan Hawke CASINO ROYALE by Ian Fleming; read by Simon Vance CHRISTOPHER’S GHOSTS by Charles McCarry; read by Stefan Rudnicki A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT by Mark Twain; read by Carl Reiner CRIMINAL PARADISE by Steven M. Thomas; read by Patrick Lawlor THE DEAL by Peter Lefcourt; read by William H. Macy DEATH MATCH by Lincoln Child; read by Barrett Whitener |READ OUR REVIEW| DON QUIXOTE DE LA MANCHA by Miguel de Cervantes; read by Robert Whitfield EVIL, INC. by Glenn Kaplan; read by Glenn Kaplan THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX by Elleston Trevor; read by Grover Gardner FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley; read by Julie Harris FRANKENSTEIN, OR THE MODERN PROMETHEUS by Mary Shelley; read by Simon Templeman, Anthony Heald, and Stefan Rudnicki HOW TO SURVIVE A ROBOT UPRISING by Daniel H. Wilson; read by Stefan Rudnicki |READ OUR REVIEW| HUCK FINN AND TOM SAWYER AMONG THE INDIANS by Mark Twain and Lee Nelson; read by Grover Gardner I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson; read by Robertson Dean |READ OUR REVIEW| I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves; read by Frederick Davidson THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS by Jack Finney; read by Kristoffer Tabori IT’S SUPERMAN! by Tom De Haven; read by Scott Brick JAMES BOND BOXED SET by Ian Fleming; read by Simon Vance KING KONG by Edgar Wallace and Merian C. Cooper; novelization by Delos W. Lovelace; read by Stefan Rudnicki |READ OUR REVIEW| THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE by Richard Condon; read by Christopher Hurt THE MARTIAN CHILD by David Gerrold; read by Scott Brick MARTIAN TIME-SLIP AND THE GOLDEN MAN by Philip K. Dick; read by Grover Gardner MILDRED PIERCE by James M. Cain; read by Christine Williams MYSTIC WARRIOR by Tracy and Laura Hickman; read by Lloyd James PETER PAN by J.M. Barrie; read by Roe Kendall THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY by Oscar Wilde; read by Simon Vance THE PRESTIGE by Christopher Priest; read by Simon Vance QUANTUM OF SOLACE by Ian Fleming; read by Simon Vance RINGWORLD’S CHILDREN by Larry Niven; read by Barrett Whitener |READ OUR REVIEW| ROCKET SHIP GALILEO by Robert A Heinlein; read by Spider Robinson |READ OUR REVIEW| SUPERMAN RETURNS by Marv Wolfman; read by Scott Brick |READ OUR REVIEW| SWEENEY TODD AND THE STRING OF PEARLS by Yuri Rasovsky; read by a full cast TARZAN OF THE APES by Edgar Rice Burroughs; read by Ben Kingsley THE TEN-CENT PLAGUE by David Hajdu; read by Stefan Rudnicki THERMOPYLAE by Paul Cartledge; read by John Lee THE THREE MUSKETEERS by Alexandre Dumas; read by Michael York THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells; read by Ben Kingsley THE TRIAL by Franz Kafka; read by Geoffrey Howard UTOPIA by Sir Thomas More; read by James Adams V FOR VENDETTA by Steve Moore; read by Simon Vance |READ OUR REVIEW| THE WAR OF THE WORLDS by H.G. Wells; read by Christopher Hurt WHERE’S MY JETPACK? by Daniel H. Wilson; read by Stefan Rudnicki |READ OUR REVIEW| THE WINTER OF FRANKIE MACHINE by Don Winslow; read by Dennis Boutsikaris THE WORLD ACCORDING TO NARNIA by Jonathan Rogers; read by Brian Emerson
Did you read our post about how to get FREE SWAG from Tantor Media? If you did you know Tantor Media is actually delivering on its promise of a FREE AUDIOBOOK for feedback about their new website!
The Time Machine
After three recent podcasts (two for SFBRP, one for the SFFaudio Podcast) I’ve prepared a listening list of the topic of INVISIBILITY. Invisibility is, I argue, ultimately not a scientific phenomenon but rather a literary one. When we use the word “visible” we are referring to something that is either seen or see-able. I can say something is more (or less) visible than something else and be correct. This concept of gradations of visibility is quite legitimate, and doesn’t often lead to any conceptual difficulty. But, we also have a tradition of negating concepts that we think we understand well – and then expecting that negation to exist too. 
What Was It?
Miss Pim’s Camouflage
