science – Page 12

The Thousand-And-Second Tale Of Scheherazade by Edgar Allan Poe

SFFaudio Online Audio

The Thousand-and-Second Tale of Scheherazade by Edgar Allan Poe - illustration by Frank R. Paul

Here’s the uncredited editorial introduction, presumably by Hugo Gernsback himself, to The Thousand-And-Second Tale Of Scheherazade as it appeared in the May 1928 issue of Amazing Stories:

“When we realize that this story was written nearly 100 years ago, we must marvel at the extraordinary fertile imagination of Poe. Poe was probably the inventor of “Scientifiction” as we know it today, and just because the story was written almost a century ago, certainly does not make it less valuable. On the contrary, it becomes more valuable as time passes. It is just as applicable to the modern man, who is mostly in the fog about what goes on around him in science today, as his predecessors were a century ago.”

Indeed, if you read it straight through, without pausing to read the footnotes, you’ll probably only get a vague sense of what’s going on in this story. And though I think I tumbled to the idea pretty early on, I still found myself in many places echoing the king’s many harrumphs. I’m not one to use the term “genius” lightly, but if anyone is worthy of the term, it is certainly Edgar Allan Poe. Even in his lesser works, like The Thousand-And-Second Tale Of Scheherazade, there is a wry brilliance that may be entirely matchless.

The Thousand-And-Second Tale Of Scheherazade
By Edgar Allan Poe; Read by Gregg Margarite
1 |MP3| – Approx. 55 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox
Published: October 1, 2009
First published in the February 1845 issue of Godey’s Lady’s Book.

And here’s the matching |PDF|.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Scientific American – 60-Second Science – Moon Not Made of Cheese

SFFaudio Online Audio

Every once in a while I have an surreal conversation. The conversation usually begins when a person says something I misunderstand. They claim something and then proceed to tell me about it. I assume that the person in question’s claim is a claim about the universe (I assume that because that’s the place I’m trying to understand). When the surreality begins is when it turns out that they are actually talking about is a part of the world – I guess that’s their perception of it.

The other day I had one when a friend of mine suggested I read a book called Fringe-ology. He described it as “a good book.”

Was he right? Is Fringe-ology a good book? The title sounded frighteningly unfruitful to me.

The question I then asked myself was: “Must I read it to form my own judgement?”

It was highly rated on Amazon.com (five stars and twenty five reviews). Did that fact make it “a good book?”

The book’s subtitle, How I Tried to Explain Away the Unexplainable-And Couldn’t, didn’t make me want to read it either. Science, as I understand it, isn’t about “explaining away” anything (unless you are speaking metaphorically, which the practice of science certainly doesn’t embrace). And the “unexplainable” is a term that shows some seriously misguided thinking about reality (based on my reading of science history). Perhaps that was just marketing though.

Upon closer examination there is something else that makes me question Fringe-ology being a “good book” – there is a bent spoon on the book’s cover.

That is not a good sign.

To try to convince me to read Fringe-ology: How I Tried to Explain Away the Unexplainable-And Couldn’t my friend said this:

“[the author Steven Volk is a] Hard-nosed news reporter who looks honestly at this stuff. And find he can’t disprove much of it.”

I suggested that no matter how hard one’s proboscis, the act of setting out to disprove something wasn’t science.

My friend then went on to talk about the reams of sworn eyewitness testimony to the existence of UFOs. And that they would be admissible as evidence in a court of law.

I then suggested that “reality is not determined by a judicial process.”

It was at about this point that I twigged to some sort of incommensurability in our communications. I was talking about the world, as discovered by the practice of science, and my friend was talking about some other way of seeing the world (that I think is demonstrably false – but perhaps enjoyable or something).

In the end I may have to accept my friend’s judgement about my character. He said I was a “closed” person. He may be right. I will not read horoscopes, I will not accept sworn eyewitness testimony for paranormal claims, and I don’t expect to be reading Fringe-ology: How I Tried to Explain Away the Unexplainable-And Couldn’t any time soon – at least not without some more compelling reasons than I’ve been given.

There’s another way to put all of the above.

My friend was talking about institutional facts and I was talking about brute facts. He thinks the inexplicable exists, whereas I suggest that a book about the inexplicable is going to be zero pages long.

Which brings me to this extraordinarily boring (but presumably useful to my friend) story from Scientific American’s 60-Second Science podcast: “Moon Not Made of Cheese” – which takes a very pragmatic approach to debunking shitty ideas.

|MP3|

Podcast feed:

http://rss.sciam.com/sciam/60secsciencepodcast

Posted by Jesse Willis

Aural Noir Review of Unknown (A Special Edition of Out of My Head) by Didier van Cauwelaert, translated by Mark Polizzotti

Aural Noir: Review

Unknown (A Special Edition of Out of My Head)
By Didier van Cauwelaert; Translated by Mark Polizzotti; Read by Bronson Pinchot
4 CDs – Approx. 4 Hours 21 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: December 2010
ISBN: 9781441759788
Themes: / Mystery / Identity / Amnesia / Identity Theft / Science / Botany / France /

This fast-paced thriller is the basis for the February 2011 film Unknown, starring Liam Neeson, Frank Langella, Diane Kruger, and Aidan Quinn. Martin Harris returns home after a short absence to find that his wife doesn’t know him, another man is living in his house under his name, and the neighbors think he’s a raving lunatic. Worse, not a single person — family, colleague, or doctor — can vouch for him. Worse still, the impostor shares all of Martin’s memories, experiences, and knowledge, down to the last detail. He is, in fact, a more convincing Martin than Martin himself. Is it a conspiracy? Amnesia? Is Martin the victim of an elaborate hoax, or of his own paranoid delusion? In his high-powered new novel, Didier van Cauwelaert, the award-winning author of One-Way, explores the illusory nature of identity and the instability of the things we take for granted. Dispossessed of his job, his family, his name, and his very past, Martin Harris is an Everyman caught in an absurd and yet disturbingly convincing nightmare, one that seems to have no exit and that resists every explanation. Part moral fable, part Robert Ludlum-style thriller, Unknown is a fast-paced tale of one man’s desperate attempt to reclaim his existence — even at the cost of his own life.

Unknown is an old fashioned mystery story with an amateur detective who is trying to solve the most important case of his life – his own. The narrative, told in first person, is brisk, fresh, and just slightly foreign. It was such a good for me to have a short novel like this, one that wrapped itself up in less than a day and a half of listening! It reminded me of such wonderful standalone novels as Ed McBain’s Downtown |READ OUR REVIEW| and Donald E. Westlake’s Memory. But unlike those two novels, which had passive protagonists, Martin Harris is competent and determined. He had me investigating and pondering right along with him. I, like he, was attentive to his dilemma, was constantly working through the possibilities of what might be going on, following the thought processes and tripping over the doubts he had in every scene. And, I did all this after seeing the film! I’m really kicking myself about that. Had I read the book, before watching the movie, I think I would have enjoyed the novel quite a bit more. That said, the novel isn’t the movie. The novel is different in tone and detail.

It’s cool to have an intelligent protagonist who thinks through dozens of possible scenarios despite being constantly bombarded by failure. The portrait Didier van Cauwelaert paints, of a distraught victim of identity theft, is full of the kinds of ambiguity and doubt that feels like a very European version of a Robert Ludlum novel. The protagonist may be American, but the novel feels French. The little things that might mean something are everywhere, all the characters seem to have a back story, all of which might be red herrings or just nothing at all and the focus on character and inner-space was surprising. Had the novel been twice the length I doubt I would have enjoyed it half as much.

Bronson Pinchot’s facility with accents is perfect for this novel set in Paris with an American hero. The audiobook is currently available at the Overstock 50% off discounted price (on CD). My thinking is that I did this all wrong, I should have watched the movie after reading the book. If you do it in the right order, let me know what you think of the book, and the movie.

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases: Eloquent Voice, 3Daudioscapes, Blackstone Audio

New Releases

Our friend, and narrator, William Coon has a wonderful new collection of C.M. Kornbluth short stories available through OverDrive, NetLibrary and Audible.

The Little Black Bag and Other Stories
By C.M. Kornbluth; Read by William Coon
WMA, MP3 or Audible Download – Approx. 4 Hours 2 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Eloquent Voice
Published July 15, 2011
ISBN: 9780983089865 (retail), 9780983089865 (library)
Although C.M. Kornbluth died an untimely death at age 34, in his short career he managed to write dozens of short stories and a number of novels, often collaborating with other writers. The five stories in this collection are all his own, and show a writer at the height of his powers. In “The Little Black Bag” (1950) a disgraced physician finds salvation in a high tech doctor’s bag that has inadvertently been transported from the future. “The Altar at Midnight” (1952) explores an unintended consequence of space flight, where astronauts become physically deformed by their work in space, thus making them outcasts back on Earth. “MS Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie” (1957) presents a humorous tale of a writer who finds enlightenment but ends up in an insane asylum. “The Adventurer” (1953) is a tale of political intrigue, in a future where our Republic has become a dynasty for one ruling family. In “The Marching Morons” (1951), a follow-up to “The Little Black Bag,” a 20th Century man awakes in a distant future, where intelligence has been mostly bred out of humanity.

Here’s an interesting sounding mini-collection from a small publisher never before mentioned on SFFaudio…

A Dollar for Your Soul and The Vision Vine
By Earl Vickers; Read by Derrick Barrett
1 CD or Download – Approx. 60 Minutes [UNABRIDGED?]
Publisher: 3Daudioscapes.com
Published: 2010
Featured in this collection are two short stories, “A Dollar for Your Soul” and “The Vision Vine” “A Dollar For Your Soul” – Based on a true story about a high-school soul-selling pyramid scheme, this story is a timeless look at Ponzi schemes and the madness of crowds. It was originally published in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, and a Russian translation appeared in Yesly (“If”) magazine (voted Europe’s best science fiction magazine). “The Vision Vine” is a short story about a tribal culture in conflict with modern civilization. A young boy journeys to a strange virtual world and attempts to bring the two worlds together. This story originally appeared in Whole Earth Review and has also been published in Russian and Japanese

This sounds like an excellent audiobook…

The Age Of Wonder: How The Romantic Generation Discovered The Beauty And Terror Of Science
By Richard Holmes; Read by Gildart Jackson
17 CDs – Approx. 20.4 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 9781455114320
The Age of Wonder is a colorful and utterly absorbing history of the men and women whose discoveries and inventions at the end of the eighteenth century gave birth to the Romantic Age of science. When young Joseph Banks stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, he hoped to discover Paradise. Inspired by the scientific ferment sweeping through Britain, the botanist had sailed with Captain Cook in search of new worlds. Other voyages of discovery—astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical—swiftly follow in Richard Holmes’ thrilling evocation of the second scientific revolution. Through the lives of William Herschel and his sister, Caroline, who forever changed the public conception of the solar system; of Humphry Davy, whose near-suicidal gas experiments revolutionized chemistry; and of the great Romantic writers, from Mary Shelley to Coleridge and Keats, who were inspired by the scientific breakthroughs of their day, Holmes brings to life the era in which we first realized both the awe-inspiring and the frightening possibilities of science—an era whose consequences are with us still.

I’ve wanted to get my hands on this book for about 20 years, I’ve heard things about it…

Hardwired
By Walter Jon Williams; Read by Stefan Rudnicki
10 CDs – Approx. 11.7 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 9781433253065
In Walter Jon Williams’ classic cyberpunk novel, the remnants of a war-ravaged America endure in scattered, heavily armed colonies, while the wealthy Orbital Corporations now control the world. Cowboy, an ex-fighter pilot who has become “hardwired” via skull sockets directly to his lethal electronic hardware, is now a panzerboy, a hi-tech smuggler riding armored hovertanks through the balkanized countryside. He teams up with Sarah, an equally cyborized gun-for-hire, to make a last stab at independence from the rapacious Orbitals. Together, they gather an unlikely gang of misfits for a ride that will take them to the edge of the atmosphere.

For the first time on audio… but I’ve read this, I have the paperback. I know I have read it. But for the life of me I cannot remember it at all. Which is doubly odd given the premise of the story: The main character is missing his memories!!!

The Unpleasant Profession Of Jonathan Hoag
By Robert A. Heinlein; Read by Tom Weiner
4 CDs – Approx. 4.3 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: July 1, 2011
ISBN: 9781433265815
Jonathan Hoag has a curious problem. Every evening, he finds a mysterious reddish substance under his fingernails, with no memory of how it got there. Jonathan hires the husband-and-wife detective team of Ted and Cynthia Randall to follow him during the day and find out. But Ted and Cynthia find themselves instantly out of their depth. Jonathan leaves no fingerprints. His few memories about his profession turn out to be false. Even stranger, Ted and Cynthia’s own memories of what happens during their investigation do not match. There is a thirteenth floor to Jonathan’s building that does not exist, there are mysterious and threatening beings living inside mirrors, and all of reality is not what they thought it was. Part supernatural thriller, part noir detective story, Heinlein’s trip down the rabbit hole leads where you never expected.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Voices In The Dark: The Stolen Bacillus by H.G. Wells

SFFaudio Online Audio

Fear of disease is probably just as old as disease itself. But the modern fear, the fear that a single individual carrying a vial full of specific incurable pathogen – the fear that one crazed fanatic could decimate an entire city’s population by poisoning its water supply – that fear can probably be traced back to the late 19th century and perhaps even to the inventor of the first true Science Fiction short stories, Mr. H.G. Wells. Had the ending of The Stolen Bacillus been done in a slightly different way it may have spawned the whole zombie contagion phenomenon a century early.

The Stolen Bacillus
By H.G. Wells; Read by Dawn Keenan
1 |MP3| – Approx. 16 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Voices In The Dark
Published: 2005
An anarchist, intent on wreaking ruin on a city, steals a phial from a bacteriologist. First published in the Pall Mall Budget’s June 21, 1894 issue.

Posted by Jesse Willis

New Releases: The Teaching Company

New Releases

We’ve talked about The Teaching Company before on SFFaudio, we’ve even had one of their professors on our podcast (Eric S. Rabkin). But I’d never gotten one of their catalogues before. I found this one…

The Teaching Company 2011 |PDF|

…abandoned, back in January. I began pouring over it, looking for more great listens. Sadly I’m afraid I didn’t get my new scanner in time for you folks to enjoy the amazing sale prices in it, but if I promise that if I get another catalogue I will scan it in a more timely manner.

There are dozens of amazing educational options in there. Among the many lecture series that stuck me are:

The Story of Human Language by Professor John McWhorter
Argumentation: The Study of Effective Reasoning by Pofessor David Zarefsky
The Joy of Science by Professor Robert M. Hazen
The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis by Professor Louis Markos
A History of Hitler’s Empire by Professor Thomas Childers
Classical Mythology by Professor Elizabeth Vandiver
The Great Ideas of Philosophy by Professor Emeritus Daniel N. Robinson
No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life by Professor Robert C. Solomon

Posted by Jesse Willis