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Nice day, eh? Transistor Punk!
I’m a rather better mood today. I suspect the break in the unpleasant weather has something to do with this. Last night, there was a cloudburst of rain for a few minutes. Then, a lull of an hour or so, followed by hours of steady pattering rain. The oppressive humidity and heavy smog vanished almost at once.
We slept under a comforter, and the curtains swayed back and forth in the pleasantly cool breeze. Fall is certainly the nicest season of the year. It is a shame my parents no longer live in the country. Striking out across their property onto crown land on solitary walks was always a highlight of my visit, especially in the fall. I’ll have to make time for hiking locally, perhaps at Webster’s Falls or someplace similar.
Today it is sunny and just warm enough – around 20 C. Ideal weather, and a beautiful day. I went for a walk during morning break. At lunch, I strolled a few blocks down to Christopher’s, Hamilton’s greasiest diner (and that’s saying something!), and had an excellent burger and fries. I brought a book with me.
I’ve been reading the SF novel “Space Lords” by Cordwainer Smith. It’s not technically “pulp,” I suppose, though Smith wrote for the pulps in the 40s’ and 50s’. It is an obvious product of a transitional period in SF, published in 1969. It’s a “nuts and bolts” space adventure crossed with a consciousness expanding cosmic freak-outs that were starting to take over the genre. I think “Ringworld” is similar – lots of technical details, and the future is a shagadelic party.
“Space Lords” might be of particular interest to the furry crowd, describing as it does a universe in which anthropomorphic animals act as slaves. I believe they end up rebelling and killing off the humans, something that might also appeal to the more bloodthirsty weres in the audience.
I’m attempting to work through the huge pile of pulp SF and fantasy novels I’ve purchased over the years and failed to read. Riding the bus has given me a lot of spare reading time, as does my recent lack of interest in websurfing and MUCK’ing. I was able to read the WWI novel “Middle Parts of Fortune” simply during my 25 minutes bus time each day. That, incidentally, is an excellent work. It was written shortly after the war, and the author served in the trenches. It seems to give a much truer picture of the daily life of soldiers during that war than Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Remarque’s book, though excellent, was not a product of personal experience.
Anyway, I was talking about SF. I’m building up a new love for science-fiction books, a literary genre I’d rather moved away from since high-school. What’s new and hot out there in SF literature land? Anyone got any suggestions? I hear Neal Stephenson’s latest is good.
I also need to pick up a copy of Brunner’s 1978 book “Shockwave Rider,” which I understand is the first novel in which all the elements of the cyberpunk genre are obviously identifiable.
I was talking to Bitterguy recently about “Dieselpunk,” which is the latest “X Technology Punk” to be in vogue, I suppose. Gear Krieg sorta stuff – skilled engineering but analog only technology. Building on that somewhat, I was thinking it might be interesting to have a “Punchcardpunk” or “Transitorpunk” story set in an alternate 1970, in a world where an international computer net has been built with existing transistor/very early microchip technology. I’m thinking of data hackers driving around with “portable” computers in the back of vans… phone phreaks… secret couriers with spools of magnetic tape… push button home computers…
Certainly the early 70s’ had a very “cyberpunk” feel - decaying urban landscapes slowly replaced with monolithic concrete blocks, record high urban crime, etc.
Cripes. 1:30! I’d better get back to work.
We slept under a comforter, and the curtains swayed back and forth in the pleasantly cool breeze. Fall is certainly the nicest season of the year. It is a shame my parents no longer live in the country. Striking out across their property onto crown land on solitary walks was always a highlight of my visit, especially in the fall. I’ll have to make time for hiking locally, perhaps at Webster’s Falls or someplace similar.
Today it is sunny and just warm enough – around 20 C. Ideal weather, and a beautiful day. I went for a walk during morning break. At lunch, I strolled a few blocks down to Christopher’s, Hamilton’s greasiest diner (and that’s saying something!), and had an excellent burger and fries. I brought a book with me.
I’ve been reading the SF novel “Space Lords” by Cordwainer Smith. It’s not technically “pulp,” I suppose, though Smith wrote for the pulps in the 40s’ and 50s’. It is an obvious product of a transitional period in SF, published in 1969. It’s a “nuts and bolts” space adventure crossed with a consciousness expanding cosmic freak-outs that were starting to take over the genre. I think “Ringworld” is similar – lots of technical details, and the future is a shagadelic party.
“Space Lords” might be of particular interest to the furry crowd, describing as it does a universe in which anthropomorphic animals act as slaves. I believe they end up rebelling and killing off the humans, something that might also appeal to the more bloodthirsty weres in the audience.
I’m attempting to work through the huge pile of pulp SF and fantasy novels I’ve purchased over the years and failed to read. Riding the bus has given me a lot of spare reading time, as does my recent lack of interest in websurfing and MUCK’ing. I was able to read the WWI novel “Middle Parts of Fortune” simply during my 25 minutes bus time each day. That, incidentally, is an excellent work. It was written shortly after the war, and the author served in the trenches. It seems to give a much truer picture of the daily life of soldiers during that war than Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front.” Remarque’s book, though excellent, was not a product of personal experience.
Anyway, I was talking about SF. I’m building up a new love for science-fiction books, a literary genre I’d rather moved away from since high-school. What’s new and hot out there in SF literature land? Anyone got any suggestions? I hear Neal Stephenson’s latest is good.
I also need to pick up a copy of Brunner’s 1978 book “Shockwave Rider,” which I understand is the first novel in which all the elements of the cyberpunk genre are obviously identifiable.
I was talking to Bitterguy recently about “Dieselpunk,” which is the latest “X Technology Punk” to be in vogue, I suppose. Gear Krieg sorta stuff – skilled engineering but analog only technology. Building on that somewhat, I was thinking it might be interesting to have a “Punchcardpunk” or “Transitorpunk” story set in an alternate 1970, in a world where an international computer net has been built with existing transistor/very early microchip technology. I’m thinking of data hackers driving around with “portable” computers in the back of vans… phone phreaks… secret couriers with spools of magnetic tape… push button home computers…
Certainly the early 70s’ had a very “cyberpunk” feel - decaying urban landscapes slowly replaced with monolithic concrete blocks, record high urban crime, etc.
Cripes. 1:30! I’d better get back to work.
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Or maybe the Cuban missile crisis escalated into a real shooting war, and the US and USSR are both rubble.
I was thinking Britain in 1970 might be an interesting setting for this. Or heck, 1975. Then you'd have real punks! It's already a depressing and grey place. Imagine the already conservative government has cracked down on travel and civil rights - the punks have something to rebel against besides grimy public housing and boredom. Everyone in the country needs an ID card - a hold-over from WWII that was reintroduced when America went belly-up in 1963.
Sure, it's just a rehash of cyberpunk plots and what not, but I think with some work I could make it original.
In the 1960s' heist-caper movie "The Italian Job," Michael Caine hires a computer science professor to write a program that will screw up a traffic control computer in Italy. He and his team sneak into the computer facility, and switch spools. They use the resulting traffic jam as cover for a gold heist. Hmm. Ideas, ideas...