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Post by The Man of Tomorrow on May 8, 2014 16:44:14 GMT -5
Stranger in a Strange Land was very influential in the hippie community. The book was an early advocate of the "free love" lifestyle as well as communal living. And the term "Grok" was used by quite a few knowledgable hippies-I did.The book was written 1961. Heinlein got a few things right Ironic considering he was pretty conservative later in life. Heinlein was more libertarian than conservative. At least that's the take I get from Expanded Universe. |
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Post by Jasoomian on May 8, 2014 17:15:07 GMT -5
David Crosby wrote this song, Stranger in a Strange Land:
(Crosby's instrumental version is a bonus track on the CD issue of The Byrds' Turn Turn Turn)
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 8, 2014 19:46:02 GMT -5
Starting Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Spell Sword (a Darkover novel) tomorrow. I've read a few of those... I remember liking them, but not enough to seek out more of them. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 8, 2014 21:38:56 GMT -5
The song I think of when I recall Stranger In A Strange Land. The great Leon Russell
How many days has it been
Since I was born?
How many days
'Til I die?
Do I know any ways?
That I can make you laugh
Or do I only know how
To make you cry?
When the baby looks around him
It's such a sight to see
He shares a simple secret
With the wise man
He's a stranger
In a strange land
Just a stranger
In a strange land
Tell me why?
He's a stranger
In a strange land
Just a stranger
In a strange land
How many miles will it take
To see the sun?
And how many years
'Til it's done?
Kiss my confusion
Away in the night
Lay by side
When the morning comes
And the baby looks around him
And shares his bed of hay
With the burrow
In the palace of the king
He's a stranger
In a strange land
Tell me why?
He's a stranger
In a strange land
Just a stranger
In a strange land
Just a stranger
In a strange land
Well, I don't exactly know
What's going on in the world today
Don't know what there is to say
About the way the people are treating
Each other, not like brothers
Leaders take us far
Away from ecology
With mythology
And astrology
Has got some words to say
About the way we live today
Why can't we learn
To love each other
It's time to turn a new face
To the whole world
Wide human race
Stop the money chase
Lay back, relax
Get back on the human track
Stop racing toward oblivion
Oh, such a sad
Sad state we're in
And that's a thing
Do you recognize the bells of truth
When you hear them ring?
Won't you stop and listen
To the children sing?
Won't you come on and sing it children?
Stranger in a strange land
Stranger in a strange land
Stranger in a strange land
Stranger in a strange land
Stranger in a strange land
Songwriters
PRESTON, DON J. / RUSSELL, LEON
Published by
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
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Post by The Man of Tomorrow on May 9, 2014 6:34:25 GMT -5
Starting Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Spell Sword (a Darkover novel) tomorrow. I've read a few of those... I remember liking them, but not enough to seek out more of them. I have read a few of them myself before. Nice thing about the earlier Darkover books is you don't have to read them in the order of their publication. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 9, 2014 10:56:37 GMT -5
Fantasy (and sci fi, really) has certainly gotten progressively more 'epic' over the years... from all short stories in the 30s to mostly 2500-3000 page trilogies (or more) today.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 9, 2014 11:30:17 GMT -5
Fantasy (and sci fi, really) has certainly gotten progressively more 'epic' over the years... from all short stories in the 30s to mostly 2500-3000 page trilogies (or more) today. Absolutely. In the 30 thru most of the 50s,the only outlet were pulps and magazines so they had to be short stories or serials. Nowadays so many authors write with muti-part novels in mind in the belief that helps to quarentee them continued display in Barnes and Noble.Its way overboard in that direction now |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 9, 2014 13:22:24 GMT -5
Indeed.. I think that's why the 60s and 70s stuff is good (at least, the stuff that isn't horribly dated).. it was kinda the mid point between too short 'concept' short stories and today's overly epic world building.
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Post by The Man of Tomorrow on May 9, 2014 13:29:30 GMT -5
It's hit and miss. Some of the epic works are outstanding, while some of them are lacking. I'm certainly happy the good stuff is around, though.
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 9, 2014 13:42:31 GMT -5
True, I'm certainly not saying there's no good modern stuff. I just fell less willing to expiriment these days due to the time investment... especially when authors seem to have a tendency not to finish before they die.
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Post by The Man of Tomorrow on May 9, 2014 14:52:55 GMT -5
True, I'm certainly not saying there's no good modern stuff. I just fell less willing to expiriment these days due to the time investment... especially when authors seem to have a tendency not to finish before they die. No, you make a good point. Some series do break up into sub-series, however, so the investment needn't be as great with those. You can read a few books instead of the entire series and not feel unsatisfied. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 12, 2014 20:50:42 GMT -5
Victory at Janusby Andre Norton  This is one that's gotten a TON of different cover.. this is the one I've got... looks like it's from the early 70s.. the original one was a full body shot of the alien dude. This book was, well, terrible. Perhaps if I'd read the first one, I'd have been more amused. The story focuses on a band of aliens that love nature and live in trees... though they used to be human, and somehow got turned into these guys (guess that was in the 1st book). Apparently the humans are trying to get rid of them, because robots that look like the aliens are attack their space port..but it's not clear why. The 'bad guy' is 'THAT WHO ABIDES' (always in caps).. and seems to be some sort of robot who motivations are just that it/he's EVIL. There's some cloning, again, without clear purpose, and the aliens put an end to it. The end. The characters seem pretty alien, but most just weak, as they can't touch any technology without getting the heebie geebies, except when they have to, then it's fine. It's not clear if the whole race is gone (other than the 6 characters in the book that used to be humans) or not. Just a real slog.. and I usually like Andre Norton.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 13, 2014 3:48:42 GMT -5
Binary Star #1 (1978)
Destiny Times Three (1945)-Fritz Leiber
Riding The Torch (1974)-Norman Spinrad
This series publishes 2 novellas.Each author does the afterword for the other's story Destiny Times Three-The science council convenes sometime in Earth's future.Citizen Clawly projects a map of the world on screen.He shows via yellow dots the incidence of nightmares-strong enough to wake the dreamer, from 50,20 and 10 years ago.Clearly there has been no apparent change.Then he shows the results from the preceding year and the yellow dots populate the screen profusely.Clawly goes on to show the recent increased rate of amnesia,the recent upswing in reported personality changes.Clawly proposes an invasion is taking place,an invasion from an unknown source via the mind. Clawly is ridiculed by the council 11 entities control the Probability Engine,a machine that can control reality. They have been overseeing earth's progress for millenia. Whenever the earth reaches a fork in the road concerning its social progress,the probability Engine creates parallel worlds .The entities see which world offers the best direction to take and then destroys the inferior worlds.Or did some of those worlds,unknowingly,escape destruction? Fritz Leiber had been a major SF/Fantasy author for decades.He devises fascinating,clever plots.However I sometimes struggle reading his work.He's very descriptive and fantasy-driven.It might take awhile to understand the world he drops you into for he's in no rush to make clear its background.But once you have that understanding he is a mesmerizing author. Destiny Time Three is a classic parallel world story. 8 of 10 stars
Riding The Torch-Earth is gone and all thats left are 2,000 space vehicles in search of a habitable planet.Searching for over 1000 years.They keep busy with holodeck amusements and continuosly sending manned long range probes out ahead scanning for a new place to live.The probers are called voidsuckers-they enjoy spending a full day alone,in the infinite of space,out of view from spaceships or celestial bodies,in deep meditation within the vacuum of space.The voidsuckers know something about the universe that they are afraid to tell the other earth survivors and have kept their secret for hundreds of years
Norman Spinrad is a favorite new wave author of mine.Literary,outrageous,philosophical.This novella is part Hollywood-In-Space and part religious allegory.7 of 10 stars
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 13, 2014 13:30:37 GMT -5
Those both sound pretty cool.... I'm hoping my next selection can be a 7 or 8 out of 10  |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 13, 2014 22:29:22 GMT -5
A Far SunsetEdmund Cooper My copy is the 1968 'Medallion' printing... looks like it was written in '67. Not the best cover, but I was in the mood for a better space colony type story.. and hoped this would fit the bill.  Plot: Paul Marlowe is stranded on Altair Five after the somehat primitive natives attack, and allow the ship's self destruct to kick in. Stranded and alone on an alien world, Marlowe tries to make a new life while finding out what happened to his crewmates. Science: Cooper uses the light speed barrier, so they do the cryo-sleep thing, which is described as essential to society. The expedition is one of 5 (the European one... the Americans and Russian have their own, of course), and leaves in 2012 *sigh* Analysis: Fun, page-turning story. It hurt my head some the the 'aliens' were basically African tribal Pygmies that somehow had and Aztec culture and Chinese names. Worse, the society was consistently referred to as 'medieval' when it was pre-Columbian, perhaps even Stone Age (no wheel, no writing, only fire and barges for boats). The government was unique and interesting, though, and the twists along the way, while typical of the 60s, were fun.... reminded me of the Dragonriders books, actually (perhaps since I just read an Anne McCaffrey book)
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