A speculative mind

  There is a term when a science fiction writer pulls something out of their butt to explain how the hero can solve an unsolvable problem. The writer will invent some hither-to-unknown substance, technology, or device that magically solves the problem. The idea is that he can just wave his hands and the problem goes away. When a writer does this s/he is employing “handwavium.” In the movie Thank You for Smoking , a cigarette executive played by Aaron Eckhart,   is talking with a movie executive played by Rob Lowe, about how to get smokers on screen in a more favorable light. The movie exec is open to this and says, “How do you feel about the future?” “The future?” “Yeah, after all the health thing’s blown over . . . Sony has a new sci-fi flick they are looking to make. Message from Sector Six . All takes place in a space station.” “Cigarettes in space?” “It’s the final frontier Nick.” “But wouldn’t they blow up in an all-oxygen environment?” “Hmm . . . Probably ....

  I have just finished reading Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins. Collins, one of the Apollo 11 Astronauts, died a few weeks ago. Hearing the commentators talk about his death, they also mentioned his book and I was intrigued. I was a child of the 1960’s and astronauts and all things space, were my bread and butter. When I was about 8 or 9, I could have named most of the astronauts who had flown. I watched the moon walk on TV with my family. So did everyone who had access to a TV. It was an activity that almost everyone around the world was doing at the same time. I am not sure there has ever been an event watched by so many people simultaneously. The irony is that the man who helped Armstrong and Aldrin get to the moon, could not watch it himself. He had no TV monitor and even if he had, there would have been no way to transmit it to him when he was going around the far side of the Moon. Michael Collins was a good writer. He could have had a cowriter or a ghostwriter, but he...

                                                                                                                                   Image by  klimkin  from  Pixabay   A lot of writers are good at writing fight scenes. For my money, one of the best is Lois McMaster Bujold. It doesn’t matter whether it is swords and arrows, or plasma arcs and laser cannons. She writes engaging and logical action that is easy for the reader to follow. Yet her attention to detail about the logistics of a fight makes one wonder if she has had training in military tactics. I have also read fight scenes written by authors who are not as skilled as Lois McMaster Bujo...

  Ever wonder what other animals are thinking when they see a human? I was considering this as I was running this morning. From the corner of a driveway a cat was watching me with an air of distain only a cat can muster. So here is my guess at what a cat might be thinking. “Huh. It’s one of those big human things (not mine), running from a predator. They aren’t very fast. The predator should have no trouble catching and eating this one. It must be why there are so many of them, because they are so poor at running away. I don’t see what is pursuing him, but I don’t have to worry about myself. Big fat meal like that; why would a predator bother with me? Besides, I can out run, out jump and out hide the human. Let’s face it, humans may make a lot of noise, but they are pretty worthless when it comes to being hunted. Oh-oh. I see the predator coming now. They are always so much bigger than the humans and faster, and they have these big bright glowing eyes at night. That’s it. I am ou...

  I just finished reading Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles series. It is a series marketed for teenage girls where all the main characters are teenage girls, and I don’t care. I ate the series up. There are six books in the Lunar Chronicles. Theoretically, each of the four main narrative books of the series is a science fiction retelling of a fairy tale: Cinderella , Little Red Riding Hood , Rapunzel , and Snow White . I know what you are saying out there, all you middle-aged men like me. Sounds terrible. Who would want to read that? Well, I would. I did, and I make no apologies. The reason these books are called the Lunar Chronicle series is because the society (or country) that has developed on the Moon is critical to the series. Earth and Moon societies have a tenuous relationship and have apparently fought wars before. The queen of Luna is ruthless, and there is never any doubt who the villain is. The point about these being retelling of fairy tales is a bit misleading. Ci...

  People like to have simple answers. That is why we categorize things. It makes it easier to fit into our minds. We give magnitude numbers to things like earthquakes hurricanes, and tornados.   It is easy to do. Measuring wind speed or the magnitude of vibrations is easy. The problem is that how destructive an earthquake or a tornado is may not necessarily increase with the numerical index. A magnitude 6 earthquake might be 100 times more destructive than a magnitude 7. The magnitude 7 might be deeper underground, or be of shorter duration. The magnitude 6 might be under a populated area with lax building codes. There are a lot of factors that determine how destructive something is, not the least of which is the amount of human suffering. Quantifying the human suffering of an event is a job more suited to an artist that a bean counter. But people want simple answers. Why did the Titanic sink? The captain must have been an idiot. There is a simple answer for you. It is all t...

  This is my list of what I consider to be the best adaptations of science fiction/fantasy books to screen. These are in no particular order because if I tried to rank them, my rankings would change with my moods or what I had last seen or other unimportant motivators. Also, this is my list. It is not your list. Your list is going to be different than mine, and that’s okay. This is not a list of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy films (though some of them are on this list). It is not a list of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy books that have been made into films. This list is all about how good the adaptation was. As excellent as it is, you won’t find 2001: A Space Odyssey on the list because the film and the book were a joint project. The film was not an adaptation of the book. In order for it to be on my list I had to have both read the book and seen the movie or series. So, much as I loved the movie The Martian , I can’t put it on my list because I haven’t read Andy Weir’s book (note to self...