• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Science Fiction

Wasn't it Piers Anthony who put uncomfortable to read sex scenes in his science fiction? Never read any, but that's his reputation.
 
GNC said:
Wasn't it Piers Anthony who put uncomfortable to read sex scenes in his science fiction? Never read any, but that's his reputation.
Click to expand...
Only ever read his anthology of short stories it can't have been that great as I never bothered with his others
 
I worked with a lady who was constantly changing her mind as to what she wanted to do as a career (she worked as a project manager). She learned Tarot, she learned massage then she decided she wanted to be an author and someone pointed her in my direction as I was writing a novel during my commute.

'I want to write porn, I mean how hard can that be and there's apparently good money in it?'

'Oookay' I said cagily 'Well get yourself along to Foyles at lunchtime and have a scan through the smutty adult novel section to get an idea of what's involved.'

She accosts me later all flustered 'I can't write that sort of thing, it's disgusting, they actually write about doing it and all the parts and everything'.

'Er well yeah, it's porn.'

'But it's disgusting, why would people read it?'

'You might want to write something else.'

Needless to say she's not an author, she is now a life coach.
 
Heckler20 said:
Needless to say she's not an author, she is now a life coach.
Click to expand...
A bit of backbone behind that career choice. Does it take training or does she assume the title?
 
PeteByrdie said:
I'm stunned anyone reads pornographic literature these days, with soft porn apparently acceptable on many popular TV programmes and hardcore porn readily available online. I can't imagine how anything in written form can compete with what's available visually. In addition, although I rarely read fiction these days, many of the people I know who do have said they skip sex scenes in novels. There's clearly a thriving market, though.
Click to expand...


There is a thriving market in writing text porn tailored exactly to what people want. You need to set your own limits, be unshockable, non-judgemental and be able to turn out lots of high quality "believable" prose at the drop of a hat :D

but the money is good and you make your own hours!

I don't know of an easy way in, people guard their privacy unsurprisingly!

:p:oops:
 
GNC said:
Wasn't it Piers Anthony who put uncomfortable to read sex scenes in his science fiction? Never read any, but that's his reputation.
Click to expand...
I read one of his short stories in 'Again, Dangerous Visions' - called 'In the Barn'.
It was the most explicit thing I'd ever read. Shocked innocent little me.
I don't think I've read anything else by Piers Anthony.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Lubricant helps.
Click to expand...
badumtshsmilie_zpsdx9sli1k.gif
 
WHEN CHRIS OFFUTT LOST HIS VIRGINITY AT A COMICCON
ON GROWING UP THE SON OF A PORNOGRAPHER AND SCI-FI STAR
March 14, 2016 By Chris Offutt

My father’s early science fiction stories placed him in the new wave of young writers changing the field by exploring social concerns such as sexuality, psychology, corporate mentality, politics, and environmentalism. They focused on “soft” as opposed to “hard” science and often wrote from a more literary sensibility than their predecessors. Ifmagazine published Dad’s story “Population Implosion.” Its inclusion in the anthologyWorld’s Best Science Fiction led to an invitation to attend the World Science Fiction Convention of 1969.

My parents packed the Mercedes, left my siblings and me in the care of college students, and drove to St. Louis. Dad clipped on a nametag proclaiming him a “pro.” Strangers asked for his autograph. Women flirted openly, flaunting their braless bodies. None of the men wore ties, and Dad left his in the hotel room. He met other writers with long hair and beards. Surrounded by the outrageous styles of the hippies, Mom no longer worried that the wives of doctors and professors might judge her clothing.

My parents went to St. Louis with the confidence of people who are naïve to their own naïveté, and returned astonished by the experience. They had never questioned the lives they led or the motivations for their decisions; they merely followed the pattern of the time. They hated communists, loved JFK, and flew the flag on national holidays. A gigantic Douay-Rheims Bible sat on a dais in the dining room. The goal of life was making money and children.

A photograph from WorldCon 1969 shows my father in a gray pinstripe suit coat and a white turtleneck sweater. One arm is folded across his chest, the other propped before him, his empty hand posed as if holding an invisible object. His expression is unusual for its frowning discomfort, eyes staring upward as if in thought. Dad’s hair is quite short, and he is clean-shaven. My mother is facing him in a sleeveless cocktail dress, her hair in a perm that puffs around her head. Both appear awkward and ill at ease.

Less than a year later, photographed at their next SF convention in 1970, my parents have undergone a drastic change. Around their necks are silk kerchiefs loosely held by metal clasps. Both wear rock-star sunglasses. Dad has a full beard and long hair. He’s dressed in blue jeans, a thick leather belt, and a cool shirt with epaulets and flap pockets. Mom’s hair is cropped to a pixie cut. She wears a blouse, jeans, and sandals. Each has a broad smile, their bodies in open, relaxed postures. Starved for a sense of social belonging, my parents had found a community that embraced them—science fiction fandom. ...

http://nyc.epeak.in/frame/?url=aHR0...mlyZ2luaXR5LWF0LW1pZHdlc3QtY29uLw==&id=915223
 
[URL='http://www.openculture.com/2015/08/hear-the-very-first-adaptation-of-george-orwells-1984-in-a-radio-play-starring-david-niven-1949.html']Hear the Very First Adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 in a Radio Play Starring David Niven (1949)[/URL]
Since George Orwell published his landmark political fable 1984, each generation has found ample reason to make reference to the grim near-future envisioned by the novel. Whether Orwell had some prophetic vision or was simply a very astute reader of the institutions of his day—all still with us in mutated form—hardly matters. His book set the tone for the next 60 plus years of dystopian fiction and film.

https://archive.org/details/NBCUniversityTheater490827NineteenEightyFour


This radio drama, the “first audio production of the most challenging novel of 1949,” opens with a trigger warning, of sorts, that prepares us for a “disturbing broadcast.” To audiences just on the other side of the Nazi atrocities and the nuclear bombings of Japan, then dealing with the threat of Soviet Communism, Orwell’s dystopian fiction must have seemed dire and disturbing indeed. In addition to the Internet Archive stream at the top, you can download the program in various formats at their site, or listen to it above on Spotify (download Spotify here).

http://www.openculture.com/2015/08/...n-a-radio-play-starring-david-niven-1949.html
 
ramonmercado said:
Hear the Very First Adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984 in a Radio Play Starring David Niven (1949)
Since George Orwell published his landmark political fable 1984, each generation has found ample reason to make reference to the grim near-future envisioned by the novel. Whether Orwell had some prophetic vision or was simply a very astute reader of the institutions of his day—all still with us in mutated form—hardly matters. His book set the tone for the next 60 plus years of dystopian fiction and film.

https://archive.org/details/NBCUniversityTheater490827NineteenEightyFour


This radio drama, the “first audio production of the most challenging novel of 1949,” opens with a trigger warning, of sorts, that prepares us for a “disturbing broadcast.” To audiences just on the other side of the Nazi atrocities and the nuclear bombings of Japan, then dealing with the threat of Soviet Communism, Orwell’s dystopian fiction must have seemed dire and disturbing indeed. In addition to the Internet Archive stream at the top, you can download the program in various formats at their site, or listen to it above on Spotify (download Spotify here).

http://www.openculture.com/2015/08/...n-a-radio-play-starring-david-niven-1949.html
Click to expand...


I listened to the BBC Radio play of 1984 back in 2013 (I thought it was 2012 but it hadn't been made yet) with Christopher Eccleston. I thought it was very good they captured the bleakness of it all very well. Thank you for the links above I shall set some time aside soon to have a good listen!!!!
 
davidplankton said:
I'm maybe being a bit slow, but I've just noticed the similarity between the poster for this film and A Clockwork Orange.
Click to expand...

No coincidence, according to the reviews High-Rise is stuffed with 1970s homages. Really looking forward to it now.
 
Childhood's End TV series - starts on Sky One, Thursday at 9.


Looks like it's already been shown in America:
Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction classic "Childhood's End" has been reimagined for the 21st century, and brought to the small screen, in a new TV miniseries debuting on Syfy network tonight.

When a fleet of spaceships appears in the sky above Earth's largest cities, the alien beings onboard insist that they have arrived to help the human race. The visitors slowly begin to eliminate war, disease and poverty — but what will be the cost of building heaven on Earth? The show offers a modern retelling of the 1953 novel by Clarke.
Click to expand...
The show stars Charles Dance, best known for playing Tywin Lannister on the HBO show "Game of Thrones," as one of the alien overlords, Karellen. Colm Meany, who played Chief O'Brien on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," plays Hugo Wainwright Jr., a newspaper owner who dubs the aliens "the Overlords," and is skeptical of their motives. Mike Vogel, who starred in the TV adaptation of "Under the Dome," stars as Ricky Stormgren, who is chosen to be an intermediary between humans and the Overlords. The series was directed by Nick Hurran, who has directed episodes of "Sherlock" and the modern reboot of "Doctor Who."
Click to expand...
http://www.space.com/31351-childhoods-end-debuts-tonight.html
 
Can anyone help me (please) find Ridley Scott's version of Blade Runner where Harrison Ford narrates through it, film noir style? .... "Skin jobs .. that's what he called them .. in history books he's the kind of man that called black men niggers". That was the first version I ever saw, apparently it's mostly unpopular these days, including everyone involved in the production but I'd like to watch it again, hopefully online! ...
 
Swifty said:
Can anyone help me (please) find Ridley Scott's version of Blade Runner where Harrison Ford narrates through it, film noir style? .... "Skin jobs .. that's what he called them .. in history books he's the kind of man that called black men niggers". That was the first version I ever saw, apparently it's mostly unpopular these days, including everyone involved in the production but I'd like to watch it again, hopefully online! ...
Click to expand...

I would love to see that version again.
 
I liked H.M Hoover's "This Time Of Darkness" as a kid - dark dystopian future at its best!
 
eburacum said:
The first science fiction novel I ever read. This story was the cause of a life-long obsession.
Click to expand...
I read that when I was a teenager. I was awestruck. It was probably the second Arthur C. Clarke book I read (the first being A Fall of Moondust, which would make a great film).

The first SF paperback I ever bought was The War Against the Rull by A.E. Van Vogt.
Before that, I'd only ever borrowed books from the library (Andre Norton, Alan E. Nourse, James Blish, H.G. Wells, etc.)...
 
Is High Rise classed as sci fi? The novel is certainly dystopian but it's surely more of an urban horror story. I guess in its day it might have been classed as speculative fiction, but that's a classification no-one seems to use any more.

Looking forward to it, anyway.
 
For better or worse, Ballard is still classed as science fiction, so it probably is, even though you could ask, is Concrete Island SF? Empire of the Sun certainly isn't. And what on Earth is The Unlimited Dream Company? He's one of those SF authors so-called because otherwise he'd be unclassifiable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top