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| bart |
 Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2006 11:57 am |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
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Location: Lincoln NE
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| RIP Jack Williamson, SF giant. He was 98. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2006 3:27 pm |
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| Jack Williamson's first story was published in 1928 and his last novel was published in 2005. He's best known for the Legion of Space series, the Humanoids, the Contraterrene novels (Seetee Shock and Ceetee Ship), and with Frederik Pohl, the Starchild trilogy, including The Reefs of Space and Rogue Star. He was winning awards into his nineties. |
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| bart |
| Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:53 pm |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
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Location: Lincoln NE
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The man was a national treasure. My best friend in high school moved to Lincoln from Portales, NM -- his father taught geology at Eastern NM U and knew Williamson. I liked the NYT obit opening, which mentioned him starting out life in an adobe hut in AZ.
Wm'son was a pioneer in the whole theme of what it is to be human and the possibilities of artificial intelligence, among other things. He inspired Asimov and others in the field. |
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| bart |
| Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 1:07 pm |
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Location: Lincoln NE
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Just to jump into the mad clamor that is the Books forum:
Cormac McCarthy has broken into the sci-fi genre with a post-apocalyptic tale of survival called The Road.
It's bleak and dark and exquisite. I don't think I've ever read anything in this subgenre that carried for me such a ring of truth, of how the world might really end and made me feel it in such a visceral way. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Wed Nov 22, 2006 5:58 pm |
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Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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Quote: Just to jump into the mad clamor that is the Books forum:
Bart - You sure got that right. I almost had a heart attack when I saw there was a new post!!
This place has been really dead with only a few posting for some time. Any ideas on how to pick things up?
Incidentally, I realize I'm posting on the eve of a holiday, so let's just leave the question open until after Thanksgiving. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Nov 23, 2006 2:58 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12895
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Finally reading David Quammen's Monster of God, which has been staring at me around for a year or two. This is a book on big man-eating predators, concentrating on lions (in particular Panthera leo persica, the Asiatic lion, which currently survives in the Gir nature preserve in western India and a few small patches of forest), tigers and bears, oh my, and crocodiles as well. He visits bears of Romania (brown bears are particularly abundant there), tigers in eastern Siberia, and crocodiles in Australia. He also has a brief chapter of leopards, which I wish he'd spent more time with. He dealt with Komodo dragons in The Song of the Dodo, and doesn't look to spend that much time with sharks.
Quammen's a very good nature writer, and The Song of the Dodo was very well-written and enlightening. It contained among its observations the best biography of Alfred Russel Wallace (the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution), who in many ways was every bit the equal of Darwin, and perhaps more admirable. He also has several collections of essays out, and several novels, but I think he's better when he gets to develop a thesis at length, and gets to do lengthy asides. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| bart |
| Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 11:53 am |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
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Location: Lincoln NE
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Syd -- how does he approach the idea of "man eating"? I guess what I'm wondering is if there is some debate on whether or not these species are really "man eating" or if this is an aberration due to humans menacing them or encroaching in some way? In any case, top predators fascinate me, too, and I'll have a look.
Marj -- this thread seems to go in cycles. Once in a while, there's a convergence of interest on a particular author, or book, but many fallow periods. It doesn't seem like an NYT forum, where there can be a chosen title for the month, and everyone reads and discusses. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 3:41 pm |
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Location: Manhattan
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Bart,
All discussion forums tend to go in cycles as you correctly pointed out. And when I first began as moderator, we did discuss a few books as you can see from some of the sub forums.
I have thrown the idea of other discussions out there but no one seems interested. And since we are first and foremost a film society, I understand that perfectly.
But we are down to a very few contributers. If one goes back to the start of this forum you'll see the enthusiasm that once was here. The Writer's Corner is actually doing better. And hopefully after the holiday weekend we will too.
So I will offer once again. If there is a book that at least three or four people want to discuss, I'll be glad to open a separate forum. And if anyone has any ideas other than bart, who has at least offered, I'll be more than glad to entertain them. |
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| mitty |
| Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 7:00 pm |
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Location: Way Down Yonder.......
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Marj,
I'm up for almost any Nabokov (I've read about 12 so far), but I don't know if there is enough interest there. I think Whiskeypriest is the local expert on Pale Fire.....I haven't read it yet but would if interest was shown in a discussion.
I did read The Chronoliths recently as well, and enjoyed it, but I can't say that I am really that fascinated with science fiction on a regular basis. Its a once now and again thing with me. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 8:10 pm |
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Location: Manhattan
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Mitty,
We've already done one Nabokov. So if there is enough interest in Pale Fire we could do that. But let's wait until after the holiday weekend to see if there is enough interest.
And btw, a discussion group need not be the only way to go. I'm interested in hearing any ideas. |
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| pedersencr |
| Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 8:25 pm |
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Location: New Orleans
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I could be up for almost anything. If there were two people who wanted to discuss a book, I'd be willing to at least think about being a third. If it were Nabokov, or Virginia Woolf, or Banville's The Sea, or Ian McEwan, or Nemirovsky, there would be no 'perhaps' about it. Those are already in my backlog  but, really, I'm open to being a third on almost anything. Currently reading Bend Sinister by Nabokov. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 8:32 pm |
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Thanks Charles.  |
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| pedersencr |
| Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 9:21 pm |
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Thanks Marj,
Actually,
As a wild-ass after thought, I remembered that I had just bought Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer.
I'll be doing the 'reading' half of that idea, but with the writers and readers there are around here it might be of general interest, whether or not we discuss it. But it might generate some pronounced opinions for discussion. 
My interest was the huge number of illustrative exceprts from different authors, to expand my horizons and increase my appreciation for them. |
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| mitty |
| Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 9:56 pm |
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Location: Way Down Yonder.......
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pedersencr wrote: I could be up for almost anything. If there were two people who wanted to discuss a book, I'd be willing to at least think about being a third. If it were Nabokov, or Virginia Woolf, or Banville's The Sea, or Ian McEwan, or Nemirovsky, there would be no 'perhaps' about it. Those are already in my backlog but, really, I'm open to being a third on almost anything. Currently reading Bend Sinister by Nabokov.
All good ideas, I don't know why I didn't think of Woolf...I have a stack of hers....have only read Mrs. Dalloway though, but would be open to any you have mentioned.  |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2006 10:29 pm |
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bart wrote: Syd -- how does he approach the idea of "man eating"? I guess what I'm wondering is if there is some debate on whether or not these species are really "man eating" or if this is an aberration due to humans menacing them or encroaching in some way? In any case, top predators fascinate me, too, and I'll have a look.
I've only read really about the Gir lions, where it's sort of a combination of the two. The lions are located in a wildlife sanctuary and national park. The national park's about a hundred square miles in area and the rest of the sanctuary about 450 square miles. There are a couple thousand Maldhari cowherds living on the sanctually, and generally 300-400 lions and about 500 leopards. The lions sometimes prey on the Maldhari's livestock, but not generally on the Maldhari themselves, since they and the lions are familiar with each other. There are also a lot of wild herbivores in the sanctuary for the lions to prey on. However, there are about 180,000 people living within six miles of the sanctuary. If the lion population gets too large, the young males will start looking for new territory, coming into contact with the surrounding population and sometimes eating them.
The worst problems just after there is a drought, which is actually a good thing for the lions if it doesn't last too long since thirsty and weak animals are easy to catch. This means that there are a lot more lions able to survive to adulthood, and when the drought ends, they have to look for alternate food sources such as dogs, cattle, and people. It got up to about forty attacks per year, and that was generally when the man-eating attacks occured. (Again, not on the Maldhari, but on the villages further out.) I would think leopard attacks would also increase, but he doesn't mention that.
One of the big worries is that several times the entire population of lions has been down to a few dozen, which means lower genetic diversity, so that a disease introduced to the lions would easily spread through the population. The lions generally appear to be healthy, though, and past estimates of the population vary widely, so perhaps the population is safer than it looks. |
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