The Sword and Laser discussion

We look for authors who satisfy like Scalzi, find out how dirty the new dirty editions of The Magicians are and discuss an ethical question regarding library books.

http://swordandlaser.com/home/2016/9/...
https://www.patreon.com/posts/269-art...

For the Lagavulin Fans, I offer up Nick Offerman's Yule Log: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS-Er...

45 minutes of Nick Offerman sitting comfortably in front of a fire sipping scotch. That may be the best job, ever.

I was so, so happy hearing Tom and Veronica talk about dystopia, utopia and protopia. I've been invited to talk about science fiction in Warsaw next weekend and the whole thing is something I can use so well and still have some time to explore the things Tom and Veronica mentioned before the talk to be even better prepared.

Especially the whole pro-topia part was completely new to me and fits in so well with some of the difficulties I encountered myself when thinking about dystopias and utopias and what books fall in which category.

Great coincidence! (If anyone is interested, this is the actual talk/discussion, but the text is in German, it will be translated to Polish apparently: https://www.goethe.de/ins/pl/de/ver.c...)

In response to the question Tom had, I had not read the other story he mentioned, but I have read some stories with some truly alien aliens. The thing that is my actual pet peve is the pov. I can deal with super relatable alien aliens so long as I am not seeing inside their head. The mystery of their inner workings should be preserved.

Anne wrote: "I was so, so happy hearing Tom and Veronica talk about dystopia, utopia and protopia. I've been invited to talk about science fiction in Warsaw next weekend and the whole thing is something I can u..."

Wow, that awesome! How exciting! Are they going to record it in any way?? I'd love to view it!

Misspelling peeve is my pet peeve.

Lagavulin 16, that's a bold whisky for sure. It's one of the ones that's lovingly been described as drinking from a hospital ashtray :) You can get it at a reasonable price for a 16 year old malt too.

As someone soon to receive a Master's degree in Library & Information Science, I loved Tom's little rant about ebooks in libraries. Everything he said is 100% true.

Brendan wrote: "Misspelling peeve is my pet peeve."

Testify. I want some damn points for not doing that.

Here's a possibly stupid question. Isn't any story that assumes that the future is more or less the same misery level as current or that people will basically keep being people a "protopia" by this definition? So the grand majority of scifi about the future?

TBH I'd never heard of protopia before this podcast. Not sure if its a literary thing.

Which book by Kevin Kelly mentioning protopias was Veronica reading? Yes I'm too lazy to listen to the podcast again and thank you.

As I think about it, Niven's early works were a Protopia. Generally better than today but with some bizarre issues as a result of technology. Transfer booths meaning you could go anywhere easily, but could just as easily be stalked. Organ transplantation saving lives, but people being sentenced to death for smaller and smaller offenses because of the incredible thirst for organs. Ramship technology allowing colonization of other worlds, but people still organizing themselves by artificial class distinctions.

Mark wrote: "Which book by Kevin Kelly mentioning protopias was Veronica reading? Yes I'm too lazy to listen to the podcast again and thank you."

The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

Tassie Dave wrote: "Mark wrote: "Which book by Kevin Kelly mentioning protopias was Veronica reading? Yes I'm too lazy to listen to the podcast again and thank you."

[book:The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technol..."

thanks, the Supremes forgot to link this on the picks page

Veronica wrote: "Anne wrote: "I was so, so happy hearing Tom and Veronica talk about dystopia, utopia and protopia. I've been invited to talk about science fiction in Warsaw next weekend and the whole thing is some..."


Unfortunately it will be in German and maybe translated to Polish (not sure how exactly that works) and I don't know whether they will record it. I was giving a talk about Science Fiction at a German conference in May, though, and it was recorded and in Englisch (my talk starts around the 15 minute mark), so you can always watch that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mpLj...

If I have some time to spare I can try and translate the little speech I wrote into English. So far I'm just glad I was able to finish it in German. :)

Brendan wrote: "TBH I'd never heard of protopia before this podcast. Not sure if its a literary thing."

Because it's kind of silly to make up a term for the usual progression of human history. Every new technology or technique or societal change has had repercussions both good and bad, expected and unforeseen. Why should the future be so different?

Joe Informatico wrote: "Because it's kind of silly to make up a term for the usual progression of human history. Every new technology or technique or societal change has had repercussions both good and bad, expected and unforeseen. Why should the future be so different?"

That was my feeling too but I was trying to be nice.

Josh tagging in for Veronica was the highlight for me! Hopefully she's finished the book for tonights meetup

If you want to watch a version of The Magicians with the swears intact, there's also the DVD or Blu-ray release. (And I assume that if you pick it up on iTunes or some such, it will also include the bad words?)

Even though I officially abandoned the book, I also dug the Josh sighting (listening?).

Joe Informatico wrote: "Brendan wrote: "TBH I'd never heard of protopia before this podcast. Not sure if its a literary thing."

Because it's kind of silly to make up a term for the usual progression of human history. Eve..."

It's nice to have a single word for it rather than a paragraph, when you're being all academic and having word limits.