The Sword and Laser discussion

Just started listening to this, bemoaning the lack of Wil Wheaton, but making up for it by listening at 2x speed, which makes all the technical jargon seem rather flippant and comical.

Love this little tidbit: "Nobody loves a land prawn. Not even other land prawns."

Poor land prawns. Hahaha.

Okay I've hit a reference I don't get.

After seeing how Coco kills land prawns, the reaction has been (multiple times!) something to the nature of "Of course you called him Coco!"

What?

James Coco?

It's actually "Ko-ko" after the executioner from Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado.

I just started to listen to Little Fuzzy, but it takes me some time to get adjusted to it. I think it's mostly the change of narrator, really as the narrator for Little Fuzzy (forgot his name and don't care to look it up right now) has a kind of old fashioned style, so the whole feeling is different.

I hadn't really read about the background of Fuzzy Nation, so I assumed that it was a sequel to H. Beam Piper's Fuzzy books, but it really seems to be a modernization of the original Fuzzy book. I'm really looking forward to finding out how different it is and how the differences change the story.

I'm only a couple of minutes in, so I can't really say a lot more right now.

Sean wrote: "It's actually "Ko-ko" after the executioner from Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado."
Aha!

I tried...

Well I had heard Little Fuzzy was sexist and racist, so i was hoping it wasn't Cocoa, although the G&S reference originally may have been. I didn't want to assume.

Keep an open mind about the woman until the end...

Piper's sexism is more that he didn't question the accepted norms of his time than outright misogyny.

The racism is a bit more complex. All the Terro-human Empire stories, including Little Fuzzy, take place in a future where race as we know it no longer exists. This is well illustrated by Uller Uprising, where you have characters like Hideyoshi O'Leary, Themistocles M'zangwe, and Mohammed Ferriera. Compared to other authors of the time, who made their casts entirely WASPish, Piper was quite progressive. But at the same time, the stories are usually quite accepting of colonialism. Uller Uprising, again, is a retelling of the Sepoy Rebellion, with alien religious fanatics as stand-ins for the Muslims and Hindus, and the noble humans using nukes to quell the uprising. So from the POV of people who were on the receiving end of colonialism, the story is still racist even if the characters doing the oppression aren't white Europeans.

Also, let's discuss the Jack Holloway of Scalzi (disbarred lawyer, independent contractor, lied under oath, jackass ex boyfriend) to Piper's Jack Holloway. Who do you like more? I am more of a fan of the less perfect Scalzi version, who is somehow more likable, although I'm not convinced this isn't because of the narrator.

Also, maybe I like Scalzi's more because of Carl, which let's you see his "real" character. Also, at the very end of Scalzi, (view spoiler)[ Jack says how he isn't the best person, but the right one, something like that, which makes his willingness to be deceptive into an asset for the fuzzies! Oh the intricacies of that argument. We could head down an intense ethical discussion if we wanted. (hide spoiler)]

Just don't get this. Why not just read Little Fuzzy?

Because it isn't our book pick? Some of us are reading Little Fuzzy in addition to Fuzzy Nation.

The thing that really jarred me in terms of older vs modern sensibilities between the two tales was all the drinking that was called out in the original. How many times did I hear the term "highball"? I don't even know what one is! :)

Rick wrote: "How many times did I hear the term "highball"? I don't even know what one is! :)"

This country is going downhill.

A highball is what happens when you water good liquor down with crap like soda or orange juice.

I think I may have a few highballs this weekend, actually, that doesn't sound quite right, I'll just say vodka sodas I think.

I noticed they have Complete Fuzzy at my library; I'm still trying to decide weather or not I want to read it.