Author Archives: Lise Andreasen

Science fiction and predictions IV

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ETA: Gibson and Doctorow. 

Source: Sci-fi special: Stephen Baxter.

It’s true that many of the old dreams of science fiction have been fulfilled, or bypassed. And it does feel as if we’re living through a time of accelerating change. But science fiction has – rarely – been about the prediction of a definite future, more about the anxieties and dreams of the present in which it is written. 

Source: Asimov on Science Fiction, “How Easy to see the Future”

[…] the science fiction writer chooses those [changes] which provide him with a dramatic situation out of which he can weave an exciting plot. There is usually no deliberate attempt to predict what will actually happen, but a science fiction writer is a creature of his time, and in trying to imagine a change in science and technology he is quite likely to base it on those changes he already sees in embryo.

Often this means an extrapolation of the present, an extrapolation that is so clear and obvious as to forecast something that is inevitable. When this happens, the science fiction writer does make a successful prediction. Usually, this astonishes almost everyone, for mankind generally, even today, takes it for granted that things do not change. 

[…]

I have written stories about galactic empires, about faster-than-light speeds, about intelligent robots which eventually became God, about time travel. I don’t consider that any of these have any predictive value; they weren’t intended for that. I was just trying to write entertaining stories about the might-be, not at all necessarily the would-be.

Source: Jules Verne Re-visited by Robert H. Sherard

Fiction as fact

It was inevitable also that I should refer to the fact that many of his inventions in fiction have become inventions in fact. Here the amiable Madame Verne concurred with me.

“People are kind enough to say so,” said Jules Verne. “It is flattering, but as a fact it is not true.”

“But come, Jules,” said Madame Verne, “and your submarines?”

“Aucun rapport,” said Verne, waving the flattery aside.

“Mais si.”

“Mais non. The Italians had invented submarine boats sixty years before I created Nemo and his boat. There is no connection between my boat and those now existing. These latter are worked by mechanical means. My hero, Nemo, being a misanthropist, and wishing to have nothing to do with the land, gets his motive force, electricity, from the sea. There is scientific basis for that, for the sea contains stores of electric force, just as the earth does. But how to get at this force has never been discovered, and so I have invented nothing.”

Source: Jules Verne at Home by Gordon Jones

With his usual modesty, M. Verne deprecated all idea of being considered an inventor.

“I have merely made suggestions,” he remarked, “suggestions which, after due consideration, I deemed to rest upon a practical basis, an these I then elaborated in a more or less imaginative manner to suit the purposes which I had in view.”

“But many of your suggestions, which twenty years ago were rejected as impossible, are now accomplished facts?” I urged.

“Yes, that is so,” replied M. Verne. “But these results are merely the natural outcome of the scientific trend of modern thought, and as such have doubtless been predicted by scores of others besides myself. Their coming was inevitable, whether anticipated or not, and the most that I can claim is to have looked perhaps a little farther into the future than the majority of my critics.”

Source: William Gibson explains why science fiction writers don’t predict the future

Science fiction writers aren’t fortune tellers. Fortune tellers are fakes. Fortune tellers are either deluded or charlatans. You can find science fiction writers who are deluded or science fiction writers who are charlatans — I can think of several of each in the history of the field. Every once in a while, somebody extends their imagination down the line, far enough with a sufficient lack of prejudice, to imagine something that then actually happens. When it happens, it’s great, but it’s not magic. All the language we have for describing what science fiction writers and futurists of other stripes do is nakedly a language of magic.

Source: Cory Doctorow: A Vocabulary for Speaking about the Future

Science fiction writers and fans are prone to lauding the predictive value of the genre, prompting weird questions like ‘‘How can you write science fiction today? Aren’t you worried that real science will overtake your novel before it’s published?’’ This question has a drooling idiot of a half-brother, the strange assertion that ‘‘science fiction is dead because the future is here.’’

Now, I will stipulate that science fiction writers often think that they’re predicting the future. The field lays claim to various successes, from flip-phones to the Web, waterbeds to rocket-ships, robots to polyamory.

I believe that in nearly every instance where science fiction has successfully ‘‘predicted’’ a turn of events, it’s more true to say that it has inspired that turn of events.

Den store udvidelse af Niels Klim-listen

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Siden sidst er der sket en lille ting og en stor ting med forslagslisten. Den lille er, at der kom et nyt Novum og dermed et par nye vÊrker. Den store er, at Den store science fiction-bog er kommet og har bidraget med 20 nye vÊrker! Dermed er vi oppe pÄ 33, og det er kun marts.

Der er et par dage endnu til at stemme, og sÄ begynder optÊllingen. Altid en rar tid pÄ Äret, hvor jeg glÊder mig til at kunne fortÊlle forfatterne den gode nyhed.

Even small children could be stopped at the Danish border

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Source: StĂžjberg om nĂždbremse: En 10-Ă„rig pige uden forĂŠldre skal ikke kunne komme ind i landet

Politiken interviewed Danish Minister for Immigration Inger StĂžjberg:

With this proposal, unaccompanied children seeking asylum may be blocked. Is it your opinion that the cohesion and welfare of the [Danish] country matters more than granting the wish of an unaccompanied child seeking to enter Denmark to apply for asylum?

“If you arrive here as an unaccompanied minor, you’ve already been through Germany and other countries, you don’t arrive from an unsafe country.”

Should this law also apply to a 10 year old girl, arriving here alone?

“Yes. The break means, nobody gets in, unless the parents are here already.”

Why should a 10 year old with no parents seeking asylum not be allowed into Denmark, when the country  [Denmark] is under pressure?

“In that case the child will be referred to the German authorities, maybe in Padborg. Then the German authorities will take it from there,” says Danish Minister for Immigration Inger StĂžjberg. 

Smerten ved kÊrlighed 

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Den her sang voksede jeg op med.

Den franske tekst.

Og her er mit eget bud pĂ„ en oversĂŠttelse. 

KĂŠrlighedens glĂŠde varer et Ăžjeblik 
KĂŠrlighedens smerte varer hele livet

Uden glÊde, hvad skulle man sÄ med livet?
Og uden Þnsker, hvordan kan man sÄ leve et liv i kÊrlighed?

OmkvĂŠd

Du mÄ plukke de skÞnneste roser
I den have, der blomstrer hele vores forÄr

OmkvĂŠd

Gamle designs

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NÄr jeg fÄr en ny hjemmeside, sÄ fÄr jeg ogsÄ lyst til at se pÄ de gamle. Se hvordan de var designet. MÄske vil du kigge med? * = her kan man ikke rigtig klikke videre til noget andet af mit indhold.

Nalo Hopkinson pÄ Twitter 

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Jeg er en af dem, der ser frem til at se Nalo Hopkinson i virkeligheden til sommer. Jeg har vist lĂŠst et par af hendes noveller og gĂžr nok lidt mere ud af den del ogsĂ„. Men i mellemtiden fĂžlger jeg hende pĂ„ Twitter. 

Hun laver smykker. 

https://twitter.com/Nalo_Hopkinson/status/841049799298179072

Hun laver mad.

https://twitter.com/Nalo_Hopkinson/status/814309238163943424
Og de 2 dele fylder rigtig meget. SelvfÞlgelig er der ogsÄ noget med at vÊre forfatter, holde foredrag, fÞlge med i feminisme og al den slags. Men det er smykker og mad, der gÞr det farverigt.

Lidenskab og lysÄr udgivet 

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Det slĂ„r mig, at jeg slet ikke har pralet nok om en af mine noveller. I begyndelsen var den i al fredsommelighed et bidrag til en slags konkurrence. SĂ„ blev den udvalgt til at komme med i en bog, sammen med andre dygtige og heldige. Og sĂ„ blev den sĂ„mĂŠnd valgt til at vĂŠre titelnovellen. Det betĂžd, at novellens titel kom til at stĂ„ med store bogstaver pĂ„ omslaget. 

Lidenskab og lysÄr: Lige under overfladen 11.
Det betĂžd ogsĂ„, at jeg fik lov at give input til illustrationen af omslaget. Selvom bogen udkom sidste Ă„r, sĂ„ vidt jeg husker i august, sĂ„ kilder den del af det stadig i maven. 

NÄh. Men du skal jo ogsÄ have lov at lÊse lidt af novellen.

”Er du nu sikker pĂ„, du huskede at slukke for vandet?”

”:-P”

Den her gang smiler hun bare. Det er ikke nogen sĂŠrlig god vittighed, og det er ikke fĂžrste gang hun har brugt den i dag.

Afslapning. Der er ikke noget fornuftigt at lave de nÊste mange timer, og alle har anbefalet, at hun bare slapper af under turen. Det her lille hop til en anden planet. Den her dybt kedelige rejse, hvor der er sÞlle 2 % chance for, at fÊrgen eksploderer undervejs, fordi der midt i det lille hop er en eksperimentel strÊkning, der ingen tid tager. Af alt, hvad der har med denne flytning at gÞre, sÄ har hun ikke kunnet forlige sig med den chance. Ingen har kunnet love hende, at statistikken er blevet bedre. SelvfÞlgelig kan de ikke det. Det er den jo ikke.

Anmeldelse af mit fanzine

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Der er kommet et nyt Proxima.

Dermed fĂ„r jeg ogsĂ„ adgang til en anmeldelse af 2 af mine fanzines. (Hvilke fanzines? De her fanzines!) Jeg kunne nok godt have flirtet mig til adgang tidligere, men det er jo snyd. SĂ„ det er nu, jeg kan se, sort pĂ„ hvidt, om der overhovedet er noget ved mine fanzines og den underliggende blog.

Anmelderen er Stig W. JĂžrgensen, der tidligere bedrev bloggen Ekkorummet, der en dag blev til en bog, som jeg sĂ„mĂŠnd har anmeldt. Dermed bliver det hele pĂ„ smukkeste vis i familien. 

Men selv familien kan vĂŠre hĂ„rd ved en, sĂ„ jeg er stadig spĂŠndt. 

FĂžlgende er et par citater.

(Brug af de faste rubrikker Skitse, Temaer osv. i mine anmeldelser.) “… det fungerer og lĂŠgger op til alt fra helt korte notitser til lidt lĂŠngere diskussioner af f.eks. science fiction-elementerne i en given tekst, og hvorvidt/hvorfor disse elementer gĂžr vĂŠrket til science fiction.”

“Desuden er det vidunderligt uhĂžjtideligt.”

“UhĂžjtideligeheden og Ă„benheden hĂžrer til blandt indlĂŠggenes styrker.”

“En af fordelene ved at fĂ„ blogindlĂŠggene udgivet pĂ„ papir er netop, at det inspirerer til at sidde og bladre og pĂ„ den mĂ„de falde over ting, man ellers ikke ville opsĂžge eller klikke pĂ„ …”

(Links og videoer virker selvfÞlgelig ikke lige sÄ godt i trykt form.)

Alt i alt kan jeg kun vĂŠre meget tilfreds med den bedĂžmmelse. Jeg Ă„nder lettet op og har mindre ondt i maven. Og tager det her som et godt varsel for videre blog-virksomhed.

Niels Klim-prisen er i forĂ„rshumĂžr

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2017 har vist alvorlige tegn pĂ„, at det kan blive bĂ„de forĂ„r og sommer en dag. Men fortvivl ikke; der er stadig masser af aftener tilbage, hvor du kan lĂŠse lidt. SĂ„ledes har forslagslisten nu fĂ„et 10 nye tekster, af Jesper RugĂ„rd, A. Silvestri og H.G. Wells. Jeg skal skynde mig at tilfĂžje, at muligheden eksisterer, for at Wells’ tekster har vĂŠret oversat og udgivet fĂžr, men at alle i mellemtiden har glemt det.

Der eksisterer en hjemmeside, der prÞver at opremse alle de danske litteratur-priser. Her skal vi da ogsÄ vÊre med! Og det er vi: Modtagere af Niels Klim-prisen.