| Jan.14 |
Happy Birthday |
CR |
I'd like to wish you a very
happy birhday, Mr. Silverberg. I always remember the date, because we are the same age, and my birthday is on January 3. I marked the occasion by re-reading "Starborne." In a recent posting, Monica used the term "cosmic consciousness" with reference to "Downward to the Earth" but it seems to me that this term is even more applicable to "Starborne." Carl Sagan once demonstrat3ed that intelligent life somewhere in the universe is a statistical and mathematical certainty. For me this is one of the most profound questionsd of human existence. If you believe that humanity is uniquely at the centre of the universe, then we must be truly alone. If you believe that intelligent life is a chemical and physical anomaly, then we are also alone. Intelligent life doesn't necessarily have to come in the garments of popular culture, like Mr. Spock, Darth Vader, the First Ons of "Babylon 5" or even the Metamorphs of Majipoor. Robert Silverberg's "star minds" are a very cred8ble possibility for intelligent life out there. When we finally meet them (as I believe we will, one day), what will they really be like? Finding intelligent life in the universe has to be necessary in order to give meaning to our own existence. |
| Jan. 14
|
Photo albums |
MF |
I hope
it's OK I created a new photo album. I thought it's about time we all posted our photographs here :) If the moderator finds it wrong, I'll understand. be away for few days and I hope that by the time I'm back, I'll > see your pics posted too. |
| Jan. 14 |
Photo albums |
CR |
think this is a great idea. It
helps us to visualize the people with whom we are communicating, and personalizes the forum. I have posted a picture of me with my wife Joanne and our two cats Hayley and Cagney (sadly, we lost our third cat, Lacey, last summer, to a debilitating and mysterious illness.) |
| Jan. 14 |
Happy birthday |
RS |
In this time zone my birthday is
still a day away, but thank you, anyway. I have marked the occasion in a strange way, by starting a new short story, but I hope to be done with it in a few days and then I can celebrate properly. I've never had any doubt that the universe is full of other life-forms. Too many stars, and (we now know) too many planets for it to be otherwise. I just don't expect ever to see or hear from any of them, which is one reason why I started reading science fiction in the first place, as the best available substitute for actual contact with aliens. |
| Jan. 14 |
Photo album |
RS |
Well, as I said yesterday,
decorative additional content is always welcome in these photos. Especially cats. I can find dogs charming when I'm in the right mood, but I'm always in the right mood to look at cats. Your beard is white but the mustache and hair are still dark. Strange are the ways of these appurtenances! My beard and mustache turned bright white while my hair was still a fairly dark gray. Now the hair, what is left of it, is a grayer gray than it used to be, but still doesn't match the blinding whiteness of the beard. |
| Jan. 14 |
Photo album |
CR |
I knew that the picture of
our cats would attract your attention! My beard has been getting steadily whiter for fifteen years, but I still have my natural colour hair because of the zinc supplement I take. It works wonders staving off grey hair. |
| Jan.
18 |
Happy birthday |
MF |
A bit late but better late then
never, Happy birthday from me too :-) to Mr. Silverberg and to Conrad. Conrad, I liked what you wrote, makes one think different about existence. STARBORNE is one book I don't have, yet. I see it is an expansion of 'Ship-Sister, Star-Sister' - should I read the short one before? And good idea with your cats. They are special beings. |
| Jan. 18 |
Happy birthday |
CR |
Monica - I am not familiar with
this story, as I have not yet come across it, but I will search it out beause of my interest in "Stargorne." Thanks for pointing out the connetion. |
| Jan. 22 |
Big cats |
RS |
Years ago, Karen and I were at a
little hotel up in the Napa Valley where the hotel cat was apt to come wandering into our room and settle down on the bed for the night. Was a Maine Coon, black, of gigantic size, the biggest cat I've ever seen this side of a tiger. Very friendly, very furry, a kind of auxiliary blanket, nice to have around at night. I've been fond of the breed ever since, though our own three are of a different sort. |
| Jan. 22 |
Big cats |
CR |
A shivery SF spin to the Big Cat
postings: You remember that version of Godzilla with Matthew Broderick a number of years ago? Godzilla had apparently been exposed to radiation at a nuclear power plant, to achieve its giant size. At the time the movie came out there were stories about a huge cat that had been seen wandering around the Chalk River Nuclear Power Plant near Ottawa. I suspected that it was a promo for the movie, but much as I love cats, a Godzilla-sized cat is a bit frightening! |
| Jan. 26 |
World Affairs |
W |
I have
been lurking on this forum (if that's the word) for a while now and not until recently posted a comment. Anyway, while the subjects on this forum are diverse and interesting, I do notice that rarely (or if ever) is any time spend on discussing politics or what I might call world affairs.> |
| Jan. 26 |
World Affairs |
CR |
I agree that this is not the
place to discuss world affaira in general. Mr. Silverberg has from time to time dropped little hints as to where he stands on the political and religious spectrum, but what really matters is the worldviews (which are many, varied and often contradictory, to suit the occasion) that he presents in his writing. If you are interested in politics and Robert Silverberg, I strongly recommend that you read "The Stochastic Man," if you haven't yet done so. The theme deals with the ability to predict future events, and addresses the subject of American politics at the beginning of the third millennium from the 'real-time" perspective of 1975. |
| Jan. 31 |
Lord Valentine's Castle |
CR |
My wife Joanne has just begun to
read "Lord Valentine's Castle" for AT LEAST the twelfth time. She is not nearly as much an SF/Fanrasy/RS fan as I am (she prefers the works of Bryce Courtenay) but even I haven't exceeded her record. When I commmented on this, all she said was: "Well of course. I LOVE that book!" |
| Feb. 21 |
Stapledon |
SZ |
Every month or so RS has well
written (of course!) and thought provoking essay in Asimovs, that can be read at www.asimovs.com This month there's a delightful essay on Olaf Stapledon's book, as well as our real fate in the solar system. I encourage you to check it out. Here's how it begins (Hope it's ok to post the first two paragraphs as a teaser): Reflections: Doomsday by Robert Silverberg Some months back, discussing books I had been rereading lately, I spoke of Olaf Stapledon's epic of the far future, Last and First Men—the quintessential far-future epic, the key title in that entire subspecies of science fiction. Stapledon purports to be writing a history of the next two billion years or so of human evolution, carrying us through eighteen successive human species until the race, having weathered disaster after disaster and now dwelling on a terraformed Neptune, is confronted with a challenge beyond its immense ingenuity: the sun has come under "a continuous and increasing bombardment of ethereal vibrations, most of which were of incredibly high frequency, and of unknown potentiality," evidently emanating from a nearby supernova. This has caused old Sol to behave in a "deranged" way, and, as a result, says Stapledon's far-future narrator, "Probably within thirty thousand years life will be impossible anywhere within a vast radius of the sun, so vast a radius that it is quite impossible to propel our planet away fast enough to escape before the storm can catch us." |
| Feb. 22 |
Stapledon |
CR |
>Thanks for drawing this to
our attention. I am fortunate to have a first edition (1930) of "Last and First Men" which is currently listed on "Bookfinder.com" at $180.00, although there are a great many copies of cheaper editions available. I have to confess that I have always found this book to be very heavy going. I would be inclined to categorize it as "speculative philosophy" (if there is such a thing), rather than as science fictio, although the author describes it in the preface as "an essay on myth". Your comments have persuaded me to give it another shot. |
| Feb. 22 |
Stapledon |
SZ |
$180! Wow. Gets that for being
very old and for being a key part of the dawn of science fiction, but maybe not because it's so readable. I haven't gotten through Last and First Men myself, although I read parts of it many years ago, and found it rather rough going. But I sure enjoyed RS's essay this month. All of his essays are fun and thought-provoking, in my opinion. We may never have a new novel from RS to look forward to, but these essays are good stuff. Instead of Last and First Men, I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't read it At Winter's End, which is Silverberg's poetic, visionary, and philosophical continuation of things like good old Olaf. I think Silverberg's the one who got it right... |
| Feb. 22 |
Stapledon |
CR |
I'm not THAT old! I picked up my
copy of Stapledon at a second hand bookstore somewhere. I also have first editions of two other great SF classics, "A Canticle for Liebowitz" (Walter M. Miller, 1960) and Nevil Shute's "On the Beach" (1957). Our tastes in reading seem to be similar, because after "Lord of Darkness" my favourite novel by far is "At Winter's End." For the information of newcomers to RS, there is of course also the great sequel "The Queen of Springtime" (a.k.a "The New Springtime") For a fascinating explanation of the reason for the title change, see RS's Introduction to the 2005 University of Nebraska edition of QoS, which also contains an outline of a projected third volume, "The Summer of Homecoming" that has never been published, and now never will be. However, as a sort of appetizer we have "A Piece of the Great World" in "One Million A.D." ed. by Gardner Dozois(SFBC, 2005). |
| Feb. 26 |
Web page |
CR |
A number of years ago I created
a personal web page that was my answer to "Facebook." It was intended to provide my friends and family and anyone else who was interested, with information on my interests and activities. It included photo albums, family history, a NASCAR page, a charity in which I am involved, etc. The main difference between my page and "Facebook" was that it was accessible to anyone, and you didn't have to be a member to view it. Through my web page I have succeeded in touching base with long-lost friends and family members, and acquired invaluable genealogical information. If I had thought of it at the time, I could have copyrighted the idea and made millions. For the past couple of months I have beeb working hard at updating my science fiction page, and in particular the page devoted to Robert Silverberg, and it is now ready for public inspection through the link below. It is stilll a work in progress. There are no banners, pop-ups or sales pitches (except for the one book that I have written). http://web2.uwindsor.ca/courses/leddy/creitz/sciencefiction.html The RS page includes a chronological listing of all his books in my collection, together with cover thumb nails, as well as a select wish list, and also a blog of all the postings I have made on this forum since I joined in January 2006, as well as Mr. Silverberg's responses, and selected responses by others. An added bonus is a link to a page without the thumb nails, for those who have dial-up. I have also included an autobiographical note which I have called "Confessions of a failed sience fiction writer." I'd really appreciate your comments, corrections, advice, etc. which you can e-mail me (creitz@uwindsor.ca.) or post here. Enjoy! |
| Feb. 26 |
Web page |
RS |
I took a quick look just now.
(No time for more, because a photographer will be here soon in connection with a piece on me that the Los Angeles Times is doing. I hate this sort of stuff, but said yes in a careless moment.)I don't think you ought to think of yourself as a failed science-fiction writer -- just someone whose life took a different path. I could regard myself as a failed baseball player, or a failed university president, or a failed professional gambler, or a lot of other things that I never really set out to be, and therefore didn't get to be. I know you wrote little s-f in your teens, but that doesn't mean you failed, just that youstopped and wenton to something else. If everybody who had tried to write s-f had succeeded at it, we'd be drowning in the stuffn ow, anyway. (I think we already are.) |
| Feb. 27 |
Genealogy |
CC |
Very nice web site Conrad. I
found the family history section especially interesting. I've been toying with the idea of doing my own for some time, though I'm fairly certain that I won't be able trace things back as far as you have. (That's probably what keeps me from actually doing it) You've got quite an impressive RS library too! |
| March 3 |
Genealogy |
CR |
I don't subscribe to any SF
magazines, but yesterday I receied a copy of the April/May 2006 issue of "Asimov's" which contains RS's latest story, "Hanosz Prime Goes to Old Earth." By the most amazing coincidence, in view of your posting about genealogy, Mr. Silverberg's column in this same issue addresses the issue of family history. He writes about his family roots in Russia and Poland, and the destruction of records, particularly relating to Jews, during World War II. He also describes the National Genographic Project, which is a world-wide data base which tracks ancient migratory patterns. You can get further information about this project from the March 2006 issue of "National Geographic" and also from the following link: https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html For $100. you can have your DNA added to the database. Like Mr. Silverberg, I sent in a sample of my DNA a couple of years ago, and it confirmed what I already knew - that all my ancestors came from Northern Europe.Mr. Silverberg also refers to the genealogy of the British Royal family. There is a genealogist who claims to have incontrovertible documentary proof that I am a direct descendant of Charlemagne. I am somewhat sceptical about this. What really makes genealogy so fascinating are the stories, sometimes apocryphal, that are handed down: like my 15th century Norwegian ancestor, who was convicted of murder, and my 17th century German ancestor, who dropped ddead of the plague while preaching from the pulpit in a town on the Rhine in 1660. Surprisingly, I have very little information about my maternal English ancestors, who came from Yorkshire. There is an on- going DNA research study involving the current population of Yorkshire, to to determine the Celtic, Viking and Norman origins of the people. I'd be interested to know which group my ancestors came from, but only more DNA testing could determine this. |
| April 2 |
"Go" |
CR |
I came across an interesting
item of RS trivia, which gives rise to a question for Mr. Silverberg: In your novel "Starborne" (2002) the crew of the "Wotan" play a game called "Go" in order to pass the time, and also to provide a sort of obsessive-compulsive emotional catharsis during the emdless days and months of their voyage. I also noticed that in Nancy Kress's story, "Shiva in Shadow", in "Between worlds" (2004)which you edited, the crew of the "Kepler" also plsy "Go" for similar reasons. Is this a real game, or is it something you invented, and what is the background of Nancy Kress's use of the same game in her story? |
| April 2 |
"Go" |
RS |
Go is a real game, all right -- an
ancient and complex Japanese game, somewhat similar to chess in its approach, though not in its details. You can surely find out a great deal about it on the Internet. I have no idea whether Nancy was aware of my use of it aboard the spaceship in my story, which originally dated from 1973 or so. |
| April 5 |
Time Machine |
RM |
He wrote
a nice intro to it in 1931, saying the idea began out of group discussions "in the eighties", and had many poor starts (that he hoped were lost forever), until he started on what is basically what we have now in 1894. By June '95 it existed in three publications, an American edition, a British edition, and, where it first appeared, serialized in a magazine (doesn't THAT sound familiar). The magazine publication had that half chapter that was edited out of the book issues, another stop off that is a great little read (now called The Grey Man, and available in the Wiki). That's a long haul from concept to completion; the real birthing of a new genre. |
| April 7 |
Time Machine |
CR |
I am assuming that the reference
in this thread is to "The Time Machine. " I have a copy of the rare earlier 1923 edition, which first containrd the interesting introduction to which you refer. For two evocative illustrations by D.W. Dwiggins, from this edition, see my web page. http://web2.uwindsor.ca/courses/leddy/creitz/wells.html |
| July 7 |
Prester John |
CR |
I wanted to remind you
and others that the site wwww.bookfinder.
|
| July 15 |
Apollo 11 |
CR |
In case anyone has forgotten, I
would like to post a reminder that July 20th is the 40th anniversary of
the day when science fact caught up with science fiction, as Neil
Armstrong and Apollo 11 landed on the moon. I remember this day
vividly, as my son Philip was baptized on the same day. We came home
from church and watched the landing on TV. To commemorate these two
anniversaries, I ordered an extra copy of "Other Spaces Other Times"
for Philip. He is also an sf fan, and a fan of RS. As they say, the
apple doesn't fall very far from the tree! I am halfway through the
book myself, and all I can say at the moment is that I am entranced! I
would like to make some comments about it, but at the moment words fail
me, and I don't quite know where to begin. |
| Aug. 24 |
Anthologies |
CR |
While on the subject of
anthologies, it seems to me that we are now ready for a second
"Majipoor Chronicles" anthology, which could include the titles
already published ("The Seventh Shrine", "The Sorcerer's apprentice",
"The Book ofchanges", etc.)as well as a couple still in the works.
There should be enough material to fill another volume (including a
connecting narrative) in two or three years time. This should make some of the more elusive stories, particularly those put out by SFBC and other anthologies, as well as some of theSF mags., to become available in one place for die-hard Majipoor fans like myself. I have never cared for fantasy or sword and sorcery, and, being a hardcore SF fan (Time travel, telepathy, galactic voyages, alternate universes, etc.) I missed out on Majipoor until ten years after it was first published. However, I decided it wasn't fantasy (although into what genre you would placeit is beyond me) and I have now read "Lord Valentine's Castle" at least ten times, and the others almost as frequently. |
| Aug. 24 |
Anthologies |
RS |
Have you been reading my mind, or did
I drop a hint or two about this project in an earlier posting? Anyway,
I have just this day finished "Dark Times in the Midnight Market," a
short story for a new Jonathan Strahan anthology that is intended for
this very same new book, and my agent is already talking to a publisher
about it, under the title of TALES OF MAJIPOOR. I will need to write
two or three more next year to fill it out. Just starting to catch up with this site now after a week's absence in Montreal, a week spent catching up with urgent mail after getting home, and a week and a half writing the new story. The sound you hear is the sound of panting. |
| Aug. 24 |
Anthologies |
SB |
This is great news. Majipoor Chronicles
is, imho, a wonderful and spellbinding book. I have only read a couple
of the shorter Majipoor stories since, and so this would be almost an
all-new book for me. |
| Aug. 27 |
New stories |
CR |
My copy of F&SF arrived yesterday, and I read the story with great interest and enjoyment. Thank you, Mr. Silverberg! I was struck by the similarity of style and theme with the other new story, "The True Vintage of Erzuine Thule", in the Jack Vance tribute volume, "Songs of the Dying Earth" which I also read a weekr so ago. I have never been much of a fan of Jack Vance, but this story was O.K., I suppose. However, the real problem I had, apart from the fact that I recognized only a couple of the writers' names, was that the book, with it's 8 point type, was obviously intended for readers with teenage or twenty-something eyes. My aging eyes could never have survived the 685 pages of this publication. |
| Aug. 27 |
New stories |
AP |
Gee, my
eyes are pretty old but
I don't find the font size in the Vance tribute volume to be other than
normal. And, holy cow, but the contributors are a virtual who's who of
contemporary American SF/F writers. There were only 2 names I didn't
recognize. And sorry to sound a contrarian note, but even the NY Times
has finally recognized Vance's significance. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/magazine/19Vance-t.html |
| Aug. 28 |
New stories |
CR |
Please note that I did NOT say that Jack Vance had no significance. All I wrote was that I personally don't care for that type of fantasy. It would be a dull world if we all liked the same thing. Also, the reason that I didn't recognize most of those writers is that I have been stuck in the hard-core Asimov/Silverberg/Dick/Heinlein/Wyndham sf world of the fifties and sixties for most of my reading life, and have therefore probably lost out on a great deal of good reading. There was a time in the eighties and nineties when I thought that much of sf was unreadable (except for RS). Actually, I blame Mr. Silverberg for my lack of familiarity with contemporary sf writers. I have about 70 of his books in my collection, and when I have read them, I start over again. My friends have told me that I should get a life. |
| Aug. 28 |
200 pages... |
TM |
If you go to our files section,
you will find a text which was asking itself to be compiled. To
celebrate our tenth anniversary I have compiled the complete postings
(give or take the odd one I may have overlooked) of RS since our
inception This is one hell of a diary, splendid reading for a
rainy day, and the best is, everything is now so easily
accessible. Iwill endeavour to update this doc. every six months
or so from here on in. RS's postings deserve more than cold
storage. |
| Aug. 28 |
200 pages... |
CR |
I have been a member of this
group for four years, and it has been a wonderfully rewarding
experience, particularly for giving us the opportunity to know Mr.
Silverberg in person. Actually, I had thought of the idea of archiving
some posts, and I have done so selectively in a blog that includes my
posts, some responses from Mr. Siverberg, and a few other members.
Check out this link: http://web2.uwindsor.ca/courses/leddy/creitz/majipoorwrs.html |
| Aug. 29 |
New stories |
AP |
I guess I
haven't been stuck in any era or company of writers. I like to experiment, read broadly, and explore. I took a grad course with Jim Gunn and we read 4 volumes of his historical anthology of SF. I taught a science fiction elective for 10 years and read extensively about its history and tried to sample as many writers as I reasonably could. I also used "Nightwings" as one of my basic texts (along with the "Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories" and "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Vol I"). > There is obviously somehing about the writings of Mr. Silverberg that set him apart, but Gene Wolfe, Dan Simmons, and others write literate, compelling SF. And this not to mention the score of UK (and Canadian and Australian) writers that have emerged since the late eighties who are simply amazing. And to be brutally honest, Asimov and Heinlein read like sophmoric drek compared to contemporary writers. Stilted dialogue, wooden characters, lame stereotypes, and certainly in Heinlein's case sexism and a political philosophy that I find dubious, at best. I don't know if you've read them, but if you'd like a taste of the current crop of SF writing let me recommend two recent anthologies: George Mann's "The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Vol I" and Dozois and Strahan's "The New Space Opera". Both are filled with marvelous stories that are truly filled with PKD is, of course, another story (and was a major component in my course). |
| Aug. 30 |
New stories |
CR |
Your comments about Asimov and
Heinlein are well-taken. I took an undergraduate course on sf many years ago, and the prescribed text was one of Gunn's anthologies ("The Road to Science Fiction.") I still have three of these volumes, and I consider it to be one of the best anthologies ever published. Quite apart from the literary merit of Asimov, I do find his robot stories rather quaint these days. Sf could never be the same after Apollo 11 and 13. Sf writers are supposed to imagine the future, but very few writers understood the impact of technology and evolution on humanity, or dreamed of microchips or cell phones in the 1960s (except for "Star Trek's" communicators.) Computers were all gigantic machines in the bowels of the earth,robots were all bipedal (a very inefficient design for a machine), and personal computers, the Internet and "Windows" were beyond imagination. The one exception would be Arthur C. Clarke, who dreamed up the idea of communication satellites before they became reality. One of the reasons why RS's work endures is that he pays very little attention to the impact of technology on humanity, and focusses primarily on the workings of the mind, on the fragile boundaries between perception and reality. A mere fifty years ago, it was almost impossible to predict what the world of 2009 would be like. "Progress" has been zooming ahead exponentially with increasing velocity, and who knows what the world will be like in 2099 or 3099 or a million years from now. I have been reading a couple of the novellas in the anthology "One Million A.D." (which also contains RS's "A Piece of the Great World")and none of the stories deal directly with the issue of technological progress, although evolution is an underlying theme in some of them. |
| Oct. 15 |
Dying inside |
CR |
In any discussion of great
telepathy novels, one should not lose sight of John Wyndham's "The Chrysalids" (called "Rebirth" in the U.S.) which was published in 1955, two years before Anderson's book. > But, for me, the one work that stands out as a kind of predecessor to DYING INSIDE is Poul Anderson's "Journey's End", first published in F&SF, Feb. 1957, and anthologized frequently thereafter. Ralph |