Sealing A Concrete Bath

VI - Words (Words - 1985) Naomi Mitchison (1897-1999)

Naomi Mitchison ha ottantotto anni quando viene pubblicato questo racconto, e continuerà a scrivere praticamente fino alla morte. Nata in una antica famiglia dell’aristocrazia scozzese (gli Haldane) che concentra le sue figure di rilievo proprio nello scorso secolo, lungo tutto l’arco della sua vita sarà impegnata sul fronte delle tematiche femministe. E’ stata una scrittrice assai prolifica, dedicandosi alla saggistica, alla poesia, al romanzo storico e di costume, alla narrativa per ragazzi e a quella fantastica. Nel campo strettamente fantascientifico has produced a handful of novels and short stories, among them Memoirs of a spacewoman (1962), first published in Italy as Diary of an astronaut and then Memoirs of an astronaut, a space-opera where the emphasis is all about knowledge, its size and relational and biological problems, rendered in a clear perspective and the absence of the feminine element adventure.

Words is a short story that despite the location, so that the original Italian, in anthologies of women's and feminist science fiction into reality non è così caratterizzato in tal senso. Certo, protagonista è una figura di scienziata, la dottoressa Toni, delineata con cura dall’autrice, ma questo è tutto. Il tema centrale del racconto verte su questioni percettive e cognitive che si possono allargare, a ben vedere, a tutta una serie di considerazioni sulla fantascienza e più in generale la letteratura.

La protagonista è una neurofisiologa che va compiendo studi appunto sulle percezioni sensoriali. Il suo lavoro sperimentale va oltre la biologia e fisiologia dei sensi comunemente intesi (tatto, vista ecc.) e la conduce dunque a sviluppare metodologie atte a risvegliare, nelle sedi deputate del cervello, le strutture cellulari preposte a sensi che nell’uomo non sono attivi.

Con lo sperimentare in prima persona gli effetti cognitivi di queste nuove percezioni, la donna si troverà ad affrontare la questione decisiva dell’impossibilità di descrivere tali effetti, di rendere con gli strumenti del linguaggio le proprie reazioni. E’ il cuore del racconto. Dante, che in realtà ben possedeva gli strumenti linguistici per esprimere l’ineffabile, nel Paradiso insiste sull’ineffabilità del divino. Però il divino, in quanto creazione dell’uomo, rientra nella sphere of human experience. In fact, the ineffability in the case of Dante is a measure of hyperbolic and symbolic dell'inattingibilità by the divine dimension of the human intellect.

If we ask instead the perspective of sensory perception unknown to man, so completely outside of its assets experiential, we see that the ineffability becomes technical problem and, consequently, philosophical . What does Naomi Mitchison, is to use the forms of science fiction to prime considerations in the first instance of literature in general, and that subsequently can be identified as a specific science fiction.

Cover dedicated to the author of a biography

Words are the tools of the writer. The man is faber also, perhaps above all, ideas. The definition is because the central idea can be communicated, transmitted to others, and thus shared. Why become a common heritage and therefore the instrument. The word has become the defining symbol of the idea and material used by man. At the word, as the definition of the idea behind the man comes through experience. It 's the old question: How can I explain to those who are color blind? Dr. Toni is precisely in this condition. You can also take as a metaphor for that particular faber which is the science fiction writer, who must find the words to describe worlds, ideas, facts that do not exist. Which are, at best, speculative. The young journalist who goes to interview the scientist will be found precisely in the position of the writer of science fiction. The fact the woman take charge (because it is "good with words") to find ways to translate into a meaningful literary form his notes on experiences in the course of his experiments that allow try the new perceptions. There is like the proposition of the schematic division between scientific and literary culture. But even more, I think there is a proposition of the primordial task of interpretation, almost magical word. The word is a key. And the writer is one who opens doors for us.

Science fiction author goes further to create the keys for doors that do not exist, which must show consistency through his work as a blacksmith.

the young journalist will be able to get to grips with the problem of which he was invested? We'll never know. We know that there has dedicata tutta sé stessa, e che senza dubbio ha raggiunto qualche tipo di risultato. Le manca però l’esperienza diretta. Non aliena da pericoli, perché ci si deve sottoporre a stimolazioni nervose in gran parte ancora ignote nei loro effetti collaterali (di assuefazione, per dire). In un incontro finale con la dottoressa ella discuterà proprio di questi aspetti. La donna più anziana appare provata, ma serena. Di certo “vede” la realtà in modo nuovo, e non potrebbe essere diversamente, e il suo cruccio resta l’impossibilità di trasmettere agli altri le sue percezioni. Il blocco dello scrittore deve essere una brutta bestia per chi è del mestiere ;-).

anthology The Italian (1990) and the original (1985) publication of the story

Beyond the bare basic idea of \u200b\u200bthe possible interpretations metaphoric, the narrative all the more striking for the figure of the scientist, the author describes almost allusions to and subtractions that telling you something or let the character to reveal himself in his gestures and actions. Short hints, almost nuance that fielding skills and sophistication to create a psychology and credible figure of a woman alive, passionate and mysterious. It is no coincidence that a light illuminates the mystery of his death. Not in the proceedings: that the risks involved in experiments performed, of which he was warned and that all those who loved her entreat you to take due account is made, and the scientist dies during one of them. The mystery is more subtle, in the words of the anonymous reporter who had learned to love that close up the story: Only his lips were still attitudes with a smile, as if perhaps he had finally found the words to say. do not know if this is so, but it's nice to think so: life, apparently, is dangerous, but only by living we learn and grow.

Free Alternative To Nero Vision

Classic - mortal (Mortal Gods - 1979) by Orson Scott Card (n.1951)

Orson Scott Card is a true superstar of the science fiction of the '80s. Not helped shape the imagination of that time and later as the prophet of cyberpunk William Gibson, nor was a guru Bruce Sterling or as influential as a writer Kim Stanley Robinson and Gene Wolfe, or estimated as Lucius Shepard. But it was much loved. In the middle of the decade, with Ender's Game (Ender's Game ) - extension homonymous tale written in 1977 at the beginning of his career - and the redemption of Ender ( Speaker for the Dead ) Cards won for two years in a row that both the Hugo Award Nebula Award for best novel. Never happened before or since. Never change a winning team, and has since extended the broth by adding novels and stories galore (few people arrived in Italy after Xenocide, the third chapter in the long run), but was actually counting the initial fulminant 1:00 to 2:00 , moreover it can certainly do without ;-).

mortal back to the early days of his career, but already the story of a writer mature and aware of her means. Card no accident the year before he received the John Campbell Award for most promising writer in the field of sf. The story is far from convincingly military atmosphere of the great cycle that will give him the fame (and will attract criticism, the more justified in cases of Heinlein or Poul Anderson), but subtly explores the religious dimension of the sacred and the other pole which is fundamental Card of life, devout Mormon.

of the short story is soon told: a fine day the aliens arrive on Earth. And these aliens, vaguely amoeboid, enter into contracts to acquire plots of land a bit 'all over the planet and build buildings. Religious buildings: synagogues, churches, mosques, temples varied. Buildings as they were in effect. And within enriched by works of art such as churches and so on. Nothing else. No changes are striking, and indeed the arrival of the aliens makes it clear that there is not much to know in science (always a bit confusing 'anti-scientific mentality on display for several science fiction writers).

The amoeboid merely as architects and welcome humans who enter their buildings talking amiably with them. Willard Crane is a very old man, a widower, now close to death. Will he discover the purpose of the aliens. One day, pushed a little 'out of boredom, a little' out of curiosity and partly from years of disenchantment, alien crosses the threshold of the temple in Salt Lake City, and during the dialogue with an alien who was there to ask the right questions and get the answers clarify the mystery. He discovers that the aliens are on Earth to worship - literally - human beings. Without going into detail, suffice it to say that death, such as genetic variation, is unknown in the galaxy outside of our planet (this "special" man was a theme dear to John Campbell, here is the card in a very particular way). The aliens came to Earth to be able to penetrate the secret of death, immortal worship creativity that goes with and ultimately yearn for something that is closed to them to have.

Card rewarded with a young Isaac Asimov

If the theme is simple, slender, and the performance is linear and solved in a few pages, this that stands out is the beauty of the narrative. "Beautiful" in itself, clearly it means nothing. The beauty of the mortal derives almost all the vigor with which the young author has described the figure of his old protagonist. Crane is anything but a shining hero, but for this is described with a realism and clarity that unfold a whole psychology, a whole life in the limited space of a sketch. An old age and disease won, but irreducible, whose cynicism is tempered by wisdom and cunning down to earth but very effective. Attached to life at the time of death as in every moment of his earthly existence, and not at all seduced by the idea of \u200b\u200bthe blessing of death, unattainable pipe dream for all other living beings in the galaxy. Cares about everything, Willard, if not the fact that dying is not something that just goes down. Card describes all this with a dry, conversational prose, making even inelegant in his character to perfection, but in the mouth to the grumpy old man is transformed into a heroic and lyrical portrait.

Although the figure of Willard dominated the economy of the story, the reasons for interest in it do not stop in his old role. The crown which ambiguously his story a few months after that his conversation with the unnamed alien coming to the temple and dying inside, cursing the death and the aliens themselves raccoltivisi to attend the theophany of his death. But curses have been true? Because only you thought of us the gift of kinder. Just want to let her attend his death. So Willard turns to one of the aliens. And Willard responds: thought to have come to damn your souls to hell, that's why I'm here, ugly bastards who have come to make the sarcasm about me in the last hours I have left to live. In reality both lie and tell the truth. There is a tangle of emotions and feelings at that Willard Crane dying on him. Deep hatred and deep emotion in the old man, whose ego is titillated by the attention of the aliens as much as his resentment for their immortality, and the catch that nature is instead pulling him is sincere. And worship, equally sincere, individuals from across the galaxy creeps with evidence, and almost violence, a perverse result. The final scene of the dying man's body shaken by the gruesome turns to pure agony and ecstasy of the mystic aliens morbid vein is very clear. Moreover in the act of adoration of the pain and suffering of the morbid and macabre connotation has no implication, never divorced and has primary aspect: the pain of God is ineffable emotion for believers, thrill mystical love for God and consubstantial.

Reflection Card is not only an anthropological and psychological. The "mortal" human mirror embody the diversity of the divine in relation to their factor. Mortal man of them forge their own immortal immortal recognizing the alien element in the divine spark that lightning is consumed in the glory of a creative frenzy that develops and revises continuously varying shape, as opposed to the infinite self-preservation that is the fate of all in galassia a eccezione dell’uomo.

Il racconto è apparso in Italia sull’Urania Millemondiestate 1992, una di quelle corposissime antologie miscellanee che sarebbe bello riavere.

   

Pokemon Silver Mac Rom

Library SF V - Poul Anderson ( 1926-2001)

Quell'uomo di multiforme ingegno, Poul Anderson.

Generalmente identificato come autore di hard science fiction , ideologicamente conservatore se non peggio, Anderson è stato in realtà uno scrittore dalla personalità ben più complex and branched, and if in his vast production there are, inevitably hectic and productive, many jobs that do not go beyond the solid professionalism, in his best American writer is a true modern forger of myths (not only) . As Robert Heinlein, too easily and incorrectly labeled as reactionary, Poul Anderson is actually a libertarian who believes in the absolute values \u200b\u200bof individualism, bordering the superomismo. While her best fiction is probably the shortest in the works, where themes and characters larger than life dissolve in more thoughtful reflections (in this sense, I consider the story Sam Hall his best), is no less true that his best science-fiction adventures are able to charm and shine with the sheer force of events narrated in them.

Not a few, then those who think the copious production of fantasy Anderson than his works of sf. The richness of the mythology of his homeland, Denmark, the American author drew not only inspiration, but the aesthetic structure of all his work in pure fantasy, where he learned to shape a genuinely poetic and literary vein more sophisticated and successful.

One of the many books in the series of van Rijn and Falkayn, collects several short stories.

lovers cycles plethora of stories and novels (I confess, not too much) can do their own favorite Anderson. A considerable portion of its production is occupied by two cycles, which are linked, and the League Polesotecnica 's Terran Empire, which respectively stand out in the figures of the merchants Nicholas van Rijn and Falkayn, and the soldier Dominic Flandry to accentuation mark a transition on the expansion and the libertarianism of the League of the Empire era besieged Flandry. In Italy have been published by publishing the North.

The first volume in which was collected, the cycle Flandry, meets the first stories (in chronological order inside)

Other minor cycles (in size), including that of the Time Patrol encircle the two above. And with them by the dozens and dozens of individual novels and stories by Poul Anderson wrote his debut in 1947 forward.

On the shelf should have shown himself more than a few of our volumes.

1000 Quotient ( Brain Wave, 1954 )
One of the best novels of Anderson, who develops a masterly touch and poetic and visionary themes superomistico dear to him, and to conceal and hide the harshness and difficulty of the topic. The "study" that the writer takes on an Earth where men and animals develop un'intelletto scale is carried out with great care and detail of analysis.

The broken sword ( The Broken Sword, 1954 - revised in 1971 )
generally considered the masterpiece of the author, the broken sword is still one of the most read fantasy novels and seminal in Anglo-Saxon world. The rich, fertile material of the Norse mythology which for him is like breast milk, Anderson wrote a novel where the human drama takes on tones mythical and mystical where the size of the elements dell'ultramondano turns heroic and magic, to form an epic modern but antique flavor. A story of raw emotions and strong, deeply human.

Hoka sapiens ( Earthman's Burden, 1957 )
Anderson wrote together with the Canadian writer Gordon R. Dickson stories focused on the bizarre alien civilization of Hoka, Toka funny creatures on the planet whose culture is based on adherence to cultural models of others, from time to time different. The problem is that Tokani do everything in their way. Very, very them. The volume is among the finest examples of humorous fiction. Resta fuori una novella, Complotto napoleonico ( The Napoleon crime ) pubblicata sul volume mondadoriano Millemondi Inverno 1987.

I proteiformi ( The war of two worlds, 1959 )
Romanzo sulla guerra, la paranoia e la manipolazione. Terrestri e marziani si sono massacrati per decenni in una guerra insensata prima che qualcuno sospettasse che tutta la vicenda non è altro che il risultato delle trame di un altro popolo che agisce nell'ombra...

Tre cuori e tre leoni ( Three hearts and three lions, 1961 )
Espansione di una novella omonima del 1953, is one of the most famous novels and beautiful Anderson. Today we can say contamination between fantasy and science fiction, or more precisely science-fantasy. Strictly speaking, the story is part of the science fiction genre of alternative stories about the Nazis, together with that of parallel worlds where magic is real. But the aesthetic structure, narrative and philosophical fantasy that is the most rooted in medieval mythology and recasting them in a modern literature. All this in addition to being a wild adventure, often told with masterly irony.

them land ( Twilight World, 1961 )
In this novel, without doubt one of the better ones in which his writing was able to raise above the pure professionalism, Anderson is able to play often sincere and sympathetic lyricism the story of humanity from nuclear destruction almost zero, but in spite of his misery by a sign that they have the resources to survive. Of course, as the protagonist comes to understand, that humanity will survive - must necessarily be - other humanity. "They" will be the land, and not "we." The novel was born from the merger of three previous novels, of which the first written with FN Waldrop.

They destroyed the Earth ( After Doomsday, 1962 )
How knows of salt The bread of others . E 'discover what the protagonists of this novel, a work less, but far from worthless. Only a few astronauts on a mission at the time of the event, survived the destruction of our planet. Round about the solar system in the solar system, looking for the perpetrators of the destruction of Earth, offering himself as a mercenary, trying to survive and keep alive that little bit 'of human civilization and culture that exists in them. With difficulty.

Tau Zero (zero Tau, 1970 )
Retrieved expansion of a story that appeared Three years earlier, Tau Zero is the most canonical of hard sf novel written by Poul Anderson, and probably his best work in fiction. The spaceship Leonora Christine is generational, Modern Ark carrying a group of men and women to the colonization of other worlds. Deeply based on the paradoxes of relativity and has a solid scientific mission of the ship will become impossible when the novel will turn in the tale of an odyssey in the endless cosmic spaces.

The Vagabond spaces ( The Byworlder, 1971 )
Each man sees what nell'occupante of the ship that he prefers to three years in orbit around our planet. The Alien epitomizes and embodies fears, hopes and dreams of a humanity confused. But outside the symbolism of which are borne by the men he will prove to be more ... Final at the conceptual, but the novel is not undeserving.

Best of Poul Anderson ( The Best of Poul Anderson, 1976 )
The anthology, published in Robot Special No. 8, contains nine short of the most interesting work of Anderson, including goiellino that cyberpunk is ahead of its time Sam Hall.

The Immortals ( The Boat of a Million Years, 1989 )
Long, sometimes sleepy, this magnificent novel in which our author addresses the issue of immortality, however, redeemed by the grandeur of his plant adventurous and successful characterization of many of his characters. Easily recognizable as a work that late, but worth reading.

The Time Patrol ( The Time Patrol, 1991 )
The book contains the cycle of the Time Patrol (or Manse Everard), from the first, fresh and adventurous racconti già più volte apparsi, ai più tardi e un po' sonnacchiosi romanzi. Ciclo che...

... si conclude qui.

Regina dell'aria e della notte ( Queen of air and darkness )
In chiusura, questa antologia che oltre al racconto omonimo ne raccoglie altri quattro non meno titolati (di fatto: i racconti e le novelle di Poul Anderson che hanno ricevuto il premio Hugo).

Draining Swollen Finger

Library SF IV - Kingsley Amis (1922-1995)

Kingsley Amis è stato un uomo di lettere a tutto campo. Tra i principali narratori britannici della seconda metà del secolo scorso, poeta stimato e acuto literary critic. His reputation in the field of fiction is due mainly to the work of a critic. Enthusiastic reader and appreciation of science fiction, particularly works that were in the '50s by writing the standard bearers of the so-called social science fiction, notably Cyril M. Kornbluth, Frederik Pohl and Robert Sheckley, at the end of that decade his studies helped to liberate not just science fiction in the broader literary world. Although in later years show that they are disappointed by the turn toward more classical forms and adventure took place after the death of Kornbluth by Pohl, the author estimated that more, Amis kept his interest in the field.

Over 60s Sir Kingsley was away, in his fiction, from the realism that had characterized from the first novel (Jim the lucky, the 1954 commercial success as well as literature), writing novels, he also all recognizable as science fiction. In a

ideal library should find a place at least three of his books:

New Maps of Hell (New Maps of Hell: a survey of science fiction, 1960)
The most important work of Amis on science fiction. The book contains his lectures held on a couple of years before the United States.

The League

Antimorte ( The Anti-Death League, 1966 )
Antimorte The League is only tangentially science fiction, perhaps only the whole of its parts. It 'the first novel in which substantially departs from the Amis humorous realism that had characterized its production, marking also the beginning of his experience within the genres. The intent of the typical speculative fiction so loved by Amis is joined to the spy story, the thriller, the mystery, in a work by thousands of suggestions of existence, where death and even more so her lie is always present.

change has ( The Alteration, 1976 )
change has is the work purely science fiction. A baroque, lush novel of alternate history , in which a hideous our contemporary Europe, where the Reformation never happened and the papal power has never failed, is the setting for reflection and a ferocious satirical analysis of the many dogmas and bigotry that affect us, not altered reality.

Sir Kingsley Amis and his son Martin, like his father a writer of great talent and fame

Bodypainting Volleyball

Library SF III - Brian W. Aldiss (1925 -)

Veterano della fantascienza britannica, Brian Wilson Aldiss è stato un miracolo di prolificità e talento che per decenni ha scritto romanzi e racconti rischiarati dall'acutezza di un'intelligenza penetrante e impreziositi dal brio narrativo di una penna fantasiosa e avvincente che ha saputo unire divertiento e impegno senza mai venir meno all'uno o all'altro. Né si è limitato all'attività di narratore; la fantascienza ha beneficiato e beneficia della sua non meno importante attività di critico interno al campo e di antologista di valore. Aldiss, che esordì nel 1954, nella seconda metà degli anni '60 fu uno dei principali esponenti della new wave , la corrente letteraria britannica che from the pages of the magazine New Worlds directed by Michael Moorcock worked a profound renewal of style, and content of political science fiction ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Wave_ 28science_fiction% 29% ).

Many titles of his vast production that would fit in an ideal library.

Endless Journey ( Non-stop, 1956 )
The theme is classic, and was also previously treated masterfully by Robert Heinlein in his Orphans of the Sky ( Universe ). Generation spacecraft and the men inside, which over time forget to be on a vehicle, only to rediscover it and having to change radically their civilization. Aldiss's conclusion will not be the most reassuring ...

Galaxies like grains of sand ( Galaxies like grains of sand, 1960 )
collage-novel, cyclic, consisting of ephemeral stories sometimes and sometimes not at all linked, Galaxies like grains of sand he makes one of the most acute and compelling stories of the future sf.

Descalation ( The wrong response, 1961 )
E 'a novel in some ways very modern; set in Africa in the near future focuses on the comparison and mutual influence between cultures and civilizations.

Lamp sex ( The primal urge, 1961 )
Although today may seem dated in its arguments, the (then) irreverent novel that deals with irony in all seriousness, the concept of sex as an instrument of social control is still relevant today for the levity with which Aldiss studying certain mechanisms of human psychology.

The long afternoon of Earth ( Hothouse, 1961-62)
One of the examples most convincing post-apocalyptic science fiction, set in the distant future Earth devastated by the action of the Sun became a threat and the explosion of vegetation, the novel is the merger of five existing tales. At the first Italian publication received the title of horrifying Leprosy hell.

Barbagrigia ( Greybeard, 1964 )
John Clute The severe category as the best novel of Aldiss, and no doubt this terrible apology / warning to humanity of an old, rendered sterile because of experiments performed badly and ended badly, has a great psychological effect analytical descriptions of this dying breed now heads Canute. As says Clute is however also a heartfelt act of love for man.

My World burned ( Earthworks, 1965 )
It 's a tough political novel in which Aldiss ruthlessly examines an Earth in the near future where more and more political and social inequalities are added to a situation marked by pre-collapse environment. Virtually our present ...

Raintree ( The tree went up, 1966 )
One of the best anthologies of Aldiss, collects a dozen of his short works, including the eponymous who received the Nebula Award, the award bestowed annually by the association of science fiction writers.

intangible Anonima ( Intangibles Inc. and Other Stories, 1970 ) Aldiss
Another excellent anthology gathers some of the stories written years before.

A billion years ( Billion year spree, 1973 )
The most famous historical and critical work of Aldiss, which puts the Frankenstein by Mary Shelley as an act of birth of the science fiction .

released Frankenstein (Frankenstein Unbound , 1973 )
baroque variation on the theme of time travel, this recursive science fiction novel, which portrays the characters of Frankenstein and his creator, is a reflection on science fiction and its genesis, and is among the best books of Aldiss.

cycle Helliconia ( Helliconia spring, 1982; Helliconia summer 1983, winter Helliconia, 1985 )
After a long period during which his mood seemed tarnished, Aldiss produced its cycle stories and most ambitious full-bodied, and one of his most charming and best. Helliconia is a planet where each season lasts thousands of years, resulting in the cyclic succession of cultures and civilizations that develop during these times that seem almost endless and in which virtually no change in environmental conditions.

AI Artificial Intelligence ( Supertoys last all summer long and other stories of future time, 2001 )
This anthology gathers a large full-bodied number of stories, among which are the three that have gone on to compose the core of the eponymous film directed by Steven Spielberg that the "inherited" the death of Stanley Kubrick.





Among the volumes edited by Aldiss as anthologist finally worth reporting at least those that were published by Fanucci in the series Encyclopedia of science fiction.