{"id":3296,"date":"2009-01-10T22:02:11","date_gmt":"2009-01-11T03:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=3296"},"modified":"2009-01-10T22:02:11","modified_gmt":"2009-01-11T03:02:11","slug":"saturday-various-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=3296","title":{"rendered":"Saturday various"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font face=\"Verdana\" size=\"2\"><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sci Fi Wire offers a list of reasons <a href=\"http:\/\/scifiwire.com\/2009\/01\/eight-reasons-why-foxs-24-is-really-science-fiction-really.php\">why <i>24<\/i> is actually science fiction<\/a>. I&#8217;m reminded how, a few years back, I <a href=\"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=1645\">made a case<\/a> that <i>The West Wing<\/i> was science fiction. It really was, you know.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkfantasy.org\/fantasy\/?p=1266\">Paula R. Stiles offers<\/a> some interesting thoughts on taboos in speculative fiction:<\/font><br \/>\n<blockquote><p><font face=\"Verdana\" size=\"2\">The other reason is that taboos change and not every theme that seems taboo now was taboo when such books came out. Some of the strongest taboos can come and go within a generation, while others simply mutate. For example, people now talk about homosexuality openly. In some circles, homophobia is what is now considered to be unacceptable. So now, something like Sturgeon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s groundbreaking \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The World Well Lost\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (1953) seems a bit repressed. The \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tragic gay people\u00e2\u20ac\u009d storyline isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly hyper-tolerant by today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s standards, but it was revolutionary in 1953 for showing sympathy toward homosexuality. Similarly, a lot of people have criticized Heinlein\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apparently pervy view of women while ignoring that when books like <i>Stranger in a Strange Land<\/i> came out, any open discussion of sex in speculative fiction was revolutionary.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li><font face=\"Verdana\" size=\"2\">I find the prospect of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitalspy.co.uk\/ustv\/a140588\/3-d-chuck-episode-to-air-in-february.html\">3-D episode of <i>Chuck<\/i><\/a> equally annoying and endearing. I think the show is having a genuinely very good season, improving over a fun but not overly remarkable first, so I can&#8217;t say for certain I won&#8217;t pick up the glasses if I see them, even if I won&#8217;t go out of my way to find them. Then again, 3-D can sometimes be ridiculously amusing when you&#8217;re <i>not<\/i> wearing the glasses. Maybe the technology has improved significantly since then &#8212; <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.suntimes.com\/ebert\/2008\/08\/dminus_for_3d.html\">Roger Ebert<\/a> doesn&#8217;t seem to think so &#8212; but the other day I caught several minutes of <i>Jaws 3-D<\/i> on HBO. Shots clearly designed to wow and amaze an audience &#8212; a harpoon flying into camera, for instance &#8212; just look silly. Then again, maybe that&#8217;s also the product of <i>Jaws 3<\/i> being a pretty lousy movie. (The first <i>Jaws<\/i>, though, which I watched in full a couple of days before, is still damn good.)<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;m <i>as<\/i> disappointed in <i>Battlestar Galactica<\/i> <a href=\"http:\/\/nofearofthefuture.blogspot.com\/2009\/01\/itll-all-end-in-tears.html\">as Jayme Lynn Blashcke<\/a>, but I&#8217;ve also had serious issues with it, especially in its more recent seasons, and <i>especially<\/i> in its &#8220;Final Five&#8221; storyline. I think it&#8217;s given the actors involved some interesting things to do, but it makes almost no sense in terms of the story and has eclipsed practically everything else. <i>BSG<\/i> is basically just a show that I find very intense when I&#8217;m watching it, still find reasons to enjoy, but find it very difficult to build up any kind of enthusiasm towards, even when it&#8217;s airing week to week.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/johnaugust.com\/archives\/2009\/the-remnants-in-full\">The Remnants<\/a> &#8212; a terrific post-apocalyptic web comedy. Where else are you going to see Ernie Hudson, Justine Bateman, Enrico Colantoni, and Ze Frank in a comedy about what happens after the end of the world? It would be a real shame if no more episodes were made. [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.waxy.org\/links\" title=\"Waxy.org Links\">via<\/a>]<\/li>\n<p><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sci Fi Wire offers a list of reasons why 24 is actually science fiction. I&#8217;m reminded how, a few years back, I made a case that The West Wing was science fiction. It really was, you know. Paula R. Stiles offers some interesting thoughts on taboos in speculative fiction: The other reason is that taboos &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=3296\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-3296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-various"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}