http://www.homelanddecency.com/
oy. I am not in a very verbal mood. Maybe it's the Leap Day or the Constant Commercials from HRC and BHO. ? Or the Cold clime. ?
I received my Grab Bag of Decency and encourage Everybody to acquire the Manual and Protect the Homeland. Then take the quiz. It's not too long. You, too, might win! My refrigerator is now adorned.
Thank You, Tom and Bugzita, for your posts and much more.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Marching Proudly Backwards
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Doomsday Literature
Bugzita here. Nomi was kind enough to invite me on her blog team. Thanks! I'll try to behave myself, but...
Okay, so I admit it. I love Doomsday Literature and have this fantasy of teaching an entire semester studying the Literature of Doom.
In my Intro course, I already teach Fail-Safe (fiction) and Hiroshima (non-fiction), but I crave to inflict more doom on innocent Freshmen...
As some of you may know, I'm the admin of a war site--not a very girly girl endeavor, but I have always been fascinated (and repelled) by war; it's more of an obsession than a fascination--more like if I try to understand why people insist in engaging in an act that dooms some of the young people in a population that maybe I can somehow stop it.
That's naive, of course, but I keep that possibility in the back of my head.
Would I perpetuate irreparable harm by forcing young people to read literature in which the ending almost always results in a tragic outcome for the human race? My students often moan and groan when they see Hiroshima on the syllabus, but after they have read it, many of them are shocked that the U.S. perpetuated such an act on a civilian population and appreciate why I have asked them to read this book. If they manage to complete the book, they leave the class slightly different people, perhaps a bit more aware, or maybe they just resent me...
Some have written about Hirsohima on my student blog Publishes.us.
Other possible texts:
On the Beach, by Nevil Shute
When Worlds Collide, by Edwin Balmer and Phillip Gordon Wylie
The Bible
The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells
The Day of the Triffids, by John Wyndham
The Machine Stops, by E.M. Forster
What do you think? Could the professor and students make it through the semester without having to go into major therapy?
Oh, one more thing: just because I like the title, one more work: "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the TickTockMan, by Harlan Ellison.
I love great titles!
Best to all,
Bugzi
Monday, February 25, 2008
The Origins of Science Fiction
Now that Nomi has graciously allowed me to join the staff of her blog, I felt I ought to get things started with a nice, substantial post. In keeping with the literary nature of I Dreamed I Saw Grace P. Last Night, I've chosen to devote this post to the branch of literature with which I am most familiar: science fiction.
As the Wikipedia article on science fiction notes, there are almost as many definitions of science fiction as there are definers. Probably the most accurate definition was made by science fiction editor John W. Campbell, Jr., who said, "Science fiction is what science fiction editors buy." This reflects the reality that science fiction was actually the creation of one man, and that man was a science fiction editor.
If you wanted to, you could go back as far as the seventeenth century and find stories of journeys to the moon by Johannes Kepler and Cyrano de Bergerac that would now be considered science fiction. Certainly by the 19th century there were plenty of examples of fantastic fiction with a technological bent: Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, about a mad scientist who is able to use science to reanimate the dead; several stories by Edgar Allen Poe such as 1835's "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" and 1844's "The Balloon-Hoax"; Jules Verne's various voyages extraordinaires from 1863 on; H. G. Wells' scientific romances; futuristic utopias such as Edward Bellamy's 1888 novel Looking Backward, and dystopias such as Ignatius Donnelly's 1890 Caesar's Column. The early 20th century saw the introduction of the planetary romances of Edgar Rice Burroughs and his imitators. However, these were all individual productions by particular writers. What eventually tied them all together was the appearance of a single magazine in 1926 called Amazing Stories.
The publisher and editor of Amazing Stories was Hugo Gernsback, who had emigrated from Luxembourg to the United States in 1905. Gernsback was fascinated by electronics, and he started up the first magazine devoted to the subject, Modern Electrics, in 1908. In 1911, he published a work of fiction, Ralph 124C 41+, in his magazine, set in the future and focusing on future technologies. This proved popular with the magazine's readers, and Gernsback went on to publish more works of future-technology fiction in Modern Electrics and his other electronics magazines. Finally, in 1926, Gernsback decided to publish a magazine devoted entirely to technological fiction, and he coined the word "scientifiction" to describe the genre.
Most of the early issues of Amazing Stories consisted of reprints of earlier stories and novels by the likes of Poe, Verne, Wells, and Burroughs (each of the first 28 issues included a Wells reprint). This allowed Gernsback to do two things: first, it let him save money, since he didn't feel the need to pay the authors for the stories he reprinted; and second, it let him define his new genre by delving into a century's worth of fantastic fiction and picking and choosing which examples fit his new concept and which didn't. By the time the last Wells reprint appeared in the July 1928 issue of Amazing, Gernsback had built up a stable of writers such as Edmond Hamilton, E. E. Smith, and Jack Williamson that allowed him to carry on with original works of fiction. And in 1930, Gernsback's new genre received the ultimate accolade: the appearance of Astounding Stories, a rival scientifiction magazine by another publisher.
By the end of the 1930s, Gernsback's genre, under the variant name science fiction, had become a firmly established part of popular culture, spawning more magazines, comic strips, radio series, and movie serials. By 1946, the first science fiction book was published, an anthology of magazine stories called The Best of Science Fiction. Other anthologies followed, and in 1950 a major publisher, Doubleday and Company, established its own line of original science fiction novels.
By this time, the genre Gernsback founded had moved beyond him, and he played no important role in its history after 1936. Nevertheless, his part in founding the genre was remembered, and when an award for the year's best science fiction was established in 1953, it was named the Hugo, for Hugo Gernsback.
As the Wikipedia article on science fiction notes, there are almost as many definitions of science fiction as there are definers. Probably the most accurate definition was made by science fiction editor John W. Campbell, Jr., who said, "Science fiction is what science fiction editors buy." This reflects the reality that science fiction was actually the creation of one man, and that man was a science fiction editor.
If you wanted to, you could go back as far as the seventeenth century and find stories of journeys to the moon by Johannes Kepler and Cyrano de Bergerac that would now be considered science fiction. Certainly by the 19th century there were plenty of examples of fantastic fiction with a technological bent: Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, about a mad scientist who is able to use science to reanimate the dead; several stories by Edgar Allen Poe such as 1835's "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" and 1844's "The Balloon-Hoax"; Jules Verne's various voyages extraordinaires from 1863 on; H. G. Wells' scientific romances; futuristic utopias such as Edward Bellamy's 1888 novel Looking Backward, and dystopias such as Ignatius Donnelly's 1890 Caesar's Column. The early 20th century saw the introduction of the planetary romances of Edgar Rice Burroughs and his imitators. However, these were all individual productions by particular writers. What eventually tied them all together was the appearance of a single magazine in 1926 called Amazing Stories.
The publisher and editor of Amazing Stories was Hugo Gernsback, who had emigrated from Luxembourg to the United States in 1905. Gernsback was fascinated by electronics, and he started up the first magazine devoted to the subject, Modern Electrics, in 1908. In 1911, he published a work of fiction, Ralph 124C 41+, in his magazine, set in the future and focusing on future technologies. This proved popular with the magazine's readers, and Gernsback went on to publish more works of future-technology fiction in Modern Electrics and his other electronics magazines. Finally, in 1926, Gernsback decided to publish a magazine devoted entirely to technological fiction, and he coined the word "scientifiction" to describe the genre.
Most of the early issues of Amazing Stories consisted of reprints of earlier stories and novels by the likes of Poe, Verne, Wells, and Burroughs (each of the first 28 issues included a Wells reprint). This allowed Gernsback to do two things: first, it let him save money, since he didn't feel the need to pay the authors for the stories he reprinted; and second, it let him define his new genre by delving into a century's worth of fantastic fiction and picking and choosing which examples fit his new concept and which didn't. By the time the last Wells reprint appeared in the July 1928 issue of Amazing, Gernsback had built up a stable of writers such as Edmond Hamilton, E. E. Smith, and Jack Williamson that allowed him to carry on with original works of fiction. And in 1930, Gernsback's new genre received the ultimate accolade: the appearance of Astounding Stories, a rival scientifiction magazine by another publisher.
By the end of the 1930s, Gernsback's genre, under the variant name science fiction, had become a firmly established part of popular culture, spawning more magazines, comic strips, radio series, and movie serials. By 1946, the first science fiction book was published, an anthology of magazine stories called The Best of Science Fiction. Other anthologies followed, and in 1950 a major publisher, Doubleday and Company, established its own line of original science fiction novels.
By this time, the genre Gernsback founded had moved beyond him, and he played no important role in its history after 1936. Nevertheless, his part in founding the genre was remembered, and when an award for the year's best science fiction was established in 1953, it was named the Hugo, for Hugo Gernsback.
Nomi Wins a Grab Bag of Decency !
Homeland Decency Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 4:28 PM
To: msnomir@gmail.com
Congratulations, Nomi. You are this week's winner of the Grab Bag of
Decency.
There were many entries with the correct answers. What made us select
you, even though your name seems foreign and somewhat unHomelandy, were
your very decent comments and observations about libraries, The New York
Times, and, of course, Roger Clemens, one of our favorites.
Included in this week's Grab Bag of Decency is a Department of Homeland
Decency Refrigerator magnet so that you and those closest to you will
always be reminded of the importance of decency; a book mark to mark
your favorite passages in the Decency Rules and Regulations Manual; and
an autographed photograph of Mrs. Sharon Flue, the Department's
temporary volunteer ambassador of decency.
However, we need to know where to send the Grab Bag of Decency. Please
send us an address and this wonderful prize will be in the next day's
mail to you. We hope soon to know all these things about everyone. But
until we get Congress giving us the right to snoop on everyone all the
time for no reason whatsoever, we need to ask for an address.
Thank you for being decent. It's the right way to live!
The Department of Homeland Decency.\
http://www.homelanddecency.com/mrsflue.html
To: msnomir@gmail.com
Congratulations, Nomi. You are this week's winner of the Grab Bag of
Decency.
There were many entries with the correct answers. What made us select
you, even though your name seems foreign and somewhat unHomelandy, were
your very decent comments and observations about libraries, The New York
Times, and, of course, Roger Clemens, one of our favorites.
Included in this week's Grab Bag of Decency is a Department of Homeland
Decency Refrigerator magnet so that you and those closest to you will
always be reminded of the importance of decency; a book mark to mark
your favorite passages in the Decency Rules and Regulations Manual; and
an autographed photograph of Mrs. Sharon Flue, the Department's
temporary volunteer ambassador of decency.
However, we need to know where to send the Grab Bag of Decency. Please
send us an address and this wonderful prize will be in the next day's
mail to you. We hope soon to know all these things about everyone. But
until we get Congress giving us the right to snoop on everyone all the
time for no reason whatsoever, we need to ask for an address.
Thank you for being decent. It's the right way to live!
The Department of Homeland Decency.\
http://www.homelanddecency.com/mrsflue.html
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Peter Ruta's Exhibit
http://www.Stadtgeschichtliches-museum-leipzig.de/neubau/ausstellungen/Peter_Ruta.htm
This may not work.
If not, I will try to fix this tomorrow, but we expect snow in Rhode Island, so I thank you, in advance, for your patience.
Peter is my uncle. There's a wonderful photo of him on Garance's blog: http://www.thegarance.com/
This may not work.
If not, I will try to fix this tomorrow, but we expect snow in Rhode Island, so I thank you, in advance, for your patience.
Peter is my uncle. There's a wonderful photo of him on Garance's blog: http://www.thegarance.com/
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Janitors at PC Have a Contract!
I understand that a contract was ratified on Saturday. That's all I know. I'll post details when I have them.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Welcome Bugzita!
I am happy to announce that the Team is growing! Bugzita of PostFoetrydot com fame (and a writer of many forms in many settings) has kindly agreed to contribute!
She has technical skills far beyond mine.
She brings geographical insights from Pennsylvania, Iowa, Macedonia & lands unnamed.
Bugzita, thank you!
Next week is school vacation for my son. Would that we were already reporting with the Pitchers and Catchers in Florida, Arizona and? Nevada(California?) but we have not yet been recruited or discovered. We will be spending some time in New Haven (Nutmeg State) and perhaps in Other Places.
Roger Clemens may or may not go to Heaven, but I agree with William Rhoden (in todays NYTimes, section C )that he deserves the same exact treatment given Barry Bonds and Marion Jones.
By Heaven, I mean no disrespect to the blog of Mairead Byrne., http://www.maireadbyrne.blogspot.com/
She has technical skills far beyond mine.
She brings geographical insights from Pennsylvania, Iowa, Macedonia & lands unnamed.
Bugzita, thank you!
Next week is school vacation for my son. Would that we were already reporting with the Pitchers and Catchers in Florida, Arizona and? Nevada(California?) but we have not yet been recruited or discovered. We will be spending some time in New Haven (Nutmeg State) and perhaps in Other Places.
Roger Clemens may or may not go to Heaven, but I agree with William Rhoden (in todays NYTimes, section C )that he deserves the same exact treatment given Barry Bonds and Marion Jones.
By Heaven, I mean no disrespect to the blog of Mairead Byrne., http://www.maireadbyrne.blogspot.com/
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Mother Teresa & the Janitors of Providence College
" Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor...Let no one come to you without leaving better or happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile; kindness in your warm greeting. "
~~Mother Teresa of Calcutta, 1910--1997
quote found on www.inspirationpeak.com
The one morning I spent picketing with the janitors left me feeling better than when I arrived. Sure my fingers were cold and my nose running, but I felt the connection with these people, the union staff, the Providence College security folks and also the Providence Police. I cannot express it without sentimentality, but it gave me a greater understanding of the Providence College students and faculty as well.
I believe a contract has been ratified, but I do not know the specifics
~~Mother Teresa of Calcutta, 1910--1997
quote found on www.inspirationpeak.com
The one morning I spent picketing with the janitors left me feeling better than when I arrived. Sure my fingers were cold and my nose running, but I felt the connection with these people, the union staff, the Providence College security folks and also the Providence Police. I cannot express it without sentimentality, but it gave me a greater understanding of the Providence College students and faculty as well.
I believe a contract has been ratified, but I do not know the specifics
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Richard Hauptmann was found "guilty" on 2/13/1935
I read Anthony Scaduto's book about the Lindbergh baby kidnapping when I was twelve or thirteen. No one person pointed me towards it--although I may have been influenced by having read (oy) Agatha Christie's Murder On The Orient Express.
The book convinced me that Mr. Hauptmann was a Scapegoat. This was the "Crime of the Century," and New Jersey's police, the FBI and all law enforcement agents had to pin it on someone. They found an immigrant who was poor and convenient and ensured he received a pitiful defense. Is anti-German bigotry a form of racism? I don't know; but bigotry is bigotry.
Here is a website which offers many more details:
http://www.lindberghkidnappinghoax.com/
On an unrelated matter:
my sympathies are with the Providence, RI police who are currently suing the city for wiretapping them in their workplace.
The book convinced me that Mr. Hauptmann was a Scapegoat. This was the "Crime of the Century," and New Jersey's police, the FBI and all law enforcement agents had to pin it on someone. They found an immigrant who was poor and convenient and ensured he received a pitiful defense. Is anti-German bigotry a form of racism? I don't know; but bigotry is bigotry.
Here is a website which offers many more details:
http://www.lindberghkidnappinghoax.com/
On an unrelated matter:
my sympathies are with the Providence, RI police who are currently suing the city for wiretapping them in their workplace.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Happy Birthday, NAACP !
This photo is from the New York World-Telegram & Sun, by Al Ravenna, 1956,From left: Henry L. Moon, Roy Wilkins, Herbert Hill and Thurgood Marshall.
http://www.naacp.org/home/index.htm
Monday, February 11, 2008
RI's First Lady Said WHAT?!
This matter has been addressed first in Charlie [M. Charles] Bakst's January 27, 2008 column in the Providence Journal, and then in www.Kmareka.com/?p=1689 and www.RIFuture.org, et alia. I wish to add my horror at the ongoing insensitivity, and, yes: racism, shown by RI's governor and his wife. It is troubling enough for Gov. Carcieri to eliminate interpreters for Southeast Asian Rhode Islanders, but Sue Carcieri said the following about two young adults who criticized the governor's actions.
"First of all they have mentors who are much older than them who are training them up. You know -- how those terrorists have kids blow up, you know, Benazhir Bhutto and so forth? You think the kids thought of it? I don't think so."
Well, anyone can say something stupid, but she has been given ample opportunity to apologize and, in stead, has made statements defending her words repeatedly. If she owns up to the possibility that her affection for her husband had impeded her perspective, she might receive some sympathy.
Sixteen and seventeen year olds are capable of leadership.
Here is the website for the organization of these young people,
http://prysm.us/drupal/ourvision
"First of all they have mentors who are much older than them who are training them up. You know -- how those terrorists have kids blow up, you know, Benazhir Bhutto and so forth? You think the kids thought of it? I don't think so."
Well, anyone can say something stupid, but she has been given ample opportunity to apologize and, in stead, has made statements defending her words repeatedly. If she owns up to the possibility that her affection for her husband had impeded her perspective, she might receive some sympathy.
Sixteen and seventeen year olds are capable of leadership.
Here is the website for the organization of these young people,
http://prysm.us/drupal/ourvision
Friday, February 8, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Further Gratitude from Nomi: 2/7/08
- a Wrinkle in time
- Viglianis
- Uncle Bernie, Ersula, + kinder...
- Theo LeSeig
- Sharon & Steve (+N. & M.)
- RIFuture
- Quaker Meeting for Worship
- Pam's House Blend[http://www.pamshouse.blend.com/]
- Oscar Wilde
- nezua limon xolagrafik-jonez
Here's where you can read his words:
http://www.theunapologeticmexican.org/
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Putting the PUBLIC in Providence Public Library (RI)
I have only 11 minutes left on this computer, so please forgive any spelling errors,etc.
Please visit the website of The Library Reform Group for news of an important meeting next Monday, February 11 at the Knight Memorial Branch which will address how other libraries have coped with financial crises.
http://www.libraryreformgroup.org/
Incidentally, I have added to my Extended Family Links. Please visit my relatives' sites and the Links below.
6 minutes left oops now 5. This is how they measure it out in Cranston...
Please visit the website of The Library Reform Group for news of an important meeting next Monday, February 11 at the Knight Memorial Branch which will address how other libraries have coped with financial crises.
http://www.libraryreformgroup.org/
Incidentally, I have added to my Extended Family Links. Please visit my relatives' sites and the Links below.
6 minutes left oops now 5. This is how they measure it out in Cranston...
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
PC Janitors' History from 2005
I found this article by Brian C. Jones (a well reputed person--I think I've met him once or twice) in The Providence Phoenix.
http://providencephoenix.com/features/tji/documents/04401195.asp
I tried to post this earlier with a computer that tends to challenge my technical limits.
Dear PC students + All Commenters (you know who you are!)
thank you for your comments! If you find me on facebook(not too difficult) do send me a message if you have a moment. It means a lot to get responses. That's a trite and cliche little sentence, but I mean that...
In less than two months I think I'll have internet/computer in my home, and that should expedite my learning curve. Even if curves are not generally expedited!
http://providencephoenix.com/features/tji/documents/04401195.asp
I tried to post this earlier with a computer that tends to challenge my technical limits.
Dear PC students + All Commenters (you know who you are!)
thank you for your comments! If you find me on facebook(not too difficult) do send me a message if you have a moment. It means a lot to get responses. That's a trite and cliche little sentence, but I mean that...
In less than two months I think I'll have internet/computer in my home, and that should expedite my learning curve. Even if curves are not generally expedited!
Monday, February 4, 2008
Horny Women at the Sewing Factory
Grace Paley must be appreciating this poem and the post which precedes it ( Fourteen Women in Search of a Poet)--by Jennifer Semple Siegel.
http://www.literaryagentblog.com/.
http://www.literaryagentblog.com/.
Comedy Show to Support the Hurley Workers
I hope these links work!
This morning I returned from New Haven (Connecticut!) and still feel somewhat out of touch with the status of the workers ( and , in fact, most of RI).
Thanks to facebook, I learned about a fundraiser this Wednesday:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=8181908094
Thanks to google, I found a blog with clear Labor sympathy, and no less devotion to Comics and the "Decadence of Student life". (Sometimes I miss those days. )
http://mostlyroses.blogspot.com/
I just finished Marta Acosta's Happy Hour At Casa Dracula. The writing struck me as a cross between Sara Paretsky and Jennifer Weiner, but the action is not in Philadelphia or Chicago, but in California (what parts I can't really say).
This morning I returned from New Haven (Connecticut!) and still feel somewhat out of touch with the status of the workers ( and , in fact, most of RI).
Thanks to facebook, I learned about a fundraiser this Wednesday:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=8181908094
Thanks to google, I found a blog with clear Labor sympathy, and no less devotion to Comics and the "Decadence of Student life". (Sometimes I miss those days. )
http://mostlyroses.blogspot.com/
I just finished Marta Acosta's Happy Hour At Casa Dracula. The writing struck me as a cross between Sara Paretsky and Jennifer Weiner, but the action is not in Philadelphia or Chicago, but in California (what parts I can't really say).
Friday, February 1, 2008
Darren Mann was my neighbor.
It's been a little over three weeks since Darren was killed on I-95 as he tried to cross the highway on foot.
I had only met him formally on one or two occasions, but I saw him several times a week in his car. My son or I (or both of us) would wave at him; Darren always waved back. He was a friendly spirit-- I know I could have turned to him if I had a flat tire or was locked out of my house. I have many neighbors whose name I forget, but whose countenances are deeply familiar and comforting.
The Providence Journal and at least one tv station made a point publicly speculating on Darren's motivation for walking across a highway. I understand that that the police, and the drivers of the cars, have every reason to analyze what happened. It is not, however, a matter that is useful journalistically. When the man is not alive, and we have no real way of knowing what was in his mind, then restating what the police "believe" serves no public interest.
Darren Mann and his family deserve the same compassion that is proffered a well-known philanthropist who also died on the road or the wife of a governor who was injured once upon a time.
Darren Mann was young and his death was tragic. I will miss his warmth.
I had only met him formally on one or two occasions, but I saw him several times a week in his car. My son or I (or both of us) would wave at him; Darren always waved back. He was a friendly spirit-- I know I could have turned to him if I had a flat tire or was locked out of my house. I have many neighbors whose name I forget, but whose countenances are deeply familiar and comforting.
The Providence Journal and at least one tv station made a point publicly speculating on Darren's motivation for walking across a highway. I understand that that the police, and the drivers of the cars, have every reason to analyze what happened. It is not, however, a matter that is useful journalistically. When the man is not alive, and we have no real way of knowing what was in his mind, then restating what the police "believe" serves no public interest.
Darren Mann and his family deserve the same compassion that is proffered a well-known philanthropist who also died on the road or the wife of a governor who was injured once upon a time.
Darren Mann was young and his death was tragic. I will miss his warmth.
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