http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/2008/12/31/odd_john_and_sirius/ A Life In Science Fiction Thu, 13 Feb 2014 16:58:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/2008/12/31/odd_john_and_sirius/#comment-230 Sat, 03 Jan 2009 20:33:40 +0000 http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/2008/12/31/odd_john_and_sirius/#comment-230 Evan, as someone who has a tenuous mastery of the inside of your brain, I am telling you that would LOVE Olaf Stapledon. I recommend, for starters, either this/these books or the amazing Last and First Men, which is this epic future-history of mankind that spans millions of years and covers something like 14 manifestations of the human race, including one that lives in Venus and is essentially a bird. Incidentally, Annie has a copy of Last and First Men that you could probably borrow.Arthur C. Clarke said in an interview that the end of Childhood’s End was essentially ripped from the end of Last and First Men. Stapledon was the first sci-fi writer to get really into “hive mind” kind of stuff. He is so far out, yet so staid. England!Anyways, I got stoked about H.P. Lovecraft again after going to a Lovecraft film festival in Portland this winter. I’ve been hemming and hawing about whether it counts as sci-fi, and I’ve decided that it doesn’t. I mean, the themes are pretty definitely “of this Earth.”However, there are a couple Lovecraft stories that have a boggy sci-fi vibe, namely “The Colour Out Of Space,” which I think I will read for this blog.

]]> http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/2008/12/31/odd_john_and_sirius/#comment-229 Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:42:07 +0000 http://urbanhonking.com/spacecanon/2008/12/31/odd_john_and_sirius/#comment-229 this sounds incredible… if you ever see another copy of this i want it. i guess i could order it on the internet but that’s no fun.on a somewhat similar note i just got all excited about hp lovecraft again. any chance he is on your list or does it not count as science fiction?

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