I had the honor of editing the first edition of the Severed Fifth Fanzine. I am grateful for the help of the other street team members who helped me create the magazine. As always, I am grateful to the band for rocking and letting us rock with them. You can grab the magazine here.
Early this week I meet somebody on a webforum. We started chating, and this person encouraged me to learn the language Esperanto. I had heard of Esperanto before but I only really knew that it was a constructed language that a fair number of people spoke.
So I started looking into it. The more that I read about it the more that it appealed to me. I have always been fascinated by language and have always wanted to learn a second language. However, I have also always been daunted by the challenge involved in doing so. Esperanto, it turns out, is just about the easiest language that one can learn.
I started learning it just this week. Just because Esperanto is easier to learn than other languages doesn’t mean that it is a cake walk. However, I am encouraged because I am making tangible progress everyday. What is more, I am actually having fun learning the language. The language really does have some qualities that make it significantly easier to learn than other languages. For one thing, there aren’t irregularities. Words are universally spelled like they sound, and pronounced the way that they are written. The grammar is fairly simple and there aren’t exceptions in it. One of the greatest benefits is that you do not have to learn as much vocabulary to be able to communicate in it. Every word that you learn in Esperanto is the equivalent of several learned in another language.
For instance. If you know the rules of the language, and then learn that the word varma means “warm”, then you automatically know the words for cool (malvarma), lukewarm (varmeta), hot, (varmega), and cold (malvarmega) as well as other words based on the varm root. Since the grammar is regular this applies to any root that you learn. Another example is that if you know the word for father (patro) you also then know the word for mother (patrino) and parents (gepatroj), if you know the word from brother (frato) then you also know the word for sister (fratrino) and siblings (gefratoj), and so on.
I don’t know how long it will take me to become fluent in Esperanto, but I intend to keep at it until I am. Some people are reported to be able to learn the language in a few months. Many are able to learn it in a year. Some people have to keep learning longer than that. Whatever the case, I am excited to actually be learning another language.
I just finished reading the novel The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K LeGuin. It is one of the finest examples of Science Fiction that I think I have ever come across. The story is both very moving and it also gets you to think. The world building is excellent, and reviewers have even said that it has a flavor of Tolkien even though it is a Science Fiction novel set in the future.
I can see where the reviewers are coming from. The story features the mythology of different races, and snatches of an invented language. There are long treks by foot in adverse conditions. The book is part of a larger series and a larger mythos. So it really is fair to compare this science fiction novel to Tolkien. There are many differences however. The book is written from the first person which makes it much more personal than Tolkien’s work. There is also high technology (though not as much as one might expect from a science fiction work).
The author manages to get the reader to think very deeply about gender issues without making any sacrifices to the story at all. This is also a book that won both the Hugo and Nebula award for Best Novel. A rare accomplishment indeed, and one that LeGuin achieved more than once. If you haven’t read this book, go out and buy it or borrow it from the library. If you cannot afford it and your library doesn’t have it, download it off BitTorrent. Seriously do what ever you have to do, but read this book. Ursula K LeGuin is a true master.
The first time I read Contact by Carl Sagan was when I was in high school. I have read it a few times since then. In my opinion, this science fiction novel stands with the classics. It is true that it has its flaws. The dialogue is a bit stilted in places. However, in this novel Carl Sagan communicates an enthusiasm and excitement that make this novel an absolute joy to read.
The story deals with humanity receiving a radio message from an extraterrestrial civilization. Throughout the book, Sagan gives excellent scientific explanations to various scientific concepts and theories. One of the themes of the novel is the conflict between science and religion, and Sagan spends a lot of time trying to reconcile the two of them. The novel has a surprisingly religious ending.
Overall, Contact conveys a hopeful message of what we can collectively accomplish if we don’t waste our resources fighting each other. Sagan not only seems to be optimistic about the prospects for extraterrestrial intelligence but also for the prospect of terrestrial intelligence. Carl Sagan was a pretty smart guy so that makes me optimistic as well. I guess that is the reason I keep coming back to this title.
I am a fairly huge fan of Metal. I am also a fan a free culture. Severed Fifth is both. The amazing Jono Bacon is the founder of the band. Their aim is to create some terriffic music and to try and change to music industry. You don’t have to worry about them suing you if you download their music from the Internet; they are giving it away for free. You are even encouraged to use the music in your own creative projects and you can also remix it. Yeah, Severed Fifth is just that awesome. So listen to it, listen to it now.
Contact, by Carl Sagan, is one of my favorite novels, and recently I have been reading it over again (expect a review here in a couple of days). I thought it might be a fun project to make alternate covers for novels that I like. This is the first one that I have tried. I guess it came out alright, but I think I might not have chosen the best font for the project. Oh well, lessons learned. You can see the original (and much better) version of the cover here.
I am pretty sure I know what I am going to write about for this year’s NaNoWriMo. Right now, the working title for my novel is Bleeding Edge.
Genre: Science Fiction
Synopsis: In a future where technology is advancing faster than human society can comprehend, a schism deeply fractures society. The futurist faction is on the bleeding edge of a technological revolution that is leaving the governments, the economy, and the rest of society at large reeling to try and understand all the implications of radical new technologies that are popping up on a daily basis. The Luddite faction is calling for a halt to all this new innovation, claiming that all this new technology is changing what it means to be human. In a future where people can live entire alternate lives in time dilated virtual realities, fundamentally alter their body functions with unregulated biotech and nanotech, and fabricate new and amazing technologies in their own homes, there might be some truth to the Luddite’s claims.
This is the story of a young couple living the futurist ideal. Everyday brings them new and interesting technologies to play with. They will discover that living on the bleeding edge means taking risks and making enemies, and they will experience first hand the lengths to which some people will go to maintain the status quo.
The National Novel Writing Month website just relaunched. What that means is that all of last year’s data got thrown into the bit bucket and the site got a fresh start. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), for those of you who may not know, is an event where participants attempt to write 50,000 words of a novel in the month of November. So here on my blog I am announcing that I will be officially participating this year (here is the link to my NaNoWriMo profile page, where you can keep track of my word count this November). I can tell you from experience that writing 50,000 words in a month is not an easy task. I have participated for the last two years, and only won last year. It is hard work, but the gratification of writing a novel makes it worth the effort. Besides, you get to basically live in a world of your own creation for a month.
So, while it may be a great deal of hard work, I am looking forward to this year’s NaNoWriMo. Furthermore, I would implore anyone who reads this post to consider participating with me as well. Even if you do not succeed in writing 50,000 words, the experience that you gain trying is worth something, and makes you all the more likely to win next year. We all enjoy reading books, but trying to write one puts reading in a whole different perspective. That alone is reason enough to give it a shot. So, with that said, I hope to be writing with you this November.
Over the past four days I have read the novels Marsbound and Starbound, both of which are by SF legend Joe Haldeman. The novels are in what I hope is an uncompleted series that I have quite enjoyed. The story deals with humanity’s first contact with a much more advanced extraterrestrial race.
During the course of the story, humanity’s existence is threatened multiple times as humans and the alien race struggle to find a way to coexist. A large part of the story also focuses on how technology effects the human race, and how much is too much. Some people have criticized these stories as not having enough action, but I thought that there was plenty. Another criticism is that Starbound changed point of view too much and that it was not always clear who was narrating. Personally I had no problems keeping track of the point of view.
I really enjoyed both of these books, and I am hoping that Haldeman releases a third as the story is not nearly wrapped up in Starbound. In fact he leaves the reader hanging and hungry for more. Science fiction needs more of this kind of novel.
