Shitty monitors and brain tumors have taken out my eyesight. OK, and probably too much TV. But bad printings of Dell paperbacks had their way with it too! I remember seeing my first Gregg Press printings of great SF on acid-free ultra-white paper, super-black ink, library bindings, a total dream to read.

Wow, this is such a great conversation.

God damnit, I was TOTALLY out...then I heard H. Jon Benjamin.....FUCK!

Agreed about Beagle. Last Unicorn is the book I recommend to someone who’s heart I want to break. ‘Bridge’ made me laugh, but ‘Unicorn’ made me cry.

Like John Jakes...that guy wrote EVERYTHING...not always WELL...

Too true. And once it drops off the ‘recommended for you’ list, it’s gone to the big swirly place in the infosphere. Take THAT AI!!!

Worked in China....

“I’m also not sure why people assume it is somebody else’s responsibility to retrain you if your industry becomes obsolete and industries quietly go obsolete all the time.”

I will only say that I’m talking from the standpoint of my local book store. As much as I implore the owner to stock more SF (it’s an independent) it’s more and more fantasy and tie-in books. I will happily look these books up! Thanks for the recommendations!

Totally agree with the first bit: Future Shock. I see more and more signs of it every day, both societally and in myself. People just can’t cope with the pace of change.

I just watched “American Fiction” where the author is moving his mainstream novel into Literature from African American Studies at a bookstore. I remember Harlan Ellison railing against being ghettoized into SF. Now as then, few bookstores have the ability to make changes like that without clearance from Corporate.…

You are totally correct, Judy-Lynn Benjamin Del Ray was totally the brains of the operation. Ballantyne, who always championed great SF, were more than happy to tie-in to her married moniker.

Fascinating yes, but also a little disheartening. I think it has to do a lot with the educational system. I don’t think we’re turning out as many engineers as navel-gazers. I want ‘Ringworld’, not another rehash of ‘Lord Of The Rings’.

Hard, character driven SF with sociological insight. All this fantasy bullshit is making me gag. 

I was going to ask, is Florida too valuable as a producer or as a consumer? 

If only there was a vaccine against billionaires and shitty cars.

“But I’ve got too much money. So I don’t need any other money. We don’t need to raise any funds. We don’t need to take mums and dads money,...”

1) Relativity

“We love the uneducated.” -The Round Mound who is Mentally Unsound.

I apparently fit the profile of the ‘heathy’ half, and I can tell you for reelz, I am not. About 4 years ago now, I had a pituitary adenoma removed. That’s a clump of oatmeal that grows around the pituitary. Eventually, it gets big enough that it starts to press against vital stuff, in my case the optic nerve, and…