tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post715855687087783023..comments2024-03-17T11:05:22.464+00:00Comments on The Life And Opinions of Andrew Rilstone: Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-68589833776383483452021-12-19T22:52:34.771+00:002021-12-19T22:52:34.771+00:00I was born in ’64, started out loving fantasy but ...I was born in ’64, started out loving fantasy but ended up reading mostly SF. There are really only a handful of good fantasy novels. SF was more consistent. But I think the essence of its appeal at the time was that on some level people still believed we’d explore and colonise outer space and meet sundry other races. Landing on the moon and the space race was just the first step. I think Cyber-Punk - specifically Gibson - was the first acknowledgement that this wasn’t very likely. So SF was surfing the zeitgeist back then. Now? Now the future doesn’t look anywhere near as exciting or as bright (hence the popularity of fantasy, I guess).Aonghus Fallonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11414643238115071988noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-83592781188361457612021-12-19T13:56:23.706+00:002021-12-19T13:56:23.706+00:00Growing up as I did in a small bungalow in the Mid...Growing up as I did in a small bungalow in the Midlands in the late Sixties/ early Seventies, with parents who seemed pathologically averse to the notion of ever doing anything, there’s little surprise I was drawn to space as a concept. And I’m pretty sure I’d have said “space” then, above “science fiction”. Space seemed the opposite of and therefore antidote to my worldly life. While regular life was limited and constraining, space was expansive. Though of course I wouldn’t have articulated it in those terms at age six, space seemed a working metaphor for imagination.<br /><br />The science in science fiction, the unavoidable fact you needed some scientific know-how to get into space, was just a necessary encumbrance. I’d read all the ‘hard science’ Clarke books along with the fantastical stuff, the ones about how an elevator from earth to a space station was actually quite a realistic proposition if you’d care to study the figures. But it was partly the lure of the label, the way the ice lollies with ‘rocket’ on the packet tasted better. And partly like having to finish all the sandwiches before you were allowed to start on your birthday cake. Cake was what birthdays were about, and imagination space.<br /><br />I would have been too young to take in the space race, but I don’t recall taking to any actual space exploration as it happened. My Dad once tried to interest me in a later landing, being broadcast live on TV. “They’re always doing it”, I told him, and went off to play in the garden. Without the Daleks or the Mekon, what was the point? Adults were clearly stupid.Gavin Burrowshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16347163260510316959noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-72966287203641988682021-12-19T01:02:15.387+00:002021-12-19T01:02:15.387+00:00The first SF novels I had experience with were the...The first SF novels I had experience with were the Heinlein juveniles, which along with Asimov's robot books and Andre Norton's works, and John Wyndham's Chrysalids and Triffids, my mother read to me as bedtime stories. It is a great shame that Heinlein's later-period weirdness like Stranger in the Strange land turned off people; the best of his late 1950s juveniles like The Star Beast, Citizen of the Galaxy and Starman Jones are nothing like them, and still excellent reads today. Star Beast in particular was rather ahead of its time for the 1950s; in addition to a great story of first contact resolved through tense diplomacy rather than warfare, it has a quite diverse cast.<br /><br />David Pulverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00857524962421597982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-26282765270025014532021-12-19T00:48:59.341+00:002021-12-19T00:48:59.341+00:00I was born in 1965 and from 1966-1972 lived in Lon...I was born in 1965 and from 1966-1972 lived in London, England.<br /><br />From what I recall it was pretty hard to avoid being drawn into the mystique of NASA and the space race! Gerry Anderson and Dr Who drew me to Countdown magazine (or TV 21), and circa 1971-72 (when I was 5-6 ish) that was full of backup features on moon rockets and space stations and adds for Airfix space kits and moon men. I had some sort of orange action figure that came with a whole kit of space stuff, and a helmet (maybe the same model as yours?). No pajamas though.... Even the "ice lollies" (aka popsicles for the USA) as we used to call them (don't know if they still do in the UK) were space-themed, with the analogy being drawn between multiple flavors (e.g., orange, chocolate, vanilla) and the "stages" of a three-stage rocket! There was also an exhibition at one of the London museums with some Soviet spacecraft - I remember being impressed at how different, alien and sort of bug-like the rounded and antenna-laden Soviet designs were compared to the streamlined pointy American designs.<br />David Pulverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00857524962421597982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-29079958797628313302021-12-18T18:48:34.997+00:002021-12-18T18:48:34.997+00:00Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr: Space Ranger series ...Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr: Space Ranger series for younger readers.<br /><br />I read a LOT of Andre Norton - in fact I read a lot of SF, including the books you mention. And fantasy, too. Alan Garner, Ursula LeGuin, and more. I read still remember reading Joy Chant’s Red Moon, Black Mountain in junior school, even if I can’t remember the book very well.Paul Kingnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-75430325921137449912021-12-18T14:36:19.022+00:002021-12-18T14:36:19.022+00:00Eegad, Sir, you hit near the mark, dashed near...
...Eegad, Sir, you hit near the mark, dashed near...<br />Andrew Rilstonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16934052271846235431noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9987513.post-50012458421181983412021-12-18T13:45:01.569+00:002021-12-18T13:45:01.569+00:00Yes, I've often wondered what made me a sci-fi...Yes, I've often wondered what made me a sci-fi reader. I think Fireball XL5 was the entry drug, and while it had space it also had funny puppets which must have been part of the appeal. Doctor Who grabbed me from early on, and although it was inspired by earlier writing I was looking for stuff like this like a Stones fan going back to find Muddy Waters. When I went to secondary school a teacher guided me towards the Hugh Walters books but I have no idea why these were thought to be especially good. But by that time I knew Science Fiction was what I liked. I read a lot of Ray Bradbury, guided by the same teacher. At 16 I read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land and was impressed, but I have not retuned to it in decades and have not read anything else by him. But around the same time I discovered Moorcock and have re-read him many times and read many things he recommended. What shapes our tastes? Space was a thing when I was tiny but a lot of the sci-fi I like is not about Space. Even when Phil Dick sets a novel on Mars it isn't really about space. So was space just an entry point? postodavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18402698812156032820noreply@blogger.com