On Thu, 11 Sep 1997, Michael Marc Levy wrote:
>
> Perhaps a survey is in order. How many people on this list...
>
> Mike
NH: LOL! Yeah, how many prehensile-toed people out there? Now, *that's*
science fiction! (Oh, hell; let me explain that last sentence; I went to
the Clarion sf writers' workshop in '95, where the question "Why is this
science fiction?" seemed to come up a lot in critiques. After a while,
we started to invent really silly responses to it.)
BTW, last evening I saw the indie sf film "Conceiving Ada" by Lynn
Hershman Leeson. It's about a woman scientist who tries to recreate Ada
Lovelace, daughter of poet Lord Byron, and the person who seems to have
invented the first computer program in 1843 (this is from the program
notes--from the film, I understood her to have invented the first
computer programming language, inspired by Charles Babbage's 'calculating
engine). Honourably intentioned film, but I found it to be really clunky
science fiction. Seemed to have been written by someone who neither
knows the genre, nor felt any responsibility to check her science. For
instance, at one point a doctor forbids a perfectly healthy, active woman
with a normal pregnancy from exercising until her pregnancy is over. I
don't want this to turn into a spoiler so I'll stop here, but if anyone
else sees it, I'd love to hear what you think. Ada Lovelace sounds like
a great topic for a feminist sf treatment. There's also a cameo
appearance by Timothy Leary, who was obviously in the latter stages of
cancer when they filmed--he was absolutely gaunt. That was difficult to
watch; reminded me of my dad's death from cancer.
-nalo
>
"There are two kinds of dates; the kind that you go out with, and the
small fruit that you eat."
-my aunt
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