Science Fiction Ghettos and Quizzes

Strange.? These past couple of days, individual bloggers have sparked my interest in multiple topics.

Today is Chery Morgan’s turn (as it was Mike Glyer’s yesterday) as she points me to a discussion of the SF ghetto and a ‘quiz for hard core science fiction fans’.

Both touch on the same topic, which I am sure was not lost on Cheryl (she’s pretty darned smart – and pretty tough too).

Cheryl first notices a mention of a possible remake of Barbarella (referencing this entry from Kameron Hurley who (rightly) says – ‘they shouldn’t be doing that’.

She’s right. You can’t take that film out of its historical context – and you’ll never find an actress that can bring to such a project what Jane Fonda brought to Brabarella.

I first saw that film at a 24 hour film festival, maybe five years after its initial release.? Those who have seen it will understand the reference when I say it was a ‘jaw snapping’ experience. Probably eye-popping too.

Of course the remake is going to be nothing but an excuse to take some naked babes out of spacesuits; how much you want to bet that the final scene involving Barbarella and The Great Tyrant lasts longer that the original and, rather than hinting, delivers five minutes of girl gropings and kisses?? (Not that that is a bad thing, but in this case I think it will be the only thing…).

Want to watch Barbarella in the original and truly experience it as a film of its time?? Go find that group of people you’ve been indicriminately sleeping with, smoke some pot and have the movie playing in the background as the orgy commences.?? Pretend that Richard Nixon is in the White House (or will be tomorrow) – and don’t forget to go to a peace rally right before you start watching.? (For the Viet Nam war.? You know.? The other quagmire.)

I will be raising a protest and a rant as plans for the remake solidify.

Next Cheryl brings up the subject of other book-related conventions and points us to Diana Rowland’s piece, which discusses some suggestions that science fiction cons ought to adopt.

Agreed. SF cons (real SF cons – the ones where attendees understand that a TV actor is NOT the space hero brought to life, where everything is run by a volunteer crew) need to start understanding that expanding attendance and making some money are not necessarily contradictory to the concept of a real con.

Fans are usually pretty good at gaming the system.? I still don’t understand why they have such a blind spot when it comes to this issue.? It’s MPAA all over again. You can either try to lock everyone out who doesn’t meet your muster (in which case they WILL go elsewhere) or you can welcome them in to your special environment where you – gasp – stand a much better chance of influencing them. And, if you’re smart about it, you can fleece them of a few dollars along the way which can then be used entirely for fannish pursuits.? Once you’ve got the dollars it really doesn’t matter if Billy Joe Bob becomes a life-long fan or not, does it?

And finally Cheryl takes a quiz, about which she says “I know, I know. I should just ignore online quizzes.”

In case you didn’t want to ignore it – here’s a link.

I took it and rated above 99% of all the folks who have taken it so far.

Be forewarned, you’ve got to sign up with the website in order to see your results.? I’ll let you know how badly I get spammed by them over the next couple of days.

Cheryl’s biggest beef seems to be with the suggestions that in order to be a true fan, you need to be mired in the past.? No reference in the quiz is younger than 30 years old.

Well, suprisingly, I agree.? Actually, all they had to do was change the title to ‘Are You An Honorary First Fandom Fan?’

You can’t stay current and relevant with the field unless, as Cheryl says, you KEEP ON READING.

Which is what I’ve been doing.? In fact, just about every book I’ve gotten in for review over the past year has been a ‘modern’ classic – deliberately so.? I want to stay current.

Because Cheryl didn’t get into discussing the relative merits of old science fiction versus new science fiction (intelligently restricting herself to pointing out the stupidity of never reading anything new), today she and? I agree on just about everything.