Art of SciFi/Fantasy

Authors always amaze me with their ability to paint word pictures. A good author can create a scene of such clarity it takes a monumental effort to discriminate between fact and fiction. The artists of scifi/fantasy remove the effort of imagination which, in itself is a bit concerning. However the end products are often worth the lack of self imagination.

Equally, I often wonder what some of the artists have ingested prior to the burst of creativity. Viagra, chili, tacos, triple espressos, drugs of less savory reputation or perhaps minimal oversight growing up must be responsible for some of the more “interesting” illustrations. On mr. mojo risin’s blog I found a link to a great scifi hardware site. http://conceptships.blogspot.com/ shows a variety of craft suitable for practically any excursions in flight.

The art of Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo has been titillating (pun intended) us for year. Frank Frazetta has found new digs in East Stroudsburg, PA for his museum and gallery. About 20 years ago I took a group of Boy Scouts to visit the Frazetta museum of the time located over a Halloween store in downtown East Stroudsburg. There was original art work for Battlestar Galactica and the Conan movies. Conan’s sword from the movies was on display. (Photo courtesy of this blog) Mrs. Frazetta (honest!, that’s who she said she was and she also said she was the model for some of his female drawings, and she certainly could have been). She let me pick up the sword shown in many of the posters and hold it. Say what you want about Schwarzenegger, at the time, those muscles were for real, I had a heck of a time holding the sword upright with two hands let alone the one hand (I’m hardly diminutive)

There are a wealth of wonderful scifi/fantasy art out there. Science Fiction book club has a very good selection of art books if you are inclined to buy. I have dabbled a bit with art, dabbling meaning untrained, not so good but very satisfying on occasion. I drew all of these paintings and my late father painted all but the dragon horde one for me. I drew and painted the dragon horde. I also have two original sculptures. An art student in the 70’s traded me the helmet and rose sculpture for a red suede shawl branded with vines and flower that I had made. The, to my mind, Edgar Rice Burroughs space ship was in a local gallery. We walked in and I spotted it three rooms over and told me wife, I wanted it. It just hit me that John Carter would have flown in that puppy. Art does that to you, it can hit you, surprise you with the intensity of the hit and delight you for years and years.

My collection of dragons in many medias, my gargoyles, my Star Wars figures all are art to me. Gandalf, stands guard at my gate, George watches over my pool, Fred watches the back door. Luckily I have a very tolerant spouse who accepts that art is in the eye of the beholder and I am lucky enough to be surrounded by the art I love.

Panic or Greed Both Are Self Centered, Self-Fulfilling and Self Destructive

We live in the greatest nation in the world. I look at blogs in other countries where the blogger is in danger from his government for what he is writing. We have the freedom to express ourselves in so many ways.

At the moment we have a sizable portion of our nation trying diligently to destroy it. It is difficult to say whether panic or greed is fueling the current Wall Street nose dive. Greed obviously fed the conditions that led to our current financial crisis. Even the “rescue” couldn’t avoid the Washington game as usual pork.

It appears that a great many people can not see the benefit of our society and what it can be. Grabbing what they can, forcing down the market by selling to get theirs before it gets worse and fulfilling their own fears. It may be greed and it may be just sheer panic that the sky is falling and I better grab my chunk before it is gone. I don’t know the motivation; all I know is that the financial institutions that lead the panic and the poor suckers like me who watch their retirement swirling down the toilet are in the same sinking boat.

The damn boat is sinking because we refuse to have faith in our own country, our own people and our own destiny. I am not talking about believing in the lying, self serving weasels in Washington who let the greed ridden, golden parachuted CEO’s rape the financial institutions. I am not talking about having faith in our grand corporate edifices that reward failure at the top and lay off and penalize the bottom that does the actual work. I am talking about having faith that the average American still puts in an honest day for an honest dollar. I am talking about having faith in the small businesses of this nation that employ more people and do more good than those corrupt, grandiose, blue chip engines of corporate greed.

The big guys are only looking for how they can squeeze the last dime out of your widowed mother’s pension, they are not looking at the destruction they are doing to our nation and the world. As long as they get theirs, who cares about the rest of us?

We must care about ourselves. Have faith that we can survive this financial debacle. Stop running in panic and selling our stocks, driving down the market and fulfilling the over paid pundits predictions.

Just stop, take a breath, if you don’t sell it, you aren’t going to lose money on it. Historically our economy is strong. Historically the market will recover. We will be ok, our pensions will be there. Our retirement will occur. We just have to stop panicking. Withdrawing your money due to fear, selling your stocks due to fear just allows the vultures in the wings to pick up your investments for a dime on the dollar. The jackals will survive and flourish unless we curb our panic and face this financial crisis with common sense.

We, as a people, try our best to do good, to help others, to respond with aid to crisis here and abroad. We can not allow the greed and panic of a few to force us into a spiral of despair. Shelve that panic, you greedy fools stop your predatory practices, when you eat the seed corn you have no crops. When you destroy the economy and drag the world into a depression, you will have no safe place to spend your ill gotten gains. Buck up America, we aren’t wimps, we can survive this with common sense and a calm mind and faith in our great nation.

The Myriad by R. M. Meluch

I like military scifi. I enjoy Ing,Weber, Drake and Ringo. Meluch isn’t up to Weber’s standards but I enjoyed the book. The setting is the battleship Merrimack, a multipurpose, interstellar behemoth. The story line is the Merimack’s stand against an implacable foe. The ship’s captain is a much larger than life thoughtful berserker. The characters are a bit too stereotypical of their genre. I know pilots and marines and the majority of them do not fit the stereotype. The action sequences were well done and the political aspects seemed altogether too realistic. The main characters are likeable but not lovable. Elizabeth Moon and David Weber create characters that you really care about, Meluch not so much. With that said, I will be buying the rest of the books in the series, Tour of the Merrimack. It was interesting, kept my attention and well worth reading.

Body of work of R. M. Meluch

Review of the book:
http://www.fictiondb.com/author/rm-meluch~the-myriad~130493~b.htm

Site:
http://www.rmmeluch.com/

Toe the line, or else!

I sent an email today to Kathleen Parker, a conservative columnist for The Washington Post Writers Group. She wrote a column that was critical of Sarah Palin. Today’s column dealt with the reaction she got from writing that column. She has written columns for over 20 years and she was shocked at the tone of her mail. It was not just negative; it was “vicious and threatening”. The rest of today’s column dealt with her feelings on the demise of civil and intelligent public discourse.

Parker a conservative apparently shocked her less flexible supporters who no doubt felt betrayed when she responded negatively to the current conservative heroine. Regardless of what you feel about Kathleen Parker or Sarah Palin, it is difficult to conceive of the necessity of writing a columnist threatening mail because of their opinion.

Why, pray tell, am I discoursing on this on a blog devoted to books. Perhaps the same narrow minded, hate spewing, mail writing individuals are the same “well read” book banners we see at school board meetings trying to remove classic literature from our libraries.

Literacy is not the answer to everything but if our children are exposed to different ideas and thoughts through the books they read, perhaps they will grow up with a greater tolerance for those who disagree with them. Our nation was founded on freedom, freedom of speech and expression. The lack of civility, of politeness is despairingly common.

The next time you feel an urge to work over Bill O’Wrongly as he shouts over his guests, or to spill beer on an opposing sports fan, consider for a moment that behaving as a boor seldom prevents a boorish response.

Righteously assuming that if you are reading a book blog, you are literate and based on literacy, reasonably intelligent and open minded; please do what you can to promote reading with your kids, your peers and your community. We must not become a society of illiterate boors, spewing hate, banning books and running rough shod over anyone who disagrees with our opinions.

As I stopped above, it occurred to me that wasn’t a particularly hopeful blog. On a note of hope, look at the number of people who are blogging on books. Look at the number of sites promoting books. The barbarians have not overrun us yet! There are still huge numbers of good people wishing and working for a better life and better society. The frequency of kind words and good thoughts I see on the book swap sites I peruse help me to realize that we still have peers of good note, who are working to make a civil society.

The Stone Monkey by Jeffery Deaver

This is a Lincoln Rhyme mystery. Lincoln is a quadriplegic forensic investigator. The plot is focused on illegal Chinese immigration. There is lots of action and many twists and turns. Deaver does a really good job on keeping you guessing at what is coming next. I really like a mystery that keeps me questioning what is going to happen next. Deaver also does a nice job at expressing the frustrations and concerns of someone who is confined and determined not to be “special”. I recommend the book.

Body of work of Jeffery Deaver

Review of the book: http://www.mostlyfiction.com/sleuths/deaver.htm
Page down, it is the third one down.

His site: http://www.jefferydeaver.com/