Tag: science fiction

iamshadow21:

mrsmichaellorca:

prokopetz:

vanquishedvaliant:

some middle aged white dude who has never had a problem with his perfectly sculpted body in his life: Does replacing our flesh with metal and circuits… disconnect us from humanity? When you replace man with machine… how long does the soul stay connected?

literally anyone who has had a limiting physical condition, interacted with prosthetics or assistance devices: You really don’t understand the ‘Punk’ of Cyberpunk, do you?

Something a lot of early cyberpunk’s modern imitators don’t seem to grasp is that the reason early cyberpunk treats cybernetic modification with suspicion is because those modifications are often performed against the recipients’ will at the behest of state and corporate interests. It’s an explicit metaphor for the commodification of bodily autonomy under capitalism – and it draws a direct line to contemporary abuses of the same. It’s not by accident that the first chromed-out street samurai to grace the pages of cyberpunk literature is a woman.

I like the OP’s post as well as the preceeding reply. Both make excellent points about cyberpunk and cyborgs.

Yes, the post is great, disability, punk and women combining in a genre of sci fi, but I WANT TO READ A FLAGSHIP TITLE WITH A STREET SAMURAI WRITTEN BY A WOMAN. What is the title???

biblioaesthetica replied to your text post: WarCross, Marie Liu.

Oh, cool, that one was already on my to-read list for other reasons, and it looks like my local library has a copy! I’ll move it up the list and borrow it soon.

allmyfansquees replied to your text post: I think the protagonist is a woman rather than the writer – I kind of assumed it was a reference to Ghost in the Shell but I’m probably influenced by living in Japan so long. I don’t know much western cyberpunk! (though if you do get a title I’d definitely be interested in that too!)

I freely admit I have huge blanks where anime is concerned. Besides Astro Boy (my first ever fandom, age 3), Ah! My Goddess, The Cities of Gold and Chobits, I really haven’t seen much at all. I know the title of Ghost in the Shell, of course, but beyond that it was science fiction and that it should never have been cast with white people like Scarlett Johannsen for SO MANY REASONS, I couldn’t tell you the first thing about it. I shall investigate it for future viewing. 🙂

mrsmichaellorca:

prokopetz:

vanquishedvaliant:

some middle aged white dude who has never had a problem with his perfectly sculpted body in his life: Does replacing our flesh with metal and circuits… disconnect us from humanity? When you replace man with machine… how long does the soul stay connected?

literally anyone who has had a limiting physical condition, interacted with prosthetics or assistance devices: You really don’t understand the ‘Punk’ of Cyberpunk, do you?

Something a lot of early cyberpunk’s modern imitators don’t seem to grasp is that the reason early cyberpunk treats cybernetic modification with suspicion is because those modifications are often performed against the recipients’ will at the behest of state and corporate interests. It’s an explicit metaphor for the commodification of bodily autonomy under capitalism – and it draws a direct line to contemporary abuses of the same. It’s not by accident that the first chromed-out street samurai to grace the pages of cyberpunk literature is a woman.

I like the OP’s post as well as the preceeding reply. Both make excellent points about cyberpunk and cyborgs.

Yes, the post is great, disability, punk and women combining in a genre of sci fi, but I WANT TO READ A FLAGSHIP TITLE WITH A STREET SAMURAI WRITTEN BY A WOMAN. What is the title???

Only twice have I ever actually seen a physical copy of an Octavia Butler book in all my trawling of bookshops, new and used.

First, I found a copy of Fledgling for $2 in a Salvos. It has european stickers on it – proof it was imported at some point, rather than bought here. I grabbed it, because it was like seeing some mythical kind of Pokemon that I knew I’d never see again.

Today, I was walking past Dymocks and on the markdown table I saw the Kindred graphic novel. Even though it was only published last year, it was 50% off, possibly because of the small amount of scuffs to the dust jacket. Possibly because they hadn’t bothered promoting it and it hadn’t sold. I certainly never noticed it in there before. It was $17.50. I bought it, because, though I don’t really have the cash right now, I knew it was my only chance.

I have no doubt I’ll struggle to find the others without buying them off the internet, but I can read them digitally on Scribd, so at least the lack of physical copies won’t stop me from being able to read them.

Still, it shouldn’t be so hard for me to find works by a groundbreaking Hugo and Nebula winning author. Oh, that’s right, it’s racism/sexism/homophobia. And if a book isn’t stocked by a shop, PEOPLE CAN’T BUY IT. Instead, let’s fill the shelves with Tolkien, Jordan, McCaffrey, and Pratchett and pat ourselves on the heads for stocking what will sell. PEOPLE WILL BUY DIVERSE BOOKS IF YOU STOCK THEM.

I will add that my Dymocks’ YA section is GREAT. Lots of queer and other flavours of diverse titles. But the adult fantasy sci fi section for the most part sucks if you want anything that isn’t by or about someone cis het white published by a major publisher.

seananmcguire:

trilobiter:

sarahreesbrennan:

THIS IS SO AWESOME. So many names of writers I love. And me too!

I find this picture fascinating. While obviously not a comprehensive picture of every kind of writing, it is a fairly comprehensive picture of a certain flavor of fiction. And in selecting authors to fill each spot, the person who made the selections picked all women authors, except for one.

I haven’t read more than a few of these authors, but I have enjoyed the ones I have. Seeing them all laid out like this is kind of a big motivator to read more of them.

They were making a point with their selections: the original, non-ironic, totally “what I just picked the best people, why are you looking at me funny” version of this graphic was all male authors, with one woman (who had a gender-neutral name and could have been included by mistake).