What I should have realized about Little Brother from the beginning...

I am working my way through Little Brother and it has been great so far. I just don't like reading on a computer. But hey, it saves some money.

I realized about ten pages into the book that the title is significant. From what they've gone through so far, all I can think is "Big Brother". Oh how I hope we never end up in a world where we have cameras in schools measuring each person's gait. But that was a realization that made me want to slap my forehead. Of course a book named Little Brother would have some connection back to the concept of "Big Brother". Anybody else make this connection?

"Froggy's Last Story"

I commend to your attention this New York Times profile of an acquaintance of mine, the late sf writer F. Gwynplaine "Froggy" MacIntyre.  Note it's a three-page story.

Little Brother

So I'm about halfway through Doctorow's Little Brother, and let me say for the record that I really am enjoying this book.

I particularly found the parallels that the Social Studies teacher Ms. Galvez drew between the movement of the 1960's and 1970's with what is happening current day in the book.

Speaking of SyFy

This is completely off topic but I've meant to post something about this for a while. This summer in my Brit Lit class we had to read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. After we completed the book the teacher told us we would be watching a movie adaptation of it. I was expecting the old Disney cartoon or the creepy Johnny Depp/ Helena Bonham-Carter version. Alas, this was not the case. She came in with Alice, which was a two part mini-series from SyFy. I absolutely loved it. The story was completely different and geared towards an adult audience. I enjoyed it so much that I told my dear roommate, Jordan, about it and convinced her to buy it. She loved it too. The movie/mini-series threw a science fiction twist into a familiar story that made my inner geek and inner child go crazy. Some parts of it are somewhat cheesy but overall I would suggest it to all of you. In fact, Kathy Bates was nominated for an Emmy for her portrayal of the Red Queen. It's definitely worth at least renting :)

Thank you, Star Trek

So, I thought it might be fun to list some former "science fiction" technology that we now use everyday. Cellphones are communicators. Automatic doors are like...automatic doors. The iPad is like the PADD (Personal Access Display Device). Bluetooth is like Uhura's earpiece communicator. They've recently made a device for the visually impaired, called Jordy, named after Geordi La Forge and his VISOR. Virtual reality headsets are a primitive holodeck. Can anyone else think of some others?

Nebulullaby and other RECords.

Hey guys, I'm using this blog post as a promotional gimmick as well as a chance to show you a couple of videos I think definitely have science fiction qualities but are perhaps a little different from the usual sci-fi. I'm not sure how many of you (if any) have ever heard of hitRECord.org so I'll take a second to tell you what it is. It began 5 years ago, and is an online collaborative production studio founded by actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I discovered it while stalking his Twitter account, @hitRECordJOE. :]

Anyway, the whole idea behind the site is that ANYONE can join, and begin uploading their videos, music, pictures etc. to the site for all to see. Then, the creative minds at hitRECord (aka everyone who joins) can take those "records" and download them, tweak them, mix them, have fun with them and then re-upload them, so the whole site works together to create some pretty amazing projects. Some of the short films, like the two I'm about to link you, have been featured at Sundance, SxSW and other festivals.

These two I think have a particular science fiction-y vibe to them. The first is titled Nebulullaby, and is more or less a music video depicting the Sun as the mother and all the planets as her children whom she's tucking into bed. I love how each planet has its own distinct personality.

Next we have Morgan and Destiny's Eleventeenth Date: The Zeppelin Zoo, which, let's face it, I included because of "Zeppelin City" mostly. But the language in this video and the combination of live action and sketch animation amuses be greatly. I hope you all enjoy it too. And yes, that IS Channing Tatum making an appearance as the dastardly Lionel.

Oh, the uses of technology today! Gotta love it. I encourage any of you artsy types or movie-makers to join!

Mongoose

Let me get this out of the way: I enjoyed "Mongoose".

That having been said, it does not seem to be as deep of a story as many of the others we have read. It was a great action-adventure romp with a sprinkling of politics, fantasy, and interpersonal relations. However, I feel that it barely asks the "What if?" question. Perhaps the question it asks is "What if humans needed to engage in a symbiotic partnership with a slightly less sentient being in order to live in space?" But if that is the question, the scope of the story is not broad enough to fully answer the question.

All in all, I feel that "Mongoose" would be a great addition to an anthology of stories by the same author set in the same universe. As it is, however, it amounts to little more than a pleasurable read.