chicar
Rogue Ætherlord
 Canada
Student in Techno-Shamanism and Lyncanthrope
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« on: October 17, 2014, 09:22:23 pm » |
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Me, i'm more Wells. Verne have this flaw of clogging his stories with (often plot irrelevant) expositions. Seriously, his novels are more a weak excuse for a crash course on victorian pseudo-science than the thrilling adventures they should be. Also, i'm quite dissapointed the heroes of the From The Earth To The Moon dyptique never actually get to the Moon. |
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« Last Edit: October 17, 2014, 09:24:55 pm by chicar »
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The word pagan came from paganus , who mean peasant . Its was a way to significate than christianism was the religion of the elite and paganism the one of the savage worker class.
''Trickster shows us how we trick OURSELVES. Her rampant curiosity backfires, but, then, something NEW is discovered (though usually not what She expected)! This is where creativity comes from—experiment, do something different, maybe even something forbidden, and voila! A breakthrough occurs! Ha! Ha! We are released! The world is created anew! Do something backwards, break your own traditions, the barrier breaks; destroy the world as you know it, let the new in.''
Extract of the Dreamflesh article ''Path of The Sacred Clown''
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Mercury Wells
Rogue Ætherlord
I insiste that you do call me WELLS. :)
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« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2014, 11:17:09 pm » |
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That's (fighting) machine talk  |
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Oh...my old war wound? I got that at The Battle of Dorking. Very nasty affair that was, I can tell you. The Ministry of Tea respectfully advises you to drink one cup of tea day...for that +5 Moral Fibre stat. |
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Atterton
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« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2014, 12:02:12 am » |
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Around the World in 80 Days is a thrilling adventure, however his science fiction requires that victorian science to be science fiction. He was concerned with plausibility. Wells on the other hand more saw his stories as social commentary foremost, so didn't feel the need to be so rigid.
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Resurrectionist and freelance surgeon.
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jonb
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« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2014, 02:33:23 am » |
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"I remember H. G. Wells, who was a kind of twentieth-century Voltaire, saying that he daren't drive a car in France, because the temptation to run over a priest would be too strong for him."
— Kenneth Clark, Civilisation.
The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow.
Advertising is legalized lying.
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.
If we don't end war, war will end us.
H. G. Wells
The first quoted sentence alone gives HG a place in my heart.
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chicar
Rogue Ætherlord
Canada
Student in Techno-Shamanism and Lyncanthrope
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« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2014, 01:32:08 pm » |
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That's (fighting) machine talk I have some difficulty to find the meaning of this idiom and therefore cannot understand your joke. |
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Mercury Wells
Rogue Ætherlord
I insiste that you do call me WELLS. :)
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« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2014, 06:44:06 pm » |
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That's (fighting) machine talk I have some difficulty to find the meaning of this idiom and therefore cannot understand your joke. I meant to say "That's fighting (machine) talk".  |
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pakled
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« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2014, 06:40:24 am » |
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does this mean we're giving up on the Edison/Tesla grudge match?... |
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Mercury Wells
Rogue Ætherlord
I insiste that you do call me WELLS. :)
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« Reply #7 on: October 19, 2014, 07:28:17 am » |
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does this mean we're giving up on the Edison/Tesla grudge match?... Tag teams anyone?  |
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CPT_J_Percell
Board Moderator
Zeppelin Captain
 England
The werewolf Airship Captain.
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« Reply #8 on: October 19, 2014, 09:36:19 am » |
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Both have positive and negative side to there work (hell, they're writers so what do you expect!) “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”. but es, theme be Fighting (machine) words! |
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gaslampfantasy
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« Reply #9 on: January 05, 2015, 06:11:36 pm » |
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We think of them as being of the same era, but Verne was of a generation before Wells. So I see Wells as carrying forward some of the fantastic ideas of Verne. Jules Verne 1829-1905; Wells did not publish his first classic, the Time Machine, until 1895. I see Wells very much as carrying the fantasy / sci fi torch forward for anew generation of readers.
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Vagabond GentleMan
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« Reply #10 on: January 05, 2015, 09:01:04 pm » |
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Am I the only one siding with Verne without hesitation? Wells is great, too, always a fun read, but Verne is like Steampunk Nostradamus...
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Well that wolf has a dimber bonebox, and he'll flash it all milky and red. But you won't see our Red Jack's spit, nug, cuz he's pinked ya, and yer dead.
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Vagabond GentleMan
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« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2015, 09:09:59 pm » |
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Oh! And Chicar, the idiom "them's fighting words" "that's fighting talk" or something similar means "you've said something so offensive to me that we oughta go fight physically". So in this case it's a joke because it's gross but humorous exaggeration, as if you two were old-West cowboys having a heated discussion about the character of each others' mothers while drunk in a bar or something. It's funny, Mercury is just saying he's defending Verne.  |
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Angus A Fitziron
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« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2015, 11:51:35 pm » |
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Another vote for Wells. The only story Verne wrote that I actually enjoyed was Around The World in 80 Days but as said it wasn't really extreme science fiction just a little future gazing. 20000 Leagues Under the Sea was another bit of near future gazing and well strung together but the plot is so weak for me that it is insufficient to grab me after the future look wears off.
Wells on the other hand writes a good plot and stretches the box with his guess at science.
In the same genre though what about C.S.Lewis' Out Of The Silent Planet? Really good book IMO, up with Wells and surpasses Verne (but CSL knew how to tell a tale). However the other two books in the trilogy didn't work anywhere near as well, almost as if he lost interest and didn't try. The other contender is Rudyard Kipling. Most of his books are Imperial history (so still good for steampunk) but With The Night Mail has sci-fi leanings.
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Airship Artificer, part-time romantik and amateur Natural Philosopher
"wee all here are much troubled with the loss of poor Thompson & Sutton"
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Athanor
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« Reply #13 on: January 06, 2015, 01:19:22 am » |
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Verne have this flaw of clogging his stories with (often plot irrelevant) expositions.
Wells does this too, but his expositions are sociological rather than scientific; read "A Modern Utopia" or "Men Like Gods" or "Things to Come." They're there for a reason; Wells was using his stories to expound his political opinions, basically Fabian socialism. Verne's expositions are also there for a reason. For example, in "20,000 Leagues" we're supposedly reading the journal of Prof. Aronnax, a naturalist, so his observations of marine life are entirely to be expected. The same with "Journey to the Centre of the Earth", supposedly written by young Axel, Professor Leidenbrock's assistant. Thus, geological observations (as geology was understood in the early 19th century). I like both Verne and Wells, but for different reasons; both are at their best while "expositing", in my view. Athanor. |
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Vero vobis dico, qui quaerit, inveniet eius. Et saepius, parum volet.
"Truly I say to you, he who seeks, shall find. And quite often, he shall wish he hadn't."
- Elias Ashmole Crackbone.
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Mercury Wells
Rogue Ætherlord
I insiste that you do call me WELLS. :)
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« Reply #14 on: January 06, 2015, 04:04:14 am » |
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But, they were both writing "Scientific Romances"* at the time...though from opposite ends? *Although "Science Fiction" was coined by William Wilson in his book "A Little Earnest Book upon a Great Old Subject: With the Story of the Poet-Lover (coll 1851)" BTB...I like reading both authors. Imagine a book collaborated by the both of them? The other contender is Rudyard Kipling. Most of his books are Imperial history (so still good for steampunk) but With The Night Mail has sci-fi leanings I would say IMEO, that "The Night Mail" is more steampunk than Sci-Fi. |
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« Last Edit: January 06, 2015, 04:08:59 am by Mercury Wells »
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Angus A Fitziron
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« Reply #15 on: January 06, 2015, 10:46:37 am » |
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I would say IMEO, that "The Night Mail" is more steampunk than Sci-Fi.
And I would agree, it was more a reference to the use of pseudo science as described by the OP. I have long thought that Rudyard Kipling has had a strong influence on steampunk but without the recognition. I am currently re-reading Kim and still finding it a delight. "With The Night Mail" uses mostly existing science, but Kipling's storyline leaps off of his hypothesis of how this science might impact society much more effectively than does Verne, who seems to have a storyline which then gets some science thrown at it which never properly integrates. As a result, Kipling gives a more satisfying read for me. |
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