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When It Changed on Radio 4
It was good to hear Geoff Ryman, the editor of the anthology I have a story in, When It Changed, on BBC Radio 4's Material World, talking in their science strand about the book, the scientists and writers involved, and Mundane Science Fiction. You can listen (and I always have to say, yes, even if you are outside the UK) here. The presenter, Quentin Cooper, doesn't quite get what Mundane is to begin with, but Geoff quickly sets things up, and all in all it's a refreshing visit.
In other news, I did a short interview about the Black Widow with Nick Setchfield of SFX Magazine here.
The final issue of my Dark Reign: Young Avengers miniseries is in your comic shops now. I'm very proud of it, particularly that final page.
And we're off to see Fleetwood Mac in concert tonight. I don't do 'guilty pleasures', so that's just going to be a pleasure. I'm reading all sorts of Tweets and Facebook posts about the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose, mind you, and don't think I'm not jealous. Until next time, Cheerio.
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Black Widow,
Geoff Ryman,
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When It Changed,
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The final page was awesome. A very good series all together. Any idea where we're going to see the Young Avengers, or the Young Masters, next?
In an odd little coincidence, I was just going through our wedding photos from - eep! - 24 years ago looking for a decent old pic of someone else and came across some nice ones of Geoff Ryman, then I go online, click here, and...
What Geoff is calling 'Mundane SF' is pretty much what used to be called 'Hard SF' ie. SF based solidly in science fact (something most TV and Film SF has never been - much as I love Doctor Who, it's always been a fantasy show in SF drag and, to be fair, never really claimed to be anything else). The anthology sounds pretty interesting, though. I shall have to pick up a copy.
Given his background in SF fandom - I have the fanzines to prove it - I'm a bit surprised Geoff chose the name 'mundane'. Historically, this was a somewhat derogatory term for non-fans, later picked up from fandom and used as a derogatory term for non-telepaths in Babylon 5 and as a possibly derogatory term for non-Fables in FABLES, where it's usually shortened to 'mundy'.
- Rob Hansen
Thanks very much, Hoot. There's a new YA mini, The Children's Crusade, by dear old Allan Heinberg, coming out next year. I'm very much looking forward to it. Rob: I think the difference is that Hard SF allows for leaps of science that we can't anticipate, like FTL drives, while Mundane insists that what we don't know can happen can't be in the story. As such, this isn't actually a Mundane anthology. And I think he's using the derogatory term (which I loathe) deliberately.
I don't think the distinction is as clear cut as you imply, Paul. No Hard SF author worth their salt would use an FTL drive since FTL is a scientific impossibility according to Einsteinian physics. They'll use drives that operate at an appreciable fraction of lightspeed and explore the time-dilation consequences (oddly, very few tackle the mass-increase implications - only van Vogt immediately springs to mind), but interstellar travel is usually effected by exotic, theoretical means such as wormholes or hyperspace. The scientist interviewed in the radio show seemed to think such things would be allowed in 'Mundane SF'.
The derogatory fannish use of 'mundane' is pretty archaic now - I haven't heard it since the early 1980s - but you got me curious about when it started. Checking in Fancyclopedia II (1959 - no later edition), the entry for Mundane reads: "Non-fannish. Pertaining to the outside world". No mention of any derogatory overtones there or of it being used as a noun, which fits with my vague sense that this probably occured during the 1960s, that as those involved wiuth the counter-culture referred to those who weren't as 'straights' so fans of the time made the word their own equivalent.
- Rob Hansen
You get there faster than light would: that's an FTL drive. Which is fair enough, if you use a wormhole, fold space in front of you, etc., by the rules of Hard SF. But since we still have no idea how or if that might one day be possible, it wouldn't be allowed in Mundane SF.
Interesting BW review here:
http://www.comicsbulletin.com/reviews/125725833079740.htm
I cannot wait to read this book!
I was very pleased with that review!