#Sci fi history

[zigraves]

Iiiiiit's TAFF voting time!

(what's TAFF?)

TAFF is the Trans Atlantic Fan Fund, a fan-run fund that every year helps cover the costs to send someone from Europe to North America to attend the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), or vice versa.

It's been running for 70 years now, with many TAFF delegates writing trip reports so you can read about intercontinental fannish friendships across the decades right here.

Anyone can be a candidate for the funds of TAFF, as long as they've been active in fandom for at least a couple of years and can find five people who'll support their nomination (sorry lurkers), and similarly anyone can vote in the TAFF race as long as they're an active member of the fannish community and donate a small amount to support the fan fund. (sorry again, lurkers). Fannish activity can include going to traditional sci fi conventions, but it also includes vidding, and fanfic writing, and doing podcasts and reviews about the fannish stuff you care about, and running community events like exchanges, and putting out zines.

(why are you telling me this?)

Well, partly, because it's very cool and I think you should know about it, and I think you should have the opportunity to run in future years. I think it's important to keep these cultural ties, and to have a chance to meet new people and go places you might never otherwise have gone. I think this kind of intergenerational friendship support across the decades is an important part of our history as fan communities. I think you should run, and I might even be able to nominate and support you.

...

but also because I'm a candidate this year, and would like you to spend the cost of a small coffee to support the fan fund and vote for me.

You can also vote for one of my competitors if you like, but don't you want to upend my whole summer and send me to Seattle? Sure you do!

[d-the-designer]

do you spot the trope we don’t use anymore?

This is an exploration into the latent space adjacent to 1950s pulp sci fi.

I am using a GPT custom trained on “The Green Odyssey” by Philip Jose Farmer.

now, there are other particulars about this pic - for example, I’ve discovered via this and my other trained GPTs that if you don’t specify what a character is wearing, the GPT will default to generating them in period clothes. Hence Alan Green in the story is rendered as (erroneously, but interestingly) a traveling salesman.

Did you spot the trope we no longer use?

it’s the repurposing of visible cultural settings and artifacts as “alien.” As well as the repurposing of human culture.

This was very common to older works; it’s the direct lineage that Star Trek is part of.

Over time, though, this practice became less and less on-the-nose. You see fewer space sultans with space harems, space bazaars, and space pagodas over time; at the very minimum the visible cultural references will have the serial numbers filed off.

We have the cultural appropriation discourse now, however even before this started to be a troublesome trope, it was already starting to go out of fashion a bit for a combination of reasons. One of the most obvious is that - in TV and film - we had massive leaps in VFX and makeup, and no longer had to repurpose costumes and old set pieces of various non-American locales.

I suspect that with the greater visibility via tv, National Geographic, Life magazine, etc pagodas and crowded bazaars simply stopped passing as alien.

but also, the world just got a lot smaller.

[digitalkaijustudios]

For a film called King Kong vs Godzilla, the fight scenes were....were--well they were technically fight scenes!

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1z0wjfCVffD7Y2OteSUUuA?si=086b81134ed647c2

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/AHfKmSzcTfA

KO-FI: https://ko-fi.com/digitalkaijustudios

In celebration of King Kong’s first appearance in the Godzilla franchise, we have a bonus episode for our Ko-Fi supporters where we discuss King Kong (1933). Check out the Ko-Fi for that and more monster movie discussions!

This Friday, August 2nd we will be talking Mothra vs Godzilla (1964). This is not to be confused with Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992). You can legally find this for free on services like Tubi, Crackle, Amazon Freevee, and Pluto TV. Ko-Fi Titan subscribers can check out our Mothra (1961) bonus episode now!

This is a clip from episode 4 of Gorilla Whale: A Godzilla Watch-Along, Podcast by Digital Kaiju Studios. This podcast is hosted and produced by Kevin Carpenter and Kayla Knutson. Art by Ashlee Hart.

[radiofreemultiverse]

A radiation wave hit and trivia got shot through a wormhole. Now it’s lost in some distant part of the universe on a show, a live show, full of strange alien life forms. Help us. Play our game of #Farscape trivia!

Grand Trivia is a weekly show hosted by Fluval (Grand Triviamaster of The Grand Aquarium Empire) and his sycophantic intern Intern Kristie. Each week they do offbeat trivia around a specific theme and lowly third-dimensional beings compete to prove they know their stuff.

Produced by Radio Free Multiverse.

Radio Free Multiverse brings you art, comedy, and trivia from outside of time and space. Join us LIVE every Wednesday at 8 pm PT / 11 pm ET at twitch.tv/radiofreemultiverse!

Support Radio Free Multiverse on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/RadioFreeMultiverse

Not only does your support helps keep the show loud, live, and independent, but you also get exclusive rewards.

Learn more about the show and our myriad other projects at radiofreemultiverse.com

The Grand Aquarium Anthem is by Isaiah Thomas. Check out his YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@IndecisionTelevision

Fluval’s theme is by Riley Soloner. You can follow him at https://instagram.com/rileysoloner.

“rfm100” was remixed by thingsfromthevoid

“HeyListen” was remixed by Daydream_Vagabond

Fluval’s theme was remixed by thingsfromthevoid. Watch him live on Saturday at 7pm PT / 10 pm ET at https://www.twitch.tv/sensitiveartisttypes

Social Media: Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/RadioFreeMultiverse Instagram ► http://instagram.com/radiofreemultiverse YouTube ► https://youtube.com/@RadioFreeMultiverse

[tyger-land]

"ɴᴇᴏ-ᴛᴏᴋʏᴏ ɪs ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴛᴏ ᴇ-x-ᴘ-ʟ-ᴏ-ᴅ-ᴇ" 𝘼𝙠𝙞𝙧𝙖 1988

[rohvee]

LAST ONE I SWEAR 💀 [prev]

[humanoidhistory]

STAR TREK premiered on NBC on this day in 1966.

[nousanti]

A little peek at my piece for 'A Hitchhikers Guide to Art History'

This beautiful art book by @novaandmali is absolutely filled with stunning works that transform classic artworks into vibrant, pulpy sci-fi renditions. Definitely worth checking out if you like sci-fi, or art, or both!

Sounds like something for you? Then I've got great news!

The kickstarter for this project went live today! 🧡

[rosieandthemoon]

[whereserpentswalk]

People don't realize how liminal it is to be a time traveler. How you don't ever really feel like you're in the time you are. Even when you're in your own time, everything is off, your coat was something you bought in interwar France, the book you're reading on the train is from a bookstore you had to visit in Victorian London, even your necklace was given to you by a Neolithic shaman, from a culture the rest of the world can never know. You find yourself acting strange even when in the present, much less in the past you have to work in.

You remember meeting a eunuch in 10th century China, and having him be one of the only people smart and observant enough to realize you were from a diffrent time. You could talk honestly with him, though still you couldn't reveal too much about your time. And it was still so strange hearing him talk casually about work and mention plotting assassinations. You're not allowed to but you still visit him sometimes.

You remember that the few times you were allowed to tell someone everything it was tragic. You knew a young woman who lived in Pompeii, who you had gotten close to, a few days before she would inevitably die. On your last day there you looked into her eyes, knowing soon they'd be stone and ash, that the beauty of her hair would be washed away by burning magma. And you hugged her, and told her that you wanted her to be safe, and told her she was wonderful and that you wanted her to be comfortable and happy. And you let her tongue know the joy of 21st century chocolate, and her eyes see the beauty of animation, knowing she deserved to have those joys, knowing it wouldn't matter soon. And you hugged her the last time, and told her she deserved happiness. And when you left without taking her it was like you were killing her yourself.

You want to take home everyone you're attached to. There's a college student you befriended in eighteen fifties Boston. And you can't help but see him try to solve problems you know humanity is centuries away from solving. And you just want to tell him. And it's not just that, the way he talked about the books and plays he likes, his sense of humor. There's so many people you want him to meet.

You feel the same way about a young woman you met on a viking age longship. She tells stories to her fellow warriors and traders, stories that will never fully get written down, stories that she tells so uniquely and so well. She has so many great ideas. You want so dearly to take her to somewhere she can share her stories, or where she can take classes with other writers, where she can be somewhere safe instead of being out at sea. She'll talk about wanting to be able to do something, or meet people, and you know you're so close to being able to take her, but you never can, unless she accidently finds out way too much then you can't.

You remember the longship that you met that young storyteller on. You were there before, two years ago for you, ten years later for the people on it. The young woman who told you stories wasn't there ten years later, you had been told why then but you only realize now, her uncle, who ran the ship, had been one of the first people to convert to Christianity in his nation. He killed her, either for not converting or for sleeping with women, you're not sure, but he killed her, and bragged about it when you met him ten years later.

You talk to the storyteller on the longship, ask her about the myths you're there to ask her about, the myths that she loves to tell. You look into her eyes knowing it's probably less then a year until her uncle takes her life. You ask her if you think that those who die of murder go to Valhalla. She tells you she hopes not, she doesn't see Valhalla as a gift but as a duty, she hopes for herself to go to Hel, where she wouldn't have to fight anymore. You slip and admit you're talking about her, telling her that you hope that's where she goes when she's killed. You hope to yourself you'll be forced to take her to the twenty first century, you're tempted even to make it worse, you want to have ruined her enough to be able to save her.

[gamebunny-advance]

Oh.

Nintendo out there just casually (kinda) confirming the "descended from humans" and "the wraiths are involved in all of the spaceship crashes" theories.

(source)

Okay, they're not really "confirmations" but more like they're officially addressing the different theories that people have about the true nature of PNF-404 and are telling you to keep on speculating on your own time.

Take these translations with a grain of salt since they're machine translations.

[remnantglow]

Maya Andreyeva is a "camera," a reporter with virtual-reality-broadcasting equipment implanted in her brain. What she sees, millions see; what she feels, millions share. And what Maya is seeing is the cover-up of a massacre. As she probes into the covert political power plays of a radically strange near-future Russia, she comes upon secrets that have been hidden from the world…and memories that AI-controlled thought police have forced her to hide from herself. Because in a world where no thought or desire is safe, the price of survival is betrayal - of your lover, your ideals, and yourself.

happy (re)publication day to The Fortunate Fall by Cameron Reed, the lesbian cyberpunk cult classic that's been out of print for almost 3 decades!

it's a dark, intense, haunting book (if somewhat dense and undeniably demanding) about the place where noble ideals and brutal reality meet, about human nature, about how far you're willing to go for your principles, or for love, or for survival, about the erosion of privacy by technology, and about a whale.

it's some of the best cyberpunk has to offer, i'm really glad it can finally reach a wider audience 👁📷🐋

[digitalkaijustudios]

Move over Don Draper! It’s all about the OG ad guy on Episode 4 of Gorilla Whale—Mr. Tako. He’s well dressed, ambitious, and he’s gonna exploit these creatures for tons of money! On this week’s episode Kevin and Kayla take on King Kong vs Godzilla (1962). OG Godzilla director, Ishiro Honda is back—and by God if the studios are gonna milk this cash kaiju he’s gonna be there to make some art about it.

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1z0wjfCVffD7Y2OteSUUuA?si=086b81134ed647c2

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/AHfKmSzcTfA

KO-FI: https://ko-fi.com/digitalkaijustudios

In celebration of King Kong’s first appearance in the Godzilla franchise, we have a bonus episode for our Ko-Fi supporters where we discuss King Kong (1933). Check out the Ko-Fi for that and more monster movie discussions!

Next week, on Friday August 2nd we talk Mothra vs Godzilla (1964). This is not to be confused with Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992). You can legally find this for free on services like Tubi, Crackle, Amazon Freevee, and Pluto TV. Ko-Fi Titan subscribers can check out our Mothra (1961) bonus episode now!

This is a clip from episode 4 of Gorilla Whale: A Godzilla Watch-Along, Podcast by Digital Kaiju Studios. This podcast is hosted and produced by Kevin Carpenter and Kayla Knutson. Art by Ashlee Hart.

[arconinternet]

Space Patrol - British series (Videos, Roberta Leigh, produced 1962, aired 1963)

You can watch them here. From the Wikipedia article:

"The humanoids in his crew consist of the elfin Slim from Venus, and the stocky, ravenously sausage-mad Husky from the Red Planet, Mars. The imperfect Slavic accent variants and six-pointed star chest emblems of these two may have been a sly nod to the Jewish-Russian heritage of the English series creator/writer."

"The show reflected sex roles characteristic of the culture and era which produced it, but blonde and brainy Marla would often explicitly point out that "There are no dumb blondes on Venus." Indeed, the series was created and written by the prolific polymath artist Roberta Leigh, the first woman producer in Britain to have her own film company."

[fox-teeth]

We're almost at the end of ShortBox Comics Fair--who wants to see my favorite page of my comic with absolutely no context?

(available through October 31st on @shortboxcomicsfair!)

[tyger-land]

ғʀᴀɴᴋ ғʀᴀᴢᴇᴛᴛᴀ Wolf Moon. 1965.