I mean 2009??? That’s 8 years after 2001: A Space Odyssey! Next year will be 2010. How’s that for a title out of Isaac Asimov or Ray Bradbury? The future of our childhoods is here. And yet how different it is. For most of us space travel remains a vague dream, not some routine jaunt on Panamerican, Kubrick’s choice, an airline which no longer exists. On the other hand, there is this bizarre means of communications we are all playing with now – the Internet. Who would have thought it would be such an… again routine… part of our lives? Instant communication has become a cliche and an addiction. Anyway Happy New Year to all! Predictions for the new year have been dire, which probably means it won’t be so bad.
Roger L. Simon
Blacklisting Myself Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in the Age of Terror
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The blog of the mystery writer, screenwriter and CEO of Pajamas Media
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 With gratitude to the readers of this blog without whom my new -- and first non-fiction -- book would likely never have been written.
Simon's first non-fiction book - Blacklisting Myself: Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in an Age of Terror - Pub. date: February 5, 2009 |
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14 Comments
1. Belladonna Rogers:Happy New Year, Roger! May it be a banner year for you, your family, your PJM family of writers and readers and, of course, for http://www.amazon.com/Blacklisting-Myself-Memoir-Hollywood-Apostate/dp/1594032475/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230832692&sr=1-1
Jan 1, 2009 - 11:00 am 2. E.O. Costello:Wishing you the best of health and the continuing health of PJM and all you do.
Hmmm. What do the pyscho-historians say about 2009, Roger? Do we face a Seldon Crisis?
Jan 1, 2009 - 11:55 am 3. Dick Stanley:It’s gotten so that I can’t enjoy science fiction anymore unless, as in Charles Stross’s work, it includes the Internet as a plot device.
Jan 1, 2009 - 12:03 pm 4. Xixi:Happy New Year!
Jan 1, 2009 - 2:02 pm 5. Good Ole Charlie:There are three sequels to 2001. The first, 2010, was also made into a movie which I remember seeing.
Arthur Clarke also wrote – says Wikipedia – 2061: Odyssey Three (1987) and 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997). To date there has yet to be any serious discussion of filmmakers adapting either for the screen.
FYI!
Jan 1, 2009 - 2:07 pm 6. John Moore:Happy New Year, Roger!
These are indeed magic times.
I just want to know where the flying cars promised me by 50’s futurists are? I guess it’s okay, though, because they also blew it on nuclear holocaust predictions
Jan 1, 2009 - 5:36 pm 7. Gideon7:Clarke’s 2010 was sorta ok, 2061 was poor, and 3001 was awful.
Jan 1, 2009 - 6:14 pm 8. Alan Kellogg:John Moore, #6
Flying cars? They weren’t necessary. Back in 1600 Elizabethan England had the technology for steam powered ironclads. Problem is, they would’ve been incredibly expensive, and England had no need for them.
We have flying cars. They are incredibly expensive, and we have no real need for them. There’s also the fact that flying is harder than it looks. We have a lot of people who can’t handle driving, and driving is a cinch compared to flying.
Coolness alone doesn’t justify anything, it’s the need that makes it possible.
Jan 1, 2009 - 7:02 pm 9. Wellspring:Roger, if you’re looking for science fiction to read, try Schismatrix, by Bruce Sterling. Written more than two decades ago, it is still very fresh and relevant today. I’m not sure how to put it, but it kind of conveys the taste of the future, if you know what I mean.
Jan 1, 2009 - 8:12 pm 10. John Moore:Alan, gotcher facts wrong (PS, I’m a pilot).
Another sci-fi, try Stand on Zansibar, by Brunner – amazingly prophetic about the pervasiveness of electronic advertising.
Jan 1, 2009 - 10:23 pm 11. Bugs:I wanted that huge, elegant spinning wheel in space to be real – and me living on it. What did we get instead? A cramped little in whose ramshackle collection of “modules” a handful of highly-paid men and women with PhDs spend their days loading stuff, unloading stuff, moving stuff from one bin to another, and fixing broken space toilets using exotic, expensive tools and thousand-page checklists. As someone who grew up at the height of the “Space Age,” I am completely underwhelmed.
On the other hand, the stuff they’re doing with unmanned probes is absolutely brilliant.
Jan 2, 2009 - 10:49 am 12. Bugs:Sorry – that’s “A cramped little shotgun shack in whose ramshackle collection…”
Jan 2, 2009 - 10:51 am 13. Larry J:I just want to know where the flying cars promised me by 50’s futurists are?
One of the guys at my local airport owns a flying car (Taylor Aerocar Model I, he also owns the only Model II but it isn’t really a car). It’s currently based in Florida. He’s also working on his own flying car design which you can read about at Aerocar.com. There are several other designs in various stages of development.
Me, I want a jet pack with enough range to make it to and from work, say 10-15 miles.
Jan 2, 2009 - 11:18 am 14. Bob Hawkins:Actually, 2009 feels right. 2008 felt like it was at least a year long.
Jan 2, 2009 - 4:20 pm