Saturday, July 5, 2008

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Hiatus

I've decided to put this project on a hiatus. There isn't a whole lot of interest in it at the moment, so I'll stall it until a date when more folks may be interested. If you have suggestions, feel free to tell me about them. I'll continue to add to the list from time to time, but for now, no new posts. Don't forget to check out my main blog though.

Thanks.

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Monday, March 10, 2008

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New Works to Include

Thought I'd mention that I've thought of some works to put on the workable list for a canon. Since it also seems like there is a general opinion that Shakespeare shouldn't be on the list I will strike Midsummer Night's Dream off unless someone can really come up with a valid reason it should be there.

Here are the additions:
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (I'm putting this in SF for now, but it could very well fit into fantasy. I'm not sure exactly where to put it though.)

Any other suggestions other than the ones I'm about to add? Any objections?

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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

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More SF Definition Stuff

I was writing a post related to the discussion of a definition of SF over on the YWO blog and figured I'd point there. The discussion is still open. I'd like to get a workable definition for this project.

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Saturday, February 2, 2008

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A Workable Definition of SF (For Now)

Given that we can't really discuss science fiction thoroughly without a working definition for it, I'd like your opinions on whether or not the following is a definition we can use for the time being:

"Fiction that speculates on future societies and future technology (in the near or far future) or on on things such as space travel, government, human evolution, robotics, aliens, technological advancements, etc (or both). It is the genre that asks 'what if?'"

One concern, obviously, is whether we consider works written long ago that no longer are considered 'relevant' as far as the science is concerned to be SF. I would posit that we have to still consider them SF because we must look at when they were written and the fact that, at the time, they were SF. 1984, obviously, is off by quite a few years, but we still consider it SF. The same can be said about a lot early SF.

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