“There’s that word again, ‘heavy’. Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth’s gravitational pull?”
– Dr Emmet Brown, “Back To The Future”
The Iceman
I’m fascinated by this guy. They call him Otzi, the Iceman. You can find out more about him by clicking on the preceding link, but the gist of it is they figure he lived about 5300 years ago near what is now the border of Austria and Italy. Shortly after his death he was covered in ice, essentially “flash frozen”, keeping him well preserved for the next 53 centuries. The picture above is what they figure he might have looked like when he was alive. I would have inserted a picture of what he looks like today but it’s kind of gruesome. Today he’s basically a well-preserved mummy. (They say “well-preserved” but that don’t mean pretty.)
What’s fascinating to me is how well equipped Otzi was. He carried a copper axe. He had clothing and equipment made from several different kinds of animals. He had a flint knife and a longbow. Otzi was clearly a product of a society that had figured a few things out.
Something else intriguing about him is how he died. He had an arrow shaft lodged in his left shoulder. He’d received a blow to the head. There is speculation that he had blood from four other people on him. He had cuts and bruises on him. We don’t know if he died where he was struck down or whether he was deliberately buried with all his gear.
Just who was this guy? Was he a good guy or a bad guy? A soldier, thief, or shepherd? What did his society consist of? Just how advanced, extensive and organized was this society? Who was Otzi’s best friend? What were his hopes and dreams? It’s a sure bet they wouldn’t have included being discovered five thousand years after his death and being placed on display before a world he never could have conceived of.
Although we’ll never know the answers to these questions, it’s amazing just how much we are able to determine about Otzi using modern scientific techniques. They know what his most recent meals were (meat, grain, roots and fruit), his age at time of death (around 45), whether he was sick much (three times in the six months before he died, the most recent lasting two weeks), and plenty else.
But I would be happy just to know his real name.
Merry Christmas folks. I would say Merry Christmas from the Wildebears (plural) but there’s only one of me. There is my nephew Ridley of course, but although he’s part Wildebear, his last name is Fedge (his father’s name). Which just goes to show you can’t have everything.
Yes, I must confess I didn’t post quite as much this past year as I intended to. I also didn’t quite finish writing my memoirs. Here’s hoping 2011 is a little more productive.
In the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, folks.
Here’s a blast from the past, a one hour film directed by Frank Capra, starring Eddie Albert and Lionel Barrymore, about the sun. Link courtesy of Mark Shainblum.
This is cool. A Dad and his kid build a miniature spaceship using foam and a balloon to send an HD camera and an iPhone into space, where it captures some amazing imagery. Sounds like a great class project!
Page three hundred and thirty of the memoirs… That’s having cut out about ten pages recently. Technically I have fifteen pages of revision left (it keeps expanding and contracting so it’ll probably turn out to be much less, he wrote optimistically).
The section I’m going over right now contains some pretty difficult material. I was delusional for some of it, physically and mentally exhausted, all of which got worse before it got better. Much worse. Which is perhaps why I’m procrastinating right now, blogging instead of revising.
Time to get back to it.
As someone who has traveled through time on a number of occasions with decidedly mixed results, I found this example of other folk deliberately traveling through time in a kind of amusement park fashion, with equally mixed results, quite chilling:
This is a response to a comment left by a Mr. Heywood after my previous post.
Upon reading the comment I thought to myself, who is this Heywood character? I inquired of my good friend Joe Mahoney who informed me that Heywood is something of a guru in the field of science fiction. Whereas Joe and myself are merely fans of the genre, Heywood (whose first name is Fergus) actually knows a thing or two about it.
Nevertheless a response is called for.
After I posted some of my favourite science fiction books of all time, Mr. Heywood wrote:
So Barney… only one book that’s less than 25 years old? Really?
After I got over the remarkable familiarity of the comment (Barney? Really, Mr. Heywood), I pondered the sentiment. Clearly Heywood believes I am stuck in the past, or not up to date on the subject of science fiction. On this point he may well be right. I have no doubt that he is better read than I am. I know little of his circumstances, but myself, what with the pressures of a full time job and raising a nephew on my own, I have precious little time to read (let alone blog).
But I have read several modern writers, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Charles Wilson, and Mark Rayner to name just three of my current favourites. I greatly admire their work. They’ve written some damned fine novels.
They’re just not my ABSOLUTE absolute favourites. (Yes, even Rayner! Sorry Mr. Rayner. Although I haven’t read The Amadeus Net yet.)
Should my top five list necessarily include completely up-to-date works? Must it be based on quotas? Two or three modern works, two or three works by women etc? No. My list was just straight from the heart.
There are many more older works of fiction than there are new ones. It just stands to reason there would be a greater number of classics among a greater number of works. Doesn’t it?
Now I would like to hear Mr. Heywood’s list of must reads…
Here are some SF books that I frequently recommend to my students. I have not chosen them because they’re the books the snobs like; I’ve chosen them simply because I’ve found them to be among the most knock-your-socks-off-readable books I’ve ever read. Oh, and the sheer pyrotechnical storytelling pizzazz doesn’t hurt either:
Replay
Ken Grimwood
I read this one is a single sitting. And have since read it four times. What if you could live your life over again? And again? And again?
The Forever War
Joe Haldeman
About to read this one for a second time. A metaphor about the Vietnam war, written by a veteran.
The Stars My Destination
Alfred Bester
He wrote several books, of which two are considered SF classics. This is one of them (the other is The Demolished Man).
Lord of Light
Roger Zelazny
In my opinion his best book (he wrote many). One of SF’s brightest lights of the sixties and seventies. Takes his interest in Eastern religions and throws an SF twist on it all
Wild Seed
Octavia Butler
Supernatural entities from Africa to America
Just a terrific read
The Postman
David Brin
Post Apocalyptic… infinitely better than the lame Kevin Costner movie. I had the privilege of meeting the author David Brin a couple of times. I asked him what he thought of the movie version of his book. He said the only thing the producers of the movie got right was the heart. He was right. Yet another book I read in a single sitting.
What’s your list?
Barnabus J. Wildebear is Digg proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache
