really old sci fi author's blog: "Bright Sayings of Bright People"

[Darren Dirt]

http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/tag/quotations/

http://www.thewaythefutureblogs.com/about/

I?m Frederik Pohl, a science fiction writer. I have been writing books for a few years, but this is my first blog.

In case you just wandered in on this chat and have never in your life heard of me, a condition which tragically is shared by a large fraction of the human race, I attach a biographical sketch. (Which you can certainly skim or skip entirely. In fact, I recommend it.)

this guy is in his NINETIES and yet he is still inventing! He came up with the word "blogutiae" (i.e. blog minutiae)


I call myself a scifi fan, and yet I admit I did not recognize his name when it was mentioned here. 

The story (PKD's "The Adjustment Team") has been described as Dick's "first tentative try" at Frederick Pohl's "tunnel under the world*" theme, in which it's imagined that mundane existence is totally a product of unseen manipulators.[

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a Christopher Titus Twilight Zone episode to watch...





*TUTW review/comment http://manybooks.net/titles/pohlf3197931979.html Reads like a mix of "groundhound day" and "Dark City". This is actually a horror stroy and the end won?t fail to send a shiver down your spine... http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31979/31979-h/31979-h.htm

[Mr. Analog]

Good gravy! I thought he was dead!

[Thorin]

*TUTW review/comment http://manybooks.net/titles/pohlf3197931979.html Reads like a mix of "groundhound day" and "Dark City". This is actually a horror stroy and the end won?t fail to send a shiver down your spine... http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31979/31979-h/31979-h.htm

Okay, this was actually a pretty quick read.  At first I thought, "Gee, I've read this story before", but then I realized Pohl's Tunnel Under The World was written in 1955.  Nice find, Darren, and kinda cool that they published it as an eBook readable by anyone without payment.

[Darren Dirt]

At first I thought, "Gee, I've read this story before", but then I realized Pohl's Tunnel Under The World was written in 1955.

Yeah, it's the Seinfeld Is Unfunny type of thing, in the written medium.


Oddly enough, 'Tropes has a page for Frederik Pohl, but no mention of that specific story on the Groundhog Day Loop page. (!)

[Thorin]

OBLIGATORY TVTROPES WARNING

Seriously, three clicks before I even _realized_ it.

[Mr. Analog]

Weirdly John Carter of Mars is suffering big time from the Seinfeld is Unfunny effect, so many other series have borrowed so heavily from it over the decades it's leaving people dry...

[Darren Dirt]

OBLIGATORY TVTROPES WARNING

Seriously, three clicks before I even _realized_ it.

oops sorry!

#1: hover is your friend (your faultif you have your web browser's status bar hidden )

#2: the # of links in the post is signficantly lower than the typical Darren Dirt post, so it's not like I was intentionally hiding a timesink therein

[Thorin]

I meant that kinda opposite to how you took it, I wasn't implying you were trying to trick us into clicking a timesink.  I actually clicked the link without checking (unusual for me) because I figured it looked entirely on-topic (it was) and then, seriously, I clicked three other links before I remembered I needed to breathe.

So yeah, I should've checked the status bar, but I was just letting others know who might also not notice where they were going.

Anyway, back on topic, did you read the Tunnel Under The World story?  That was well-written and original, if you remember it was written in 1955.