The usual right wing playbook. Not qualified, too liberal, dangerous for the
country, blah, blah, blah.
--- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com, Keith Johnson <keithbjohn...@...> wrote:
>
> Kinda wild when a scifi/futurist who's written stories about a world where
> Natives weren't conquered by Europe has homophobia. But then, scifi is chock
> full of prejudices and fears, and I guess those of us with that Star Trek
> "Man will get better" eye toward the future might even be in the minority.
> What has Card said about Obama?
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "B Smith" <daikaij...@...>
> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 8:14:02 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: Pandorum
>
>
>
>
>
>
> All of the above and more. He's written some very homophobic things and his
> take on President Obama is pretty interesting. He claims that he's a Democrat
> but has been hyper-critical of Obama from the very beginning and been very
> alarmist about all of the actions he's taken since he became president. Very
> Tea Partyish in some ways.
>
> --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com , Keith Johnson <KeithBJohnson@> wrote:
> >
> > I haven't read a Card book in twenty years. But, why is he on the avoided
> > list? Is there something about his Mormon (?) background and how it
> > influences his writings? Disrespect for people of color or other
> > non-whites?
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "B Smith" <daikaiju66@>
> > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 2:48:23 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> > Subject: [scifinoir2] Re: Pandorum
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > That makes me remember when I used to like OSC. He's another author on the
> > to be avoided list.
> >
> > --- In scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com , Keith Johnson <KeithBJohnson@> wrote:
> > >
> > > I've heard mixed views, but never a good synopsis, thanks. What you
> > > presented made it sound like a great premise. I love the idea of
> > > hypersleep causing such problems. I may check it out. How does it compare
> > > to another scifi film I really love, "Event Horizon"? I know that latter
> > > is much more of a horror-focused scifi film.
> > >
> > > As for hypersleep, I remember reading a book by Orson Scott Card
> > > ("Ender's Game", among many others). It postulated a fascinating world in
> > > which people who were deemed absolutely critical to humanity (great
> > > politicians, wealthy financiers, brilliant scientists, etc.) would "skip"
> > > generations. A person of sufficient means would live among humanity for a
> > > few years, doing whatever he or she did for a living. Then, that person
> > > would go into suspended animation for a time. As an example, Steve Jobs
> > > might run Apple for three years, set its future course, then go into
> > > suspended animation for twenty or thirty years. He'd wake up, get the lay
> > > of the land, do some more work, then back into the routine. If you think
> > > about it, it's a cool way to be granted a sort of immortality, as you can
> > > skip across the centuries, experiencing and influencing human
> > > development.
> > > The only problem is that the sleeper's mind is "bubbled" into a storage
> > > device before the body is put under. If something happened to that
> > > device, the sleeper would be rendered little more than a body with no
> > > mind, akin to a newborn babe, albeit in an adult's body. In one story,
> > > that very thing happens with a colony ship to another planet. There's an
> > > accident, all the crew's bubbles are destroyed, and the one guy who was
> > > awake is left with trying to retrain and re-educate all the now
> > > completely blank people.
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "B Smith" <daikaiju66@>
> > > To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
> > > Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 12:52:40 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> > > Subject: [scifinoir2] Pandorum
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Has anyone seen this movie? I was pleasantly surprised. Don't get me
> > > wrong it's not great but it was interesting and pretty well executed.
> > >
> > > Long story short: An Earthlike exoplanet called Tanis is discovered in
> > > the early 21st century. A probe using an advanced drive is sent there,
> > > finds that it's very, very Earthlike and can support life.
> > >
> > > 22nd century Earth is massively overpopulated, resources are dwindling,
> > > etc. A generation ship called the Elysium is built by all nations and
> > > 60,000 volunteers set off for Tanis. The journey will take 123 years so
> > > multiple crews rotate in two year shifts and go into hypersleep the rest
> > > of the time.
> > >
> > > Hypersleep is a tough process and people wake up with memory loss, mild
> > > sickness, etc. Some folks develop a severe type of sickness called
> > > pandorum. Another deep space Earth ship suffered a massive disaster when
> > > a pandorum affected crew member jettisoned all of the ship's hyperspace
> > > modules, killed the remaining crew and then himself.
> > >
> > > A crewman on the Elysium wakes up out of hypersleep for his 2 year shift.
> > > He's out of it, doesn't remember his name, etc. He reads his name off his
> > > sleep pod and begins to remember that he is ship's engineer Bower. A
> > > second crewman, Lt. Payton, awakens and they realize that they are the
> > > only people from their shift that are awake. The power is down and they
> > > are cutoff from the rest of ship. The reactor is out of synch and needs
> > > to be repaired before the ship's power can be restored. Bower grabs some
> > > tools and sets off to restore the power.
> > >
> > > Then the fun begins.
> > >
> > > I was surprised at how much I liked the movie. There were a few things
> > > that strained logic but it's a fun, scary movie with a healthy dose of
> > > semihard sci fi.
> > >
> >
>
