Comments on: Think different

By: tentacles

tentacles — Tue, 10 Aug 2004 12:35:09 +0000

Cool cool

By: fling93

fling93 — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 22:27:07 +0000

virtually all of the non-human characters so far seem to act like humans. As I recall, Gaiman kinda mocks this himself by having the characters themselves sometimes refer to each other as anthropomorphic personifications. :)

By: bob mcmanus

bob mcmanus — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 16:13:58 +0000

Aw, hell the thread’s dying anyway. Aldiss,Brunner,Anderson (and Silverberg) I like as craftsmen, pre-65, when they had to write a book a week to make a living. Under those conditions they still wrote good stuff. Everybody knows their later work. Norman Spinrad not in this class. Sorry Norm. Wilhelm & Delaney also maybe not in this class, although in the other direction. Joanna Russ, in the nihilism of “We Who are About to…” may have experimented with an alien intelligence. PNH showed up and out-obscured me with the Terry Carr catch. However, I could mention Terry’s good novel “Cirque” (although trying to do this without research, so I may have the title wrong), and speaking of editor-types, I swear I have at least one James Sallis novel that is not listed on his web page. And I apologize for bringing such amateurish competition for erudite asshole to the hallowed halls of Crooked Timber, who as professionals, know how to do it with grace and irony, disguised in substance.

By: bob mcmanus

bob mcmanus — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 14:13:35 +0000

“Anyone want to venture opinions on Brian Aldiss, Poul Anderson, Ted Sturgeon, John Brunner, Norman Spinrad? Kate Wilhelm? Joanna Russ? Samuel R. Delany” Good writers. I like them. You’re welcome. And you are correct, Cordwainer Smith was an alien intelligence.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 06 Aug 2004 08:44:01 +0000

Cordwainer Smith. Clifford Simak, interestingly, in City. Early Zelazny, perhaps, though the memory has faded. Anyone want to venture opinions on Brian Aldiss, Poul Anderson, Ted Sturgeon, John Brunner, Norman Spinrad? Kate Wilhelm? Joanna Russ? Samuel R. Delany? All promising, but I either don’t know the work, or don’t remember it well enough to say anymore. Greg Egan very probably on the machine side of things. Point above on the alienness of the past also well taken; Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin chatting fastidiously about the state of their bowel movements an example of how norms change over time. Would be interested to know if PNH is here and has anything to say on this thread.

By: Antoni Jaume

Antoni Jaume — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 19:18:14 +0000

What do you think about Babylon 5 Vorlons and Shadows? Are they non-human enough? And A.C. Clarke monolith makers? DSW

By: Keith Gaughan

Keith Gaughan — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 16:57:21 +0000

There’s a lot of amateurs who have created some quite excellent aliens and human cultures that have quite unfamiliar ways of thinking when compared to our own. One of my favourites, and it’s just a short outline in the form of a fake book review, is the Quetzal League from a conculture world called The Irish Empire. [1] In fact, there’s a lot of other interesting bits and pieces on that site. The guy who runs it’s pretty good. [1] http://pages.prodigy.net/aesir/irish.htm

By: maurinsky

maurinsky — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 16:14:51 +0000

I’ve never read any of his books, but I know from my husband’s lectures that he would say Stanislaw Lem is the master of crafting a truly alien psychology.

By: Ray

Ray — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 13:45:45 +0000

To be fair to Vinge, the parts of the novel being told from their point of view aren’t really from their point of view. But we don’t get to see what it really looks like from their point of view. If you see what I mean.

By: Backword Dave

Backword Dave — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 11:23:53 +0000

I’ll second both points on Vinge. The Tines are interesting, and so are the plant things, while the aliens in “Deepness in the Sky” are only alien when being described by humans. The parts of the novel told from their PoV show them as just people.

By: Matt Freestone

Matt Freestone — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 10:32:23 +0000

Mary Doria Russell’s “The Sparrow” also has pretty good alien psychology , and it’s a terrific read.

By: MFB

MFB — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 10:29:15 +0000

I find there’s a similar problem with the representation of artificial intelligences. William Gibson does his best by presenting AIs as unable to communicate with humans except through human personae (hence they are actually inscrutable, you simply are fooled into thinking you understand them). Iain Banks, on the other hand, to my mind blows it in EXCESSION by making the AIs appear just as banal and blathering as the humans. A slightly more plausible representation of an advanced alien civilisation is presented, oddly enough, in Fred and Geoffrey Hoyle’s FIFTH PLANET; the point there is that the aliens won’t let you see much of themselves, and what’s there is incomprehensible (cf. last half-hour of 2001).

By: Alex Fradera

Alex Fradera — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 10:18:48 +0000

I third the Le Guin races, perhaps not alien but certainly non-human. Also, fans of Sam Keith’s art be aware that his latest miniseries, Scratch, is at #2 at the moment – a D.C. published werewolf jaunt. His motif of little ball monsters (all teeth, Critter-like) is present, although they are wearing nappies…

By: Ray

Ray — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 09:48:06 +0000

Vinge – blah. The Tines in Fire Upon the Deep are pretty good, but Deepness in the Sky doesn’t have alien aliens, it has a half-assed excuse to justify the aliens not being alien. LeGuin’s Gethenians are interesting, though they’re not exactly alien. Some of the stories in her collection, Changing Planes, do deal with aliens who have drives that are comprehensible, but different (eg, the migrating people)

By: glory

glory — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 06:31:06 +0000

re: aliens - octavia butler xenogenesis re: immortality - pete hamill forever: a novel or for kids - natalie babbitt tuck everlasting or just living a long time sucking blood - anne rice interview with a vampire