It was a cold and windy night, the moon had set and Mars was in the ascendent! Present were; John August, David Bofinger, Garry Dalrymple, Peter Eisler ( as Peter Eisler ) Diane Fox, John Fox, Ted Scribner and Ian Woolf. News Items ; John August will be visiting South Australia for fan contact and to observe the launch of the Australian SCRAM jet research vehicle at Woomera ( ASRI ), David Boffinger decried the general lack of understanding of the laws of Thermo Dynanics ( as related to hat wearing ), Garry presented a report on the venues for the two single day Freecons for 2001 and distributed copies of the report from the sixteen page 1952 Sydney Science Fiction Report ( supplied to him by Melbourne's Bruce Gillespie ) ( Send Garry Dalrymple $2.00 for postage and he will send you a copy ), Vanessa ( the young and naive ) Jacobsen the organiser of the recent Canberra SF con and proposed Canberra Natcon in 2004 plans to attend our July meeting, The Foxes observed that some first year film makers had set the opening scene of the 'Maltese Falcon' in the 'Starwars' universe, Ted Scribner had oservations to make about Edwina Harvey's Write (C) SF&F writers convention and plans to assemble an Anthology, Ian Woolf announced that he would be going to a Canadian Trek convention in July this year ( instead of Philcon ). General discussion ensued covering, Still no news from Zara Baxter about a Sydney Natcon bid, the appropriatness of offering 'Saturday Only' for single day Freecons, given that some people work or have religious committments that preclude attending on a Saturday. ( Bankstown Library is open 1 to 4 pm Sundays, North Sydney Library is open 10 to 5 pm both days, ie a Sunday Freecon is possible at North Sydney if we hold it later in the year ) The meeting topic 'SF written in the first person' resulted in discussion of numerous instances and an exploration of why that mode is useful in setting the scene. A story by Edwina Harvey was re-read in various tenses, literary styles and 'persons' to explore the concept. The 20 JULY, 2001 Topic is ; Treason, Treachery and Turncoats in SF The 17 AUGUST, 2001 Topic is; Duplicators, Replicators, Fabricators and Something from Nothing FREECON STUFF I would like some help on locating sources for the following; SF&F Movie & TV trailers and Promotional Video clips Wishing you well in all things Garry P Dalrymple -----------------------------222572866818655 Content-Disposition: form-data; name="userfile"; filename="C:\Misc\NewWeb\18may01.txt" Content-Type: text/plain Futurians Meeting 18 May 01 Next Meeting : The First Person in SF News : Ian Woolf : Series 7 playing at Dendy cinemas. This is a "Reality TV" program where the contestants kill each other, reminiscent of "Running Man", but where almost the whole movie has the look and feel of an actual broadcast episode. Ian said something about a Space Tourist, but I'm not sure on the details. Notes report of a helmet that lets you see God. This activates part of the brain and 4/5 people feel a presence in the room. David Brin thinks people will eventually learn how to zone themselves out on endorphins, and it will be difficult to stop them. "Show me your Zen liscence" was one suggestion. David Bofinger : 35 today. Saw Andromeda at the Canberra Science Fiction Convention, where it was not as bad as he would have expected. Ted Scribner : one of three organisers behind www.larryniven.org Zara Baxter is chair of a Sydney Natcon bid, with suspicions that Chuck Mc Kenzie and Edwina Harvey also involved. Aurealis is for sale, at about $50 K. Atlantis games is closing, seems there's been difficulties between the partners, not bankruptcy as a result of lack of sales. Topic : Archaeology (referred to as "AE") Eldritch Ruins, HP Lovecraft. Noted that lots of Lovecraft stuff had archaeology in it. In this case, it was frequently a horror awakened, for example "word of plains". Other examples include "The Mummy", Space Vampires/Life Force by Colin Wilson, "Fire upon the deep" by Vernor Vinge. This contrasts with an artefact awakened, is in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Relic Hunter, Stargate, 2001, Gateway & related Heechee stories by Pohl, Eon by Greg Bear (though this story is about an artefact from the future). Von Daniken's writings involved AE, not considered fiction as there was no admission it was not true or no apparent attempt to deceive (its truth value is a different matter, of course). Gentle Giants of Ganymede one such work. A sought after variant was "The Procedural", where an archaeological dig was performed methodically, similar to how a methodical police investigation is detailed in a "Police Procedural". Examples were H. Beam Piper's _Omnilingual_ and Jack McDevitt's _Ancient Shores_. Earth/Moon is one setting for AE sf, where things from our local past are uncovered. This contrasts with alien things being uncovered by people from Earth, as in - Babylon 5/Thirdspace. - Larry Niven, Rotating Cylinders & Global Causality Violations. - Niven & Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye. - Arthur C. Clark, The Star, a notable story where a Jesuit priest investigates the testament left to others by a society which knew it was about to be obliterated by a supernova. Aliens could also be looking for human artefacts. Randall Garrett, No Connections in the Takeoff collection. Fritz Leiber, Later than you think. Robert Silverberg, Across a million years. Time Travel and AE : In a story by Arthur C. Clark (?) excavations were made of dinosaur footprints, eventually yielding the tyre tracks of a jeep it was chasing. Forerunners : in this sub-genre, a galactic race is presumed to have been seeded by others, and the originators are sought out. David Brin wrote Startide Rising, Piers Anthony the Cluster series, Andre Norton "World that suits you". There's one called "Big Ancestor" or something similar. Lastly, one that I do not know how to categorise : Jack L. Chalker - Well world. -----------------------------222572866818655 Content-Disposition: form-data; name="userfile"; filename=""