The Skiffy and Fanty Show 20: Harlan Ellison, Consumer Activism, and Science Fiction

Controversy attacks, and we’re on top of it like a fly waiting until the last second to get the leftovers from the dung beetles. This week we talk about Harlan Ellison’s last convention appearance and the problem (or lack thereof) of consumer activism in the science fiction community. Plus, the episode is full of gender stereotypes, ridiculous arguments made by other people, and general insanity. We had fun making it, and we’re sure you’ll enjoy listening!

Question of the Week:
Which science fiction technology would you like to see become a reality?

If you’d like to send us your answer to the question, you can email it to skiffyandfanty [at] gmail [dot] com or send us a voicemail at 206-203-1686! You can also leave a comment here or follow us on twitter. We’d love to hear your creative responses!

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Here’s the episode (show notes are below):

Episode Twenty — Download (MP3)

Intro and News (0:00 – 19:00):

Harlan Ellison’s Last Convention Appearance was MadCon (because he says he’s dying)
Alex Proyas to Direct Paradise Lost Movie
Christopher Nolan is Making an Inception Video Game!
Earth-ish Planet Discovered in the Habitable Zone Around Gliese 581!
(Quick correction: Shaun said that the above planet has three times Earth gravity. It actually has 1.1 to 1.7 times Earth gravity, but is three to four times as large in terms of mass. This means that our assessment of the habitability of the planet might be a little off. That’s not to say that the planet has an atmosphere and all the other conditions that would make it habitable, just that gravity is not a factor that might make it less enjoyable to live on.)

The Main Event: Consumer Activism and Science Fiction — Or How Elizabeth Moon Got Us Onto Capitalism (19:01 – 52:54):

Crazy French Author Plagiarizes From Wikipedia
World SF’s Coverage of Elizabeth Moon’s Anti-Muslim Rant (the comments are enlightening and contain some of the arguments we talk about in this segment)
A Brief Linking to a Manifesto of No-Consequence (again, the comments are enlightening, and the links in the post take you to some things we talk in this segment; specifically, the comments of this post confirm that the argument being made is one of no-consequence)

The End: Reading, Writing, and the Question of the Week (52:55 – 59:16):