Science Fiction

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

193. New Zealander Speculative Fiction w/ Helen Lowe, Norman Cates, & Stephen Minchin

/

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode193NewZealanderSpeculativeFictionWHelenLoweNormanCatesStephenMinchin/SandF%20–%20Episode%20193%20–%20New%20Zealander%20Speculative%20Fiction%20w%20Helen%20Lowe%20-%20Norman%20Cates%20-%20Stephen%20Minchin.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSThe World SF Tour continues with our discussion of New Zealander speculative fiction with Helen Lowe, Norman Cates, and Stephen Minchkin.  We discuss NZ publishing, the field of NZ specfic, themes and issues, and so much more. We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 193 — Download (MP3) Show Notes: Helen Lowe is a fantasy author whose work has won the Sir Julius Vogel Award, the Gemmell Morningstar Award, and others.  She can be found on her website and blog; she is also on Twitter Norman Cates is president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand and is in charge of the 2020 New Zealand Worldcon bid, which will be updated soon. Like it via Facebook or sign up with e-mail address to get info for supporting it. Stephen Minchin runs New Zealand-based Steam Press, which has published award-winning works such as The Prince of Soul and the Lighthouse by Fredrik Brouneus.  He can also be found on Twitter.

Blog Posts

A (World) SFF Film Odyssey: Mutant Girls Squad (2010) and Anime’s Excesses

/

Warning:  there are some graphic images in this post.  NSFW. Not too long ago, I set myself the goal of viewing every SF/F film released in 2010.  It figures that the first non-American film I decided to view would be one of the most ridiculous, violent, and bizarre films I have seen in a while.  After being bullied by her classmates, high school student Rin (Yumi Sugimoto) returns home to discover that her father is actually a humanoid mutant known as a HILKO (or hiruko — the subtitles use HILKO, but descriptions of the film use “hiruko,” so I’m not sure which one is correct).  But before she can take in this surprising news and its implications for herself, she and her parents are attacked by an anti-HILKO military unit.  What follows is an all out bloodbath as Rin tries to escape not only the military, but the blood-thirst of her home town.  Later, she is picked up by other HILKO members and trained and indoctrinated into a violent counter-revolutionary force run by Kisaragi (Tak Sakaguchi), who believes his pack of teen girl HILKOs are the perfect fighting force for making Japan a human-free zone.

Blog Posts

Feminism in Science Fiction and Being a Feminist Ally

/

I had an interesting conversation with a good friend of mine the other day. She’s far more educated in Feminism than I — I never took a Women’s Studies course at the University, nor did I have many Feminist friends in college. (I was a geek.) Therefore, I read as much as I can on my own, talk with other Feminists, and form my own opinions. My friend stated that she firmly believes that men cannot be Feminists. They can only be Feminist Allies. She believes that men who claim the Feminist label are prone to use their male privilege to define Feminism, which is, in itself, a form of oppression. In short, when the oppressor defines for the oppressed what is oppressive there’s an instant conflict of interest. I’m conflicted about this, I have to admit. On one hand, she has a point. I think of this argument whenever white people declare whether or not something is ‘racist.’ It swiftly mutates into dictating to another person what their feelings are — dictating to them the words (and situations) by which they’re allowed to be insulted. So. Not. Cool. On the other hand, I believe Feminism must be inclusive in order to work, and telling men they can’t be Feminists is being exclusive. 

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

192. Australian Speculative Fiction w/ Tansy Rayner Roberts & Marianne de Pierres (the World SF Tour)

/

http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode192AustralianSpeculativeFictionWTansyRaynerRobertsAndMarianneDePierres/SandF%20–%20Episode%20192%20–%20Australian%20Speculative%20Fiction%20w%20Tansy%20Rayner%20Roberts%20and%20Marianne%20de%20Pierres.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSThe World SF Tour continues with our discussion of Australian speculative fiction with Tansy Rayner Roberts (author and Hugo Award winner for Best Fan Writer) and Marianne de Pierres (author and Aurealis Award winner for Best Novel) We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 192 — Download (MP3) Show Notes:

Blog Posts

Mining the Genre Asteroid: Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin

/

A century and a half after Earth has been wrecked, humanity exists in two spheres. There are the hardscrabble colonies, where survival is the watchword, as man tries to live on alien, often unfriendly environments. The people are often poor, desperate and technologically backward. And then there are the Ships that travel the spaceways. Technologically advanced and relatively rich, the Ships have a strict regime for keeping themselves from being overpopulated. Every person who reaches their fourteenth birthday must train for an ordeal called the Trial.

Blog Posts

My Superpower: Gregory A. Wilson

/

My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Gregory A. Wilson to talk about his paternal hilarity. —————————————————— A quick perusal of previous My Superpower entries on Skiffy and Fanty reveals one essential truth:  like rappers, for whom every other rapper is a sucker MC afraid to step to the mic and face the miraculous madness (I’m patenting that, by the way — it’s got just enough street cred to work), many contributors to this guest column are anxious to claim that their superpowers are more badass than everyone else’s — even when they involve creating apparently self-deprecating yet still awesome powers like (I quote) “a Non-Event Sphere” where nothing happens, or (again I quote) being “selectively stupid.”  So I wish to go on the record and say, right at the outset, that my particular superpower is not likely to trump anyone else’s.  You may well have this superpower yourself, and it may even be more powerful than mine.  I may be the sucker MC (I’m certainly afraid of the miraculous madness).  It’s not broadly applicable or particularly useful outside of one specific context.  But within that context, my superpower is completely MC-style legit. I am funny as hell.  To my six year old.

Scroll to Top