Steel Beach
2 journalers for this copy...
This book might be fun in a "first sentence" VBB: "In five years, the penis will be obsolete," said the salesman. Novel new approaches to sex are popular with the residents of Luna as they try to stave off the boredom of their extended lives, but Hildy, a reporter with "The News Nipple, the padloid with the largest circulation in Luna," isn't convinced that this one is going to be a hit.
At one point I considered adding this book to a LGBT box, but I ended up saving it for an SF box instead.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Favorite bits:
It's a well-known fact that nobody goes to the library in this day and age. It's also wrong.
Why take the time and trouble to travel to a big building where actual books on actual paper are stored when you can stay at home and access any of that information, plus trillions of pages of data that exist only in the memories? If you don't already know the answer to that question, then you just don't love books, and I'll never be able to explain it to you. But if you get up from your terminal right now, any time of the day or night, take the tube down to the King Civic Center Plaza, and walk up the Italian marble steps between the statues of Knowledge and Wisdom, you will find the Great Hall of Books thrumming with the kind of quiet activity that has characterized great libraries since books were on papyrus scrolls. Do it someday. Stroll past the rows of scholars at the old oak tables, stand in the center of the dome, beside the Austin Gutenberg Bible in its glass case, look down the infinite rows of shelves radiating away from you. If you love books at all, it will soothe your mind.
and
If mankind ever reaches Alpha Centauri and lands on a habitable planet there, the first thing they'll see when they open the door of the ship is a Chinese restaurant.
At one point I considered adding this book to a LGBT box, but I ended up saving it for an SF box instead.
Favorite bits:
It's a well-known fact that nobody goes to the library in this day and age. It's also wrong.
Why take the time and trouble to travel to a big building where actual books on actual paper are stored when you can stay at home and access any of that information, plus trillions of pages of data that exist only in the memories? If you don't already know the answer to that question, then you just don't love books, and I'll never be able to explain it to you. But if you get up from your terminal right now, any time of the day or night, take the tube down to the King Civic Center Plaza, and walk up the Italian marble steps between the statues of Knowledge and Wisdom, you will find the Great Hall of Books thrumming with the kind of quiet activity that has characterized great libraries since books were on papyrus scrolls. Do it someday. Stroll past the rows of scholars at the old oak tables, stand in the center of the dome, beside the Austin Gutenberg Bible in its glass case, look down the infinite rows of shelves radiating away from you. If you love books at all, it will soothe your mind.
and
If mankind ever reaches Alpha Centauri and lands on a habitable planet there, the first thing they'll see when they open the door of the ship is a Chinese restaurant.
Hildy is off on a new adventure in Erishkigal's Science Fiction Bookbox; this release will count for Firegirl's 4 Elements challenge.
This book came to me in Erishkigal's science fiction bookbox, and I have decided today to take it for reading. It was recommended to me, and was actually on my wish list. Thanks!
I'm in the middle of this book right now, and I thought I would mention that last night, I enjoyed watching the 1940 film His Girl Friday, with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. Screwball comedy.
This novel is set on the Moon, in a future where Earth has been invaded, and human life continues on the "Eight Worlds" of the solar system. There are some minor discrepancies regarding the timeline of this setting and that of other "Eight Worlds" novels such as The Ophiuchi Hotline - but John Varley states in the post-word that he really doesn't care about that. In this novel, set about two hundred years after the invasion, tabloid reporter Hildy Johnson wants to retire from the business, but becomes embroiled in several big stories anyway. In this future, changes in humanity are supported through biotechnology - sex-change at will and adaptation to vacuum - but genetic change remains taboo. The Central Computer has developed an emergent intelligence that no one can live without, and may be experiencing a form of mental illness. It is a long novel, with plenty of diversions into social adaptation and sexual behavior of humans and into pop culture. The novel was nominated for Hugo Award, but did not win. I found it to be good entertainment, but not particularly profound.
John Varley pays extensive tribute to two prior works:
1) The Front Page is a 1928 play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, concerning a male newspaper reporter in Chicago named Hildy Johnson, who wants to retire from the business but cannot resist the lure of a big story. His Girl Friday is a 1940 film adaptation concerning a female newspaper reporter Hildy (Rosalind Russell), who wants to retire from the business and her ex-husband boss Walter (Cary Grant) but cannot resist the lure of a big story. Having seen both, I think the film is the stronger influence on Steel Beach, but the gender difference between the play and the film plays into the sex-changes of Varley's lunar society.
2) The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is a 1966 novel by Robert Heinlein, concerning a libertarian revolution on the Moon, led by an emergent artificial intelligence. There are also references to other Heinlein works, and in fact one segment of the lunar society is named to be the Heinleiners.
John Varley pays extensive tribute to two prior works:
1) The Front Page is a 1928 play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, concerning a male newspaper reporter in Chicago named Hildy Johnson, who wants to retire from the business but cannot resist the lure of a big story. His Girl Friday is a 1940 film adaptation concerning a female newspaper reporter Hildy (Rosalind Russell), who wants to retire from the business and her ex-husband boss Walter (Cary Grant) but cannot resist the lure of a big story. Having seen both, I think the film is the stronger influence on Steel Beach, but the gender difference between the play and the film plays into the sex-changes of Varley's lunar society.
2) The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is a 1966 novel by Robert Heinlein, concerning a libertarian revolution on the Moon, led by an emergent artificial intelligence. There are also references to other Heinlein works, and in fact one segment of the lunar society is named to be the Heinleiners.
