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November 2008Issue 48
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Ray Gun Revival magazine Issue 48, November 2008
Overlords (Founders / Editors)
Johne Cook, L. S. King, Paul Christian Glenn
Venerable Staf
A.M. Stickel - Managing Copyeditor Shannon McNear - Lord High Advisor, grammar consultant, listeningear/sanity saver for Overlord LeePaul Christian Glenn - PR, sounding board, strong right handL. S. King - Lord High Editor, proofreader, beloved nag, muse,webmistressJohne Cook - art wrangler, desktop publishing, chief cook and bottlewasher
Slushmasters (Submissions Editors)
John M. WhalenAlice M. RoelkeDavid Wilhelms
Serial Authors
Sean T. M. StiennonM KeatonKeanan BrandLee S. KingPaul Christian GlennJohne Cook
Cover Art
“Leader of the Pack”
by Dan LuVisiWithout Whom...
Bill Snodgrass
, site host,Web-Net Solutions, admin, webmaster, database admin, mentor,
condante, liaison – Double-edged Publishing
Special Thanks
Ray Gun Revival
logo design by
Hatchbox CreativeVisit us online at
http://raygunrevival.com
Ray Gun Revival
Table of Contents
All content copyright 2008 by
Double-edged Publishing
,
a Memphis, Tennessee-based non-prot publisher.
Rev: 200811A
Ray Gun Revival magazine, November, 2008
2 Table of Contents 3 Overlords’ Lair Full of Sound and Fury, Shibbolething Nothing 5 The Third Shadoc War by Scott Davis 9 Father Fayad’s Curious Compatability Projector 9 by Mike Duran12 Standard Deviation12 by D. Thomas Mooers16 Beasts of Burden16 by R. J. Walker Miller 23 RGR Review s -Book s
Matthew Winslow, Reviews Editor 27 RGR Reviews-Balcony Fool Movie ReviewsPaul Christian Glenn, Reviews Editor 33 Featured Artist -Dan LuVisi 38 Calamity’s Child, Chapter Five: ROP: Skip a Ropeby M. Keaton47 Thieves’ Honor, Episode Three: Best-Laid Plans47 by Keanan Brand 56 Memory Wipe, Chapter 24, Memory Reborn , Part One 56 by Sean T. M. Stiennon74 This Raygun For Hire:The Alexander Cochran Affair 74 by John M. Whalen81 The RGR Time Capsule October 2008
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Ray Gun Revival magazine Issue 48, November 2008
I
n the beginning, there was Science Fiction.Then Robert Heinlein played with theabbreviation of HiFi (short for High Fidelity)and gave us SciFi. But because he wrote thatplayful term in private correspondence, theman who was generally credited with coiningthe term six years later was science fictionsuperfan Forrest J Ackerman, andthere’s the rub. (That’s Shakespearean for ‘
.’Also see ‘
.’)Science Fiction versus SciFi. It is an argumentas nearly old as the overall genre, and this debate has reared its hoary head
.The argument is that Science Fiction isgenuine and important and literary whileSciFi is a debasement, a willful internaldiminishing of something of value, the low-brow sort of thing you might see in the filmIndependence Day.Harlan Ellison
about all this:
Traditionally, we have sought answers in philosophy, religion or mysticism, even in theconcepts that you find in fantastic literature.These images have the magical capacity toinspire dreams, to enrich reality. At best, theliterary genre called science fiction tells us wemust be responsible for one another and for the common good. That’s the work of writerslike J. G. Ballard or Thomas Disch. At worst, it’s merely “Sci-Fi,” which holds that the world is full of monsters and conspiraciesand that logic is beyond us. That’s what leads people to kill themselves to get on board amythical flying saucer. Twisted and corrupted,it can turn life into a nightmare from whichone escapes by eating applesauce and phenobarbital, or downing a slug of grapeKool-Aid laced with cyanide.“Sci-Fi” is what the Rancho Santa Fe sleepersbought. It’s a simplistic, pulp-fiction view of the world exemplified by the movie“Independence Day,” which warps our curiosity about the possibility of other life inthe universe into an apocalyptic Saturday-morning cartoon. For the cultists, like somany Americans, standard religions and belief systems no longer cut it. We live ina time when science and technology haveout-raced our capacity to understand them--cloning, computers and genetic engineeringcomplicate lives that are increasingly given toloneliness. If the answer isn’t here. . .maybeit’s out there, in the infinite darkness. Most people who watch “The X-Files” or “Star Trek” or saw the rerelease of “Star Wars” aresimply looking for escapism. But in a mansionin Rancho Santa Fe, it went dramatically farther. They turned away from the wondersof the real world and embraced recastings of Jesus as a deep-space navigator.
This being an opinion piece, I think thedefinitions they arrive at are ridiculous.SciFi is always filmable but Science Fiction isnot? Why does the medium of film get todetermine anything about literature?J. Michael Straczynski says that ScienceFiction is an interior kind of form, interiordialogue, interior monologue, while SciFi is just monsters and blowing stuff up.And then we come to Harlan Ellison whois never short on opinions. He says thatshortening the term from science fiction toSciFi diminishes the term and makes it easyfor people to dismiss it.Harlan has engaged in phrasing words to hisadvantage, here, but that doesn’t mean heis correct. Does it diminish something whenwe abbreviate it, or does it streamline it?Let’s test that. I have read both 2001, thenovel, and viewed 2001, the film. Doesanybody think the former is Science Fictionbecause it was a novel and the latter is SciFibecause it is a film?This is pure snobbery, an artificial distinctionamong genre elitists. People will dismissthings that they don’t like regardless of whatyou call it. In a bookstore, whether you callit Science Fiction or SciFi, the terminology isuseful in separating the genre from Romanceliterature or Mysteries or what-have-you. It
Overlords’ Lair
Full of Sound and Fury, ShibbolethingNothing
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