From the CSFFA, news of the Aurora Awards.Membership is not expensive, and the voter package is well worth the cost. The deadline for membership is tomorrow!
Aurora Awards Voting Info & Voters’ Package
In this newsletter:
Voting information for this year’s Aurora Awards
Aurora Awards Voters’ Package
Change of dates for membership payments and voters’ package download
Reminder: CSFFA AGM June 25
Voting has begun: how to vote in this year’s Aurora Awards
Voting is open for CSFFA members. You have until 11:59 pm EDT on July 29th, 2023, to submit your ballot. Remember, vote for what you know. You do not have to vote in all categories, and you do not have to rank all nominated works.
We use a ranked or alternate voting method. To vote, sort your choices from 1 (your favourite) to 5 (your least favourite). For full details about this and how votes are tabulated, go to our about voting method page, https://www.csffa.ca/about/aurora-awards-voting-method/
Unlike our nomination process, when you submit your ballot, it will be locked, and you will NOT be able to make any changes or return to it another day. Do not start to vote until you are sure you know everything you wish to vote for.
We are using the same voting form that we used last year. It is easy to use. Each category allows you to move your selections either with your mouse or finger (if you have a touch screen) on most devices. Move your choices above the voting line which says, “No pick underneath this line will be counted”. As you do this your choice will show you what its ranking is. If you make a mistake, you can move your choice to a different position or back below the voting line.
For your ballot to count you must click the “Send Ballot” button at the bottom of the form. This will lock and submit your selections. Do NOT submit your choices until all of your selections are arranged. This must be done at the same time since you will not be able to return to edit or add to your ballot once it has been submitted. If you close the form before you submit all of your choices, they will be cleared and not saved, and you will have to start again.
So, download and read the nominated works that are in our voters’ package. When you are done, go to our online voting form and rank all of your choices. When you’ve done this for all the categories that you’re interested in, click the “Send Ballot” button at the bottom of the form to lock and submit them.
Join us for our online awards ceremony at 7 pm EDT on August 19th to find out who takes home this year’s trophies. We will be live streaming on both Facebook and YouTube.
2023 Aurora Awards Voters’ Package
The Voters’ Package is now available for the 2023 Aurora Awards. It can be accessed and the files downloaded from https://www.csffa.ca/members-home/. You must be logged into your account to access it.
Good luck to all of the nominees. Voting will begin on June 17th and close six weeks later on July 29th. The awards ceremony will be held online starting at 7pm EDT, August 19th, 2023. The ceremony will be hosted by Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Liz Anderson. Links to both a Facebook and YouTube page for the ceremony will be posted in August.
Change of dates for membership payments and voters package download
We are changing the closing date for people to purchase CSFFA memberships and to download works from our voters’ package. The new date is 11:59pm EDT, July 22nd, 2023. This does NOT affect voting for the awards, that date is still one week later, July 29th.
Membership Payments: Purchases of CSFFA memberships must be made one week prior to the close of voting. If you purchase your membership and your account has not been automatically updated, then you must contact us ASAP. Do NOT wait days, contact us with a copy of your payment notice from PayPal. We will manually update your account.
Voters Package: The download form for the voters package will also close one week prior to the close of voting. If you have not taken what you wish to read it will be unavailable.
The CSFFA board felt that members should be part of the society at least a week prior to when voting closes. We provide the voters package to help you vote and if you don’t download it until the last few days, you don’t have time to read the works before you vote. The other reason is that we don’t feel the support team should be scrambling for those who decide to only join at the last moment and have problems.
We hope CSFFA members appreciate that our board members are all volunteers and cannot be monitoring the site 24/7.
Reminder: CSFFA AGM June 25, 2023
To attend the AGM, email president@csffa.ca. You will be emailed a Zoom link a few days before June 25.
The 2023 CSFFA AGM materials and motions can be viewed by logged-in members (Home page -> Annual General Meeting). Members can vote until June 24.
The AGM will begin Sunday June 25, 10 a.m. Pacific/ 11 a.m. Mountain/ noon Central/ 1 p.m. Eastern/ 2 p.m. Atlantic/ and one half-hour later, Newfoundland & Labrador.
Following are the answers to the trivia quiz we posted at 1:00PM. How many questions did you correctly answer? Compare your answers to these:
1) Fill in the blank! These SF/F titles are missing a single word: The ______ Tree; Haunted______; Dinosaur ______; and Without a ______. What is that missing word?
ANSWER: “Summer” is the missing word.
The Summer Tree (1984) is a novel by Canadian fantasy writer Guy Gavriel Kay, Book One of his Fionavar Tapestry.
Haunted Summer (1988) is a film dramatizing the famous summer of 1816 at Villa Diodati near Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Romantic poet Lord Byron had rented the house and invited a group of his aristocratic friends to join him there. During their stay, a horror-story writing contest was organized, spawning two classics of Gothic literature, John William Polidori’s “The Vampyre” and Mary Wollstonecroft Shelley’s (née Godwin) Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. Polidori’s story is cited as the originator of romantic vampire fiction, Shelley’s often as the first true science fiction story.
Dinosaur Summer (1998) is an alternate-history novel penned by Greg Bear. It’s 1947 in a world where the dinosaur-populated South American plateau of Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1912) is an actual place, and his Professor Challenger a real person! Among the central group of characters are versions of real-life fantasy filmmakers Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen, whose lives take a different turn in a reality where the existence of the real thing rendered unnecessary animated rubber models of dinosaurs.
Without a Summer (2013), a novel by Mary Robinette Kowal, is Book Three of her Glamourist Histories series, which injects an element of magic—here called “glamour”—into historical romantic fiction. The title refers to the so-called “Year Without a Summer,” 1816, the same period in which is set Haunted Summer. A volcanic eruption in the Pacific the previous year triggered a global climate anomaly and a decrease in normal temperatures, resulting in a chilly, rainy summer in Europe and food shortages across the Northern Hemisphere.
2) First seen in the opening minutes of Star Wars (1977), what is the name of this CR90 corvette, employed as an Alderaanian diplomatic cruiser and rebel blockade runner?
ANSWER: Tantive IV.
3) Which of these characters does not belong? A) Jaime Reyes, B) Samuel “Sam” Guthrie, C) Dan Garrett, D) Theodore “Ted” Kord
ANSWER: B) Samuel “Sam” Guthrie, alter ego of the Marvel superhero Cannonball, a founding member of the New Mutants.
The other three have this in common: each has donned the mantle of the superhero Blue Beetle. Garrett (spelled “Garret” initially) was the original Golden Age character (1939, Fox Comics; later Charlton Comics, where the character was refurbished for the Silver Age). Kord followed (Charlton Comics, and eventually DC Comics), and finally, Reyes (DC Comics). Reimagined and retconned over the decades, Blue Beetle has usually been depicted as deriving his superpowers from an ancient mystical Egyptian scarab, most recently interpreted as a technologically advanced device of alien origin.
A Warner Bros./DC film adaptation of the Reyes Blue Beetle is scheduled to premiere August 18 of this year.
4) Most Worldcons have been held in the U.S.; how many have been held outside of the United States?
ANSWER: There have been 80 Worldcons held to date. Excluding CoNZealand in 2020, which was moved online for reasons of pandemic-related safety, 21 have been held outside the U.S.
The U.K. has hosted seven, five in England, two in Scotland; Canada has hosted five, Australia four, and Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Finland, and Ireland, one each.
The 81st Worldcon will take place in Chengdu, China later this year, and Glasgow, Scotland will again host in 2024, which will boost the number of non-U.S. Worldcons to 23.
5) Who played youngster David MacLean in the original Invaders From Mars (1953), in which the vanguard of a Martian invasion force lands in the boy’s hometown?
ANSWER: Jimmy Hunt. Decades later, an adult Hunt appeared as the town’s police chief in Tobe Hooper’s 1986 remake of Invaders From Mars.
6) The novels Omnivore (1968), Orn (1970), and OX (1976) constitute which SF trilogy?
ANSWER: Of Man and Manta.
All three novels were collected as Of Man and Manta (1986). Explorers from Earth investigate a world populated by fungi, including the intelligent mantas, which superficially resemble manta rays.
7) What is the title of the fifth Indiana Jones movie, scheduled to premiere later this month, on the 30th?
ANSWER: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023).
8) “They Were Looking For Chicks…To Go All The Way!”—the marketing campaign of which sci-fi movie employed that tag line? A) Teenagers from Outer Space (1959), B) Mars Needs Women (1968), C) Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), D) Invasion of the Saucer-Men (1957)
ANSWER: B) Mars Needs Women (1968), written, produced, and directed by self-proclaimed schlock artist Larry Buchanan. Disney mainstay Tommy Kirk starred, along with Yvonne “Batgirl” Craig.
9) How many Worldcons has Canada hosted?
ANSWER: Five; three in Toronto (1948, 1973, and 2003), one in Winnipeg (1994), and one in Montreal (2009).
10) The Humanx Commonwealth, an organization similar to Star Trek’s Federation of Planets, is featured in the science fiction stories of which writer?
ANSWER: Alan Dean Foster.
11) What two sentient species jointly administer the Humanx Commonwealth?
ANSWER: the mammalian Humans, of Earth, and the insectoid Thranx, of Hivehom are the Commonwealth’s two principal players. Alan Dean Foster’s Nor Crystal Tears (1982), a first-contact story, sees the beginnings of what would eventually become the Humanx Commonwealth, that tale detailed in the author’s Founding of the Commonwealth trilogy, comprising Phylogenesis (1999), Dirge (2000), and Diuturnity’s Dawn (2002).
12) Which of these men develops psychohistory, a fictional algorithmic science that allows general predictions to be made of the future in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series? A) Harrison Bergeron, B) Harry Harrison, C) Harry Mudd, D) Hari Seldon
ANSWER: D) Hari Seldon.
A mathematics professor at Streeling University on the planet Trantor, Seldon employs sociology, history, and the laws of statistics as applied to large populations in order to arrive at general forecasts of future events. He is thus able to predict the inevitable fall of the Galactic Empire, of which he is a citizen.
Harrison Bergeron is the titular character in a Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. short story, Harry Mudd is a Star Trek rapscallion, and Harry Harrison is a real-life science fiction writer known for his Stainless Steel Rat and Bill, the Galactic Hero series.
13) Who played Camie Loneozner in the original Star Wars (1977), only to see her scenes excised from the final cut?
ANSWER: British model/actress Koo Stark.
Born Kathleen Norris Stark and known for her roles in a couple of mid-1970s erotic films, she also appeared in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), the sci-fi/romantic comedy Electric Dreams (1984), and a 1989 episode of Red Dwarf.
She was Prince Andrew’s girlfriend for a time, something of a scandal in that she had starred in what the press categorized as soft-core porn films—yeah, she was the degenerate! Stark later became an accomplished photographer.
Her role in Star Wars was as one of Luke Skywalker’s group of friends on Tatooine. Those excised scenes have since become available for ardent fans.
14) Match the robots (left column) with the science fiction titles in which they appear (right column).
ANSWERS: A-7, Robby the Robot appeared in the classic Forbidden Planet; B-10, robot servant Jenkins attended generations of the Webster family in Clifford D. Simak’s City; C-8, Hector was the homicidal robot in Saturn 3; D-9, Huey, Dewey, and Louie were maintenance drones aboard the Valley Forge in Silent Running; E-3, Police robot Gort appeared in The Day the Earth Stood Still; F-2, Diktor the robot lover appeared in the Barbarella comic books;
G-11, Number 5, later renaming himself Johnny 5, was an experimental military robot that gained sentience after a lightning strike scrambled its programming in the sci-fi/comedy Short Circuit; H-1, Box was a shiny, chrome-plated robot designed to capture food—and runners!—outside the city in Logan’s Run;I-12, Ash was the duplicitous android in Alien; J-5, Gnut was the robot featured in the Harry Bates story that served as the basis for The Day the Earth Stood Still; K-4, Ro-Man was bent on the destruction of Earth in Robot Monster; and L-6, “The Robot” was principally the companion and protector of young Will Robinson in TV’s Lost in Space.
Clockwise from top-left: Robbie, Hewey and Dewey, Box, and Ro-Man
15) Who played astronomer Dr. Stuart Kelston in the original Invaders From Mars (1953)?
ANSWER: Arthur Franz.
16) The protagonists of the science fiction novel Icerigger (1974) crash-land on what frozen world?
ANSWER: Tran-ky-ky.
Alan Dean Foster’s Icerigger is the first book of a trilogy set on this frigid, windswept planet, inhabited by the cat-like, bipedal Tran, who sport batwing-like menbranes under their arms and specialized claws on their feet with which to windskate across the arctic landscape.
Artist Wayne Barlowe’s interpretation of a Tran.
Mission to Moulokin (1979) and The Deluge Drivers (1987) are Icerigger’s two sequels.
17) “Derelict of Space” (1939), “Meteor” (1941), “Tyrant and Slave-Girl on Planet Venus” (1951), and “The Red Stuff” (1951)—who wrote these science fiction short stories?
ANSWER: They were all penned by English SF writer John Wyndham writing as John Beynon. The author of The Day of the Triffids (1951) and The Midwich Cuckoos (1957) derived several pseudonyms from his birth name, John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris; John Wyndham itself is one such alias!
“Tyrant and Slave-Girl on Planet Venus” was published in the premiere, and only issue of 10 Story Fantasy.
18) Which of these science fiction characters does not belong with the others? A) Ethan Frome Fortune, B) Hellespont du Kane, C) Raymus Antilles, D) Skua September
ANSWER: C) Raymus Antilles. Played by Peter Geddis in the original Star Wars (1977), he was captain of the Tantive IV, and was choked to death by Darth Vader in a memorable early scene from the film.
The others are all characters in Alan Dean Foster’s novel Icerigger (1974).
19) Rudolph Martin, Gary Oldman, Frank Langella, and Nicolas Cage—other than their profession, what do these actors have in common?
ANSWER: They have all played the role of Dracula, Martin in the fifth season premiere of TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Oldman in the 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Langella in the 1979 film Dracula, and Cage in the 2023 film Renfield.
Clockwise from top-left: Martin (with Sarah Michelle Gellar), Oldman, Cage, and Langella
20) With regard to the horror genre, what do the towns of Rockbridge, Midwich, Haddonfield, and Antonio Bay have in common?
ANSWER: They all served as the setting of a John Carpenter film.
Rockbridge was the setting of Christine (1983), Midwich of Carpenter’s remake of Village of the Damned (1995), Haddonfield of Halloween (1978), and Antonio Bay of The Fog (1980).
21) André Morell, Andrew Keir, Brian Donlevy, and John Mills have all played which acclaimed scientist-hero?
ANSWER: Professor Bernard Quatermass, head of the British Experimental Rocket Group—later shortened to British Rocket Group.
Quatermass was the main protagonist in the influential BBC science fiction television serials created by Nigel Kneale, and subsequently adapted as a trio of movies by Hammer Film Productions. Morell and Keir both played the role in Quatermass and the Pit, Morell on television (1958-1959), Keir in the Hammer film version (1967). Donlevy played the scientist-hero in Hammer’s The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and Quatermass II (1957). And Mills played the character, now retired, in Quatermass (1979), a four-part ITV television series recut later that same year by Euston Films for theatrical release as The Quatermass Conclusion.
Clockwise from top-left: Morell, Keir, Mills, and Donlevy
22) In which Canadian province is set American International Pictures’ 1976 B-movie The Food of the Gods?
ANSWER: British Columbia.
The film was written and directed by low-budget movie-maker and visual effects artist Bert I. Gordon.
A group of friends travel to a remote island in British Columbia on a hunting trip, where they encounter oversized wasps and rats made gigantic after having ingested a strange, porridge-like liquid—the Food of the Gods—bubbling up through the soil on a nearby farm.
The movie was not only set on a remote island in British Columbia, but filmed in B.C., specifically on Bowen Island, part of Metro Vancouver.
A local angle is that some of the special effects sequences were shot in Montreal.
23)The Lady of the Sorrows (2002) and The Battle of Evernight (2003) are the second and third books, respectively, of Australian fantasy writer Cecilia Dart-Thornton’s Bitterbynde trilogy. Name the first book in this series.
ANSWER: The Ill-Made Mute (2001).
24) Who played army commander Colonel Fielding in the original Invaders From Mars (1953)?
ANSWER: Seasoned character actor Morris Ankrum, who was a fixture of sci-fi movies in the 1950s.
12) THANK YOU!
We extend a special “Thank You” to our guest speaker, Olivia Atwater, for taking part this afternoon. We also thank Joe Aspler, Keith Braithwaite, and Cathy Palmer-Lister for their contributions today. And, we offer a nod of appreciation, as well, to all of our supporting contributors.
MonSFFA hopes you have enjoyed your time with us this afternoon, we thank you for dropping in, and we ask all of you to check in regularly here at www.MonSFFA.ca for additional content.
We look forward to again gathering, face to face, at our Barbecue in the Park in July, and at August’s get-together, the first in-person meeting we’ve been able to schedule in over three years!
Thank you for your interest and attention today, and don’t forget to comment on this afternoon’s e-meeting!
13) JULY CLUB EVENTS
Barbecue-in-the-Park
MonSFFen and their families, as well as friends of the club, are invited to gather at Parc Maisonneuve on Saturday, July 8, for the club’s 2023 Barabecue-in-the-Park! Parc Maisonneuve, easily accessible by Metro or bus, is located in the city’s East End, adjacent the Botanical Gardens and the Olympic Stadium. Parking is available on site, or on nearby streets.
Should the weather prove inclement on the 8th, the event will be shifted 24 hours forward to Sunday, July 9.
Relax-a-ZOOM Virtual Picnic
We will also host a “Relax-a-ZOOM” Virtual Picnic right here at www.MonSFFA.ca on Saturday, July 15, at 1:00PM—have your favourite summer snacks and libations on hand! No formal programming is planned, just a game of some kind, and an afternoon of casual conversation with friends on topics SF/F and fannish, including, given this opportunity, a little bit of club business for which the input of our membership is desired.
14) SIGN-OFF
And so, until we meet again, whether in person on a club outing, live in a physical meeting hall, or online again right here at www.MonSFFA.ca, keep well, everyone; soak in the summer sun and fun! And, remember: only you can prevent a forest fire!
On ZOOM at this moment, we’re asking “What are You Reading, or Watching?” Give us your quick book report, or your brief review of a film or TV show you’ve recently enjoyed!
For those not participating in our ZOOM chat today, you may still contribute by submitting your concise book reports or movie and television-series reviews via this post’s “Leave a Comment” option. We welcome your input.
Time for a break! News, displays, & raffle prizes!
Get your Bheer & Chips! It’s time for the break!
NEWS
JULY 8: Picnic in the Park
Our July meeting will be a BBQ in the park! Come join us at Maisonneuve Park to celebrate Keith’s birthday!
AUGUST12: Meeting at the Legion Hall in Lachine!
We are renting the Legion Hall in Lachine for a real, live in person, meeting! It’s a bit far for many, but easily reached by public transport, and has lots of free parking. We are going to test the WiFi in hopes of a hybrid meeting.
Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 085/090
3015, rue Henri-Dunant,
Lachine, Qc,
H8S 1R5
DISPLAY TABLE
RAFFLE PRIZES
Click the thumbnails to view full size image.
The Complete Science Fiction of William Tenn, Vol II, hardcover. Donated by Brian Knappe
Affixed to each Voyager craft was a recording inscribed with the music and images of our planet. Donated by Mark Burakoff.
60 cards portraying visual scenes from Burroughs’ creations like Tarzan, Mars etc. Card backs show more Burroughs artwork & Jusko’s commentary (Sylvain)
DVD: Martians launch a ruthless assault on an unsuspecting Victorian England, in an attempt to escape their dying planet. Donated by Brian Knapp.
The Time Machine, The Island of Dr Moreau, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon, The Food of the Gods, In the Days of the Comet, The War of the Worlds
From Sylvain’s collection, a very small fossil, about 3.5 cm, of what appears to be a fish in sandstone.
Animated full length film based on novel by HG Wells
Three young survivors of vicious demon attacks dare to step beyond the crumbling safety of the wards, risking everything in a desperate quest to regain the knowledge of the protective wards.
Collaborative novel by George RR Martin & John J Miller., a murder mystery set in the Wild Cards Universe.
For those participating on ZOOM, today, we open the floor to any club members who have “fancraft” projects to showcase—sci-fi scale models, SF/F woodworking or needlecraft, whatever genre-themed, hands-on project it may be that you are working on at present, or have recently completed. Share your fancrafting experience with the group!
Those not equipped to join our ZOOM chat for the show-and-tell may contribute by using this post’s “Leave a Comment” feature to type in a quick description of any such project on which they are currently working or have recently completed.
7) ZDENEK BURIAN’S 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA ILLUSTRATIONS
Keith Braithwaite is on vacation this week, but offers the following discovery, which may be of interest to this group; Keith writes:
While combing the Web for paleontological art some years ago for a presentation I was preparing, I came across a series of beautifully rendered monotone illustrations by artist Zdeněk Burian, produced for an illustrated Czech edition of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Burian (1905-1981) was an influential paleoartist whose dynamic canvases depicting prehistoric life set the template during the mid-20th century for the reconstruction of dinosaurs. His work, portraying the ancient beasts as active animals, anticipated and later embraced the Dinosaur Renaissance before the thinking of scientists like Robert Bakker became widely accepted.
Applauded worldwide for his paleoart, Burian’s paintings graced several books on prehistoric life published in the 1960s and 1970s. My high school’s library stocked a couple of these, and that’s how I became aware of his work. But as I discovered decades later, he was also a prolific book illustrator, turning out hundreds of illustrations for Czech editions of adventure novels by such renowned authors as Rudyard Kipling, James Fenimore Cooper, Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. But he most enjoyed illustrating Jules Verne.
His non-paleontological illustration work is not well known outside of his native Czechoslovakia (today, the Czech Republic and Slovakia). It should be!
Strikingly dramatic, painterly, and deftly crafted, the work that most captured my attention, of course, was produced for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and absolutely deserves to be seen by a wider audience. So, this is my small way of doing just that, showing and telling all of you about Burian’s extraordinary illustrations of the Verne classic. (Click on an illustration to enlarge the image.)
We welcome, now, for a ZOOM chat our special guest, Olivia Atwater, who will speak on “Fantasy as Satire.” Olivia sent us this brief note:
Biography: Olivia Atwater writes whimsical historical fantasy with a hint of satire. She lives in Montreal, Quebec with her fantastic, prose-inspiring husband and her two cats. When she told her second-grade history teacher that she wanted to work with history someday, she is fairly certain this isn’t what either party had in mind. She has been, at various times, a historical re-enactor, a professional witch at a metaphysical supply store, a web developer, and a vending machine repairperson.
Fantasy as Satire: Though you can write a satire in just about any genre, fantasy lends itself particularly well to the idea for reasons both structural and psychological. Olivia Atwater discusses a few well-known examples of satire within the fantasy genre, and elaborates on why they succeed so well at their aims.
Across the width of the country, Canada is experiencing an unprecedented wildfire season, with over 400 forest fires burning, about half of these vast and out of control. Firefighters are overwhelmed in the face of this scorching onslaught. Canadian crews have been augmented by teams and equipment from the U.S., France, Spain, and countries as far away as South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
The season started earlier than usual this year, and with a hot, dry summer forecast, in almost every province and territory, fires may well burn for weeks to come, and perhaps longer. Predictions are that this wildfire season could extend through July and August!
Some 3.5 million hectares of Canadian forest has already been reduced to ashes, roughly 13 times more than the typical ten-year average, as communities in the path of monstrous columns of advancing flame were evacuated. Homes have been destroyed, thousands of people displaced, and a pall of acrid smoke and haze descended upon Canadian cities and towns at various times these past couple weeks, drifting south, as well, to blanket the American Northeast. People were advised to avoid strenuous activity outdoors, such was the elevated degree of smoke in the air. About ten days ago, New York City recorded the worst air quality levels in the world! Rain and shifting winds seem to have since mitigated the worst of what was playing out as a truly apocalyptic scenario one might expect only in an over-the-top science fiction/disaster movie.
This view is not of the John Carter Bridge in Barsoom City! This is the 59th Street Bridge and Roosevelt Island Aerial Tramway in New York City, about ten days ago!
Climate change, the science tells us, is at the heart of the extreme weather and environmental conditions—storms, flooding, heat waves, drought—that we are likely to experience regularly in the years to come. But in a more direct way, we are to be held responsible, at least with regard to these forest fires; most were ignited by the carelessness of people—a casually tossed cigarette butt, improperly extinguished campfire, etc.
Meanwhile, in another sign of an impending Armageddon, authorities are warning Quebecers to remain on guard for rabid racoons migrating across the border from Vermont! Steer well clear of any unusually aggressive racoons you may encounter on the hiking trail or in your backyards, wildlife experts advise.
This afternoon, we welcome a special guest speaker on the topic of “Fantasy as Satire,” and recall some of the voyages of the Enterprise. We’ve also prepared for you a sci-fi trivia quiz (below).
All of this and more is on the agenda today! And so, let us begin…
If you’re not fully equipped to ZOOM, you can also take part by phone (voice only); in the Montreal area, the toll-free number to call is: 1-438-809-7799. From out of town? No problem; find your ZOOM call-in number here: Call-In Numbers
Also, have this information on hand as you may be asked to enter it:
Meeting ID: 851 4737 3414
Passcode: 246023
3) MEETING AGENDA
Here is the agenda for this afternoon’s get-together:
As always, all scheduled programming is subject to change.
4) TWO-FOUR SCI-FI TRIVIA QUIZ
Those long, languid days of summer have arrived, and again do we enjoy an afternoon poolside, or better, a day at the beach, where we can dive into a good beach read. We relish farmer’s markets, an outdoor concert on a warm evening, vibrant neighbourhood street festivals, and of course, a cold one quaffed with friends on a downtown terrace. “Summertime,” as the song evokes, “and the livin’ is easy…”
With that vibe in mind, we offer this afternoon a little light entertainment in the form of a trivia challenge. Our Two-Four Sci-Fi Quiz is so named in honour of that penultimate Canadian backyard barbecue refreshment, a case of two-four!
Your challenge is to correctly answer all 24 of the following SF/F-related questions? Good luck, and, of course, play fair; no resorting to Google or another search engine for the answers! You can ask a friend for help, however, as long as your friend’s name isn’t Siri or Alexa!
1) Fill in the blank! These SF/F titles are missing a single word: The ______ Tree; Haunted______; Dinosaur ______; and Without a ______. What is that missing word?
2) First seen in the opening minutes of Star Wars (1977), what is the name of this CR90 corvette, employed as an Alderaanian diplomatic cruiser and rebel blockade runner?
3) Which of these characters does not belong? A) Jaime Reyes, B) Samuel “Sam” Guthrie, C) Dan Garrett, D) Theodore “Ted” Kord
4) Most Worldcons have been held in the U.S.; how many have been held outside of the United States?
5) Who played youngster David MacLean in the original Invaders From Mars (1953), in which the vanguard of a Martian invasion force lands in the boy’s hometown?
6) The novels Omnivore (1968), Orn (1970), and OX (1976) constitute which SF trilogy?
7) What is the title of the fifth Indiana Jones movie, scheduled to premiere later this month, on the 30th?
8) “They Were Looking For Chicks…To Go All The Way!”—the marketing campaign of which sci-fi movie employed this tag line? A) Teenagers from Outer Space (1959), B) Mars Needs Women (1968), C) Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), D) Invasion of the Saucer-Men (1957)
9) How many Worldcons has Canada hosted?
10) The Humanx Commonwealth, an organization similar to Star Trek’s Federation of Planets, is featured in the science fiction stories of which writer?
11) What two sentient species jointly administer the Humanx Commonwealth?
12) Which of these men develops psychohistory, a fictional algorithmic science that allows general predictions to be made of the future in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series? A) Harrison Bergeron, B) Harry Harrison, C) Harry Mudd, D) Hari Seldon
13) Who played Camie Loneozner in the original Star Wars (1977), only to see her scenes excised from the final cut?
14) Match the robots (left column) with the science fiction titles in which they appear (right column).
15) Who played astronomer Dr. Stuart Kelston in the original Invaders From Mars (1953)?
16) The protagonists of the science fiction novel Icerigger (1974) crash-land on what frozen world?
17) “Derelict of Space” (1939), “Meteor” (1941), “Tyrant and Slave-Girl on Planet Venus” (1951), and “The Red Stuff” (1951)—who wrote these science fiction short stories?
18) Which of these science fiction characters does not belong with the others? A) Ethan Frome Fortune, B) Hellespont du Kane, C) Raymus Antilles, D) Skua September
19) Rudolph Martin, Gary Oldman, Frank Langella, and Nicolas Cage—other than their profession, what do these actors have in common?
20) With regard to the horror genre, what do the towns of Rockbridge, Midwich, Haddonfield, and Antonio Bay have in common?
21) André Morell, Andrew Keir, Brian Donlevy, and John Mills have all played which acclaimed scientist-hero?
22) In which Canadian province is set American International Pictures’ 1976 B-movie The Food of the Gods?
23)The Lady of the Sorrows (2002) and The Battle of Evernight (2003) are the second and third books, respectively, of Australian fantasy writer Cecilia Dart-Thornton’s Bitterbynde trilogy. Name the first book in this series.
24) Who played army commander Colonel Fielding in the original Invaders From Mars (1953)?
We meet today, 17th of June, 13:00h. The invitation to Zoom will appear in the introduction post right at 13:00h.
Guest Speaker: Author Olivia Atwater
Olivia Atwater writes whimsical historical fantasy with a hint of satire. She lives in Montreal, Quebec with her fantastic, prose-inspiring husband and her two cats. She has been, at various times, a historical re-enactor, a professional witch at a metaphysical supply store, a web developer, and a vending machine repair person.
Fantasy as Satire: Though you can write a satire in just about any genre, fantasy lends itself particularly well to the idea for reasons both structural and psychological. Olivia Atwater discusses a few well-known examples of satire within the fantasy genre, and elaborates on why they succeed so well at their aims.
Joe Aspler: These are the Voyages…: There have been many fine ships named Enterprise. In this presentation, I will summarise their origins, their history, their battles, and the exploration that they carried out.
Discussions: August meeting at the Legion in Lachine, what are we reading or watching, or creating!
Raffles: Nine prizes are on offer to lucky winners!
