Safely the day after Friday the 13th, MonSFFA celebrates Halloween at its October 2023 meeting! Scheduled for Saturday, October 14, the meeting will take place both live and in-person at the Lachine Legion, as well as online via ZOOM at: www.MonSFFA.ca

Our agenda includes, of course, Halloween fare, and more; here’s a few words about each of our two principal presentations:

The Solar System Ain’t What it Used To Be!

From the earliest days of science fiction, space travellers went to the Moon, to Mars, to Venus, and to the other planets of the solar system as they were discovered. Early science fiction—prior to the late 19th century—treated the planets simply as different versions of Earth.

Science fictional tropes from the late 19th century right up until the Space Age declared Mercury to be an oven on the sun-facing side and a freezer on the other. Venus was a planet of swamps, jungles, and dinosaurs. And Mars was a cool desert planet, with all its water contained in the canals.

Then, science had its say. Starting in the early 1960s, the first interplanetary probes knocked down those tropes. Or, as T.H. Huxley (1825-1895) put it, “The great tragedy of science is the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.”

But there were plenty of other ways to look at the planets, and more planets to look at!

Horror 101

Offering examples and advice from genre professionals, we will explore Stephen King’s “Three Levels of Horror, ” and augment his list with a few entries of our own, as we learn how horror writers and filmmakers manufacture the scares!

Plus…

Help us decorate for the occasion by crafting a Halloween-themed table centrepiece! Be creative, and bring your spooky creation in to the meeting for all to admire!

Folk participating online will be able to showcase their centerpieces via ZOOM.