In Defense of Signs (That Shyamalan Alien Invasion Flick)

Every few months someone says something to the effect of:  "Signs is such a dumb movie.  Why would aliens invade a planet covered in stuff they're allergic to?"  Why, indeed.  John Scalzi is the latest in a sea of Signs haters.  In a recent AMC column, Scalzi talked about the numerous alien invasion movies we've seen over the last few decades and gave each a grade on the A to F scale.  He had this to say about Signs:

Really, aliens? You invade a planet that is made up of stuff that can melt flesh off your bones? You deserve to be defeated by Joaquin Phoenix and a baseball bat. Stupidest invasion ever.

Invasion score: F

Well, actually, it's not that stupid after all.  There are two reasons for this:  1) habitable planets are not as common or as easy to get to as we would like, and 2) humans, who consider themselves to be intelligent creatures, routinely invade or inhabit lands that present serious challenges to our well being.  I'll expand these two points below:

I. Habitable Planets

The Skiffy and Fanty Show #2.9 is Live! (Colonialism and Science Fiction)

The latest episode of SandF has a lot to do with some of the things I've been discussing on this blog and related topics.  But we're not just talking about "colonizing space" and all that stuff I blogged about not too long ago.  We also talk about the intersection of science fiction and colonialism and examples of colonialism in science fiction (largely in the form of critique).

Feel free to tune in!

Our question of the week will go up tomorrow, which will be full of happy!

Music Video: "Yellow" by Sarah Fimm

I've been getting a few music requests in the last few months and I've been trying to think about how to talk about them on this blog. It's not common to find music which has a genre slant to it (soundtracks are a different beast, after all) or that contains messages influenced by revolutionary science figures like Carl Sagan or Stephen Hawking. "Yellow" is such an influenced work.

First, the music video (after the fold):

Publication: "Little Blue Planet" in Phantasmacore

Hurray for flash fiction! I've recently had my story, "Little Blue Planet," published at Phantasmacore. Astute readers may notice that the story is a near-parody of a certain movie. Think of it as a serious version of those "How the Movie Should Have Ended" things.

Hope you all enjoy the story! Go over there and leave a comment.

An Addendum: "Colonizing Space" -- It Really Is That Bad

Several days ago I wrote a post called "'Colonizing Space' is a Dirty Word:  Stop Using It," which sparked a handful of amusing debates.  io9, for instance, essentially plagiarized me on Facebook by not providing attribution for the problematic I initially set up. I say that jokingly, of course.  The more interesting response, however, came in the form of a refutation by Larry of OF Blog of the Fallen.  His post, and the comments to it, will be the focus of this addendum.

Larry's primary refutation is on the grounds of etymology.  When one looks at the creation of the word "colonization" and its roots in Latin, it does, in fact, appear to have a fairly benign usage ("to inhabit, cultivate, frequent, practice, tend, guard, respect" refers to the Latin root, colere).  The modern definition, however, is only benign if you take it literally.  To colonize means to

Guest Post: "The Weird West Subgenre" by Lincoln Crisler

Your kind host has asked me to introduce you to the wonderful world of the Weird West (and in doing so, to the unassailably awesome aesthetics of the alliteration!). If you like steampunk or alternate history, you might like Weird West stories. That Wild Wild West movie that came out a decade or two ago could be held up as an example of either subgenre: steampunk because of the machinery and Weird West because of the setting and the machinery. There's a bit of overlap with steampunk and Weird West because the time of the American West is pretty much the upper limit of the steampunk time period; that is, before the Industrial Revolution kicked into high gear in the United States and made steampunk-type technology not quite as farfetched anymore. But I digress.

The untamed American West of the 1830s to 1920s is rife with possibilities for writers and readers of speculative fiction. You have an entire half-continent or so that's just beginning to become habitable by Western European standards, you have unknown Native American tribes and people of Mexican descent with cultures, gods and rituals that no one understands and you have a sense of lawlessness that can't quite be captured as thouroughly in any other milieu. You have people

The Skiffy and Fanty Show #2.8 is Live! (Your Artificial Face Are Belong to Us!)

We're back with another episode!  This week is all about the exciting stuff that has happening in the SF/F community.  We cover everything from the SF/F-related movies coming out in March to some Gaimain-esque and Scalzian propaganda.  Oh, and there's an interesting bit about artificial skin!  So tune in and enjoy!

P.S.:  The new question of the week will go up tomorrow.  Make sure to pop on over and give us your answer.