Science Fiction, Fantasy Translation Awards Announced

newsroom.ucr.edu: Two UC Riverside scholars are part of a nationwide team of 10 science fiction experts and authors organizing the new Science Fiction and Fantasy Translation Awards. The awards will recognize works of science fiction, fantasy, horror and related literature that is translated from other languages into English.

Melissa Conway, head of Special Collections of UCR Libraries, and Rob Latham, associate professor of English, are part of the team establishing the awards, which will “seek out and reward authors and translators who bring fresh new works created in other languages to the English-speaking world,” according to the announcement made at the World Fantasy Convention in San Jose.

The first awards – one for long-form literature (40,000 words and above) and one for short forms – will be presented at UCR’s Eaton Science Fiction Conference in 2011. The awards will consist of a trophy and a cash prize, which will be presented to both the author and the translator.

Fantastic literature has a long tradition outside the English-speaking world, Conway and Latham noted. One of the world’s best-known writers of science fiction and fantasy literature is 19th century French author Jules Verne, whose work was the subject of the 2009 Eaton Conference.

“The literature of the fantastic is an international phenomenon and has been since Hoffmann, Gogol, and Maupassant in the 19th century. Yet contemporary Anglo-American readers have only a sketchy sense of the global scope of science fiction and fantasy today,” Latham said. “This award will take a big step toward the goal of closing that blind spot. UCR is proud to be associated with this initiative given the wide range of materials gathered in the Eaton Collection, which includes works published in well over a dozen languages.”

More here

How Is Media Technology Changing Science Fiction?

io9.com: We know that science fiction is a form of media that changes the future – it’s influenced everyone from scientists to economists. But are new media technologies changing SF? The Small World podcast explores some answers.

This week I was lucky enough to join scifi writers Cory Doctorow and JC Hutchins, along with scifi podcaster Steve Eley, to talk about the future of media – and especially scifi media. Our host was Small World podcaster Bazooka Joe, who asked some great questions. Not only did Doctorow get to describe his ideal ebook reader, but I got to talk about the future of online media. It was a damn good time.

Here’s how Bazooka Joe described the show:

We live in a world that increasingly resembles the science fiction stories of our youth.

For example, nearly all of us have mobile phones that are very much like the communicators that appeared in the Star Trek television series in the late 60s . . . But if we are living in a world that seems straight out of a science fiction novel, then how is our current technology changing science fiction?

You can listen to the podcast here

What do you think?

thanks to io9.com

Science-fiction fans sometimes focus too much on the negative, in a world where remakes run rampant and Sarah Connor Chronicles dies so that Til Death might live. But here are six things I’m thankful for in science fiction right now.

1. That maybe, just maybe, movie audiences are developing some good taste.

I know, I know. Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen made about $833 million. And New Moon just had the third biggest opening weekend ever. Not exactly strong arguments for the intellect of the filmgoing public. But even so, both of them still came up short when compared to The Dark Knight, which set all manner of non-Titanic box office records. And for all the financial success of Transformers 2 and New Moon, I think there’s a solid argument to be made that neither really compares to the cultural impact of The Dark Knight.

The Twilight franchise has its extremely devoted fanbase, but almost no crossover appeal. To be sure, tons of people saw Revenge of the Fallen, but how many people now remember doing so? The Dark Knight, on the other hand, launched a ton of memes, established the definitive version of the Joker for years to come, and won a ton of awards, assuming you care about that stuff. (I don’t particularly, but evidence is evidence.)

2. That Dollhouse somehow, against all odds, got a second season.

Sure, it’s a shame that Dollhouse is coming to a close, but that show had no business making it past season one. Hell, it probably should have, by rights, been canceled about six episodes in. The show wasted its first five episodes on variations on the personality-of-the-week theme before launching into the master plot — admittedly because of network interference, but still — and then proceeded to unfold its convoluted, off-putting mythology that left the show without a clear central hero and a whole lot of really uneasy questions the audience had to answer. And it did all this while comfortably settling into #132 in the ratings, bringing in a paltry 3.73 million viewers per episode.

And then, thanks to favorable internet numbers, some decent critical buzz, and maybe some lingering Fox guilt about the fate of Firefly (nah), it got a second season, and Joss Whedon went full tilt at making it the craziest, most nerderiffic show ever. I mean, look at all the guest stars. Jamie Bamber! Michael Hogan! Alexis Denisof! Keith Carradine! Summer Glau! Ray Wise! More Alan Tudyk and Felicia Day! Not to mention the fact that the show is, if anything, even better, crazier, and more gleefully off-putting than last season. Dollhouse might be going out, but under the circumstances, you can’t really say it isn’t going out on its own terms.

4. That this happened.

Nothing like a little Nathan Fillion fan service to put a smile on my face. And hey, Castle isn’t exactly bad! (It’s not exactly good either, but that’s besides the point.) I’d still gladly trade every show I’ve loved for the past seven years just for another season of Firefly, though. Yes, that includes you, Battlestar Galactica!

More here

(Sighs) the good old Firefly days. I’m still wonder if I’m the only one watching these canceled tv shows, but then I hear that others watched them too, so why can’t we have a decent non-canceled shows? We might never know.

What are your thoughts on all these?

thanks to scifiwire.com!

Twihards aren’t the only fans so hardcore they’d ink a permanent souvenir of their favorite franchise onto their skin. Fans of Star Wars, Star Trek, Serenity and many other sci-fi universes have also shown off their love with tattoos.

Check out the 25 extreme fans below who put the rest of us to shame!

More here

Wow, that is some dedication and devotion! They are really good and some are quite amazing. What do you think of these fans and their tattoos? Would you get one like these of something you really like?