I am Sci-Fi

The resurgence in all thing sci-fi comes as a huge wave of relief to most of us, and none more so than those of us who have been loving it in secret for years. In fact, it struck me the other day that the reason for this is that it appeals to the underdog in all of us. For instance, when I compare my search for a publisher to the struggle to acquit sci-fi of its geeky origins, I can draw a number of parallels.

I am a maverick – randomly educated, underemployed for years and still to hit my peak. I’ve been a music journalist, youth arts worker, cartoonist, landscape gardener, T-shirt designer, worked for charities, schools, NGO’s and small businesses, and throughout I’ve written and published comments which for the most part have fallen on deaf ears. I was either too radical, or too young, or too qualified for everything I tried. So I began to accept being side-lined and even took an obscure delight in the anonymity and freedom this gave me. Hey, I can write for anyone! Subsequently, I published articles in magazines in Canada, Spain and the UK, I began blogging, took a job working for the first English language national newspaper in Spain, wrote a film script and a novel , and started to enjoy the act of writing in a way that I never had before.

During this period we’ve seen sci-fi become viral across literature, TV and movies. Margaret Atwood can say she writes sci-fi now. JJ Abrams is laughing all the way to the bank. Blockbuster movies last year were almost unanimously tinged with spaceships, time travel and fantasy elements of inner or outer space. It’s time I stepped out of the closet and declared “I am SCI-FI”! (“No, I am Sci-fi!”)

Like the best trends, SF has come about now because we need it. We need to examine global issues, because our world has shrunk down to a tiny planet which can be traversed in a day. We’ll be out among the stars before you know it. We need to explore issues of identity and tolerance and boundaries. It is symptomatic of this genre that it tackles many issues and defies easy characterisation. Even the Bible of our times Wikipedia struggles to encapsulate it.

“Science fiction is difficult to define, as it includes a wide range of subgenres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty by stating that "science fiction is what we point to when we say it", a definition echoed by author Mark C. Glassy, who argues that the definition of science fiction is like the definition of pornography: you don't know what it is, but you know it when you see it. Vladimir Nabokov argued that if we were rigorous with our definitions, Shakespeare's play The Tempest would have to be termed science fiction.”

So we need this geeky grown-up child called Sci-fi to raise its head now. When Robbie the robot was a fiction, it was easy for the mainstream to laugh at SF fans, but now that robots, technological machines and global politics are in our daily lives, the issues explored weekly by Adama, Apollo and Starbuck are relevant and topical. And sci-fi is no longer just for the lads who want to be Superman. Heroes, Lost, Alias, Dollhouse, Firefly, Farscape, Fringe, and True Blood are series with diverse themes but all have had pivotal roles for female actors, and avoid being pegged as science-fiction. Instead they inhabit a reality that encompasses far-out plots, gritty action and tangible characters whose lives mirror our own. Sci-fi has got its mojo back, and all the major players in film, TV, books and graphic novels are banking on this trend to continue into 2010.

So who’s to say that I can’t write a column on the comings and goings of the characters who populate these brave new worlds? Or that I can’t find a backer for my ethical sci-fi movie script? Or that being a forty-something female should deter me from applying for a job at Blackfish? Come on guys, if you believe Laura Roslin had the balls to make a good President, give a girl a chance.

"I want an Obama!"

Fantastic debate on Camerons blueprint for reforming government in the Guardian today. Read the article, but more importantly check out some of the comments from voters trying to poke through the mire with an enlightened stick. One comment made me chortle - "I want an Obama!" Yes, and I want him now!

The sad fact is that British politics is stagnating; for want of a good idea. Every new hire is told the same old drivel - "Come up with a great and inspiring new idea, only make sure the public will like it or you won't get elected." However, most people don't like being told that economic recovery will be torturously slow, that jobs are poorly paid and fleeting, that there are no easy solutions. But we have to talk to voters as adults - and as any parent, teacher or nurse will tell you, patience and hard work are the only options that pay off.

The reason some of us are so impressed with Obama is because he talks to us as adults. He inspires confidence, not by making grandiose promises, but rather by spelling out what we all know to be true - we have to find common ground and work together, and WORK HARD to make the world a better place.

I'm game, if you are. Let's stick around and see if any UK or EU politicians take a leaf out of his book and tell us what a hard slog we have ahead of us. And if new politicians rear their heads without a tuck box of Parliamentary expenses being offered as bait, will we see some progress on the political scene?

Whaaaa?

Stress evolves us.

So I am sure we're taking an evolutionary leap right now!

Think of that next time the bank refuses your loan, ups your mortgage payments without asking you, and then charges you for the privilege of owing them money.

Do you think we become immortal in the memories of others?

I hope so.

I'm planning on major immortality and I can tell you this. I won't be banking with Cam, Natwest, Barclays and Abbey National/Santander when I am.

The Jesus Myth

Something for all you Atheists out there this Easter...

Did you know that some historians believe our Easter Traditions predate the Christian worship of Jesus and instead reflect the pagan story of Attis? And in fact, even these pagan stories of a man born of virgin birth could have simply been a way to explain how Nature first grew plants from seeds on our newly evolving planet.

Check out this from www.religioustolerance.org

“Many, perhaps most, Pagan religions in the Mediterranean area had a major seasonal day of religious celebration at or following the Spring Equinox. Cybele, the Phrygian fertility goddess, had a fictional consort who was believed to have been born via a virgin birth. He was Attis, who was believed to have died and been resurrected each year during the period MAR-22 to MAR-25. "About 200 B.C. mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult centered on Vatican hill ...Associated with the Cybele cult was that of her lover, Attis (the older Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, or Orpheus under a new name). He was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. The festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection."

Wherever Christian worship of Jesus and Pagan worship of Attis were active in the same geographical area in ancient times, Christians "used to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus on the same date; and pagans and Christians used to quarrel bitterly about which of their gods was the true prototype and which the imitation."
Many religious historians believe that the death and resurrection legends were first associated with Attis, many centuries before the birth of Jesus. They were simply grafted onto stories of Jesus' life in order to make Christian theology more acceptable to Pagans. Others suggest that many of the events in Jesus' life that were recorded in the gospels were lifted from the life of Krishna, the second person of the Hindu Trinity.

Ancient Christians had an alternative explanation; they claimed that Satan had created counterfeit deities in advance of the coming of Christ in order to confuse humanity. 4 Modern-day Christians generally regard the Attis legend as being a Pagan myth of little value. They regard Jesus' death and resurrection account as being true, and unrelated to the earlier tradition.

Wiccans and other modern-day Neopagans continue to celebrate the Spring Equinox as one of their 8 yearly Sabbats (holy days of celebration). Near the Mediterranean, this is a time of sprouting of the summer's crop; farther north, it is the time for seeding. Their rituals at the Spring Equinox are related primarily to the fertility of the crops and to the balance of the day and night times. Where Wiccans can safely celebrate the Sabbat out of doors without threat of religious persecution, they often incorporate a bonfire into their rituals, jumping over the dying embers is believed to assure fertility of people and crops.”

So I can celebrate Easter and stuff myself with chocolate eggs, surrounded by fluffy chicks and bunnies, and if anyone asks I'll say its thanks to dear ole Attis, and I'm just helping Spring on its way.

Costa Collapse?

Small businesses are disappearing at a rate of knots across the Costa Blanca. The vast majority are foreign owned and run, although many Spanish businesses are also being affected. But traditionally business here has been handed down through family members along with premises or land, so a support network exists for Spaniards during times of recession. The Spanish character is also used to times of boom and bust, economies are made, some layoffs are seen as inevitable, the financial storm is simply to be weathered.

Foreign businesses on the Costas generally pay higher rents (often subletting premises) and have substantially higher start up costs, especially businesses that import stock from their country of origin. Their client network grows more slowly as they build brand new supplier and customer relationships. If an average business takes two years to turn a profit, foreign business can take twice as long, and have attendant capital loans/charges which may eat into potential profit if the original business plan was over optimistic.
The banking system in Spain is no friend to small business either, although the inflexible nature of Spanish banks has protected them from some of the excessive debts of the current financial downturn. Zapatero could reinvigorate the economy by encouraging banks to offer small business loans at lower interest rates, with longer loan periods in booming sectors of the economy such as computing and internet business, or green energy technologies.

With no social security safety net, many self-employed immigrants to Spain will be returning to their country of origin. The loss of this mini-invasion of entrepreneurs will be to Spain’s detriment, along with the dropping tourist figures, but it will see the Costas returning to a more Spanish flavour of business.