#John Varley

[dadsinsuits]

John Varley

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

Overdrawn at the Memory Bank | 1983

[laclefdescoeurs]

A view of the south front of Polesdon Lacey, Surrey, John Varley

[romanticism-art-history]

Suburbs of an Ancient City painted by John Varley (1778 - 1842)

[oldsardens]

John Varley - Albion Chapel and the Remains of London Wall and Bethlehem Hospital

[pmamtraveller]

THE GHOST OF A FLEA (c. 1820) by WILLIAM BLAKE

GHOST OF A FLEA may be one of BLAKE'S ’s strangest and weirdest paintings. The title refers to a series of sketches BLAKE did for the astrologer and spiritualist, JOHN VARLEY.

Fleas have traditionally been associated with dirtiness, greediness, and other negative qualities, when the flea appeared to BLAKEE, he understood it to be “…inhabited by the souls of such men as were by nature blood thirsty to excess.”

So fleas represent evil and wickedness, representing all the bad things about humanity. These anthropomorphic fleas were quite common in nineteenth-century art.

BLAKE decided to take this concept further by creating a giant flea, which is huge, muscular, and reptilian. It holds a cup full of blood in its hands. The cup is a symbol of the flea’s greed, and the flea is encased in theatrical curtains and star motifs.

The combination of GOTHIC STYLE and ROMANTICISM is evident in this work. It is both dramatic and macabre; it's a triumph of imagination.

[landschaftsmalerei]

Landschaft mit Harlech Castle von John Varley 

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

The cyberpunk aesthetic tells us right off the bat that whatever we’ve sat down to read/watch/play is set in ~the future~. Right?

In this episode, Ariel and Christina discuss cyberpunk’s origins not just as an intentional intervention into the science fiction genre imagination, but how it currently is used as a shorthand for a certain type of future - and whether it can really be said to be a future at all.

[mitchipedia]

An appreciation for the under-appreciated, brilliant sci-fi writer John Varley.

It was 50 years ago this month that American science fiction writer John Varley -- who celebrates his 77th birthday today--published his first short story. It sparked a rapid rise that brought him the praise of the genre's most prominent figures, along with multiple Hugo and Nebula awards (the science fiction equivalent of the Pulitzer). Isaac Asimov was among the many who called him the natural successor to Robert A. Heinlein.

Yet despite the immense admiration Varley has enjoyed both within the science fiction community and without (Tom Clancy called him "the best writer in America"), he has never gained the following that Asimov or Heinlein enjoyed. That's a shame because his unique blend of imagination and realism--and his underlying belief that freedom is essential to the human personality--make him one of the finest authors ever to set his fiction in the future….

Varley moved to San Francisco as a young man, and the “hippie element” plays an important role in his fiction, “not (or not usually) in the sense of ‘tune in, turn on, drop out,’ but of rebellion, self-reliance, hard work and creativity that remain underappreciated elements of the '60s counterculture.”

Contrary to the popular stereotype of hippies as drugged-out, unemployed hitchhikers, many members of the Woodstock generation (Varley attended Woodstock, by accident, after getting stuck in the traffic jam while driving through New York) put a heavy emphasis on manual trades, intellectual innovation and self-improvement. Many members of the counterculture weren’t anti-capitalist per se, but were committed to what historian David Farber calls “right livelihood”: that is, a life of genuineness not offered by what they called "the Establishment."

h/t @mostlysignssomeportents

[book0ftheday]

Analog Magazine, January 1979. Cover art by Paul Lehr, with additional art by Janet Aulisio, George Schelling, Brad Hamann and Broeck Steadman. Voyager photography uncredited.

[haveyoureadthisscifibook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

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[alliswyattonthewesternfront]

fuck Connor Freff Cochran, obviously, but these illustrations he did for Titan go hard as fuck

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

Honest question: Does anyone know of a film or TV series made before Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (1983) that depicts the casual use of tablets? Don't even think about saying The Flintstones

[laclefdescoeurs]

View of Polesdon Lacey from parkland with shepherds and sheep in the foreground, John Varley

[tenebraefiction]

Quick Dip: John Varley

John Varley is a prominent science fiction author known for his unique narrative style and imaginative storytelling. His work is celebrated for its groundbreaking concepts, as well as his deep exploration of futuristic themes: space travel, human evolution, and gender. The “Eight Worlds” series’ popularity centers around “The Ophiuchi Hotline”, a book that explores the expulsion of humans from…

[thefollyflaneuse]

Stratton's Folly, Little Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

Just outside Little Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire stands a lofty circular brick tower which sits on an octagonal base. It was built towards the end of the eighteenth century by the Stratton family and has, appropriately, a tall tale attached. The eye-catcher was a popular subject with artists, and a number of very pretty views survive. Continue reading Stratton’s Folly, Little…