#gray lensman

[fabiansociety]

“…near them there crouched or huddled or lay at ease a many-tentacled creature indescribable to man. It was not exactly like an octopus. Though spiny, it did not resemble at all closely a sea-cucumber. Nor, although it was scaly and toothy and wingy, was it, save in the vaguest possible way, similar to a lizard, a sea serpent, or a vulture. Such a description by negatives is, of course, pitifully inadequate; but, unfortunately, it is the best that can be done.”

you ever wonder what lovecraft would sound like if he was normal about the sea

[xinu1941-1966]

illustration：真鍋博　hiroshi MANABE

グレー・レンズマン　1974　創元推理文庫 japan

Gray Lensman 　1939

#真鍋博　#hiroshi MANABE　#Edward E. Smith　#EEスミス　#レンズマン　#Lensman Series　#lensman

[believerindaydreams]

Thursday again: hurricane winds edition

We had one (1) nice warm day and then the weather turned nasty again. City. Gal. Even with kippers and gray skies you ain't gonna be London, please come up with some better weather soon.

Listening

Reading

Running with the Night. Lionel Richie. Subject of a series of stupid injokes with SO.

I am a sucker for 80s chords is what.

Working on the David Kyle Lensman reread. I've developed a distaste for second wave feminism narratives about "girl is pretending to be male to get a male-only job but when she is inevitably revealed it's all okay cos she is Just As Good As A Boy and hey she gets to wear dresses again."

Kyle has one as an OC. The other OC is a dude with Dead Wife Man Pain. I am perhaps too jaded by Fallout to object to the trope as much as I ought to.

However, the important part is that Kyle writes a very good dragon, which is what I'm here for. Worsel my beloved!

Visiting

The only good thing about spending a dumb amount of time at Best Buy was getting to shop at the associated strip mall, which means I am now supplied with jelly beans, fried crab, and a party sized bag of cups. Are plastic cups good for the environment? No. Will I drink water if I have to wash all those cups? Also no.

Drinking

Trader Joe's coconut drink is absolutely the best coconut drink I've had outside of an Indian restaurant. naturally it therefore costs umpty zillion dollars and can't be bought in bulk.

Playing

The Long Dark just updated and all the mods are in disarray. Wish I hadn't updated in a fit of enthusiasm.

I can play spider solitaire on a phone again tho! Yay!

Writing

Not feeling it.

[nem0c]

Politely but firmly asked to leave the function

Gray Lensman, E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith, Astounding Science Fiction, 1939 Illustration: Charles Schneeman

[walks-the-ages]

Okay I'd never heard of Lensman or E. E Smith the author before, but if anyone is interested in them, E. E Smith has at least 21 books in the Public Domain, and you can read them for free via Project Gutenberg!

Using the wiki page , it looks like the reading order is (with titles linking to individual books on Gutenberg, if available) :

Triplanetary (1948, originally published in four parts, January–April 1934, in Amazing Stories) First Lensman (1950, Fantasy Press) Galactic Patrol (1950, originally published in six parts, September 1937 – February 1938, in Astounding Stories) Gray Lensman (1951, originally published in four parts, October 1939 – January 1940, Astounding Science Fiction) Second Stage Lensmen (1953, originally published in four parts, November 1941 – February 1942, Astounding Science Fiction) Children of the Lens (1954, originally published in four parts, November 1947 – February 1948, Astounding Science Fiction) Side stories The Vortex Blaster (1960, republished as Masters of the Vortex in 1968)

There's a few sequels also listed on the wiki page, and these works are public domain, which means you can play with these works freely!

Do you know when "canon," like as a concept, became like a standard nerd thing?

The amazing thing aboutthe term “canon” is that it didn’t bubble up from the undifferentiated mass offandom (who actually knows who cameup with memes?). We know exactly and specifically where the word comes from when used in this context: anessay written by a Sherlock Holmes fan in 1911, who compared the wild andcrazy veneration that fanatical Holmes fans have for the original stories, to holy writ.Another name for the books assembled in the Bible was the canon, as opposed to other books that, for various reasons, wereleft out of the Bible and “didn’t count.” In other words, the term wasoriginally used ironically and in a self-deprecating way to talk about the almost religious intensity of Holmes fans. 

Part of the reason theterm canon caught on was because, even in the 1910s, the public was so mad forSherlock Holmes that there were all kinds of illegal imitators and non-ConanDoyle authors and knockoffs, and yes, there were even amateur works that were distributed by mail (what today we’d call “fanfiction,” some of which even survives today), so a crucial distinction began to arise between the stuffthat was “official” and the stuff that wasn’t. So, here we have the threethings that we need to even have the concept of canon as we define it: 1) a groupdedicated enough to actually care, who can communicate, 2) a necessarydistinction between “official” and not, particularly due to the presence of amateur works (what today we’d call fanfiction), 3) a long term property that couldsustain that devotion. 

Now, of the three, whichdo you think was the one that was absent from a lot of science fiction fandom’s first few decades? It’sactually 3. Canon only matters if it’s something other than just a singlestory, which the business model of the pulps discouraged. Like TV in the 1960s, every story had to be compartmentalized and serial storytelling was mostly discouraged.

One fandom, big from the 1930s to the 1960s was E.E. Smith’s space opera Lensman series. The Lensman stories were so popularthat it received 5 sequels, all of which were planned from the outset. Some Lensmanfanfiction from the 1940s is actually still available for reading. Part of the reason the Lensman stories were so popular is that it described a consistent world with consistent attributes: Inertialess Drives, aliens like Chickladorians, Vegians, Rigellians, pressor beams, space axes, Valerian Space Marines, superdreadnoughts, “the Hell Hole in Space,” the works. It was way easier to get sucked into this than it was with the usual “one and done.” Take for example, this amateur guide to the Lensman series, with art by Betty Jo Trimble.

Canon “policy” as we know it today, as a part of a corporate strategy, started with Star Trek: the Next Generation. Before that, there was no “multimedia property” big enough to necessitate it; Star Wars just didn’t care, which is why pre-Zahn “expanded universe” stories like the Marvel comics were so bonkers. There was no reason to believe that the Trek novels, including good ones by John M. Ford and Diane Duane, were anything else than totally official. Roddenberry, though, was deeply angry about losing control of the film series, and due to his illness (hidden from the public at the time), his canon policy was enforced by his overly zealous attorney. In Star Trek canon, for a long time, the only thing that counted was what was on screen. And not even that…the Star Trek animated series, for several decades, was decanonized. (It wasn’t until Deep Space 9 that animated references crept back in, and today, it’s as canon as everything else).

I don’t want to scare anyone, and this is hearsay, but I’ve heard from three people who were there that Next Generation writers, at least as long as Roddenberry and his attorney were around, were encouraged to not think of the original series as canon at all. References to Spock and even an episode that had an appearance by the Gorn were rewritten.

The Star Trek canon policy was so harsh and unexpected that rules were invented deliberately to kick out popular reference sources, like the rule that starships could only have even numbered nacelles, which meant much of the Franz Joseph guides, published in the millions and praised by Roddenberry and others as official, were vindictively decanonized. 

Star Wars canon is interesting because it was entirely created by the West End Roleplaying Game. It was the only major Star Wars product printed in the Star Wars Dark Age, the 5-6 years between 1986-1991 when all toy lines and comics were canceled and the fandom was effectively in a coma or dead. The Roleplaying Game was the first place that information was collected from diverse sources like the comics and novels. Every single Star Wars novelist read the West End game because it was the only time all this information was in one place. 

Marvel Comics canon is a very interesting example because it was a harbinger of things to come: superhero comics were one of the earliest places in geek culture where the “inmates started to run the asylum”…that is to say, fans produced the comics, guys like Roy Thomas (creator of the Vision and Ultron) who started off as a fanzine writer. Because of the back and forth in letters pages, there was an emphasis on everyone keeping it all together that didn’t exist at DC, which at last count, had 5 (!) totally contradictory versions of Atlantis. 

[audiobooks535]

audiobook : Gray Lensman by E. E. Smith

#audiobook #audiobooks #audiobookstagram #audiobooklove #loveaudiobooks #audiobooklover #audiobooknarrator #audiobooksrock #audiobookreview #audiobooksofinstagram #audiobookph #audiobooksph #audiobookclub #audiobookaddict #audiobookobsession #freeaudiobooks #iloveaudiobooks #audiobooki #freeaudiobook #audiobookworm #audiobooksforthewin #eaudiobooks #audiobooksrule #newaudiobook #audiobooksforfree #audiobooksforkids

[thepaisleyreview]

Science-Fiction. Sorted.

Key: strikethrough means duplicate to be deleted ; bold means recommended ; I have not listened to everything.

A-C

Abbott, Edwin A - Flatland (1884) Banks, Iain M - Use of Weapons (1990) Bear, Greg - Eon (1985) Bester, Alfred - The Demolished Man (1953) Bradbury, Ray - The Martian Chronicles Brin, David - Startide Rising (1983) Brin, David - The Postman (1985) Brin, David - The Uplift War (1987)

Dick, Philip K

Dick, Philip K - UBIK (1969) Dick, Phillip K - The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch 1964 Philip K Dick - VALIS - 1981 Dick, Philip K - Broken Bubble (1988) Dick, Philip K - Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep (1966) Dick, Philip K - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974) Dick, Philip K - Interviews [ note: unsorted ] Dick, Philip K - Mr. Spaceship (1953) Dick, Philip K - Of Withered Apples Dick, Philip K - Radio Free Albemuth (1976) Dick, Philip K -The Man in the High Castle (1962) Dick, Philip K - The Minority Report and Other Stories (2002) Dick, Philip K - Ubik (1969) Dick, Phillip K -A Scanner Darkly (1977) Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick - BBC Radio

E-G

Effinger, George Alec - A Fire In The Sun (Budayeen 2) Effinger, George Alec - The Exile Kiss (Budayeen 3) Effinger, George Alec - When Gravity Fails (Budayeen 1) Farmer, Philip Jose - To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971)

Gibson, William [note: incomplete - have misfiled some]

Gibson, William - All Tomorrows Parties Count Zero (1986) (96kb mp3) Gibson, William - Idoru Neuromancer (1984) [ note: read by the author ] Pattern Recognition (2003) Virtual Light The Peripheral - William Gibson (2014) Agency Alien III An Audible Original Drama

H - Haldeman, Joe - The Forever War Hamilton, Peter F - The Reality Dysfunction (1996) Herbert, Frank - Dune Keyes, Daniel - Flowers for Algernon LeGuin, Ursula - The Dispossessed - 1974 LeGuin, Ursula - The Lathe of Heaven - 1971 LeGuin, Ursula - The Left Hand Of Darkness (1969) LeGuin, Ursula - The Left Hand of Darkness (Alt Copy) LeGuin, Ursula - The Word For The World Is Forest (1976) Lem, Stanislaw - Solaris (1950) L'Engle, Madelein - A Wrinkle in Time Lewis, CS - Out of the Silent Planet (1938) May, Julian - The Many-Colored Land (1981)

McDevitt, Jack - Chindi McDevitt, Jack - Engines_of_god McDevitt, Jack - Time Travelers Never Die -2009 McDevitt, Jack - Echo- Jack McDevitt McDevitt, Jack - Seeker McDevitt, Jack - The Devil's Eye McDevitt, Jack - Polaris-Jack McDevitt McDevitt, Jack - talentforwar.m4b McDonald, Ian - Hyberabad Days Morgan, Richard - Altered Carbon (2002) Niven, Larry - Ringworld - 1970 Niven & Pournelle - The Mote in God's Eye Pohl, Frederik - Gateway Powers, Tim - On Stranger Tides Powers, Tim - Declare Powers, Tim - The Anubis Gates Powers, Tim - Three Days to Never Reynolds, Alasdair Revelation Space - Alastair Reynolds - 2000

Robinson, Kim Stanley - Aurora.m4a Robinson, Kim Stanley - Mars Trilogy [AudioBooks] Robinson, Kim Stanley - New York 2140 Robinson, Kim Stanley - The Years of Rice and Salt Robinson, Kim Stanley - Three Californias Triptych 01 - The Wild Shore [Rudnicki] Robinson, Kim Stanley- Three Californias Triptych 02 - The Gold Coast [Rudnicki] Robinson, Kim Stanley- Three Californias Triptych 03 - Pacific Edge [Rudnicki] Rucker, Rudy Rucker, Rudy - Ware 1 - Software Rucker, Rudy - Ware 2 - Wetware Rucker, Rudy - Ware 3 - Freeware Rucker, Rudy - Ware 4 - Realware

Sagan, Carl - Contact Scalzi, John - Old Man's War (2005) Shelley, Mary - Frankenstein (1818) Simak, Clifford - Way Station (1963) Simmons, Dan - Hyperion Simmons, Dan - Ilium (2003) Smith, E E 'Doc' - Gray Lensman (1940) Stephenson, Neal - The Diamond Age (1995) Sterling, Bruce - Mirrorshades - The Cyberpunk Anthology

Wells, HG - The Invisible Man (1897) Wells, HG - The War of the Worlds Wells, Martha - Artifical condition Willis, Connie - Doomsday Book (1992) Wyndham, John - The Day of the Triffids (1951) Wyndham, John - The Chrysalids Verne, Jules - Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) Vinge, Vernor - A Fire Upon the Deep (1991)

[tara-of-helium]

Gray Lensman. Edward E. Smith, 1939. Illustrated by Ric Binkley.

[snuh]

Jack Gaughan: Gray Lensman - Pyramid Books #X-1245, October 1965

[bookmaven]

TRIPLANETARY by EdwardEdward E. Smith E. Smith. [Lensman #1]

First serialized in Amazing, January 1934 with a cover by Leo Morey. First edition hardcover (Fantasy Press, 1948)Cover by A.J. Donnell.

———

TRIPLANETARY is a prologue to the Lensman series. It begins with the conflict between the Eddorians and the Arisians which has gone on throughout Earth history. The Arisians seek to breed human genetic lines to produce the ultimate weapon in their war with Eddore.

With the covert help of the Arisians, humanity explores the Solar System and forms the Triplanetary League — an alliance of between Earth, Mars, and Venus.

Interplanetary commerce is plagued by a fleet of pirates led by Gray Roger — actually Gharlane of Eddore. In the midst of a large-scale engagement between the pirates and the Triplanetary Patrol, an amphibious alien race known as the Nevians show up. The Nevians decide that humans are inferior beings, and carve up both fleets.

On Earth, scientists work feverishly on their new "Super Ship". It is equipped with mankind's first inertia-less drive and can travel faster than light.

Let the space opera begin!

[fanlit]

Gray Lensman: Book 4 of one of the greatest space operas. https://t.co/JysJ6wCQ0K … https://t.co/7YQ2BkBEhd #SFF (from the archive)

[outfitandtrend]

[ad_1] We’ll definitely take our Steven Meisel fix any way we can get it. Whether the legendary lensman is photographing campaigns for Moschino, Max Mara, Ports 1961, Alexander McQueen, Zara or Louis Vuitton, we’re always here for it. The latest brand to enlist Meisel is Stockholm-based label Totême. After impressing last season with Raquel Zimmermann captured by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, now Vittoria Ceretti poses before a stark backdrop sporting Totême’s Spring 2022 collection of simple silhouettes and sustainable fabrics. IMAGE: FASHIONGONEROGUE.COM“Simple, chic and timeless. I don’t mind classic Meisel when it’s so well executed,” voiced Lola701.“I love this. Simple, elegant and Vittoria Ceretti looks stunning,” echoed an obviously pleased McKinney.[ Not a tFS forum member yet? Click here to join! ]“A little in love with this! I am instantly transported back to the glory days of American Vogue‘s chic Meisel studio stories with Tonne Goodman styling. The white background is a refreshing change from gray, the styling here is elegant, sophisticated and glam and Vittoria looks truly wonderful,” raved vogue28.“The second and third shots are perfection,” declared KINGofVERSAILLES.VogueGirl8910 is in the same frame of mind: “The ads are very striking and stunning…”“This is the first time I’ve heard about this brand. Quite Max Mara, but I love it,” ivano chimed in. IMAGE: FASHIONGONEROGUE.COMSee more from Totême’s latest campaign and join the conversation here.(function(d, s, id) var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.7&appId=186081771460756"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); [ad_2] Source link

[believerindaydreams]

"Exotic rugs were scattered over the deck flooring, personally collected by the Gray Lensman before the things they had covered had personally collected him."

I am rather fond of David Kyle's Lensman books, some of the most successful authorized sequels I ever read. But he obviously thinks of Lensman Kim as a jock who happens to be able to calculate integrals in his head while Smith's Kim is a nerd who happens to be able to wield a thirty pound space axe. There's a difference.

[nem0c]

At The Function

Gray Lensman, E. E. ‘Doc’ Smith, Astounding Science Fiction, 1939 Illustration: Charles Schneeman

[vintagegeekculture]

I discovered that my local library's ebook selection only had "First Lensman" out of the whole series, shrugged and checked it out anyway, and - well - long story short, my cosplayer's heart went all a-flutter over Jill's "violent shade of 'radio-active' green" dress from the Ambassadors' Ball.

I'm leaning kind of "Iris van Herpen but 1950s spacefuture" as I try to design something based on the description given (the nature of the bodice in particular made me think of her designs), but then I realized you'd probably know if there was an illustrated edition out there to use as further reference. So - is there? Or am I flying blind beyond the implicit influence of eveningwear styles in the year the book was published?

(Either way, I finally have an excuse to dip my toes into constructing an evening gown! Thank you for selling me on this series!)

I am delighted to hear I inspired you. My statement there was not entirely serious and I never expected anyone would do it. I'd like to see what you come up with. You should consider looking into the works of my personal favorite fashion designer, Charles James, active from the 40s-60s. One of the most striking things about his outfits are the simplicity. This, for instance, is all one piece of cloth, the emphasis is not on frills or ornamentation but streamlining, calling attention to the silhouette.

There are a couple moments in the Lensman books you should probably take a look at, if you're interested in costume ideas for women that are evening gowns. The first is the Grand Ball for the Grand Fleet in Chapter 2 of Gray Lensman. I always liked that one because it was a rare glimpse of what everyday life in the Lensman Galaxy looked like. We spent too much time with Lensman and in the criminal underworld and with battle fleets.

The city's largest ball-room was a blaze of light and color. A thousand polychromatic lamps flooded their radiance downward through draped bunting upon an even more colorful throng. Two thousand items of feminine loveliness were there, in raiment whose fabrics were the boasts of hundreds of planets, whose hues and shades put the spectrum itself to shame. There were over two thousand men, clad in plain or beribboned or bemedaled full civilian dress, or in the variously panoplied dress uniforms of the many Services.

"You're dancing with Miss Forrester first, Kinnison," the surgeon introduced them informally, and the Lensman found himself gliding away with a stunning blonde, ravishingly and revealingly dressed in a dazzlingly blue wisp of Manarkan glamorette--fashion's dernier cri.

To the uninformed, Kinnison's garb of plain gray leather might have seemed incongruous indeed in that brilliantly and fastidiously dressed assemblage. But to those people, as to us of today, the drab, starkly utilitarian uniform of the Unattached Lensman transcended far any other, however resplendent, worn by man: and literally hundreds of eyes followed the strikingly handsome couple as they slid rhythmically out upon the polished floor. But a measure of the tall beauty's customary poise had deserted her. She was slimly taut in the circle of the Lensman's arm, her eyes were downcast, and suddenly she missed a step.

I don't recommend dressing up as a Lyranian at all, unless you wish to be very very popular. Although there is one notable and terrible female villain, in a series for which that is a rarity: one of the Black Lensmen, the evil counterparts created to counter the Lensmen, is a psionically gifted female Lyranian.

Another outfit that probably suggests itself is in Second Stage Lensmen, when Clarissa becomes the Red Lensman, the first female Lensman in history. Clarissa MacDougal was prone to Midwestern modesty to the point it was hysterical:

It was, and very shortly Sector Chief Nurse Clarrissa MacDougall appeared in her wonted immaculately-white, stiffly-starched uniform. She would not wear the Grays to which she was entitled; nor would she--except when defying Kinnison--claim as her right any one of the perquisites or privileges which were so indubitably hers. She was not, never had been, and never would or could be a real Lensman, she insisted. At best, she was only a synthetic--or an imitation--or a sort of amateur--or maybe a "Red" Lensman--handy to have around, perhaps, for certain kinds of jobs, but absolutely and definitely not a regular Lensman. And it was this attitude which was to make the Red Lensman not merely tolerated, but loved as she was loved by Lensmen, Patrolmen, and civilians alike throughout the length, breadth, and thickness of Civilization's bounds.

[paperbacksciencefiction]

Gray Lensman by E. E. "Doc" Smith $4 Pyramid Books (1974) A book from Smith's classic Lensman series. The cover art was done by Jack Gaughan. . Overall Good Condition, Good Spine With Slight Lean And Slight Crease, Binding Tight, Pages Look Good . . . #graylensman #eedocsmith #paperbacksciencefiction https://www.instagram.com/p/CDT2HrMg5TM/?igshid=eevo9qp39aww