Allamagoosa by Eric Frank Russell
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The Giving Plague by David Brin
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So here we kick off #Scificlub no. 10. I think officially this should be no. 8 or 9, but since it's a reboot, lets have a nice even number.
As mentioned in the round-up thread we'll have a weekly Hugo short story winner, starting from the very beginning of the category in 1955! I decided it's just best we go through them in chronological order, since part of the fun of reading through the list is having no idea what kind of story is up next.
For the sake of providing fuel for discussion I've added a second short story, "The Giving Plague", which was nominated for a Hugo at a later year but didn't win. I think it's well worth reading and potentially thought provoking, hence it's inclusion for this week. Both are quite quick to read, so people can read and discuss one, or the other, or both in next week's discussion thread.
For all the future clubs I'd like community suggestions/voting to decide what we can add on top of that week's Hugo. Expanding from the previous list, we have:
Frankenstein
Golem xiv by Stanislaw Lem
Forbidden Planet
2001
The Day the Earth Stood Still
I, Robot (book)
Watchbird by Robert Sheckley
Equoid by Charles Stross
So discuss feel free to discuss here what would be a good choice to pick for next week.
Shoutouts:
kleinbl00 JakobVirgil mhr OftenBen plewemt elizabeth blackbootz flagamuffin Meriadoc minimum_wage Tiger_the_Lion _thoracic johnnyFive tehstone rthomas6 War Dala OftenBen bhrgunatha kantos francopoli anatomygeek Purple_Ruby
You missed me bhrgunatha and kantos from your shoutout list. Can you add us next time?
I second Golem xiv, but I'm not sure where I can find it. It's not on the list on my e-book library. I'll have to see if they actually have a physical copy.
Thanks zebra. Cool idea to just plow through the Hugo winners. I don't think I would ever have attempted them myself. What day of the week will the discussion threads be posted?
So far I'm planning to have the club every Friday, and we simultaneously discuss the Hugo, assign next week's Hugo, and discuss/vote/assign the secondary choice, so that one will be on a rotating schedule. This may prove to be mayhem so I'm open to restructuring depending on how it goes.
Sounds good to me. I'm sure we'll find our groove within a few weeks of experimenting. Thanks again for spearheading it :)
Just got through The Giving Plague, I'll take a crack at Allamagoosa tomorrow. Warning, some spoilers for TGP follow Reading between the lines of his unreliable narration, you can see Forry getting more and more altruistic throughout the piece, matching/exceeding the infected. But it's clear this behavior arises from a very conflicted inner process, in sharp contrast to the biological imperative that ALAS places on its hosts. This is underscored by Forry's final line, that suffering for others is what he chooses to do. This presents a neat dichotomy between conflicted, cynical and extremely reluctant altruism, and altruism that's born of an unquestioned dogmatic drive. It seems to me that Brin's asking us which is better. If the behavior is the same, does it matter whether it arises by choice or by default? By setting Forry up as a savior, it seems that Brin's saying choice is the better option. Then again, Forry is only a hero due to circumstance. If CAPUC hadn't cropped up, his choices would have instead led him to being a murderer and a thief. In contrast, the ALAS carriers contribute to civilization reliably and unfailingly, rain or shine, for years. So perhaps the message is that you need to have both. Dogmatic altruism can keep society slowly improving for years, but when shit hits the fan, you need the determination and drive brought by those who have CHOSEN to fight for their fellow humans. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts! If you had the choice to keep ALAS contained or help it grow to a pandemic, which do you think you'd choose?
Cool! In the past we've had discussion in the following week's post, so that everyone's talking in the same post, but I won't stop you. Since we are changing some stuff about the formatting of the club this time around there may be some need for rearrangement. We'll have to play it by ear there. For The Giving Plague, I hadn't really given much though to the choice angle of altruism given by the scenario. Forry was like the devil on one shoulder and Les was the angel on the other in the altruism/selfishness scale. We know from Forry's narration that he's always got his eyes on the prize and rules-out no deed that would help him get it. We don't truly know what's going through Les' head. Forry does become a saint though, it's all part of his carefully executed facade though. I think the story nudges you to question if there's any true alturism. After all, it's implied the infected aren't really made altruistic, but that they go through some mental gymnastics to define themselves as altruists given the urge to donate blood. Once you have an image of yourself, you go though steps to maintain that image. It's basically what Forry does in a way.
I'll cast a vote for Golem xiv, just because I've been meaning to get around to reading some Lem. I'd also suggest some Bradbury, maybe one of the stories from The Martian Chronicles.
I'd vote for Frankenstein, only because I'm already in the middle of reading it :)
