[continued from previous message]   
      
   4:00 PM    Monkey Business (1931)   
   5:30 PM    Horse Feathers (1932)   
   6:45 PM    Duck Soup (1933)   
      
   THURSDAY,  January 1   
   2:00 AM    Diner (1982)   
      
   [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: Convention Attendance (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)   
      
   Before Philcon this year (my first convention in six years!), I   
   tried to figure out how many conventions I had been to. Based on   
   the number of program books in my catalog, and the number of con   
   reports, it works out to about 125. I'm not sure whether I went to   
   all the Readercons between 1987 and 1996; I have the program   
   books, but no con reports. OTOH, I may have missed a few smaller   
   cons from before I started writing reports. Altogether it's 37   
   Worldcons (plus one NASFIC), 32 Boskones, 16 Philcons (now 17), 13   
   Readercons, 10 Lunacons, 2 Westercons, a Windycon, and a bunch of   
   onesies (Confusion, Covert Contraption 1989, Empiricon, Equicon   
   1975, Fanfair 3/1977, JerseyDevilCon 3, Nasfic 2017, Shorecon   
   1995, Summercon 1977, Windycon 29, Wondaycon 13, and World   
   Fantasycon 8). [-ecl]   
      
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   TOPIC: Cli-Fi (letter of comment by Hal Heydt)   
      
   In response to Evelyn's comments on "cli-fi" (climate fiction) in   
   the 11/21/25 issue of the MT VOID, Hal Heydt writes:   
      
   [Evelyn wrote,] "subgenre sometimes called (for better or worse)   
   'cli-fi'--'climate fiction', or science fiction set in the future   
   during or after serious climatic disruption." [-ecl]   
      
   By that definition, Dorothy's novel, A POINT OF HONOR, might be   
   classed as "cli-fi", and her unpublished sequel definitely would   
   be.  Perhaps she was writing that sort of work too early... [-hh]   
      
   Evelyn responds:   
      
   Though the term "cli-fi" was apparently coined around 2007, it has   
   been applied retroactively to  the works of J. G. Ballard, Octavia   
   E. Butler, and others and Wikipedia notes that Jules Verne's 1898   
   novel THE PURCHASE OF THE NORTH POLE is basically cli-fi. [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
   TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)   
      
   A PRAYER FOR THE CROWN-SHY by Becky Chambers (Tordotcom, ISBN   
   978-1-250-89126-6) is the second book in the "Monk & Robot"   
   series, and is the sequel to A PSALM FOR THE WILD-BUILT, and if   
   you liked the first book, you will probably like this one as well.   
   (And you should read A PSALM FOR THE WILD-BUILT first.)   
      
   I say probably, because this book does not have the   
   world-building, or the gradual exposition of the premise to the   
   reader. A PRAYER FOR THE CROWN-SHY does develop some of the ideas   
   in A PSALM FOR THE WILD-BUILT, but a lot seems more like a series   
   of philosophical discussions, much as one would have in a college   
   philosophy course. This is not necessarily a bad idea, but it   
   makes the book a lot more low-key (one might almost say "cozy")   
   than a lot of science fiction. There are no battles (in fact, not   
   even much conflict), and no amazing twists and turns, but a lot of   
   discussion of what constitutes sentience, or "personhood", and   
   what it means to be "in harmony with the environment," and the   
   pros and cons of various societies (mostly pros).   
      
   One use of language struck me. Chambers uses the terms   
   "terrestrial" and "human", and clearly postulates a human-like   
   history and psychology, in spite of the fact that the world is   
   obviously not Earth, and the inhabitants are obviously not Homo   
   sapiens.   
      
   And in what is perhaps a nod to Eric Frank Russell's THE GREAT   
   EXPLOSION, the society does not have money, but it has "pebs"   
   (short for "pebbles"), which so far as I can tell are "obs" (short   
   for "obligations" under a different name. One big difference,   
   though, is that while in THE GREAT EXPLOSION, people who rack up a   
   debt eventually cannot get any food or services from anyone else,   
   while in A PRAYER FOR THE CROWN-SHY it seems as though what   
   happens is some sort of intervention, because it is assumed that   
   the debtor is having some sort of problem that people can help   
   them deal with. It is assumed that no one is inherently a sponger,   
   or for that matter, someone who would attack other people or   
   damage the environment because they personally would benefit. One   
   person described it as "a very woke society," and I suppose that's   
   accurate, at least in this regard. [-ecl]   
      
   ===================================================================   
      
                                        Evelyn C. Leeper   
                                        evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com   
      
      
              Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.   
                                              --Joe Louis, 1965   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)