A Bite of Stars, a Slug of Time, and Thou burrows insensibly into the pulp and avant-garde science fiction of 1935-65; hosts ELISHA SESSIONS and MARK SINKER and their astounding guests spend eight weeks cracking open this forgotten motherlode, once bedrock of the entire field.
Originally broadcast on Resonance FM 104.4 in the spring of 2008, all the episodes are collected here, with links to material referenced in the shows. You can listen to them individually, or subscribe to the podcast by clicking one of the following buttons (hint: iTunes users should click on the iTunes button).
May 20, 2008: Howard Schoenfeld - “Build Up Logically”
In our concluding episode Kat Stevens returns to Resonance FM to discuss, among other things, this bizarre jazz-age story from the bohemian New York of 1950, which contains possibly the best time machine joke ever made. Elisha attempts an audio translation of it, and Mark does that thing that he does so well.
Howard Schoenfeld’s 2004 obituary notice in the Villager, which mentions his only novel, Let Them Eat Bullets
Schoenfeld’s posse of old codgers who meet in Washington Square, beneath a statue of Garibaldi; via that other great source of city stories, The NY Times Metro section
Discussion of Episode 8 on I Love Books
May 13, 2008: Frank Herbert - “The Tactful Saboteur”
Ken Hollings joins our intrepid duo to talk about Frank Herbert’s short story about a government which has an entire agency dedicated to putting a spanner in its own works. There’s also a species of shapeshifting beings whose sexuality may take the entire hour to explain. Elisha reads from the story.
A look at the technology of chair-dogs
Destroy All Monsters by Ken Hollings
Strange Attractor journal and press
Discussion of Episode 7 on I Love Books
May 6, 2008: Ray Bradbury - “A Sound of Thunder”
We return with this stone-cold 1952 time-travel classic, which has provided readymade get-out clauses for stumped Doctor Who script writers ever since. Al Ewing joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to discuss it, and Elisha reads the story in case you haven’t.
Edgar Allen Poe’s Morning on the Wissahiccon, from 1844
The text of Bradbury’s “I See You Never” from the Nov 8, 1947 issue of The New Yorker
Text of Bradbury’s “The Pedestrian”, from 1951
The Novikov self-consistency principle, via Wikipedia
The Ultimate Future Shock by Al Ewing (with apologies to 2000AD)
Discussion of Episode 6 on I Love Books
April 29, 2008: Donald Wandrei - “The Red Brain”
Dave Queen joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to prod “The Red Brain”, a bizarre 1927 short story by Donald Wandrei about a race of pulsating thought-lobes who find themselves the last beings alive in the entire universe.
A tribute to Wandrei on the occasion of the centennial of his birth on April 20, 1908
Wandrei’s Arkham House publishing company, started as a way to publish H.P. Lovecraft’s books and still going unutterably strong!
Correspondence for sale between HPL and DW (if you’re into that kind of thing)
Discussion of Episode 5 on I Love Books
April 22, 2008: Donald Malcolm - “Beyond the Reach of Storms”
Martin Skidmore joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to discuss the first honest space-travel story of the series, and the first truly obscure find. Opinions are already divided on this one, so get your hands on Lambda I and Other Stories if you can and see for yourself. Elisha, as always, reads selected passages at the front of the programme.
An explanation of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
Samuel Delaney’s Babel 17 as described by Wikipedia
Lambda I on Amazon (11 copies left at time of writing)
Discussion of Episode 4 on I Love Books
April 15, 2008: Isaac Asimov - “Segregationist”
Alan Trewartha joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to discuss “Segregationist”, one of Isaac Asimov’s famous robot stories from 1967. Music includes “Nobody Loves a Computer Because a Computer Does Not Dance”, by Computer, the French disco group. Once again, Elisha reads from the story in case you haven’t.
The Turing Test, as explained at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Salon profile of Hugh Loebner, founder of the Loebner Prize
The Defenders by Philip K. Dick, an excellent story about robots originally broadcast on NBC’s “X Minus One” radio show, via The X Minus One podcast
Are Humans Giving Robots Too Much Power? at the Onion News Network
Discussion of Episode 3 on I Love Books
- April 8, 2008: Fritz Leiber - “A Pail of Air”
Tom Ewing joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to discuss Fritz Leiber’s “A Pail of Air”, written in 1951. It’s a short story about a kid, some rugs, and an Earth so cold that helium crawls. Will it crawl onto YOU? Elisha reads from the story in case you haven’t.
Recipes for pousse café sent in by Jack Fear
The Frozen Earth: Binary Scattering Events and the Fate of the Solar System, abstract of a 1999 academic paper by Gregory Laughlin and Fred C Adams
The World Turned Upside Down, an anthology of stories that includes “A Pail of Air”, edited by the late Jim Baen.
Fritz Leiber’s original story from 1951
Discussion of Episode 2 on I Love Books
- April 1, 2008: John W. Campbell - “Who Goes There”
Sarah Clarke joins Mark Sinker and Elisha Sessions to discuss John W. Campbell’s “Who Goes There”, a 1938 science fiction novella about ice-bound scientists confronted with an alien who can become them. Elisha reads from the book in case you haven’t.
Fecund Horror by Noah Berlatsky at The Gay Utopia.
Antarctic scientists review The Thing at Big Dead Place.
Photo history of the South Pole station as populated by various beardies from 1974 to the present.
John W. Campbell’s original story from 1938
Discussion of The Thing on I Love Everything
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FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on April 2nd, 2008
omg that pic is creepy and vile and obscene eli! well done!
FT's Alan on April 2nd, 2008
eep. should I turn off commenting on this page?
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on April 2nd, 2008
the sluglords welcome comments!
The Dirty Vicar on April 7th, 2008
have the Golden & Silver Ages really been forgotten? The horror. My current thinking is that only old SF is any good, which might make me an SF rockist. Or an SF rocket.
Ken L on April 10th, 2008
You guys really never heard of a Pousse Cafe? http://www.dallasbartenders.com/recipes_pousse_cafe.htm
FT's pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør on April 10th, 2008
not as so-called!
(in the story it’s called a “pussy caffy”)
(the context kinda implies it’s ice or ice-cream related)
Ken L on April 11th, 2008
I thought he was referring to the striped nature of the concoction as being like the stratified frozen gases. Anyway, I am really enjoying your series so far, hearing three of my favorite intraweb personalities discussing two of my favorite stories.
Ken L on April 11th, 2008
Not to beat dead horse, but note similar vulgar mispronunciation of the Chardonnay known as Pouilly Fuisse and note also mention of aforementioned picturesque caffeinated alcoholic beverage in The Twelve Days Of Cajun Christmas
a logged out p^nk s lord sukråt wötsit on May 17th, 2008
(podcast of ep 8 on hold so as not to pre-empt broadcast of show — will be back, don’t worry!)