Spur of the Moment blog
The West Wing tonight had quite a sidestory in which a NASA official lobbies Josh to get him to back a mission to Mars proposal. It was surprising to see, but I liked most of what they said about it, promoting Mars Direct. There was a neat scene with Leo complaining about how his generation had been screwed out of the future they'd been promised. He wanted to know where his jet pack was. They missed a perfect opportunity to raise the issue of private corporations developing low cost orbital launch vehicles, but that wasn't surprising. All in all, it was probably good if it gets people thinking about going again, any which way. But I would have liked to see someone mention that there are alternatives to big government programs. A throwaway line by Josh (who initially was not receptive to the NASA proposals) to the effect that if someone wants to go they should build their own spaceship - answered by someone pointing out that several companies are doing just that. If that had been in there, I'd have been happy. But that's probably too much to ask.
Posted by JAM @ 10:47:46 PM - Permalink
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"Adult" material
I don't have the full story yet, but my local TV news station is running a story tomorrow about "adult material" being sent to kids as part of school fundraisers. "Explicit stories about sex and drugs, in the mail, addressed to your child," they tell us. I'd been hearing the promos for this segment every morning this week as I got ready for work, but as I wasn't watching but only listening, I had assumed they were talking about some kind of pornography or something. They referred to how they had "tracked down the publisher" to find out what they had to say. There was a mother being quoted as being "shaken" by the material. "I was literally shaking when I read this," she says."
Imagine my shock as I finally see the promo for the first time this evening and find out that the "adult material" they are referring to is none other than Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Now, I don't know how young these children are that have received this as part of their school fundraiser, but Asimov's is a serious magazine, containing solid science and speculative fiction. It is pretty much the premier book in the field, with award winning contributors in every issue. It is mature material. SF is often explicit. I've said for years that if my mother had had any notion of the kind of "smut" that was contained in some of the SF I was reading at a very young age, she'd have thrown a fit. And to some extent, that did add to it's appeal. But I was reading it first and foremost for the ideas it contained, not for the sexuality. The first really hard SF I read was actually an Asimov novel. The Gods Themselves was a very mature book, that probably should not have been on the shelf of a grade school. I think I was 11 when I read it. I was hooked. I read everything I could lay hands on after that. Asimov, Pohl, Niven, Heinlein, you name it. Then our librarian was clearing out some of the old periodicals and she had noticed that I was reading a lot of SF, so she asked if I wanted a small stack of Galaxy magazines they had discontinued buying after a short term subscription ran out. You bet! There were ads for the Science Fiction Book Club on the back of several of them. You mean there's more of this stuff? And they'll mail it directly to me? Hook me up! A geek was born. And a lot of this stuff contained material not necessarily suited for young readers. It didn't turn me into a pervert or a deviant. I would most definitely not want to have been "protected" from it. I loved being exposed to things that were new and interesting. I had lived a fairly protected life, rural, idyllic and safe. I began to see there was much more to the world than I had yet seen. So if kids are getting Asimov's as part of a school fundraiser, I think that's great. If they are as young as 7 or 8, that might be pushing it, but not because of the sex, but purely because the writing would be over their heads. Kids 10, 11 or 12 might be ready for it though. But that is up to parents to know what their kids are reading, just as it is up to them to know what they are watching on TV or seeing on the internet or the movie theater. It is called Parental Guidance.
BTW... Here is the link to the Table of Contents for the current issue of Asimov's and you can buy the current issue in electronic form at Fictionwise.
I suspect (because I know this town so well) that what might upset a parent most is not the sex or drug references in this mag, but the religious material: "Philip C. Jennings paints an incisive portrait of the life and career of "The Saint" (one who turns out to be nothing at all like what you'd think a holy man to be!)"
Asimov's Smut Magazine
They call it "racy." They keep refering to it as an "adult magazine" as if it were equivalent to Hustler or something. The girl who is at the heart of the complaint is thirteen years old. Good grief! She's "obsessed" with Lord of the Rings, and loves fantasy and SF. If she's reading Tolkien then she's ready for Asimov's. It was part of a Grandville Schools fundraiser. Reader's Digest has removed it from their list for high school fundraisers. That's pretty pathetic. This mother does what she's supposed to and reviews what her daughter is reading, but then has to go running to the schoolboard about it instead of just letting every parent handle it on their own. Ok, the magazine certainly does have some strong content. Fine. But shouldn't kids who are juniors and seniors have the option to choose this publication to support their school? Heck, I was reading stuff this "racy" when I was 12. Asimov's now promises to put disclaimers and warnings at the beginning of stories containing adult content not appropriate for children so the kids will be able to find the good stuff more easily - er, that is so that they will know what not to read. Cool.
Oh, well. The kids can still subscribe outside of the school fundraiser if they want.
The West Wing tonight had quite a sidestory in which a NASA official lobbies Josh to get him to back a mission to Mars proposal. It was surprising to see, but I liked most of what they said about it, promoting Mars Direct. There was a neat scene with Leo complaining about how his generation had been screwed out of the future they'd been promised. He wanted to know where his jet pack was. They missed a perfect opportunity to raise the issue of private corporations developing low cost orbital launch vehicles, but that wasn't surprising. All in all, it was probably good if it gets people thinking about going again, any which way. But I would have liked to see someone mention that there are alternatives to big government programs. A throwaway line by Josh (who initially was not receptive to the NASA proposals) to the effect that if someone wants to go they should build their own spaceship - answered by someone pointing out that several companies are doing just that. If that had been in there, I'd have been happy. But that's probably too much to ask.
Posted by JAM @ 10:47:46 PM - Permalink
................................................................................................
"Adult" material
I don't have the full story yet, but my local TV news station is running a story tomorrow about "adult material" being sent to kids as part of school fundraisers. "Explicit stories about sex and drugs, in the mail, addressed to your child," they tell us. I'd been hearing the promos for this segment every morning this week as I got ready for work, but as I wasn't watching but only listening, I had assumed they were talking about some kind of pornography or something. They referred to how they had "tracked down the publisher" to find out what they had to say. There was a mother being quoted as being "shaken" by the material. "I was literally shaking when I read this," she says."
Imagine my shock as I finally see the promo for the first time this evening and find out that the "adult material" they are referring to is none other than Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Now, I don't know how young these children are that have received this as part of their school fundraiser, but Asimov's is a serious magazine, containing solid science and speculative fiction. It is pretty much the premier book in the field, with award winning contributors in every issue. It is mature material. SF is often explicit. I've said for years that if my mother had had any notion of the kind of "smut" that was contained in some of the SF I was reading at a very young age, she'd have thrown a fit. And to some extent, that did add to it's appeal. But I was reading it first and foremost for the ideas it contained, not for the sexuality. The first really hard SF I read was actually an Asimov novel. The Gods Themselves was a very mature book, that probably should not have been on the shelf of a grade school. I think I was 11 when I read it. I was hooked. I read everything I could lay hands on after that. Asimov, Pohl, Niven, Heinlein, you name it. Then our librarian was clearing out some of the old periodicals and she had noticed that I was reading a lot of SF, so she asked if I wanted a small stack of Galaxy magazines they had discontinued buying after a short term subscription ran out. You bet! There were ads for the Science Fiction Book Club on the back of several of them. You mean there's more of this stuff? And they'll mail it directly to me? Hook me up! A geek was born. And a lot of this stuff contained material not necessarily suited for young readers. It didn't turn me into a pervert or a deviant. I would most definitely not want to have been "protected" from it. I loved being exposed to things that were new and interesting. I had lived a fairly protected life, rural, idyllic and safe. I began to see there was much more to the world than I had yet seen. So if kids are getting Asimov's as part of a school fundraiser, I think that's great. If they are as young as 7 or 8, that might be pushing it, but not because of the sex, but purely because the writing would be over their heads. Kids 10, 11 or 12 might be ready for it though. But that is up to parents to know what their kids are reading, just as it is up to them to know what they are watching on TV or seeing on the internet or the movie theater. It is called Parental Guidance.
BTW... Here is the link to the Table of Contents for the current issue of Asimov's and you can buy the current issue in electronic form at Fictionwise.
I suspect (because I know this town so well) that what might upset a parent most is not the sex or drug references in this mag, but the religious material: "Philip C. Jennings paints an incisive portrait of the life and career of "The Saint" (one who turns out to be nothing at all like what you'd think a holy man to be!)"
Asimov's Smut Magazine
They call it "racy." They keep refering to it as an "adult magazine" as if it were equivalent to Hustler or something. The girl who is at the heart of the complaint is thirteen years old. Good grief! She's "obsessed" with Lord of the Rings, and loves fantasy and SF. If she's reading Tolkien then she's ready for Asimov's. It was part of a Grandville Schools fundraiser. Reader's Digest has removed it from their list for high school fundraisers. That's pretty pathetic. This mother does what she's supposed to and reviews what her daughter is reading, but then has to go running to the schoolboard about it instead of just letting every parent handle it on their own. Ok, the magazine certainly does have some strong content. Fine. But shouldn't kids who are juniors and seniors have the option to choose this publication to support their school? Heck, I was reading stuff this "racy" when I was 12. Asimov's now promises to put disclaimers and warnings at the beginning of stories containing adult content not appropriate for children so the kids will be able to find the good stuff more easily - er, that is so that they will know what not to read. Cool.
Oh, well. The kids can still subscribe outside of the school fundraiser if they want.
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