The Games People Play: Part 2

Everything the modern gamer needs.

In “Harry Harrison’s Final Message,” I mentioned how the World Science Fiction Convention and Dragoncon were held on the same weekend.  I rued that such head-to-head scheduling prevented some fans from attending both.  In researching that post, I discovered that another convention also occurred on Labor Day.  PAX Prime, which stands for Penny Arcade Expo, is a gaming convention held each year.  Its 2011 event attracted in excess of 70,000 attendees, making it the largest of all three conventions.

Once I discovered that it was a gaming convention though, I lost interest.  After all, people who attended conventions to play games weren’t interested in real Science Fiction and Fantasy, were they?  But watching so many people playing at Stan Lee’s Comikaze, and learning about the time and love that some lavish on their games, whether collecting their card sets or painting their figurines, I realized that this was another way people interacted with the Fiction they love.  While I’ve heard of conventions devoted entirely to gaming, they didn’t intersect with my interests of discussing literature and media Fiction, and thus failed to rouse my interest.  Now I cannot help but be impressed by how PAX has grown over the years, held three events this year in the United States, and has one planned for Australia next year.

Tables designed for gamers of all shapes and sizes.

Perhaps the most surprising discovery of Stan Lee’s Comikaze, and the vendor whose work impressed me most, was a company called Geek Chic.  As readers of my blog know, I’ve pursued woodworking in the past, and would like to do so again.  I can appreciate all the work and attention to detail that go into crafting fine furniture.  Geek Chic’s selection of tables blew me away.  I couldn’t believe how they had tailored specific models of tables to enhance the gaming experience.  Through their innovative rail system, and with the pull out drawers, as well as their other accessories, I could see how they make hours centered on one’s favorite activity even more enjoyable.  Whether it concerned where one would roll one’s dice, to where to place one’s wine glass, the numerous ways the company can accessorize each table simply blew me away.  I especially liked the diagonal supports for manuals and game cards, which reduced eye-strain and prevented others from reading player-specific information.

Far from being a guilty pleasure, or something one does when it can be crammed into an otherwise busy life, such tables elevate the status of such interactive storytelling, and serve as another example of how much value we place upon Fiction in our lives.

As their website claims, the Sultan is grand.

Interestingly, the firm that makes these specialized game tables, Geek Chic, operates out of Seattle Washington, where PAX Prime takes place each Labor Day.

Due to the author's time constraints, this blog will conclude tomorrow.  Your indulgence is craved.

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries

Harry Harrison’s Final Message

Related Internet Links

Geek Chic

Harry Harrison’s Final Message

“I have found that an action story with two or three levels of intellectual content below the surface enables me to say what I want to say.  I have also found that humor—and black humor—can carry ideas that can be expressed in no other way.”

--Harry Harrison

In Harry Harrison’s final novel, The Stainless Steel Rat Returns, Slippery Jim DiGriz’s space journey is prompted by his cousin’s arrival on Moolaplenty.  Although the planet’s rich inhabitants could benefit from easier access to food, they would rather import food than share their world with farmers and livestock.  Jim visits the planet Floradora, which initially seems a likely place to resettle his cousin’s community and their porcuswine.  Unfortunately, although the two resident societies trade together, neither will engage in dialogue with the other, nor do they want to share their planet with a third.  So Jim and company spend the second half of the novel on a planet called the United States of England, where radiation leakage on the ship that transported the planet’s original inhabitants has resulted in two races: one with pink (or a tanned, light brown) skin, the other with green.

It’s been a decade since I’ve read Harrison, and the narrative in The Stainless Steel Rat Returns seems looser and less nuanced than earlier efforts.  This novel was published in 2010, and the last novel he published was eight years previously, the same year his wife died.  While he suffered through grief, illness, and normal bodily decline due to age, this gap suggests that writing the book took more effort than usual.  As he was in his eighties at this point, and had nothing more to prove, I can only presume that he battled on with the novel because he felt he had something important and relevant to say to the world. 

Indeed, a quick summary of the plot suggests that Harrison saw much in the world that troubled him.  It seems odd that, living in an enlightened country such as England, where Church and Society preach the virtues of tolerance, that Harrison would skewer contemporary society for class, religious, and racial prejudice.  Yet hatred and prejudice can use tolerance as a shield.  Tolerance can be used to dismiss those whose appearance, beliefs, and practices annoy, irritate, and outrage. Tolerance is not the same thing as acceptance.  It is not equal to embracing and engaging, nor should it be confused with love.  

Perhaps it’s instructive that the larger, more established Christian denominations in America, the ones that are currently preaching the virtue of tolerance, are reeling from ongoing schism.  Nor can anyone in science fiction and fantasy circles ignore the fact that two of our greatest gatherings, Worldcon and Dragoncon, are currently held on the same weekend each year.  Instead of uniting our community, fans are forced to choose one event over the other.  Writers and other professionals must also support one over the other, based upon how they can best serve the majority of their fans.  And of course, while both groups tolerate each other, and even find ways to link the two events, everyone argues over the issues involved in being forced to choose one event over the other, and look for people to blame.

I take no sides on either of the two schisms mentioned.  (Thus it can fairly be said that I am tolerating both, and currently doing nothing to help close either divide).  But I am glad for Harrison’s reminder that, while tolerance makes coexistence possible, it can never unite.  And I smile at Harrison’s explanation of the biological mechanisms that gave the Greenies their skin color, diminished intellect, and violent natures.  I won’t tell you what it is, but I will hint that it mirrors an incident in the past of one beloved character in the Marvel Comics universe.  (And yes, he was in the recent “Avengers” movie).

I don’t know about you, but I think the guy still had it, right up to the end.  Thank you, Harry Harrison, for working so hard to craft your final message to us. 

In gratitude,

Dragon Dave

Related Dragon Cache entries

Catching A Glimpse of Harry Harrison

All You Need Is The Stainless Steel Rat

Related Internet Links

Writer George R. R. Martin’s Opinion on Worldcon vs Dragoncon

Artist John Picacio attempts to bridge the gap

Filk Musician Tom Smith makes his choice

Strange Dreams

I’ll preface this by saying that it’s bizarre.  So, for those who like the weird and nonsensical, this one’s for you.  For those who prefer my more rational side, well…perhaps there's some rhyme to my apparent madness.

Last night I was at a church in Wales.  The church consisted of several small rooms, and people would traipse through the rooms, and each one was like an artist’s gallery or display.  Most people frowned or ignored me as they passed through my room.  I was wearing my MP3 player, listening to the Olympics, but the actual sporting event was a European-style touring car race.  Through the speakers in my particular room poured the old song “I Want to be a Clone” from Christian Alternative Rock star Steve Taylor.  A black, vaguely human figure lay on the floor.  Pasted over the head was a two-dimensional picture of Steve Taylor’s face.  And people were kneeling down to examine the face and body.  One man in particular rose and announced that he didn’t like it, that he thought it was weird.  (Hey, even my subconscious thought this was weird).  Then my MP3 player, still playing the Olympic-touring car race, suddenly squealed and went off.  A lady beside me examined it, and said that its pneumatic pressure valve had blown. And then I woke up.

I’m guessing that the Church theme is a holdover from last night’s dream (and yesterday’s blog).  We did attend a Church in Wales on this year's vacation, but it looked nothing like this.  I didn’t watch much of the Olympics this year, but last night I did watch the highlights of the most recent round of the DTM German Touring Car championship.  I haven’t listened to Steve Taylor much in recent years, but his signature song must forever be “I Want to be a Clone.”  That ties in with Dorsk 81's death in Kevin J. Anderson's novel Darksaber, which I covered in When Your Favorite Characters Die: Part 1. 

As to the failure of my MP3 player, either it has to do with 1) the pneumatic valves in modern race car engines, 2) I’ve grown bored with the playlist I loaded several years ago, but haven’t gotten around to changing, or 3) that the player seems to drain the batteries faster than usual.  The squeal could have to do with the little dogs next door, as one doesn’t just bark, but makes all kinds of squealing and mewling sounds, as if it’s being dealt a mortal blow.  Or it could have to do with Harry Harrison's novel The Stainless Steel Rat Returns, in which Slippery Jim DiGriz must transport his brother and a herd of porcuswine (a mixture of pig and porcupine) to another world. 

As for the succession of rooms, and the art display, I can only surmise that it references my pursuit of a writing career.  For before I can be published, I’ll have to continually submit query letters, book proposals, and manuscripts.  After publication, publishers will expect me to help pursue the public’s interest, and pounce on every opportunity I can to point out to Joe Public, “Here, look at my work, it has value for your life, please give it a try.”

It’s interesting how the subconscious grabs up all the different aspects of my life and tries to fit them together.  It’s as if I knocked over several puzzle boxes, but as I try to decide which belongs to each puzzle, I’ve somehow lost the pictures that show how each will fit together.  Perhaps my subconscious mind thought it was doing something important for me last night.  While last night’s dream lacks the coherence of the previous night’s one, it seems to have built upon some of the underlying ideas and thoughts I’ve been working through lately.  Whether tonight’s dream turns out to be weird or intelligible, I look forward to watching what stories my subconscious mind will cobble together from the disparate pieces of my life.

Mystified but entertained,

Dragon Dave

All You Need Is The Stainless Steel Rat

Yesterday, after perusing his biography, I mourned that I had not read more of Harry Harrison’s novels.  Today, a revelation lifted my spirits.  Even if I hadn’t read everything Harrison wrote, I had read enough to understand those issues closest to his heart.  Allow me to explain.

According to HarryHarrison.com, in the critical journal Extrapolation, Steven R. Carter quotes Slippery Jim DiGriz as saying, “Cold-blooded killing is not my thing.”  Carter listed examples of how Harrison expressed his views in his books: the brutalizing effects of war (Bill, the Galactic Hero), the dangers of superstition and overreliance on authority figures (Captive Universe), and the need for international co-operation to solve the worldwide problems of overpopulation, poverty, and dwindling resources (as in Make Room! Make Room! and Skyfall).

As I mentioned in the last blog, with a few notable exceptions, I’ve mainly read The Stainless Steel Rat series.  Yet, after perusing Harrison’s biography a second time, several themes emerged: a love of Esperanto, a hatred of war and a loathing of the military, his distrust of religion and political figures, and his interest in world travel.  In several Rat novels, Jim works to prevent war on a global or interplanetary scale.  The website’s synopsis for The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted states that the same Sergeants (and underlying philosophy) portrayed in Bill, the Galactic Hero are present in this novel.  In The Stainless Steel Rat For President, Harrison parodies politicians and the election process.  The Stainless Steel Rat Goes to Hell utilizes a villain who preys on people’s religious beliefs, and in The Stainless Steel Rat Returns (which I’m reading now), Jim lands on Floridora, where two religious societies view the other as evil.  While one initially seems Good and the other Evil, Jim soon realizes that both are equally intolerant.  

I’ve read Skyfall, and seen “Soylent Green” (the film adapted from Make Room! Make Room!).  My recollection is that both stories were bleak portrayals of human foibles.  Yes, world leaders may get together to solve problems, but only at the last minute.  Personally, I see more hope, and more application for our lives, in The Stainless Steel Rat series, where Jim is usually acting alone to solve a problem that threatens to tear society apart.  Another thread in his novels, which speaks to the desire to unite mankind, is Jim’s (and Harrison’s) love of Esperanto, the language created and promoted as a universal language.  Even if English has become the de facto language in most of the world, its creators had their hearts in the right places. 

Of course, there’s still Harrison’s love of travel to be addressed, but that’s clearly presented in The Stainless Steel Rat.  In each novel, Jim travels to another planet and learns about different cultures and societies.  This draws on Harrison’s life: he lived on both coasts of the United States, Mexico, England, Denmark, and Italy, until he and his wife eventually settled in Ireland.  Someday I’d like to read Vendetta For The Saint, a novel he ghost authored for Leslie Charteris early in his literary career.  The novel was set in Italy, and I can imagine that the time Harrison lived there added depth and interest to the story.  But for now, I’m satisfied.  For even though I haven’t read all of his novels, and even if I never had the honor of meeting him, I’m confident that everything I really need to know about Harry Harrison can be found in The Stainless Steel Rat series.  And for any of you out there who refuse to believe that humorous novels can contain significant meaning, I’ll leave you with this quote from the great man himself:

“I have found that an action story with two or three levels of intellectual content below the surface enables me to say what I want to say.  I have also found that humor—and black humor—can carry ideas that can be expressed in no other way.”

Remembering a literary icon,

Dragon Dave

Catching A Glimpse of Harry Harrison

Three decades ago, I discovered the Science Fiction Book Club through Starlog Magazine.  One of the first books I purchased was The Deathworld Trilogy by Harry Harrison, three action-packed novels set on a planet with plant life so ferocious that mankind’s grip upon it was tenuous at best.  Harrison wove an ecological message into these fast-paced stories, which launched me onto a love affair with his novels.

For several years, I read every book of his I could find.  Particular favorites were The Stainless Steel Rat series.  Unfortunately, I think I found his To The Stars trilogy rather bleak.  After the thrilling adventures of The Deathworld Trilogy (and the Brion Brandd novels), and the humorous adventures of The Stainless Steel Rat (along with others, such as The Man From P.I.G.), that simply wasn’t what I wanted from him.  So, thereafter I mainly purchased The Stainless Steel Rat books.  I don’t think this was a conscious decision, I think it was just how my interests developed.  After all, there are always new storytellers spinning new yarns, established authors I’ve not yet read, and books from other favorite authors to enjoy. 

News of his death late last week felt like an important part of my youth, and a continuing source of meaning in my life, had just been surgically removed.  So I turned to my final book of his, The Stainless Steel Rat Returns.  At first the novel struck me as unduly silly, and I had trouble getting into the story.  But then, just like his protagonist Slippery Jim DiGriz does when life throws hardship his way, Harry Harrison flipped my expectations on their head. 

When his brother arrives on Jim’s luxury resort planet of Moolaplenty, settling his brother’s debts drains his bank account dry.  So Jim visits his bank, while reflecting on the wonders of the modern banking system.  It seems as though after the last galactic bank crash, a wave of regulation swept through the industry.  Such investments as subprime loans, debenture bonds, collateralized debt obligations, credit default swaps, and derivatives are ancient history.  Now all banks are healthy, profit on a standardized one percent spread, and can only loan out money that they have in the bank. 

Bank managers are shackled to a ball made of improvium.  If they have a spotless record, the ball of this special metal is as light as a feather.  But should any inconsistencies in bank records be found, the ball will grow progressively heavier.  For grievous crimes, the ball may grow so heavy that the bank manager will be unable to move it.  In that case, he must rely on his sympathizers for sustenance, or starve to death.  Presumably, if the manager cleans up his act, the improvium ball will lighten.  At any rate, Jim cannot help but sing the praises of this new, heavily regulated system.  Then he asks for a loan, and finds that the bank can only give him a pittance for his nine-bedroom mansion, because that’s all the free cash they have on hand!

This is just one example of how Harry Harrison, in The Stainless Steel Rat series, mixes silliness with social commentary that covers both sides of any particular issue.  This is just one illustration of Harrison’s depth as a writer.  This is just one reason why I love Harry Harrison’s work.  Yet, after reviewing his biography, and his bibliography, I realize how many more books of his I could have enjoyed. 

I wish that, at a certain point, I hadn’t stopping reading any Harry Harrison books except The Stainless Steel Rat series.  While it wasn’t a conscious choice, I wish I hadn’t censored his phenomenal output, stereotyped him, and limited his ongoing impact on my life to one series and a single flavor of fiction.  I know it’s impossible to read everything that every author I like has ever written.  Still, I feel as though I only caught a glimpse of the prolific, and varied fiction of this SFWA Grand Master. 

I wish I had known Harry Harrison better.

In loving tribute,

Dragon Dave

Related Internet Links

Harry Harrison Biography

The Stainless Steel Rat series

Terrance Dicks: Don’t Let the Screen Go Dark

One journey ends.  Another begins.

Saturday proved an unusual day for me.  It had been a hard week, and my wife and I were feeling, well, “narky.”   Like the collar of a favorite shirt, we were afraid if we did much more, our emotions would start to fray.  So, after breakfast, we abandoned plans to “make Saturday count” and did something we’ve done with decreasing regularity in recent years: we spent most of the day relaxing, and a good portion of it reading. 

This proved a happy and healing process for us.  I finished Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh, a novel I’ve been chipping away at for some time.  My wife finished The Stainless Steel Rat Returns by Harry Harrison.  I also started Time of the Great Freeze by Robert Silverberg, a 1964 novel written for young readers.  (Believe it or not, J. K. Rowling didn’t invent the Young Adult market).  But more on those books later.

In his story “The Great Slow Kings,” Roger Zelazny introduces us to two aliens, Drax and Dran, who plan to build a society around two examples of a lesser species whom their robot Zindrome brings to their planet Glan.  While Drax and Dran reenact their version of the conversation between Socrates and others in Plato’s Republic, these newcomers live life at a frantic pace, and populate Glan.  Lacking direction from the Slow Kings, they build their own societies.  Thus, by their inaction, Drax and Dran become irrelevant.

In “Roger Zelazny is in My Head,” I discussed the battle I wage every day in my writing.  My Slow Kings are named Procrastination and Perfectionism.  Like Zindrome, I’m often caught in the crossfire between these two.  Sometimes I’ve listened to Procrastination, and opted not to write because I “wasn’t in the mood.”  Or I’ve listened to Perfectionism and abandoned promising stories because they “weren’t good enough.”  I may never dethrone my Slow Kings, but each time I complete a new post, I’m publishing a message that may prove meaningful to someone.  Writing this blog comes with a price tag, however.  During the week, I can’t write this blog until I’ve first met my daily target for my novel.  On the weekend, other priorities make themselves known.

After yesterday’s rest, I found myself with no blog post prepared.  So my thoughts returned to Drax and Dran, but they also returned to Terrance Dicks, who worked as the Script Editor for the TV series “Doctor Who” from 1970 to ’75.  In 1977, producer Graham Williams needed a script yesterday.  So, working at a frantic pace, Terrance Dicks created a four-part story called “Horror of Fang Rock.”  On his DVD commentary, Dicks shared this insight: his goal wasn’t to write a great (or perfect) story, it was about not having the TV screens in Britain go dark those four nights.

Terrance Dicks' legacy is well-guarded.

I know most who stumble across The Dragon’s Cache won’t return.  But if I am to make this blog a dependable source of encouragement and inspiration, I must provide something new on a regular basis.  Otherwise, those who look to me for some thoughts to power their day will grow disenchanted, and search out more dependable sources. 

In Roger Zelazny’s story, Drax and Dran contribute nothing to their world.  Certainly Procrastination has never contributed a single thing to mine.  Ironically, the blog posts I thought most perfect often attract little interest, while those that have proven most popular almost always took me by surprise.  This suggests that Perfectionism isn’t a perfect guide either.  (This realization also suggests that when I finish my dragon novel, I should revisit my older manuscripts.  Perhaps Perfectionism judged some of those stories too harshly).

Yes, I need time to work on my novels.  Yes, I need time to relax and recharge.  But now I recognize the truth: Procrastination and Perfectionism’s arguments cannot be trusted.  With my apologizes to the great Roger Zelazny, I must model myself on Terrance Dicks, and do my best to never, ever, let your screen go dark.

Related Dragon Cache entries

Roger Zelazny is in my Head

Related Internet Links

Horror of Fang Rock