tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post5517811168283114404..comments2024-03-19T11:13:40.642-07:00Comments on A Different Perspective: Science Fiction and UFOsKRandlehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06333125414889883920noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-89935414537229398492009-05-28T10:38:40.490-07:002009-05-28T10:38:40.490-07:00Hi Kevin-
I remember you attending a SF conventio...Hi Kevin-<br /><br />I remember you attending a SF convention in Lubbock, Texas, in the mid-90s after your Roswell book had come out. I thought your presentation was wonderful. Your statement "So, the fans, for the most part are interested in UFOs and not hostile. The pros, for the most part, are simply not all that interested but some are hostile." <br />That statement is so true. Fans understand, the Pros (being too close to what provide them with their livelyhood) and sour on the idea for some reason that I do not understand.Shanksowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06455835656613672100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-60683768752775788302009-05-25T05:14:55.842-07:002009-05-25T05:14:55.842-07:00We have more knowledge now, as some aspects of the...We have more knowledge now, as some aspects of the phenomenon were unknown in 1947, but still haven't attained a definitive resolution. At least not laymen...starmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09884942748644499035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-34722123988610585602009-05-24T23:10:10.154-07:002009-05-24T23:10:10.154-07:00SF Pioneer, Lester Del Rey, was a regular panelist...SF Pioneer, Lester Del Rey, was a regular panelist on New York's Long John Nebel show. In many shows he carefully questioned and destroyed some of the saucer stars (particularly Otis Carr) in a way that is hilarious to hear.<br /><br />A young Arthur C. Clarke also appeared on Long John's show and gave a marvelous (to a skeptic like me) argument as to why UFO's are not likely to be anything of interest to science:<br /><br />He said that he was initially quite interested in the idea and thought there might be something important to it. But as more and more reports came in, he became convinced that it was bogus. It was the large number of reports that soured him on the idea and the fact, that unlike a real phenomena, the data never coalesced and led to any kind of new knowledge or discovery.<br /><br />We are still in the same boat, of course. Although the reports have expanded greatly, the knowledge we have is no greater than that of 1947.<br /><br />LanceLancehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17280922104955532058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-45623915969381414632009-05-24T16:58:12.829-07:002009-05-24T16:58:12.829-07:00Let's define our terms, as they say... I think of ...Let's define our terms, as they say... I think of a science fiction fan as someone who enjoys science fiction whether written or produced in movies or on television... and I think of fantasy as part of science fiction.<br /><br />I think of the pros as those who write the science fiction. Pros can be fans and fans can be pros. <br /><br />So now we move onto the pros, which is where we get into trouble. I say the fans are not hostile to the idea of alien visitation and you all give me names of science fictions pros who are... Issac Asimov to name one (and in an ironical twist, I learned that Asimov had died while driving down North Main Street in Roswell, but I digress).<br /><br />Frederik Pohl and I exchanged some snail mail and spoke a couple of times at conventions about UFOs and Roswell. He wasn't necessary hostile, but told me he wasn't really interested. The evidence he had seen in the past had blown up under scrutiny, which happens quite a bit with UFOs. All I need to do is point to the contactees, or Frank Kaufmann or Gerald Anderson to prove the point.<br /><br />So, the fans, for the most part are interested in UFOs and not hostile. The pros, for the most part, are simply not all that interested but some are hostile.<br /><br />Now we can return to our regularly scheduled discussion.KRandlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06333125414889883920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-81931055542799586542009-05-24T11:55:37.738-07:002009-05-24T11:55:37.738-07:00Why would anyone want to keep the UFO Hunters far...Why would anyone want to keep the UFO Hunters farce alive?<br /><br />RRRRRGrouphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04875523970644487204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-4246873743336563442009-05-23T12:53:33.723-07:002009-05-23T12:53:33.723-07:00Pardon me for the (I hope desired) intrusion:
It ...Pardon me for the (I hope desired) intrusion:<br /><br />It is my understanding A&E might not air a Season 4 of UFO Hunters! Here is the e-mail address to contact A&E (I hope to request the show be continued) and/or here is the link to an on-line petition to continue the show:<br /><br /><br />you can email the network:<br /><br />http://www.history.com/global/feedback/contact.jsp?site=HistoryChannel.com&NetwCode=THC<br /><br />or you can sign a petition:<br /><br />http://www.petitiononline.com/uf0hunt/petition.html<br /><br /><br />Keeping hope alive!<br /><br /><br />-- Lou SheehanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-66026379678634544692009-05-23T04:52:43.815-07:002009-05-23T04:52:43.815-07:00In the 1970s Stan Friedman produced a paper, or pa...In the 1970s Stan Friedman produced a paper, or papers, on his attempts to get leading SF writers to take UFOs seriously. Included in his 'attack' were Isaac Asimov, Ben Bova and a few others. He even included some of the correspondence between him & these writers. Generally they (the SF writers) were very negative and antagonistic towards UFOS, especially Asimov. But it was still interesting reading all this. Friedman assumed he could convert these people's minds by the sheer volume of UFO (and ET) evidence in his own papers which he supplied in force. He failed. Unfortunately I forget the title of Stan's papers, which were bound into a small booklet. The date was 1975 - 1979cdahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01005702597775594084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-63254944658640550122009-05-22T04:25:55.922-07:002009-05-22T04:25:55.922-07:00I have a book -- UFOs, The Greatest Stories (Thril...I have a book -- UFOs, The Greatest Stories (Thrilling Tales of Extraterrestrial Encounters by Eleven Sci-Fi [sic] Masters, including Isaac Asimov, J.G. Ballard, and Theodore Sturgeon), Edited by Martin H. Greenberg (MJF Books, NY, 1996).<br /><br />RRRRRGrouphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04875523970644487204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-24624847711145058532009-05-21T14:08:36.751-07:002009-05-21T14:08:36.751-07:00Kevin, as a teenager at the end of the '70s, I sta...Kevin, as a teenager at the end of the '70s, I started reading Doris Lessing's Shikasta and ended up throwing it down in disgust.<br /><br />My explanation to myself at the time was it was clearly based on reality, (a statement which didn't really make any sense to me until many years afterwards), and therefore was a product of cheating, i.e., it wasn't a product of pure imagination.<br /><br />But as well as SciFi, I was also madly into mythology, and around the same time as I started on Shikasta I started reading The Tibetan Book of The Dead; but, again, on encountering its references to Hungry Ghosts, I immediately also rejected it in disgust, because it seemed very clear to me not only was The Tibetan Book of The Dead NOT a collection of fascinating fairy tales but Hungry Ghosts, with their voracious capacity to endlessly consume without ever deriving satisfaction, were actually very psychologically accurate portraits of the insatiable consumer mentality possessing most modern LIVING people - including myself - something I very distinctly didn't want to know.<br /><br />But also around the same period I happened to make the acquaintance of an individual apparently deeply into amateur stage magic who gave me a very detailed rebuttal of why Uri Geller was indisputably completely fake, something I was happy, if not downright desperate to believe at the time.<br /><br />Unfortunately, he then went and spoiled his dissertation by admitting that, of course, it was also true if Geller was for real then that'd mean stage magic'd be pointless.<br /><br />The point being, my personal experience of virtually EVERY diehard SciFi/Fantasy I've ever come across (including myself, when I was one), is that they're usually stubbornly indifferent to extremely hostile to UFOs and the likes because, on the one hand, they feel the need to prove their intelligence as adherents of current scientific paradigms, but they also have an almost unconscious anxiety that their love of the literature, (or even the literature itself), would somehow become invalidated if the accounts of nutjobs in tabloids should somehow prove to be more real than the fiction they're reading.borkyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05042275165058229970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-86569079922299520192009-05-21T04:17:54.344-07:002009-05-21T04:17:54.344-07:00Personally, I have never come across any friction ...Personally, I have never come across any friction between Sci-Fi fans and UFO believers. I presume the two camps would blend into eachother at one point (since there are some similarities) and you'd have people who are both.Ed V.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07812856583998219366noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-3847653193485112512009-05-20T22:23:44.721-07:002009-05-20T22:23:44.721-07:00Forgive me Kevin, but I am completely lost. I am a...Forgive me Kevin, but I am completely lost. I am an ardent science fiction fan. Infact, I say without reservation that I AM SCIFI (because I don't get the negativity regarding the term SCI-FI, either). But I also love science. It was an early exposure to Science Fiction that cultivated my love for science. I believe the same is true for many science fiction fans. So what we shun is bad science, as far as UFO's are concerned. For instance, today I saw ABC's 'V' trailer. It looks to be an very promising science fiction show that I will totally watch, but c'mon... spaceships that huge, hovering over major cities, without crushing them with the sheer force it takes to hover over them? Bad science. It turned me off for all of two seconds, but I got over it. I am trying to find answers to our great cosmic mysteries too. But what got me started on the path to wanting to find EXTRATERRESTRIAL life was science fiction. It was E.T. and Star Trek and The Twilight Zone(and the original V). It makes no sense to be a science fiction fanboy/fangirl AND not look up at the stars and wonder. Or am I missing something?Tina Senahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08253179984568356989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-14862520037493388652009-05-20T22:19:22.176-07:002009-05-20T22:19:22.176-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Tina Senahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08253179984568356989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-72720207908794260502009-05-20T08:35:35.719-07:002009-05-20T08:35:35.719-07:00I never had much interest in outright fiction. Who...I never had much interest in outright fiction. Who needs it when the real thing may be here?starmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09884942748644499035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-8140398352625267452009-05-19T21:58:28.053-07:002009-05-19T21:58:28.053-07:00"The hostility between science fiction fans and UF...<I>"The hostility between science fiction fans and UFO believers started from the very beginning of the UFO story."</I>Not quite true. We can thank some in the early Science Fiction arena for the first leaks of crashed saucer stories. Not all who were of the SF group were anti UFO. Mr. Conner's report predates the Wyandotte Echo's (Rudy Fick, etc.) by a week.<br /><br />http://www.fanac.org/fanzines/Spacewarp/Spacewarp34-04.html<br /><br />It was followed a week later by another "leak".Bob Kofordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01739226809252915992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11558306.post-25866579253588078572009-05-19T16:58:38.326-07:002009-05-19T16:58:38.326-07:00The hostility between science fiction fans and UFO...The hostility between science fiction fans and UFO believers started from the very beginning of the UFO story.<br /><br />When Ray Palmer hijacked Amazing Stories to publish the proto-UFO Shaver Mystery stories many more serious SF fans were outraged (though sales soared!)<br /><br />By 1948 in his new Fate magazine, Palmer was well-positioned to promote saucers when he bought Kenneth Arnold's services (to write the Maury Island story among others) and helped create the mythos we all enjoy now.<br /><br />But science fiction fans "shunned" him forever for passing off Shaver's wild musings (often written by Palmer himself) as fact.<br /><br />See Keel's "The Man Who Invented Flying Saucers" for the whole hilarious story.Lancehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17280922104955532058noreply@blogger.com