[boc-l] And now... a word from our sponsor

[j.hillenburg at comcast.net]

Eh, gotta give people a little of the sweet to dilute the sour.
----- Original Message -----
From: Arin Komins <akomins at uchicago.edu>
To: BOC / Hawkwind Discussion List <boc-l at lists.ispnet.net>
Sent: Mon, 09 May 2016 14:31:58 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re: [boc-l] And now... a word from our sponsor

I still haven’t managed to read the book.  I am a bad, bad, bad science fiction fan.  Like epic fantasies, sf dystopias haven been my chosen reading material over the last few years.

That said, one of the things I felt slightly jarring at the gigs (IMHO!) was that some of the individual tracks felt a bit more upbeat, and upbeat isn’t something I associate with the dystopian concept….

Thx,

Arin

From: boc-l [mailto:boc-l-bounces at lists.ispnet.net] On Behalf Of Michael Holmes
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2016 9:17 AM
To: BOC / Hawkwind Discussion List <boc-l at lists.ispnet.net>
Subject: Re: [boc-l] And now... a word from our sponsor

On 09/05/2016 14:52, Arin Komins wrote:
I miss the community we used to have here as well.  It seems much of that conversation and camaraderie that used to be here has shifted onward to FB.

So, onto some actual HW-related content:

Now that the gigs are mostly done for the tour; what did everyone think?  Still listening to the new album on repeat?  Waiting for the single?


Well, the new songs were very much better on tour than they were at Seaton. I think HawkEaster would have been more enjoyable if they hadn't played the same gig two nights - one night should have been given over to just enjoying some old and less usual numbers. On tour though they really shone and the interplay between Haz & Dave were a big part of that. And yes, still waiting on the single. Meanwhile I read The Machine Stops for the first time since school. It's surprising in a lot of ways. There's the author forseeing what we'd now call the Internet; the concept that this would atomise people; the dystopian idea that some kind of eco-catastrophe would drive us underground; the loss of knowledge; the generally downbeat ending. Many of these ideas became currency for later stories such as War of the Worlds (underground cities). Rollerball (knowledge of how to control the machinery being lost), THX118 (pretty much a rewrite of the story itself), and countless 1970s SF dystopian stories feature a technological atomisation and downbeat ending.

So all in all a great choice of story and an excellent musical realisation of it. I'm saddened by the folks who've fallen out of the airlocks on this one because I do think they're missing something.

FoFP