The Sunday Re-Blog – Star Trek vs. Star Wars

10/13/2013 Leave a comment

The last couple of weeks I have reblogged my posts on the definition of Fantasy and of Science Fiction. In this post, I put those definitions to the test!

This is an age-old geeky/nerdy question, as to which is better, or which is what, and I think now I am at a place where I can weigh in. Because both have a huge fandom around them, both have TV shows and movies and different eras and books and video games and… on what grounds do you compare these two worlds?

I have at least one way I would like to compare them. I recently did a post on the definition of Science Fiction – and one on the definition of Fantasy. I am going to be relying heavily on these definitions, as I think that weighing these will show a difference you can discuss between these two series.

Read up on the definitions if you haven’t already, and then let’s compare Star Trek and Star Wars! Read more of this post

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The Sunday Re-Blog – The Definition of Fantasy

10/06/2013 Leave a comment

If I really want to talk about differences between Science Fiction and Fantasy, then I really need to have solid definitions of the two. I recently gave my working definition of Science Fiction, from one of Science Fiction’s greatest practitioners – Frank Herbert. So now, we need a definition for Fantasy.

So why not get that definition from J.R.R. Tolkien?

I don’t know the source, except that I found it circulating on Facebook. There is a signature in the lower left, so I will let that speak for the creator of this image. I found this on Doctor Who and the T.A.R.D.I.S. on Facebook, but this is mostly just a Facebook page that shares images from the fandoms, mostly Doctor Who. Actually, one I recommend, just know that there’s a lot of images that they share. Be ready.

Anyway, after the jump, check out the definition of Fantasy! Read more of this post

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The Sunday Re-Blog – The Definition of Science Fiction

09/29/2013 Leave a comment

If it wasn’t obvious so far, one of my favorite things is Science Fiction. The worlds we create, that become science fiction, are often so much fun. They are excellent ways to explore the world that we know and live in, as well as to extrapolate the future or what we might do in a wholly new situation.

For instance, here on Comparative Geeks, we look at how science fiction can inform our current world and our near future, how it can make us look differently at current issues or political situations. You can see our posts like this under the heading Science Fiction Today: https://comparativegeeks.wordpress.com/category/science-fiction/science-fiction-today/

I have also started looking at how science fiction and religion interact. Often, religion is strangely absent from science fiction – or is looked at as the mythology of the past. In particular, I have been working from a perspective in a particular science fiction novel, A Case of Conscience by James Blish. His thought was that the existence of aliens would be particularly troublesome to meld with faith. See my posts on this and others like it in Science Fiction and Religion: https://comparativegeeks.wordpress.com/category/science-fiction/science-fiction-and-religion/

However, underlying all of this is a singular question: What is science fiction? What does it mean, and what are we doing when we produce it, or enjoy it? I have a favorite definition, so let’s look at that, and at a few examples. Read more of this post

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The Sunday (Tuesday) Re-Blog – Joss Whedon and the Golden Age

09/24/2013 Leave a comment

In honor of Agents of SHIELD debuting tonight, here is one of the most fun posts I’ve written over on Comparative Geeks. Check out the original and all of our stuff on Comparative Geeks here: http://wp.me/p35Pkn-oR

Alright, so I have to say: I think we are entering into a Golden Age of creativity in our world today. A world where we are running into new technologies, new ways of doing entertainment, new ways of approaching storytelling. A world where there is so much quantity, but we still value the quality so much.

I submit to you that this, the world we are moving into, the Day and Age, the Zeitgeist – for the geeks, the barometer of this has to be the success of Joss Whedon.

The shirt is from pvponline.com, but it's all over the Internet by now...
The shirt is from pvponline.com, but it’s all over the Internet by now…

A man who, constantly, has been shut down by the establishment. And who, when given the chance, creates the most beloved pieces of geekdom being produced today, outside of perhaps Doctor Who. Perhaps.

So join me for a few moments to consider where Joss Whedon has been, and where he has gotten to now, director of one of the highest grossing movies ever made. Read more of this post

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Publicize – Results from my First Test

09/16/2013 2 Comments

So, as I mentioned yesterday, I was testing out Publicize on multiple channels. I think the test was pretty successful. The Twitter feed here on the site does not show the post to Twitter, as advertised – which is good, because otherwise you would see the post, with a Tweet next to it telling you the post was there. As I’ve mentioned before, Twitter is less of a reader and more of… something else. One of its better uses being perhaps its ability to feed into other things, like the WordPress sidebar, or Facebook. More on that below.

I ran into one snag: When shared on Tumblr, the blog post then kicked in the automatic share there – effectively, Tumblr’s version of Publicize. This resulted in two Tweets. The one from Tumblr also ended up in the sidebar here on the blog. It looks like my Facebook had been logged out on Tumblr, otherwise I imagine it would have ended up there twice as well. This was easily solved – I have turned off these automatic shares on Tumblr, but am still linked in where I should be able to share when I want to from within Tumblr.

From here, I have some further thoughts on Publicize… check out what I’m thinking, and then maybe let me know your experiences with it! (Also, I have just learned how to embed a tweet: http://en.support.wordpress.com/twitter/twitter-embeds/…)

Read more of this post

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