The SFFaudio Podcast #051 – TOPIC: THE YELLOW PERIL

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #051 – Jesse and Scott are joined by Luke Burrage and Professor Eric S. Rabkin to discuss THE YELLOW PERIL.

Talked about on today’s show:
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer (aka The Mysterious Dr. Fu-Manchu) – available via Tantor Media, fix-up novel, hypnosis, Sherlock Holmes, the yellow peril incarnate, the yellow peril as the hordes of asia, the Chinese Exclusion Act (USA), Chinese Immigration Act, 1923 (Canada), Tamerlane (the scourge of god), The Yellow Peril by M.P. Shiel, The Purple Cloud by M.P. Shiel, racism, WWI, colonialism, Burma, Thuggees, Boxer Rebellion, genius, The Talons Of Weng Chiang, if you read it as Fu-Manchu being the hero you may like the story more, mad scientist, Faust, Paradise Lost by John Milton, Robur-Le-Conquérant by Jules Verne (aka Robur-The-Conqueror aka The Clipper of the Clouds), The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells, The White Man’s Burden by Rudyard Kipling, colonialism, The Invisible Man, the other colored other, The League Of Extraordinary Gentleman by Alan Moore, Hawley Griffin (The Invisible Man), Allan Quatermain, Captain Nemo, Dr. Henry Jekyll/Mr. Edward Hyde, Mina Murray (from Dracula by Bram Stoker), English 418/549: GRAPHIC NARRATIVE (Winter 2010), The Invisible Man shows I and II, If I Ran The Zoo by Dr. Seuss, Jonah And The Whale, Suess’ anti-Japanese propaganda during WWII, Japanese internment during WWII in USA and Canada, Aryan, India, Nazi Germany, The Thule Society, Sri Lanka, racial stereotypes, Marco Polo, Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, gender and skin color, blondness, Karamaneh (the love interest in The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu), femme fatale, Black Widow (1987), miscegenation, the Chinese hordes vs. the insidious Japanese, War With The Newts by Karel Čapek, Japan, LibriVox.org, Sixth Column by Robert A. Heinlein, beauty as goodness (in fairy tales), King Kong, Last And First Men by Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker, The Iliad by Homer, The Old Testament, The Science Fiction Hall Of Fame edited by Robert Silverberg, Arena by Fredric Brown, Plato, the red scare, Jack London, The Lathe Of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin, Arslan by M.J. Engh, Chung Kuo by David Windgrove, selective memory, polarized memory, Middlemarch by George Eliot, Encounter With Tiber by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes, China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh, Superfusion: How China and America Became One Economy and Why the World’s Prosperity Depends on It by Zachary Karabell, Firefly, Limehouse, London, Detroit, The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick |READ OUR REVIEW|, alternate history, SS-GB by Len Deighton, Fatherland by Robert Harris, Gorky Park, North Korea, the North Korea embassy in East Berlin.

The Yellow Peril

The Fiendish Plot Of Fu-Manchu (Thanks Gregg!):

Posted by Jesse Willis

Podcast: The Scarecrow’s Boy by Michael Swanwick

SFFaudio Online Audio

Science Fiction AudiobookInfinivox is offering a free listen to “The Scarecrow’s Boy” by Michael Swanwick, a story we talked about last week that’s part of the just-released We, Robots anthology.

Find it here: The Scarecrow’s Boy by Michael Swanwick

Thanks, Infinivox!

[via infinivoxsf.com]

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Forgotten Classics: Breaking Point by James Gunn

SFFaudio Online Audio

Forgotten ClassicsMy friend, Julie D. of the Forgotten Classics podcast, has recently completed her unabridged reading of Dorothy Macardle’s novel The Uninvited. Now she’s working on a pure Science Fiction story, picked from SFFaudio Challenge #4. But that’s not all, Julie begins the podcast with some thoughts on James Gunn’s best known work, a series of scholarly collections entitled: The Road To Science Fiction. I have volumes 3 and 4 in my paperbook collection.

The Road To Science Fiction: Volume 1: From Gilgamesh to Wells edited by James GunnThe Road To Science Fiction: Volume 2: From Wells to Heinlein edited by James GunnThe Road To Science Fiction: Volume 3: The Road To Science Fiction: Volume 3: From Heinlein to Here edited by James GunnThe Road To Science Fiction: Volume 4: From Here to Forever edited by James Gunn

There are also two more recent volumes The British Way (Vol. 5) and the other places Around The World (Vol. 6). But I won’t post their cover art here because they really suck.


Forgotten Classics Presents - Breaking Point by James GunnBreaking Point
By James Gunn; Read by Julie D.
Podcast – [UNABRIDGED]
Podcaster: Forgotten Classics
Podcast: March 2009 –
The ship was proof against any test, but the men inside her could be strained and warped, individually and horribly. Unfortunately, while the men knew that, they couldn’t really believe it. The Aliens could—and did.

Podcast feed:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/forgottenclassics

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of Melancholy Elephants by Spider Robinson

SFFaudio Review

Yet another story in SFFaudio’s 7th Anniversary Carnival of Characters!

Science Fiction Audiobook - Melancholy Elephants by Spider RobinsonMelancholy Elephants
By Spider Robinson; Read by Spider Robinson
1 |MP3| – Approx. 34 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Spider on the Web
Published: 2007
Themes: / Science Fiction / Art / Copyright / Human Mind / Mathematics /

The moment I realized that copyright was at the center of the story, I thought: Jesse would love this. I’m fairly certain he’s read it, though. There can’t be a lot of fiction where copyright plays a part, and besides; Spider Robinson is one of his favorites.

A law to extend copyright is proposed, and Dorothy, an artist, visits a Senator in future Washington to persuade him to vote against. The story is not dry exposition about law. It’s about art, the human mind, mathematics, and the universe. A lot to pack into 34 minutes, for certain, and it did leave me feeling melancholy, like the elephants.

It’s important to note that this story won a Hugo Award in 1983, long before copyright ran headlong into the digital age. “Melancholy Elephants” stands beside other great science fiction stories that so clearly saw the future coming.

The story was read by Spider Robinson as part of his Spider on the Web podcast.

Here’s the podcast feed: http://www.spiderrobinson.com/iTunes_feed.xml

And |HERE| is a direct link to the episode with “Melanchoy Elephants”.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

Blackstone Audio and Audiofile Magazine: FREE Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland audiobook

SFFaudio Online Audio

Blackstone Audio and Audiofile Magazine are giving away a FREE unabridged audiobook of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll!

These free downloads are available only until March 16, 2010.

BLACKSTONE AUDIO - Alice's Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis CarrollAlice’s Adventures In Wonderland
By Lewis Carroll; Read by Michael York
Zipped MP3 Files or Zipped M4B Files Download – Approx. 3.1 Hours [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Published: 2008
Alice chases the White Rabbit down a rabbit hole and encounters a world of delightfully eccentric characters like the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat, the Mock Turtle, and the Queen of Hearts. This enduring and evocative tale can be read on many levels and enjoyed by adults and children alike.

Posted by Jesse Willis

LibriVox: Talents, Incorporated by Murray Leinster

SFFaudio Online Audio

Yum yum!

LIBRIVOX - Talents, Incorporated by Murray LeinsterTalents, Incorporated
By Murray Leinster; Read by Mark Nelson
12 Zipped MP3 Files – Approx. 6 Hours 9 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Published: LibriVox.org
Published: February 14, 2010
Bors felt as if he’d been hit over the head. This was ridiculous! He’d planned and carried out the destruction of that warship because the information of its existence and location was verified by a magnetometer. But, if he’d known how the information had been obtained–if he’d known it had been guessed at by a discharged spaceport employee, and a paranoid personality, and a man who used a hazel twig or something similar–if he’d known that, he’d never have dreamed of accepting it. He’d have dismissed it flatly!

Podcast feed: http://librivox.org/rss/3832

iTunes 1-Click |SUBSCRIBE|

[Thanks also to Tricia G]

Posted by Jesse Willis