קול קורא לסיפורים: שמיים וארץ ANATHEM by Neal Stephenson — Pub
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בס"ד Science -Fiction Fanzine Vol . XX, No . 1 1; Novem ber , 200 8 The Israeli Society for Science Fiction and Fantasy קול קורא לסיפורים: שמיים וארץ אתר " בלי פאניקה " ואתר האגודה שמחים להודיע על פרויקט סיפורים משותף : שמיים וארץ . אנו מזמינים אתכם ל תרום סיפורים על השמיים ועל הארץ . הפרויקט יתנהל במקביל בשני כתבי העת . אנו מזמינים אתכם לכתוב סיפורים לשתי הזרועות של הפרויקט . בזרוע אחת , '' שמיים '' : סיפורי מדע בדיוני המתרחשים מחוץ לכדור הארץ וליתר כוכבי הלכת – בחלל , בעולמות רחוקים , בספינות הנעות בין הכוכבים וכדומה . בשניה , '' ארץ '' : סיפורי מדע בדיוני המתרחשים ברחבי כדור הארץ , בתוכו ובמרחבים בתוליים שעדיין לא נחקרו , מתחת לפני הקרקע , בתחתיות הים , בשוליים הלא מיושבים של מדבריות החול והקרח וכו .' את הסיפורים יש להגיש בהתאם לכללי ההגשה הרגילים של כתבי העת . סיפורי '' שמיים '' יתפרסמו ב '' בלי פאניקה.'' סיפורי '' ארץ '' – באתר האגודה. מועד אחרון להגשה 1: בינואר 2009 . לפרטים נוספים : http :// www sf. .f- org /il. story_ 1059 חוג מדע בדיוני ברחובות – Rehovot Science Fiction Club - SFIR כל פעילויות התא הרחובותי מתקיימות בימי א ' בשעה 20:00 בפקולטה לחקלאות ברחובות , חדר 2 ( הבניין שליד הבריכה ). הכניסה לכל הפעילויות אינה כרוכה בתשלום . לפרטים נוספים , כתבו אל ( Sfir 42 @yahoo .com ). ). 16.11.08 : היום השלישי . 23.11.08 : הלבוי 2 . 30.11.08 : ספיידרמן 3 . מועדון הקריאה – נובמבר במרכז דיו ני מועדון הקריאה בחודש נובמבר יעמוד הספר זוכה פרס גפן " אני האגדה " מאת 'ריצ רד מתיסון ( הוצאת ינשוף ). פרטים לגבי מפגשי מועדון הקריאה העוסקים בספר זה יתפרסמו באתר האגודה . השתתפות במועדו ן הקריאה אינה כרוכה בתשלום או בהגעה למפגשים נוספים , ופתוחה גם למי שאינם חברי אגודה . מועדון הקריאה בתל אביב יתקיים ב יום ד ', 11/ 26 בשעה 19:30 , בבית הקפה רולדין ( רח ' אלנבי 46 ). מנחה : קרן לנדסמן . מומלץ להירשם מראש באמצעות הדואר האלקטרוני אצל מנחת המפגש : elodea .weed@gmail .com. המעוניינים להנחות מועדוני קריאה בכל רחבי הארץ מוזמנים לפנות במייל ל מרכזת הפרויקט ליאת שחר : liat 42 @gmail .com בדצמבר יוקדש מועדון הק ריאה ל ספר זוכה פרס גפן " בני החורין הקטנים " מאת טרי פראצ ט' . פרטים על מפגשים המועדון יתפרסמו באתר האגודה לקראת סוף ה חודש . בינואר יוקדש מועדון הקריאה ל ספר " פני מועדות לכוכבים " מאת אלפרד בסטר . More Society information is available (in Hebrew) at the Society’s site: http://www.sf-f.org.il ANATHEM by Neal Stephenson — pub. William Morris, 2008, 960 p. A review, and some comments on other reviews — by Sara Svetitsky I think I am the first person in Israel Canticle for Leibowitz . It is NOTHING to have a copy of this book, Stephenson's LIKE A Canticle for Leibowitz . So when first since The System of the World . So I you read it you will be able to get into the will start by announcing to the sf story right away without taking the first community: ANATHEM is NOT A 30 pages to recognize that, even though CyberCozen 1 Vol. XX, No. 11; November, 2008. בס"ד the cover has a picture of a monk, city—which is at the technological and ANATHEM is not a post-apocalypse story social level of modern suburban America, and we are on Arbre, not Earth. My next with cellphones, television and GPS units announcement: ANATHEM is real, under other names — he makes contact undisputable, sf. Stephenson's last 4 thick with his older half-sister Cord, one of books ( Cryptonomicon [reviewed in Stephenson's capable and independant- CyberCozen , February 2002, and in April minded women (e.g.Amy Shaftoe). As he 2202] and The Baroque Cycle [reviewed shows her around the concent he shows in CyberCozen , September 2004 and us, the readers, what his world is all about. September 2007], reviewed in these pages Erasmus shows Cord a solar-powered by your humble scribe) were marketed as clock and explains that “Even in a nuclear sf but contained exactly one sf-nal winter, when it can be cloudy for a element, the Philosophic Mercury, hundred years, it keeps time”. The important but marginal. ANATHEM concent keeps bees and Erasmus explains more than restores Stephenson's sf-nal “When conditions outside are stable we credentials by being set on another world, sell the honey, when conditions are post- in another universe, with different laws of apocalyptic we eat it ourselves”. We see nature. ANATHEM is, in spite of being that Arbre has had a long and active 960 pages long, a fast read, with a definite history of booms, busts, wars, climate plot that advances at a good pace. But it change, etc, all while the Fraas and Suurs has the typical Stephenson characters, have stayed behind the concent walls with very highly developed intellects and studying. But only studying 'theorics', less advanced emotions, and the pure theory; 'praxis', technology of all Stephenson discourses, those chunks of kinds, is kept outside the walls. The Fraas educational material dropped in with a and Suurs live at a roughly medieval “thunk”. In ANATHEM the topic is level, but with a few baffling exceptions. philosophy and the book is a fairly It seems that the concents in the past dealt painless introduction to epistemology, in “newmatter”, genetic engineering, and ontological nominalism, empiricism, and who knows what else, but that these a few more -isms. praxis were banned, with only some items The narrator of ANATHEM is Fraa of clothing and food still allowed (I love Erasmas, an avout (monk) in a Decenarian the library grapes). Math. (Stephenson has created a The whole first section is “get to language, which is usually annoying, but know Arbre”; the plot only gets moving at the neologisms are close enough to the end of Apert. Erasmas' mentor, Fra English to be understood without referring Corolo, is a cosmographer who does to the glossary in the back). So he lives astronomical observations with one of the in a concent, an enclave like a coed only bits of scientific equipment allowed monastery; not celibate, but not allowed to the avout. As Erasmas is dealing with his have children. He devotes his life to first exposure to the outside world, Corolo study, and can go outside the concent is finding something in the sky. But once in 10 years. He joined when he was Corolo is expelled from the concent around 8 and at the time the book starts 10 without warning or explanation. Erasmas years have passed, it is Apert (the period and friends try to retrace Corolo's when the walls are opened) and he is research, and find that something new has about to venture outside. The concent entered orbit around Arbre; just as they also has Maths whose members go outside do, the Secular Power that rules Arbre, but every year (unarians), every 100 years usually leaves the avout alone, calls (centenarians) or every 1000 years Erasmas and other avout out of the (millenarians). When he goes into the CyberCozen 2 Vol. XX, No. 11; November, 2008. בס"ד concent. They are needed to craft Arbre's the great genius of the time, and by no response to the appearance of the aliens. means a revolutionary. His role is to In their trek across Arbre, Erasmas is observe the genius from a safe distance, thrown in with non-avout; not just Cord report on the revolution, and share his and her boyfriend, but Samman, an Ita understanding with the reader. In the from the concent, and Gnel, adherent of a upheaval of the crisis he finds out why the church that is helping them — all people concents were set up and by whom, what an avout would never normally befriend. the Millenarians are capable of, what is Ita are a special caste of people that work really the relation between the Secular in the concent but are not avout and avout Power and the Maths, and what other are taught to look down on them and to power, older than the concents, is in play. have as little as possible to do with them. He also changes as a person, from a very But Erasmas realizes, to his discomfort, young man who has led a very sheltered that the despised Ira are the computer life and has done little questioning of the experts of Arbre and that Samman has system under which he lives, to someone been working with Corolo all along. who is setting out on a new path, with Finally, and most importantly, there is Fra hopes of creating a new relation between Jad, a millernarian avout from the Math the Secular Power and the Mathic world. whose members live on a isolated crag Raz changes notably in his relation to and interact with the rest of the world only the Ita -- at the beginning of the book he once in a thousand years. Any relates to them as an Indian of the last Millenarian is a fascinating figure to the century would relate to an Untouchable — rest of Arbre, and Fra Jad is a pretty weird and to religion. At the beginning he has Millenarian. There are stories of no exposure at all to religion. At the end Millenarians' strange powers; Raz starts things are different. And here I have to wondering if they are true. complain, or express polite confusion, In due time and after some adventures about some of the published reviews of they join other avout and seculars at the ANATHEM . Quite a few reviewers emergency meeting, and settle down for decided that the book is about an long dinner-table discussions of idealist inevitable conflict between religion and philosophy and the many-worlds picture science, presents religious people as of quantum mechanics. Yes, this is a idiots, and is actually a parable of George Stephenson novel.