So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I now have Dayton Ward's Somewhere to Belong, but I'm going to wait a while. The latest turn of the "episode follow-up" thread has me reading about "City on the Edge of Forever" follow-ups. I found and read "Triptych" and "Remembering the Future," and now I'm reading the Crucible Trilogy (I'd forgotten the "doorstop" page-count, and I'd forgotten how many other episodes it covered).

*****

I have only one complaint, on re-reading the Crucible Trilogy:
I will note that I'm finding the consistent usage of "lorry" a bit distracting. Given that the author isn't British, and wasn't writing specifically for a British audience, I have to assume that it's a not-terribly-subtle hint that Edith Keeler is the POV character. But just because she was played by a Brit doesn't make the character British (consider Khan Noonien Singh: an ethnic Indian (probably Punjabi), played by the Mexican Ricardo Montalban, then the British Benedict Cumberbatch, and now the Canadian Desmond Sivan) Was Alexis Carrington also British? (Not a Dynasty fan, I had to go to YouTube just to determine whether she spoke with Ms. Collins' natural accent.)

Looking for a review thread (and not finding one), I ran into some discussion about the late Harlan Ellison having had certain Crucible material suppressed by threatening a lawsuit, and about an "expanded" hardcover edition.

Expanded? It's already at a "doorstop" page-count. (And that's not a complaint, just an observation; LotR is also a doorstop, Narnia is a doorstop, canonical Oz is a doorstop, and The History of Middle Earth is several doorstops.)

(Any time the subject of Harlan Ellison comes up, I think about something [I think] David Gerrold once wrote about him, to the general effect [and I'm paraphrasing because I don't even remotely have an eidetic memory for 40-year-old Starlog columns] that he writes what he writes, whether we call it science fiction or something else.)

 

[Reanok]

I'm reading Sherlock Holmes&Count Dracula by Christian Klaver it's been a reallly good story with an old horror movie vibe in the story alot of old horror movie Easter eggs in this book.

 

[Greg Cox]

We're reading the "Family Skeleton" mystery series by Leigh Perry. Cozy mysteries in which the detective is, yes, a walking, talking, living skeleton . . . for reasons.

Six books to date. Started the sixth one last night.

 

[youngtrek]

Just finished reading volume one (“January Through March”) of Adam Nedeff’s massive This Day in Game Show History: 365 Commemorations and Celebrations four-volume series (Bear Manor, 2014), checked out from my local public library, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library, who added them to their circulating collection upon my request (although they are also available on Kindle from Amazon and I’m assuming also eBook format from the other usual retailer sites).

I first heard about This Day in Game Show History while recently listening to old episodes of Stu Shostak’s “Stu Show” podcast.

This is a treasure trove of tv history for aficionados like myself. Since it’s one entry per day of the month for three months, the bill entires (or chapters) are almost all very short. Most are two to three pages, some a bit longer.

The entry are generally of two basic types: dates on which a notable game show first aired, last aired, or had some other significant moment like changing its name, format, or network it was airing on, or a significant change in its host or announcer. And the other being significant game show figures’ “born on this day” (or “died on this day”) entries (some clearly to round out the days of the month not already filled).

The game show program specific entries give details of how that show got on the air, who the notable people working on that show were, the rules of the game, how long it ran for, and any subsequent revivals of that show. The “born/died on this date” entries generally give a broad overview of that person’s entire career (focusing on the game shows if that person was also an actor or had some other field he or she is just as well known for), although some of the figures entries are very short because their time in game shows was likewise short.

There are a few entries that don’t fit either of those two types like an entry on game shows that won Emmy awards, game shows and their hosts who showed up on scripted television shows (like “Let’s Make a Deal” on “The Odd Couple”, “Family Feud” and memorable episodes of “Mama’s Family”, “The Golden Girls”, and “Cheers” where characters appeared on “Jeopardy!” (“Mama’s Family” also on “Family Feud”, in one of my favorite episodes.)

If you are into game shows, or television history of the 1950s to today (but especially 1950s-1980s), I highly recommend this book and its other three volumes. (There is quite a bit also about the infamous game show fixing scandals of the 1950s that nearly killed the genre.)

The only caveat is that it probably is a bit better to have all four volumes at the same time rather than one at a time like I am from the library because Nedeff often has notes within or at the end of an entry saying “See November 11” (or some other date) for a related other entry.

Also, due to the format, the entries jump all of the place in terms of what decades the events happened in. One entry 1950s, the next entry 2000s, the next 1960s, the next about someone born in the 1920s, and so on. That’s just the nature of these calendar style “what happened on this day” books. Which is fine, especially for reading only one or two entries a day. Me, I’m a very chronological thinker. So, if I had one suggestion it would have been for Nedeff to have included among the works cited and index sections in the back also an entries in chronological order guide so that a reader could read all of the 1950s entries, then the 1960s, etc. Of course, that would still be just for the entries in this one particular volume, not all four, so maybe not very many other people would find that all that useful.

Anyway, I gave This Day in Game Show History: 365 Commemorations and Celebrations Volume 1: “January Through March” four out of five stars on GoodReads, and have Volume 2 “April Through June” already waiting among those in my “to read next” pile.

— David Young

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I'm reading Sherlock Holmes & Count Dracula by Christian Klaver it's been a reallly good story with an old horror movie vibe in the story alot of old horror movie Easter eggs in this book.

I was curious about that one. It's published by Titan, right?

Titan published another Holmes/Dracula book a few years ago, Betrayal in Blood by Mark Latham. It's a little different, in that the events of Dracula were published and are public knowledge, and Holmes is asked by the government to look into the "Dracula affair" because the celebrated heroes may have sparked an international incident. I really enjoyed it.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Yes, and there's a canonical Holmes short story, "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire" (in Casebook) in which an apparent case of vampirism turns out to be not quite what it seems.

I'm now not quite 60% of the way through Crucible: Provenance of Shadows, and was just jolted (so to speak) out of the story by something that a well-read copy-editor should have caught.

Page 371, near the bottom.

McCoy could cite the clear and direct case of Dr. Lyles, whom sixty amperes and five thousand volts might've been able to save by allowing the defibrillation of his heart, . . .

Now I'm not a doctor, and neither do I play one on television, and without knowing the discharge time of a defibrillator, I have no way of calculating current or power, but the last time I checked, (1) the standard paddle voltage of a defibrillator is 550V, and (2) the standard charge for external defibrillation carries 400 Joules (or watt-seconds) of energy.

60A at 5KV would be enough (stepped down to the standard 240V with grounded center-tap) to power about a dozen homes. Or to simultaneously charge (and maintain in ready state) a few hundred defibrillators.

 

[youngtrek]

Yes, and there's a canonical Holmes short story, "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire" (in Casebook) in which an apparent case of vampirism turns out to be not quite what it seems.

I'm now not quite 60% of the way through Crucible: Provenance of Shadows, and was just jolted (so to speak) out of the story by something that a well-read copy-editor should have caught.

Page 371, near the bottom.


Now I'm not a doctor, and neither do I play one on television, and without knowing the discharge time of a defibrillator, I have no way of calculating current or power, but the last time I checked, (1) the standard paddle voltage of a defibrillator is 550V, and (2) the standard charge for external defibrillation carries 400 Joules (or watt-seconds) of energy.

60A at 5KV would be enough (stepped down to the standard 240V with grounded center-tap) to power about a dozen homes. Or to simultaneously charge (and maintain in ready state) a few hundred defibrillators.

Um, maybe it’s just me but I find what you just wrote to be above the level of specificity in matters of electricity that something a generally “well read copy editor” would necessarily know anything about. Me, all I know about electricity I learned from Doc Brown. (“1.21 GIGAWATTS???”)

—David Young

 

[Christopher]

Me, all I know about electricity I learned from Doc Brown. (“1.21 GIGAWATTS???”)

Except for how to pronounce "gigawatt."

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

According to whatever edition of Merriam-Webster is tied to OneLook, both pronunciations are considered correct in English. And the pronunciation used in the Back To the Future franchise was the more common at the time. Which is to say, it was not a common prefix at the time.

Wikipedia doesn't give the 550VDC number I'd heard elsewhere (it gives a range of 300V-1kV), but it does give 5ms as the typical discharge time. Which, if true, would deliver the 400J at a power of 80kW. Depending on the paddle voltage, that could work out to be be anywhere from 80A to 267A.

Fun fact about defibrillators in the media: TVTropes incorrectly listed Emergency! as invoking the "magic defibrillator" trope (or whatever they call it) because Gage and DeSoto would frequently use a portable defibrillator (pre-AED, this was the 1970s!) without first patching in the EKG monitor. In fact, they only did after they'd been upgraded to a second-generation portable unit, with a docking station for the monitor, and a "read through paddles" function. They would apply the paddles, dry, with the docked monitor in read-through-paddles mode, and only if it showed v-fib would they apply conductivity gel, charge up the capacitor-bank, and defibrillate. Before the AED was developed, the read-through-paddles function was a major timesaver in a rescue situation.

 

[youngtrek]

Except for how to pronounce "gigawatt."

Easy. Whichever way sounds funnier. :-)

— David Young

 

[KRAD]

Um, maybe it’s just me but I find what you just wrote to be above the level of specificity in matters of electricity that something a generally “well read copy editor” would necessarily know anything about. Me, all I know about electricity I learned from Doc Brown. (“1.21 GIGAWATTS???”)

—David Young

Yeah, but that's the sort of thing copy editors should look up when, y'know, doing their jobs.....

 

[Smiley]

I've got a fun stew of books going right now:

Star Trek: The Brave and the Bold duology (the Enterprise prelude holds up very well, especially considering that not much of the series had aired at this point)
Star Wars: Path of Vengeance
Peter David's Aquaman: Book One
Usagi Yojimbo Saga: Volume 3 (the big omnibus with Grasscutter II in the middle of it)

 

[youngtrek]

Yeah, but that's the sort of thing copy editors should look up when, y'know, doing their jobs.....

Okay. I guess I never realized that a copy editor is also supposed to be a facts checker, too. When I see the job title I think primarily of grammatical mistakes, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc.

— David Young

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I've now passed the 2/3 point in Crucible: Provenance of Shadows, just past McCoy's encounter with racism, and his reunion with Barrows. I wonder if "Lisa Dennehy" is an ancestor of our old friend Shelby.

 

[Greg Cox]

Okay. I guess I never realized that a copy editor is also supposed to be a facts checker, too. When I see the job title I think primarily of grammatical mistakes, spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc.

— David Young

Copyeditors also fact-check and watch out for plot holes and inconsistencies, like a character having blue eyes in Chapter Five but green eyes in Chapter Nine, or living on the sixth floor in one scene and the fourth floor in another. And anything else that leaps out at them.

Three of my favorite copyeditor queries:

1) A vampire novel featured a scene where a human head is dribbled like a basketball. The CE queried whether a severed human head would actually bounce or just go thud.

2) The CE on my FANTASTIC FOUR novel helpfully pointed out that there no such place as "Yancy Street" in New York City. Was this an error on my part? (Clearly, not a comics reader!)


3) A certain author could not keep a female character's name straight during a sex scene, prompting the CE to wonder just how many women were in bed with the protagonist at the time.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

there no such place as "Yancy Street" in New York City.

Hmm. My novel-in-progress, and my planned model railroad, are set in a city called Springfield. For the same reason that Groening put The Simpsons in a city called Springfield: it's an extremely common place name. And I've tried to avoid tying it to any particular Springfield (Groening's included). There are references to places in the real world, and to place names that, so far as I'm aware, only exist in the Bobbsey Twins series of children's novels (which I grew up on, and still occasionally read) And there are references to Stratemeyer Syndicate "house pen names," and even to Edward Stratemeyer himself (there's an elementary school named after him) in a deliberate assault on the fourth, fifth, and sixth walls. And while I freely reference real-world organbuilders (most notably, Dirk Flentrop and Charles Fisk) and real-world manufacturers of organ substitutes (most notably, references to Magnus chord organs and to Laurens Hammond's noisome little noisemaker™), I also regularly invoke the "bland-name product" trope.

 

[Christopher]

And there are references to Stratemeyer Syndicate "house pen names," and even to Edward Stratemeyer himself (there's an elementary school named after him) in a deliberate assault on the fourth, fifth, and sixth walls.

I've been watching the Young Indiana Jones movies on Disney+, and in the chronologically earliest adventure of Sean Patrick Flanery as teen Indy, he's teamed up with a fictionalized daughter of Edward Stratemeyer, a redhead named Nancy who's a fearless detective. I guess the conceit was that she inspired the creation of Nancy Drew a decade or so later, but in real life neither of Stratemeyer's daughters was named Nancy, and the name for the character came from someone else. I think it was unusual for Young Indy to fabricate imaginary historical figures like that; it usually featured real people from history.

 

[Greg Cox]

To be clear, the CE didn't delete "Yancy Street" from my FF book. They just queried it because they didn't know that "Yancy Street" is very much a thing in the Marvel Universe version of NYC. I explained its origins and the reference stayed.

But now I'm remembering the clueless CE who "helpfully" pointed out that the heroes in my WAREHOUSE 13 novel could not have possibly met H. G. Wells since he died in 1946. Clearly, that CE was not familiar with the TV show my book was based on, which, okay, fine, but it never occurred to them that maybe, just maybe a SF tv show might have employed SF means to make such a meeting possible? Or googled "H. G. Wells on WAREHOUSE 13"?

For the record, a good CE is a pearl beyond price, but you do get some odd queries sometimes.

 

[Christopher]

Sometimes I get annoyed when a copyeditor misunderstands what I meant by something, so I start writing a comment in the margin explaining "No, what I meant was this and that"... and then I stop and realize, "Oh. If it's not clear already, I'd better put this clarification in the actual text, which is what the copyeditor was suggesting all along."

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Fictionalized versions of historic figures can do all sorts of things that the real ones could not possibly have done. Case in point, Martha Jefferson, in Edwards & Stone's 1776. The whole scene from Martha showing up at Jefferson's door, through the "He Plays the Violin" production number, could not possibly have happened in real life. Of course, the whole last verse of "He Plays the Violin" was a very clear nod to the frail constitution and early demise of the historic Martha.

*******

Sometimes I get annoyed when a copyeditor misunderstands what I meant by something,

Happened to me a lot in fiction workshop classes I took at the local junior college. Discovered that the opening chapter of my novel, as it existed then, was a veritable minefield of misreads waiting to happen. Particularly of passages intended as "Jennifer kisses baby" coming off as "Jennifer kicks dog."