Well, I've been re-reading a collection of French sci-fi the last few days, and I must say I'm bloody impressed with the novel and the short stories. Those guys really knew how to write good science fiction. No focus on laser pew-pews, rather, good, philosophical sort of writings in a fictional framework. Highly focused on human nature and its destructive features. Though I must say it took a few years to see the book in full colours rather than just the obvious things you manage picking up when you're younger. Whee! Maturity! *does the leprechaun dance*
Found a lot of MythBusters episodes (from the Discovery channel) on YouTube, great stuff there - but to top the greatness of that show, I also stumbled across an interesting debate in the video's comments section -
a great literacy debate!
Also found a great episode about the "
bull in a china shop" saying. Damn, I want to work in a group like that!
And of course, I couldn't leave out this little gem:
What is the name of the novel?
ReplyDeleteThe novel's name is Les seigneurs de la guerre" by Gérard Klein - "Lords of War", I guess.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the stories are three short stories by Michel Demuth, "Les grands équipages de lumière", "Le fief du félon" and "Aphrodite 2080";
"Les plus honorables emplois de la terre..." by Gérard Klein
"Point de lendemain" by Jean-Paul Török
"La bataille d'Ophiuchus" by Michel Demuth
"Les Bulles" by Julia Verlanger
"Le Suicide" by Claude Cheinisse
"Magie noire" by Gérard Klein
"La mer, le temps et les étoiles" by Marcel Battin & Michel Ehrwein
"La Planète aux sept masques" by the same guy
"Premier empire" by Francis Carsac
"Nocturne pour démons" by Michel Demuth
"Au pilote aveuqle" by Charles & Natalie Henneberg
"Comme un oiseau blessé" by Gilbert Michel
"Le Calendrier" by Jacqueline Osterrat
"Miracle d'une nuit d'été" by Jean-Michel Ferré (very short but pretty brilliant actually)
"Lettre d'un tradecteur extraterrestre" by Ives Dermez
"Le jeu" by Roland Topor
"Les enfers sont les enfers" by Gérard Klein
Pretty good stuff there.
Bull in a china shop is still a relevant phrase. Did you notice how far apart those shelves were? Aisles in china shops are usually a lot closer together than the width of almost two bulls, because of a premium on space. It was fun to watch their reactions to how graceful the bulls can move.
ReplyDelete*salutes with her cowboy hat*
There's a similar saying in Russian, a fair bit older, I think, going "Like a bear in a china shop" Well, it's not "china", more like all sorts of dishes, but I forget the general term for it, zomg.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, the setup is pretty far apart, but the bulls are obviously trying to avoid running into stuff, so there's a point!
I acknowledge your point...
ReplyDeleteAnd counter with the utter destruction of the one set of shelves that got "brushed" by the first bull right at the beginning.
Yeehaw!
It was the unstable one.
ReplyDeleteAh ha, it all becomes clear!
ReplyDelete