Afghanistan Honour Killings

Posted By Mark on Mar 3, 2015

From the New York Times a quite disturbing read on how women in Afghanistan suffer in a culture so horribly twisted by tradition, social indoctrination, and religious interpretation that it sees the murder of a family member preferable to allowing people – daughters, nieces, or cousins – to simply live their lives the way they want. A Thin Line of Defense Against ‘Honor Killings’: Gul Meena, 16, survived a brutal attack by her brother after she fled an older husband, who had beaten her, and ran away with another man. She had been just 8 or 9 in her home in Kunar Province on the Pakistan border when a man in the next village offered money to her unemployed father for her. […] From the moment she arrived in his house, she was a servant. The only grace was that he was not allowed to have sex with her before she had her first period. Two years after they wed, the moment came and he forced himself on her. “I was like a thing and they sold me,” she said. “He was beating me with everything near to him. With his glasses, with his mobile phone, with wood, with stones, and with his hands.” Lonely and bewildered, she tried at least twice to return to her father’s house, but the family sent her back to her husband and finally she went to a neighbor’s home. The husband of the family ran away with her to Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan. When her brother caught up with them, he slit the man’s throat and slashed Gul Meena 15 times with an ax, nearly blinding her and leaving her for dead. When she woke up in the hospital, she looked in the mirror. “I was very damaged,” she said. “Before, I was beautiful and young.” Although she does not see herself that way, she is still a stunning young woman. She has never gone to school but speaks with a simple eloquence. Now she fears that she is ugly and no one will marry her. “Men are always interested in the beauty of a woman,” she said. “They are never interested in the heart.” It’s a dreadfully sad outlook, though obviously understandable, and it’s one of only a few stories. Well worth a good...

Victorian Princess Leia

Posted By Mark on Feb 24, 2015

Sex In Space

Posted By Mark on Feb 24, 2015

From the November 1959 edition of Adam magazine comes this article titled Sex in Space, written by Ronald Sturgeon. Firstly, the artwork is excellent. The image has great attention to detail and one look at it could instantly date the picture to the time period; right at the start of the space race. I love the aerial coming into the front of the rocket as well as the handles, pedals, levers, and switches for both the female astronaut pilot’s spaceship seating location and her male colleague’s too, who’s possibly performing the role of communications officer onboard the snug vessel. The shielding in front of the rocket engines is a good touch, showing a lot of thought and love has gone into the diagram. Sadly, there are a couple of disturbing elements to the illustration too. There’s the jug of alcohol, clearly of the illegal variety, and then there’s the action and look on the male astronaut’s face (which may have come from indulging of the alcohol); we can see that he’s got a can opener and the implication is that he’s going to open up the ship from the outside and then open up his colleague sexually, whether she likes it or not. Back in the late 50s or early 60s (possibly even later too) this type of dominating man seeking what was deemed rightfully his was considered par for the course and the picture was funny. Of course, the imagery was in a magazine for men so it’s not that surprising either. Still, the idea that what’s illustrated more-or-less amounts to a diagram just before space rape doesn’t sit quite so well these days. And there’s the stupidity angle that’s hard to get over too: why not just walk through the ship and not damage the craft? Alcohol again? Some quotes from the article itself: This business of women and sex in space has long been something of a problem for conscientious science fiction writers. While accustomed to taking the problems of time-travel and interstellar flight in their stride the iminence [sic] of actual space flight has given them pause where putting a broad into orbit is concerned. Usually, they solve the problem by making her a stowaway – or by preceding the U.S. Government by omitting the girls altogether until the intrepid spacemen get to Venus or Mars or Mercury or wherever they are going. Note the use of the word “broad” there. So how are the boys (and girls) going to get their sex in space in the coming age or [sic] planetary travel? Somebody is going to have to come up with a power system...

Starblazer Comics

Posted By Mark on Feb 23, 2015

From 1979 through to 1991 D. C. Thomson & Company, Limited published 281 issues of a small format comics anthology called Starblazer. It was never as successful or as widely read as Commando, which I also used to collect, but the science fiction nerd inside me preferred Starblazer. For no other reason than the thought crossed my mind today I’ve decided to hunt down covers of the magazine from that there internet machine that I remember owning and reading. One of the first images I spotted and recognised was this from issue 15, Algol The Terrible. I confess I couldn’t quite remember what the plot of the story was but if you click on the image to follow the link you’ll see a great summary from Philip Sandifer. Via the comments on this io9 article (on Spanish pulp magazine covers, bizarrely) comes Nightmare Planet. Again, no recollection of the plot but if the cover is anything to go by – and with Starblazer comics that’s frequently not the case at all – then there’s a planet involved which has all manner of nastiness on its surface. The next load of photos I found via a post on Monster Brains – Starblazer – which led me to the Flickr photostream of Aeron Alfrey and the Starblazer album. To reiterate, I’m only going to include ones I remember having. I’m also going to explain the story’s plot in each case based solely on the artwork and/or title. There’s a chance this won’t be accurate. Robot Rebellion, the story of a rebellion… by robots! Or maybe just one robot. The title isn’t clear on that matter but what is apparent is that there’s no nobility in robot rebellions and shooting your fellow artificial lifeforms in the back is considered just fine. Isaac Asimov would have a fit if he saw this. The Drifters of Darga are an alien species that float across the surface of their planet making high-pitched noises (helium, you see) and helping adventurers who find themselves trapped in the local foliage. Because of their unfortunate skin patterns they’re considered terrifying by visitors. The story is a classic “don’t judge a book by its cover” tale which is precisely what I’m doing. I’ll never learn. The Machine Master is a simple story of slavery only with a master who is a machine, incapable of caring for its labour force. Despite this, the workers love the machine because the planet they’re working on has a higher-than-usual concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere. Light-headed japes and frequent fires fill the pages of this comic. The sand people from Star Wars make an...

Revenge Of The Sproutoids

Posted By Mark on Feb 17, 2015

Published in 1951 Revenge of the Sproutoids by J.N. Faber was for a period the most-read book in American schools owing to an endorsement on national radio by then-President Harry S. Truman. The plot of the book is broadly one of an invasion sparked by perceived abuse of vegetables from an alien race who bear a striking resemblance to them; the format is a series of tales that span the course of two hundred years and follow different groups of people from different areas of the world and the ways in which they mobilise resistance. Generally fairly light-hearted in tone the book is nevertheless notable for the graphic depiction of the destruction of the Soviet Union and this was Truman’s reported reason for the story’s fondness. Truman’s biographer Clement Connor put forth the alternative opinion that Truman simply loved sprouts but this is not supported by offical White House records that indicate the vegetable was actually banned from the building during the President’s...