Episode 23 - A Pail of Air (Fritz Lieber)

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TBD - To Be Determined

Bill Williamson, Dan Kamm

33 episodes

7 months ago

Classic scifi short stories ... some you know, some you don't. But all of them are worthy of another look.

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Classic scifi short stories ... some you know, some you don't. But all of them are worthy of another look.

Episode 23 - A Pail of Air (Fritz Lieber)

TBD - To Be Determined

36 minutes

2 years ago

Episode 23 - A Pail of Air (Fritz Lieber)

Theme: I can see my breath. I can scoop mine with a bucket. Now that’s COLD!

Episode Connections
Authors, stories. Fritz Lieber, Newhon series. James M. Ward & Rob Kuntz, Deities & Demigods (TSR, AD&D). Stephen King, “The Jaunt.” Jerome Bixby, The Holes Around Mars. Hal Clement, Mission of Gravity. Tom Godwin, “The Cold Equations.”
Films. Snowpiercer. The Day After Tomorrow. The Colony. Mad Max.
TV episodes, series. None this time.
Ideas. Post-apocalyptic sci fi. Surviving the apocalypse in a blanket fort. Did they have duct tape in 1951? The Earth was pulled away from the Sun. Not all science fiction stands up to scientific scrutiny. Many early sci fi stories are built around pseudoscience. Science feels more like magic in some of those stories. Sci fi inspired fantasy authors to have laws of magic. So, Lieber gets some science wrong. “Fire and pure oxygen don’t play real well together.” Sometimes sci fi just constitutes a good yarn. The “Life is good” postulate in sci fi … there is always hope. Pousse cafe, layered digestif - recipe at <Epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/the-pousse-cafe-no-1-51167400>. This is an early post-apocalyptic sci fi story. Oddly optimistic. Extremely cold realms have come to equate with space. alien landscapes, and post-apocalyptic lit. Nuclear winter. Climate change. Rising temperatures … we need more sci fi stories about blazing heat. Assless leather chaps are never a good fashion choice. TBD is key to surviving an apocalypse.
Whoa - Hmmm - WTF. Dan says … none of these apply well to “A Pail of Air.” It is less science fiction than fictional science. Bill says it is a head scratcher. Worth reading, but not great science.

Previous episode: R.A. Lafferty, “Encased in Ancient Rind”
Next episode: Larry Niven, “Inconstant Moon”

Music Credit: "Ouroboros" Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
Link: Creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/