Stargate on TDS?

[eregyrn]

It's more likely than you think!

So, on Thurs. night's Daily Show, the guest was Greg Bear, who's a sf/fantasy author from way back. Apparently he's been tapped (amongst other sf authors) to work with the FBI and Dept. Homeland Security, helping to, I dunno, brainstorm. He has a new book out, "Quantico", that uses themes that he helped develop in this work with the FBI.

The question here is: is Jon Stewart a SciFi Channel-watching geek.... or what?


JS: We're delighted to have you here.

Now, when you say "science fiction writers", they consider you more of a "hard" science fiction writer? Your books really are more about science that exists and sort of extrapolating that?

GB: A lot of them are, and we play with the net up, we say in the game, kind of like Robert Frost talking about poetry that rhymes? So this time we do it the hard way, we try and make it work.

JS: The science of it.

GB: Yeah.

JS: So, you can't just, in the middle of the thing, go, "And there's a Gate, and when you step through it you're on another planet!"

(Big audience laugh and laugh from GB; because JS did that line in a funny voice and waving hands.)

GB: I've done that! I've done that, that's fun, I don't mind doing that. I've written fantasy, scary stories, ghost stories. But when you sit down and write something like this book [Quantico], or earlier books, Darwin's Radio and so on, you have to convince the experts. And that means I'm talking to people who really do check their facts because they work in the labs every single day.


(The interview as a whole was interesting, and Bear seems cheerful and engaging when he was talking about trying to help the FBI and DHS come up with sf-like boundary-pushing technological approaches to fighting home-grown terrorism; he was esp. concerned with bio-weapons, creating viruses, etc. Seems like a nice enough guy. This was interesting to me, because I read *one* Greg Bear book back in the early or mid-80s, and I disliked it, and never sought out anything by him ever again. I wonder if I would like one of his books better now? It's been so long, and I dismissed the book so thoroughly from my brain, that now when I look at a list of his works, the title of it doesn't even ping me with any surety. Ah well.)


You know, something's going on when Jon Stewart is groping for an example of "fantastical science fiction", and what he comes up with is Stargate... not something from Trek, not something from Star Wars, not Battlestar Galactica. I have to say, it took me by surprise.

Comments

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

That is very very interesting. Because Stargate isn't the thing you'd expect to be the first thing on someone's mind when you think of TV scifi.

Maybe it has more of a following than people think, or at least a consciousness.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

interesting interview. as for bear's writing, i've read several, but they don't stay in my brain, er, if that makes any sense. it's as if i read them and the depth of character i'm hoping to find in a story isn't really there. lots of intriguing science though.

ps. it's funny to see where the gate crops up. and farscape too.....makes me smile a bit.

[cityofbeige.livejournal.com]

I saw this one interview on TDS and JS dropped like a gazillion references to either LotR or D&D (I forgot which). So yeah, Stewart's a geek.

[betacandy.livejournal.com]

I really like the Greg Bear books I've read, but I recall thinking that one or two of them would not have induced me to read more, had they been the first ones I read.

I started with Queen of Angels. He doesn't write very accessible characters in most of his books*, which I'm surprised didn't turn me off given how character-oriented I am.

*Except when he wrote a Star Wars prequel novel - extremely poignant characterization of both Obi-Wan and Anakin.

[pepper-field.livejournal.com]

It could be that someone in his family is a fan, though. That sounds like the sort of remark my bf would make - a bit annoyed about this damn show, and why do you spend all your time watching it, it's so silly...?

:)

But I prefer the idea that Jon Stewart is a fan. RDA has mentioned that he watches TDS. But, then again, who doesn't?

[radiotelescope.livejournal.com]

Greg Bear wasn't kidding when he said he's written a lot of different kinds of stuff. I've enjoyed some of his books and really disliked others.

I recommend _Eon_ (big wowzer adventure-explorer SF), and _The Infinity Concerto_ (fantasy, scary elves).

[niamaea.livejournal.com]

I don't care if Jon Stewart really watches Stargate or not... even the hypothetical idea of it makes my already gigantic, stinky love for him even bigger. Aaaaaah, I love him sooo much. Yay, Daily Show!

[zats-clear.livejournal.com]

you are killin' me here. And I thought I was the biggest fangirl of the cute blue-eyed Jewish gnome!!! He is such a Pocket-Hottie!