Fantastically Fun Fridays: February 24, 2012

It's Friday, which means it's time to let loose a bit and have some fun!  And what better way to have fun than to read some nursery rhymes with George R. R. Martin (ok, not the real one, but this guy seems fun, too):

Here are some other things we thought you might enjoy:

Basket Case

Duane Bradley, a simpleton from the country who arrives in New York City, is a man with more secrets than how he gives his glorious hair such body. He shows up with a large wad of cash (making the mistake of flashing it to everyone in the seedy hotel where he decides to stay), a basket with a lock on it, and a hidden agenda. Years ago his conjoined twin, Belial, and he were separated against their will by a few doctors in an attempt to appease his embarrassed father. Having left Belial (not much more than a head and stubby arms) for dead, the surprise is that Belial survives the separation and is reunited with Duane that evening. Under the care of a loving and very understanding aunt, they boys are raised in seclusion until she passes away.

The Fantastic in the Fine Arts: Classic Works of Art Reinterpreted

A few weeks ago, Irene Gallo at Tor wrote a piece about classic works of art that have been reworked or re-imagined with fantasy or science fiction in mind.  Take, for example, the cover for Robert Heinlein's 1987 novel To Sail Beyond the Sunset:

The half-shell, the position and color of the woman's hair, and her nudity are all reminiscent of Botticelli's very famous painting The Birth of Venus:

Fantasy Literature, Privacy, and the Rise of Technology

A few months ago in U.S. v. Jones, the Supreme Court found that the government’s warrantless attachment of a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking device to a vehicle to monitor its movement constituted a Fourth Amendment violation. You can find the Court’s opinions in their entirety here. Or, for those of you looking for a quicker summary, I wrote about the case for Harvard Law School’s Journal of Law and Technology here. 

In this post, I want to focus on one point Justice Alito made in his concurrence.

Justice Alito explained that while the Fourth Amendment protects our reasonable expectation of privacy, technological changes may fundamentally alter our privacy expectations in the future such that, one day, Fourth Amendment protection for GPS-like data may disappear. 

Midweek Fiction: Maria Dahvana Headley, "Seeräuber"

One of the things I love best about offering fiction recommendations is introducing someone to a new favorite story, or writer. It's like literary matchmaking, with absolutely no risk that I'll have to wear a bridesmaid's dress at any point.

Humans Versus Zombies; or The Place of Fantasy in Sports

Me as a zombie, preparing to rush the humans

This past weekend at Valparaiso University, I had the opportunity to play Humans Vs. Zombies, a role-playing game of tag where players are split into two teams: humans and zombies.  There are only a few zombies at the onset of the game, and their goal is to tag as many humans as they can, thus converting them into zombies, too.  The goal of the humans is to stay human, which means they must avoid being tagged by zombies.  Humans can use Nerf blasters to stun zombies (stunned zombies can't tag humans for a set period of time) and escape, but the way many games go is very similar to any zombie movie you've ever seen: the zombie horde wins.

I had a fantastic time playing.  For starters, it's a really fun game, and the moderators of this particular game did a great job of organizing gameplay in a way that forced humans and zombies to interact (as opposed to the humans hiding out in the various safe areas around campus).  They created a storyline that was humorous and playful, but that also showed thoughtfulness and awareness of the conventions of the zombie genre.  But, I would argue, there's more to Humans Vs. Zombies than simply a good time--it's a game that provides unique ways for its participants to interact with each other.

Our Fantastic Favorites: Dark Lord of Derkholm