Happy Birthday: Edward Elmer Smith (May 2, 1890 – August 31, 1965) was an American food engineer (specializing in doughnut and pastry mixes) and science-fiction author, best known for the Lensman and Skylark series. He is sometimes called the father of space opera.

Smith's novels are generally considered to be classic space operas, and he is sometimes called the first of the three "novas" of 20th-century science fiction (with Stanley G. Weinbaum and Robert A. Heinlein as the second and third novas).

Heinlein credited him for being his main influence:

"I have learned from many writers—from Verne and Wells and Campbell and Sinclair Lewis, et al.—but I have learned more from you than from any of the others and perhaps more than for all the others put together ..."

Smith expressed a preference for inventing fictional technologies that were not strictly impossible (so far as the science of the day was aware) but highly unlikely: "the more highly improbable a concept is—short of being contrary to mathematics whose fundamental operations involve no neglect of infinitesimals—the better I like it" was his phrase.

Lensman was one of five finalists when the 1966 World Science Fiction Convention judged Isaac Asimov's Foundation the Best All-Time Series.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted Smith in 2004.

[This guy was THE person who got me into reading back in my early teens. A copy of his novel Triplanetary was literally dropped into my lap by a friend of my brothers who thought I looked bored. It BLEW MY MIND and I have never looked back. I became obsessed with Sci-Fi from that point but soon(ish) started widening my reading to where it is today - but he started the fire that has never gone out. I'll see if I can re-read Triplanetary this year. It'll be interesting - if I don't quickly DNF it! - to see what I think of it 50 years later...]

I used to be able to do this with my cat..... 

Welcome to May. We Made It! After a month of Book related posts we're back to 'normal' (or what passes for normal) here @ SaLT. But I have picked out a Summer Theme, running from June through August, that I'm looking forward to. It'll involve a mix of nostalgia with a sprinkling of competition.... but we have to get through THIS month first! 

Just Finished Reading: The Great Hunger by Patrick Kavanagh [50pp] 

So.... Poetry..... AGAIN! I think that both Penguin Classics boxsets are trolling me presently. Weirdly, and very unexpectedly, I didn’t mind these poems. I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I didn’t skim a single one.  

I’m not sure exactly why this was so. Generally, the poetry is about the natural world (in his Irish home) with multiple references to mountains, trees and such. By far the longest poem – hence the title of the booklet – was The Great Hunger itself. Going in I’d assumed that it was going to be about the Irish Potato Famine, but it was nothing of the sort. It was instead about the struggles of a farmer, tied to the land and to his overbearing mother leaving him alone in the world as both he and the land ages. It was, to coin a phrase, all very poetic. 

Whilst I’m not exactly going out and buying all of this poet’s works, I certainly wasn’t sorry that I read them and don’t consider my time wasted doing so. I don’t think that I’ve finally been ‘turned on’ to poetry, but that I’ve stumbled across a poet that doesn’t leave me cold, bored and confused with his use of language. We’ll see how the NEXT poet in either of these boxsets' fares! Reasonable.

...and I know *exactly* where this is!

Just Finished Reading: Why We Get the Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman (FP: 2018) [307pp] 

If you’re anything like me and live on the British mainland (mostly England to be honest), you’ll have probably wondered where exactly politicians come from, what exactly they do in Parliament and why (oh why?) it seems far easier to really screw something up than accomplish anything even vaguely useful. If so, this is definitely a good place to start. 

The author certainly is at the centre of things. As the Assistant Editor of The Spectator she has spent a considerable amount of time wandering the halls of Parliament and has interviewed numerous politicians of all stripes including local MPs (both long standing and of the newly minted variety), Ministers and even David Cameron himself prior to him leaving the House of Commons after the Brexit vote. She certainly had plenty of material to work with and used it wisely. It's not easy getting your bum on the green leather benches in the Commons. Not only do you need to get enough people to vote for you – possibly in a constituency you might be unfamiliar with – you need to be selected in the first place by the Party you’re part of (being an Independent makes the whole process and the likelihood of success MUCH more difficult). To do this you need to have put your time in (usually unpaid) for a number of years and be ‘inside’ enough and persuasive enough for the Party to support you through the process. This, naturally, eliminates many potential candidates and is one reason why it's rare indeed to see someone much outside the expected norms giving their traditional first speech on the floor of the Commons (there was one just recently that really stood out – a female ex-plumber for the Green Party. Knowing what I do now about the Parliamentary system I wish her well). 

It must be quite the shock – or maybe aftershock – to show up on your first day at the Commons. From what the author lays out it’s not exactly (or usually) the smooth transition many would hope. It seems that many MPs are given a brief talk and then essentially left to get on with things. The bigger more established parties have, apparently, tried to be a little more organised but I think they still have a fair bit to go. I’ve had a few creaky first weeks in various jobs, but nothing like the general experience of new MPs. Again, the experiences of INDEPENDENT MPs must be horrendous! Given a 4-5 year term (barring snap elections) it's a STEEP learning curve even for those who are already political animals – maybe previously a local councillor – but what they learn very quickly is that you vote with your Party and not with your conscience. Rebels certainly do not thrive and most certainly don’t get Ministerial positions where, naturally, most of the real power is. Those who are already (or become) Subject Matter Experts might expect to be placed on committees to scrutinise upcoming legislation (because that’s their job really) but they’d be both surprised and disappointed. The government of the day certainly doesn’t want a lowly (or NEW!) MP criticising their project with FACTS – and by extension giving aid to the Opposition(!) so no committees for them. That’s of course if they even have time to scrutinise the proposed Bill in the first place. 

This was quite THE eye-opener of a book. I certainly understand Parliament a great deal more (admittedly from quite a low bar) and am finding that I can already understand more of the language use in the Commons, both what they’re saying (or really saying) and what they’re not – both to make such unsaid comments public and to hide behind parliamentary language in order to confuse or deflect. This is definitely recommended for anyone who want to begin to understand how Parliament ‘works’ and, more importantly, why it doesn’t.