Science Fiction Trivia

Website · Post by **Cody** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:38 am

I thought that clue would do it.

McLane was so close… the answer was right there in the link.

Barbet Schroeder’s french language film ‘La Vallee’ is set in Papua New Guinea in the early nineteen seventies. The soundtrack was written and recorded by Pink Floyd, and released as the album ‘Obscured By Clouds’, a reference to the mysterious upland valley in Papua New Guinea, always covered by clouds and never before visited by westerners, that is the setting of the film’s finale. Track seven on the album is ‘Childhood’s End’, the title of one of Arthur C. Clarke’s early masterpieces (possibly his best). I believe that David Gilmour corresponded with Clarke, asking permission to use the title for his song.

A great book, a great film and a great album.

Your turn again, sir.

Post by **Disembodied** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:48 am

OK, right ... this should be (I hope) an easy one: what classic SF novel includes references to the game of Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy?

DeepSpace · Post by **DeepSpace** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 2:07 pm

Its not Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is it? It sounds like the kind of thing that would appear in that

I've never read it myself though.

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 2:54 pm

El Viejo wrote:
McLane was so close… the answer was right there in the link.

Barbet Schroeder’s french language film ‘La Vallee’ is set in Papua New Guinea in the early nineteen seventies. The soundtrack was written and recorded by Pink Floyd, and released as the album ‘Obscured By Clouds’, a reference to the mysterious upland valley in Papua New Guinea, always covered by clouds and never before visited by westerners, that is the setting of the film’s finale. Track seven on the album is ‘Childhood’s End’, the title of one of Arthur C. Clarke’s early masterpieces (possibly his best). I believe that David Gilmour corresponded with Clarke, asking permission to use the title for his song.

Didn't realize that I was so close. T'was because my brain was wired entirely differently. I was only looking for Pink Floyd plus Papua New Guinea being mentioned in a novel...

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 3:01 pm

Disembodied wrote:
OK, right ... this should be (I hope) an easy one: what classic SF novel includes references to the game of Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy?

For me the first step would be to research what the heck Centrifugal Bumble-Puppy is...

EDIT: And there you are (sorry, I googled): Aldous Huxley, Brave New World.

The Director and his students stood for a short time watching a game of Centrifugal Bumble-puppy. Twenty children were grouped in a circle round a chrome steel tower. A ball thrown up so as to land on the platform at the top of the tower rolled down into the interior, fell on a rapidly revolving disk, was hurled through one or other of the numerous apertures pierced in the cylindrical casing, and had to be caught.

Post by **Disembodied** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:41 pm

Another point there to Commander McLane! (It was on my mind, hence the advert for Soma in the YAH thread.)

DeepSpace wrote:
Its not Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is it? It sounds like the kind of thing that would appear in that I've never read it myself though.

It's not too late. Quick! Run! Run and purchase a copy. Or see if you can get the original radio series on audio. In today's modern age there's really no need to endure such deprivation ...

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:44 pm

Okay, next one, and it gets more obscure still:

Who is standing on the north pole and begins with a "Z"?

(Germans who spent their childhood in the seventies definitely have the advantage here.)

Sarin · Post by **Sarin** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:59 pm

Herr Zeppelin?

Just guessing...

snork · Post by **snork** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 4:47 pm

hehe, I love this one (and know the answer).
But I wonder - can any nongerman language member actually know this ?

hint : it's NOT Winnie the ~~Poo~~ Pooh.

Zieman · Post by **Zieman** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 6:51 pm

snork wrote:
Winnie the Poo.

Surely you mean: Winnie the Pooh?
Poo comes out of one's butt, and not often with a capital P...

As for the guestion - can't be me even if I used to live almost on the polar circle

.

Maybe someone my (nick)namesake?

-guess: Zieman

snork · Post by **snork** » Sun Feb 14, 2010 6:56 pm

Zieman wrote:
snork wrote:
Winnie the Poo.
Surely you mean: Winnie the Pooh?

sorry, fixed.

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Mon Feb 15, 2010 7:49 am

snork wrote:
I wonder - can any nongerman language member actually know this ?

I think you can google it, although I indeed doubt that any non-German board member will ever have heard about it (which is a shame, I think). Hey, most of them haven't heard about Raumpatrouille, and that was exported into some 20 foreign countries.

snork wrote:
hehe, I love this one (and know the answer).

There's no rule saying that you can't post your answer here!

Oh, and if you link to the appropriate Wikipedia page (German Wikipedia, the beauty of the challenge is that there doesn't even exist an entry in the English Wikipedia), at least everybody who can employ Babelfish may get an idea about it.

Selezen · Post by **Selezen** » Mon Feb 15, 2010 9:00 am

Heh - completely off topic, but I once wrote a very simple algorithm to translate any English phrase into ANY foreign language.

All it did was render the entered phrase in capitals in BIG type with lots of space between the letters. Just like most Brits do in foreign climes - shout it loudly and slowly.

I haven't had a clue on the last few questions, and I'm trying to avoid Google...

Lestradae · Post by **Lestradae** » Mon Feb 15, 2010 9:18 am

Commander McLane wrote:
Okay, next one, and it gets more obscure still:

Who is standing on the north pole and begins with a "Z"?

(Germans who spent their childhood in the seventies definitely have the advantage here.)

That is immensly obscure ... even being austrian and therefore german speaking. But I figured it out.

It's the north pole researcher "Zacharias Peter Paul Obenauf" from the series "Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt" from 1972, created by someone named Boy Lornsen.

Right?

Edit: Even got a pic of him (I think)

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Mon Feb 15, 2010 2:56 pm

And the first price goes to ... Lestradae!

The ad is a nice find, too!

Most people, though, will know the puppet series from 1972, which was aired again and again throughout the seventies, in every format from a 4-part short series (with longer single episodes) to a 11-part series of shorter episodes. Technically it was well-advanced for its time, using for instance bluescreen effects. The film was a brainchild of Armin Maiwald, well-known to many, many Germans in their forties and below as the father of the Sendung mit der Maus.

More specifics can be found in the Wikipedia. Robbi, Tobbi und das Fliewatüüt is one of my legendary childhood memories. Glas to share it here!