Oolite Bulletins

Kurt Vonnegut's first novel, Player Piano.

Disembodied wrote: ↑Sat Sep 05, 2020 11:07 am

Kurt Vonnegut's first novel, Player Piano.

That's one of the books I was thinking of for this, so that's a right answer, but you don't get a meaningless bonus point because it isn't actually about music.

Three down, two to go.

Robert Heinlien published under the name Lyle Monroe 1942. Pied Piper

spud42 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 07, 2020 12:10 pm

Robert Heinlien published under the name Lyle Monroe 1942. Pied Piper

Hang on, that reminds me.
Does a bit of "Young Adult" (or even "Children's Fiction" by Pterry, set on the DiscWorld (-ish) count as SF? It's a bit borderline, but I'm thinking of "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents", where a speaking cat and troupe of "educated rodents", along with a human patsy with a tin whistle travel the country making a tidy living off replaying the "Pied Piper" legend.

spud42 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 07, 2020 12:10 pm

Robert Heinlien published under the name Lyle Monroe 1942. Pied Piper

This is a little borderline since it's the musician rather than the instrument, but I admitted that this was possible in the example I gave - Fiddler on the Roof - so I'll accept it. No meaningless bonus point since so far as I can recall it has nothing to do with music.

RockDoctor wrote: ↑Mon Sep 07, 2020 12:46 pm

spud42 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 07, 2020 12:10 pm

Robert Heinlien published under the name Lyle Monroe 1942. Pied Piper

Hang on, that reminds me.
Does a bit of "Young Adult" (or even "Children's Fiction" by Pterry, set on the DiscWorld (-ish) count as SF? It's a bit borderline, but I'm thinking of "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents", where a speaking cat and troupe of "educated rodents", along with a human patsy with a tin whistle travel the country making a tidy living off replaying the "Pied Piper" legend.

Well, since I've just accepted piper in the previous answer all other pipers are ruled out - also, the instrument isn't mentioned in the title of the story! Also fantasy, not SF. So no, I'm afraid that one is ruled out, as are several other stories with piper in the title e.g. Richard Cowper's Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

Four down, one to go!

Robert Silverberg's short story "Caught in the Organ Draft" isn't about music, but it does have a musical instrument in the title. Sort of.

Disembodied wrote: ↑Mon Sep 07, 2020 5:40 pm

Robert Silverberg's short story "Caught in the Organ Draft" isn't about music, but it does have a musical instrument in the title. Sort of.

Like I said, it just had to be the name of an instrument, and Organ is as good a name as any. That gives you number five, and victory! No meaningless bonus point though.

The one I was expecting to see was Lloyd Biggle Junior's novel The Small Still Voice of Trumpets, but maybe it's not as well known as I thought. Also James Blish's A Clash of Cymbals, the sequel to Earthman Come Home which came up in a previous question.

OK, let's work our way through the Muses … five SF stories/films/episodes/etc. which refer to dance or dancing in their titles. Only one answer per SF universe - but names of dances, or indeed the words "dance", "dancing", etc. can be repeated.

E.g. if Dances With Wolves was a scifi film, it would count. Meaningless bonus points for answers which name specific types of dances - e.g. ff the film Charleston was a scifi film, it would count AND get a MBP.

Well, let's go for an easy answer - Stardance by Spider and Jeanne Robinson

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardance



No meaningless bonus points, of course.

Quick question - if the name of a type of dance is used in a title but in another context is it acceptable?

ffutures wrote: ↑Wed Sep 09, 2020 12:12 pm

Well, let's go for an easy answer - Stardance by Spider and Jeanne Robinson

That looks … chilly. But it definitely counts! One down, four to go.

ffutures wrote: ↑Wed Sep 09, 2020 12:12 pm

Quick question - if the name of a type of dance is used in a title but in another context is it acceptable?

Yes - along the same lines of "Caught in the Organ Draft", it's OK if the name of a type of dance is used in any context.

OK, I've given it a while so I may as well give another answer - Ballroom!

Ballroom of the Skies by John D. MacDonald (1952); a nice cheerful story in which Earth is kept in a perpetual state of conflict and misery so that it can be the crucible that produces strong leaders for a utopian galactic civilization.

ffutures wrote: ↑Thu Sep 10, 2020 7:17 pm

OK, I've given it a while so I may as well give another answer - Ballroom!

Ballroom of the Skies by John D. MacDonald (1952); a nice cheerful story in which Earth is kept in a perpetual state of conflict and misery so that it can be the crucible that produces strong leaders for a utopian galactic civilization.

Perfectly acceptable … that's two!

The Dancer form Atlantis, Poul Anderson

spud42 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:27 am

The Dancer form Atlantis, Poul Anderson

That's three … two to go!

OK - The Entropy Tango by Michael Moorcock (1981) - the sixth book of the Jerry Cornelius series

"The good airship Lady Charlotte Lever chugged over what was probably Transcarpathia. Una Persson was stopping over in London to see her lover Catherine. Makhno's anarchists held Ontario. Toronto was about to fall. The Americans were agitated. It was 1948 and a second World War was about to break out. Major Nye hoped not. He remembered the Great War and Geneva in 1910. Jerry Cornelius was left behind in a New Hampshire barn. While in Lionel Himmler's Blue Spot Club, Miss Brunner ordered jugged hare as Bartok played on the jukebox."

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/mich ... -tango.htm