{"id":32978,"date":"2025-02-08T12:30:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-08T17:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/?p=32978"},"modified":"2025-02-04T16:20:47","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T21:20:47","slug":"february-8-2025-monsffa-meeting-post-1-of-2-1230pm-introduction-and-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/?p=32978","title":{"rendered":"FEBRUARY 8, 2025 CLUB MEETING; Post 1 of 2, 12:30PM \u2013 Introduction and Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>1) INTRODUCTION<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n

Welcome to MonSFFA\u2019s February 2025, \u201cmid-winter\u201d meeting! Take a break from shovelling your walk and join us for a few hours of sci-fi fun!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s proceedings will be getting underway shortly. We are meeting exclusively<\/em> online, today; join our ZOOM-chat and take part in the meeting from the warmth and comfort of home! See the instructions, immediately below (Item 2), to join in and participate on ZOOM.<\/p>\n

Our programming agenda begins at 1:00PM; the meeting will conclude at 5:00PM. This opening post has gone up 30 minutes before the meeting\u2019s start time to allow folk to gather online at their leisure.<\/p>\n

A closing post will go up at 5:00PM to officially thank today\u2019s presenters\/discussion moderators, and to publish the date of the next MonSFFA event.<\/p>\n

2) JOIN THIS AFTERNOON\u2019S VIDEO-CHAT ON ZOOM!<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

\"\"<\/a>To take part in this afternoon\u2019s meeting online, join our ZOOM video-chat, which will run throughout the next few hours. Simply click here and follow the prompts:\u00a0This Afternoon\u2019s MonSFFA Meeting on ZOOM<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not fully equipped to ZOOM, you can also take part by phone (voice only); in the Montreal area, the toll-free number to call is:\u00a01-438-809-7799<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Also, have this information on hand as you may be asked to enter it:<\/p>\n

Meeting ID:\u00a0873 2473 3518<\/strong>
\nPasscode:\u00a0454855\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

3) FEBRUARY 2025 MEETING THEME<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Snap a few photos of your hobby work space to share with the group, and tell us all about your genre-flavoured hobbies!<\/p>\n

4) THIS AFTERNOON\u2019S AGENDA<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Today\u2019s programming agenda is as follows:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

1:00PM<\/strong> \u2013 What Goes Well with SF\/F?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Romance, mystery, horror, Western\u2014which genres mix well with our favourite types of story, science fiction and fantasy? We\u2019ll discuss!\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2:00PM<\/strong> \u2013 Water in SF\/F!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

An indispensable necessity for life as we know it, we\u2019ll explore SF\/F\u2019s use of water as a story element!\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3:00PM<\/strong> \u2013 Break<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Club business, announcements, and raffle<\/p>\n

3:30PM<\/strong> \u2013 My Hobby Space!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

We all have hobbies\u2014painting, sculpting, scale-model building, knitting, writing fanfic, etc. We\u2019ll ask \u201cWhere in your home is located your hobby workstation\u2014corner nook, basement workshop, kitchen table?\u201d Snap a few photos of your work space to share with the group, and tell us all about your genre-flavoured hobbies!\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

4:30PM<\/strong> \u2013 Final Thoughts and Wrap-Up!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

We close the afternoon with final thoughts, questions, and commentary on today\u2019s topics, or other subjects members may have to briefly share with the group. Your feedback, dear members, is always welcome!<\/p>\n

Please Note: While we strive to keep on schedule, we do, sometimes, fall behind a little, or find ourselves having to reshuffle the order of items on the agenda for one reason or another, or reschedule planned presentations\/discussions. Therefore, please understand that all programming is subject to change!<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

5) WINTER WORLDS OF SF\/F<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

In the midst of this recent spate of winter weather, we are reminded of a recurrent setting in SF\/F, the ice planet, or ice realm! While we await the start of the meeting, here, for your consideration, are a few winter worlds of note and interest.<\/p>\n

Hoth:\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Perhaps the best-known ice world in sci-fi by virtue of the blockbuster popularity of the Star Wars<\/strong> franchise, this snow-covered planet was, in The Empire Strikes Back<\/em><\/strong> (1980), the setting of a thrilling battle between rag-tag Rebel forces and an imposing, mechanized Imperial army.<\/p>\n

Rura Penthe:<\/strong> \"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

An icy, unforgiving world on which the Klingons have established a penal colony, Admiral Kirk and Doctor McCoy were imprisoned here in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country<\/em><\/strong> (1991).<\/p>\n

Another ice world in the Star Trek<\/strong> universe is Delta Vega<\/strong>, featured in the reboot film Star Trek<\/em><\/strong> (2009).<\/p>\n

And, in the original series episode \u201cAll Our Yesterdays<\/strong>\u201d (1969), the Enterprise visits the planet Sarpeidon<\/strong>, soon to be destroyed by a supernova. The people of Sarpeidon<\/strong> escape doom by time-travelling into the past by way of a machine called the Atavachron, and Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy are unintentionally transported back some 5000 years, to the planet\u2019s ice age, where all they have to keep them warm are the shelter of a cave heated by a hot spring, animal skins, and Mariette Hartley!\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Barsoom\u2019s North Pole:\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Home to the Okar of Edgar Rice Burroughs\u2019 Warlord of Mars<\/em><\/strong>, the third book in his seminal planetary romance adventure series. Thought extinct, the Okar, or Yellow Martians, live in secret within glass-domed cities built to protect them from the severe arctic environment. When outside, they wear heavy furs of Apt or Orluk, wildlife indigenous to Barsoom\u2019s northern polar region.<\/p>\n

Frigia:\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alex Raymond\u2019s Flash Gordon<\/strong> comic strip premiered in 1934, and featured the planet Mongo, a far-northern territory of which encompasses the ice kingdom Frigia<\/strong>, so cold as to be entirely inhospitable to all but the native peoples of this area, who wear special synthetic, and oddly transparent, clothing to repel the cold. Frigia<\/strong> is ruled by the beautiful blonde Queen Fria, who takes a liking to the handsome, titular space adventurer and hero, much to the consternation of his girlfriend, Dale Arden. The wildlife of Frigia<\/strong> include Snow Oxen, Ice Bears,\u00a0Snow Dragons,\u00a0Snowbirds, and Ice Worms.<\/p>\n

Zura:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Ray Cummings\u2019 novelette \u201cRevolt in the Ice Empire<\/strong>,\u201d first published in the fall 1940 issue of Planet Stories<\/em>, an expedition from Earth aboard the spaceship Planeteer<\/em> arrives on Zura<\/strong>, described as \u201ca frigid little world\u201d with \u201cpatches of snow and sleek blue ice everywhere.\u201d An asteroid following an elliptical orbit around the sun, Zura<\/strong> is rich in the valuable element Xalite. Tara, a beautiful Earth girl, rules over the less sophisticated native Zurians, her father having travelled to the asteroid from Earth in a previous expedition with the intention of establishing a perfect society. But the Planeteer<\/em> brings with it avarice, violence, fear, and revolt soon stirs, the Utopian dream Tara inherited from her father quickly becoming a nightmare!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Pulp Illustrations: Revolt in the Ice Empire (left) and The Lake of the Gone Forever (right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Iskar:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Leigh Brackett\u2019s \u201cThe Lake of the Gone Forever<\/strong>,\u201d\u00a0first featured in the October 1949 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories<\/em>, Iskar<\/strong> is a wintery world the topography of which includes a semi-liquid lake having \u201cparticles of some transuranic element\u201d which acts as a repository of the memories of Iskar\u2019s dead.<\/p>\n

Gethen:\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Also known as \u201cWinter,\u201d this bitterly cold world populated by the ambisexual Gethenians is the setting of Ursula K. LeGuin\u2019s acclaimed The Left Hand of Darkness<\/em><\/strong> (1969), one of the leading examples of feminist SF. A major theme of the book is the effect of sex and gender on culture and society.<\/p>\n

Tran-Ky-Ky:\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

A group of spaceship passengers find themselves shipwrecked on the windblown ice world Tran-Ky-Ky<\/strong> in Alan Dean Foster\u2019s Icerigger<\/strong> trilogy (1974-1987) The planet\u2019s native population are burly, cat-faced bipeds having sail-like membranes under their arms and extended, curved claws on their feet that serve as ice skates, allowing them to easily manoeuver over a glacial landscape.<\/p>\n

Helliconia:\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Brian W. Aldiss\u2019 Helliconia<\/strong> trilogy (1982-1985) traces the rise and fall of a civilization over more than a thousand years on the planet Helliconia<\/strong>, where the seasons are measured not in months, but centuries! Situated within a binary star system and slightly larger than Earth, Helliconia<\/strong> sustains vast polar ice caps, even during the hot summer season. The planet\u2019s northern continent, Sibornal<\/strong>, is the setting of the third book in the series, Helliconia Winter<\/em><\/strong>. Ice Age conditions prevail during the Helliconian winter, and a major theme of the books is the influence of climate on human civilization.<\/p>\n

Narnia:\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

A hundred-year winter, with no Christmas, has descended on C. S. Lewis\u2019 magical fantasy realm, Narnia<\/strong>, brought about by the evil White Witch, who rules the land. The arrival of the Pevensie children, however, in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe<\/em><\/strong> (1950) marks the beginning of the end of her dominance.<\/p>\n

Westeros, North of \u201cThe Wall\u201d:\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

George R. R. Martin\u2019s yet to be completed fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire<\/strong>, the first book of which was published in 1996, was adapted for television as Game of Thrones<\/em><\/strong>. In Martin\u2019s fictional world, the northernmost region of \u201cWesteros<\/strong>,\u201d one of the world\u2019s two continents, is the largely unexplored and unmapped wintery domain of the enigmatic \u201cOthers,\u201d or \u201cWhite Walkers.\u201d These supernatural creatures are a deadly threat to mankind, and a giant wall of ice and stone, imbued with magic and overseen by the Sworn Brotherhood of the Night\u2019s Watch, stretches from coast to coast across northern Westeros<\/strong>. The Wall serves to keep the Others at bay, to separate them from the Seven Kingdoms to the south.<\/p>\n

Martin\u2019s world, here, is one of very<\/em> long and brutally cold winters, and he has stated that Canada most closely resembles his vision of northern Westeros.<\/p>\n

The Earth Itself as a Frozen World:<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Christopher\u2019s The World in Winter<\/em><\/strong> (1962; U.S. title: The Long Winter<\/em>) envisions a new ice age descending over Europe due to a lessening of solar radiation. Food shortages and starvation ensue, and England descends into anarchy and barbarism, with refugees fleeing to tropical countries, like former colony Nigeria.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Michael Moorcock\u2019s The Ice Schooner<\/em><\/strong> (1969) depicts a post-apocalyptic Earth under a thousand feet of ice, with surviving humans navigating the frozen expanses in sailing ships fitted with skis and hunting what has become their primary food source, \u201cice whales\u201d\u2014whales that have adapted to the temperature change and live atop the ice.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another story sees an interplanetary narcotics operative working with inhabitants of an extremely frigid alien world to help stop a drug-smuggling operation; this is Hal Clement\u2019s Iceworld<\/em><\/strong> (1953). The titular world is, in fact, our own, temperate Earth, but from the agent\u2019s point of view, it is<\/em> an ice world, given that the sulfur his kind breathes exists as a solid on this planet!\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the Twilight Zone<\/em> episode \u201cThe Midnight Sun<\/strong>\u201d (1961), a New York City artist and her landlady suffer in the heat of rising temperatures as Earth slowly drifts closer to the sun following a realignment of the planet\u2019s orbit. But in a twist typical of the acclaimed television series, this whole scenario is revealed to have been the artist\u2019s fevered dream, and she awakens to find humanity gradually freezing to death as the Earth\u2019s orbital displacement has, in fact, caused the planet to begin spinning away from the sun!<\/p>\n

And, the 2006 climactic disaster movie Absolute Zero<\/em><\/strong> portrays the results of a sudden shift in the Earth\u2019s magnetic field, causing a drastic drop in temperature to absolute zero in equatorial regions while Greenland, Iceland, Siberia, Alaska, and Northern Europe and Canada are transformed into scorching deserts!<\/p>\n

Other examples include the frozen Earth of Snowpiercer<\/em><\/strong>, both graphic novel (French: Le Transperceneige<\/em>, 1982) and screen adaptations (2014, 2020-2024), the Montreal-shot Quintet<\/em><\/strong> (film, 1979), and The Day After Tomorrow<\/em><\/strong> (film, 2004)<\/p>\n

Arcta:\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

A two-part episode of the original Battlestar Galactica<\/em><\/strong>, \u201cThe Gun on Ice Planet Zero<\/strong>,\u201d is something of a Guns of Navarone<\/em> in space! Military engagements with the Cylons are driving the Galactica<\/em> and Colonial Fleet towards the ice planet Arcta<\/strong>, where the Cylons have set up a trap in the form of a powerful pulsar cannon capable of destroying the Galactica. <\/em>Apollo leads a special task force to the planet to infiltrate the Cylon garrison and destroy the gun.<\/p>\n

Abeth:\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mark Lawrence\u2019s Book of the Ancestors<\/strong> (2017-2019) and Book of the Ice<\/strong> (2020-2022) fantasy trilogies are set on the planet Abeth<\/strong>, a frozen world which orbits a dying red sun. Abeth\u2019s artificial moon serves to refract sunlight onto the planet\u2019s surface along a narrow equatorial corridor, staving off the slowing encroaching walls of glacial ice on either side of this habitable zone, where most of the planet\u2019s inhabitants live.<\/p>\n

Niflheim:\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the upcoming dark comedy\/sci-fi film Mickey 17<\/em><\/strong> (2025), Niflheim <\/strong>is a hostile ice planet to which Mickey Barnes is dispatched as part of a dangerous colonization mission. Mickey\u2019s desire to get off of Earth had prompted him to sign on as an \u201cExpendable,\u201d a crew member assigned the most hazardous tasks because as an Expendable, he is, essentially, disposable\u2014each time he dies in the performance of his duties, a new version of his body is \u201cprinted out,\u201d or cloned, while preserving intact almost all the memories of the previous Mickeys! But when Mickey\u2019s 17th incarnation is erroneously presumed to have died while performing his latest duties, a replacement is produced, Mickey 18, and the rules of the game do not allow \u201cmultiples\u201d to co-exist!<\/p>\n

The meeting officially begins at 1:00PM! Thanks for joining us today, and enjoy the afternoon!<\/em><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1) INTRODUCTION Welcome to MonSFFA\u2019s February 2025, \u201cmid-winter\u201d meeting! Take a break from shovelling your walk and join us for a few hours of sci-fi fun! Today\u2019s proceedings will be getting underway shortly. We are meeting exclusively online, today; join our ZOOM-chat and take part in the meeting from the warmth and comfort of home! … Continue reading FEBRUARY 8, 2025 CLUB MEETING; Post 1 of 2, 12:30PM \u2013 Introduction and Agenda<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":435,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/435"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32978"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33008,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32978\/revisions\/33008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsffa.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}