Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame: 2014 inductees

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That’s a nice mix of inductees.

Olaf Stapledon was an odd duck. Born long enough ago to remember when Queen Elizabeth was alive and kicking. Wrote about humanity’s descendents living on a terraformed Neptune, where they’ve hacked themselves to have 96 genders and resemble anthropomorphic animals.

(And also have a third upwards-facing eye and telepathically communicate with themselves a half a Neptune year in the past so they can star-watch in 3D.)

The website has this phrase:

Stanley Kubrick’s impact on science fiction filmmaking cannot be underestimated.

Ugh. This clunky phrase has been defended by some fine people, but I can’t resist canceling the double negative, and read “can be overestimated”, meaning, basically, “not that great”.

It would be so much clearer to replace it with

Stanley Kubrick’s impact on science fiction filmmaking cannot be overstated.

If you read ‘cannot’ as ‘impossible’, it means “no matter how low your estimation, it will never be lower than the truth.” I’d accept should not be underestimated.

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