Talk:David Langford

message: Why is there a cross-reference link to Snow Crash?  Langford isn't mentioned there.  I'm a fan both of Langford and of Stephenson, but I don't see any notable connection between the two. Kestenbaum 06:37, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Hmm, to answer my own question, maybe it's about the connection between Langford's basilisk (clouding the mind, so to speak) and the fate of characters in Stephenson's novel who suffer a "snow crash".  Perhaps this needs to be more explicit? Kestenbaum 06:40, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Spot on.  I've attempted to expand that a bit. Blufive 11:27, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Looks good -- thanks. Kestenbaum 14:33, 19 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Snow Crash? 

message: Snow Crash is granted an explicit mention, but the novel(s) of Ken MacLeod, Greg Egan and Charles Stross that reference Langford are not named.  I'm particularly keen to know which Egan novel it is. -- Jon Dowland 15:40, 18 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Langford references in other's fiction 

message: I'm not sure whether this is notable enough to go in the article, but for some years Langford wrote a column for the generally interesting British Amstrad PCW users' magazine, 8000 Plus, which later on changed its name to PCW Plus and became generally boring. These, plus some later ones for a different mag, are online at the Ansible site. Also, AnsibleIndex was reasonably (code for "most people knew about it, but I don't know how many actually bought it") popular on the PCW. Loganberry (Talk) 05:00, 27 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Amstrad PCW 

message: Would it be a good idea to split off a personal background section from the introduction? We could insert an explicit mention of Dave's hearing difficulties rather than leaving it in the subtext. Maybe a mention of marriage and education at Brasenose, too.
I would also be inclined to include "editor" in the opening sentence and mention lower down the Sladek and Masson collections and role in the third edition of the encylopaedia and possibly sub-editing role for Terry P.
Peter cohen 14:23, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Some ideas for possible changes 

message: Just a minor thing, but I notice his Encyclopedia of Fantasy articles are signed "DRL". Anyone know what the R stands for? Daibhid C 19:54, 29 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Middle name?

message: I've done an update seeking to incorporate all the issues discussed above. Please let me know if I've missed anything. I'm particularly interested in any errors that DeafMan may spot. -- Peter cohen 16:51, 8 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Thanks, Dave. Your changes sound legitimate to this Wiki novice. --Peter cohen 10:36, 11 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Anything else to add or errors to correct? 

message: Per the wiki conventions, I've moved birthplace down to the body of the article and have taken a leap of faith that Dave grew up there. Is this correct? I've also noticed the description as British, not Welsh. Dave, is that your preferred designation?--Peter cohen 22:00, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes re Newport. Not much bothered about British/Welsh -- I tend to oscillate. --DeafMan 10:26, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Thanks Dave. I've just been through your biblio and added the books with large press publishers to the article. I've realised I don't know what the fannish Chris Morgan does for a living. I assume he is the person who co wrote the disasters book with you. Am I right that he is none of these Chris Morgans? --Peter cohen 12:29, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  It would seem more logical to include the futurological The Science in Science Fiction (1982 with Peter Nicholls and Brian Stableford, edited by Nicholls), in which I have a one-third share, than Micromania, which I merely adapted for the British market. (And updated further for the paperback.) "Our" Chris Morgan has no Wikipedia entry, although I suppose he could merit a brief one since he also wrote two solo books of interest -- see 1993 Encyclopedia of SF entry. Currently, according to recent email, he teaches adult education classes in writing. --DeafMan 10:03, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay I've adjusted the inclusion of books as suggested. I'm sure that Harlan will be pleased by there being one fewer reference to Platt. On the other book, I was misled by PN being the only contributor to appear on the cover scan. As for our CM, I don't actually have the '93 Encyclopedia. Maybe someone who has it can add him.--Peter cohen 14:44, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text:  Thanks! Yes, Peter Nicholls had an uncanny ability to get sole cover credit for joint projects, including the 1979 first edition of the Encyclopedia of SF. Would you like me to email you Chris Morgan's entry? I'd write him up myself, but am unfamiliar with the process of sorting out disambiguation. --DeafMan 18:17, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: My MPhil/PhD supervisors won't be happy if you do  given the relative time I spend here and on my real work. I think the three steps are 
* create the new entry under some name such as Chris Morgan (science fiction)
* create a link from your article where Chris's name is mentioned. You need to put Chris Morgan (science fiction)|Chris Morgan in the double square link brackets. 
*Go to the disambiguation page Chris Morgan and add in our Chris as an alternative place to go at the bottom of the list.
*If you're really enthusiastic, press What links here on the disambiguation page to see whether there are any mentions of our Chris to redirect to the new page.
I don't actually know whether there is a standard convention on entry name for fans who write a bit. WP:SF might have the answer.
--Peter cohen 20:31, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Couple of more fact checks 

message: At present the reference to Microcon looks a bit strange without other guest appearances mentioned. FOr example, Worldcon is mentioned only in the categories.
Is a full list of appearances available from which a paragraph can be constructed? And dies anyone know whether mentioning guest appearances is a frequent practice with Wikipedia skiffy-related articles in general?--Peter cohen (talk) 13:28, 22 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I spotted that the other day -- presumably added by the Microcon people -- and was half inclined simply to delete it rather than indulge in the tedious vanity of listing every GoH appearance. Sticking to conventions that have Wikipedia entries, I've also been a GoH at Boskone (convention), Eastercon twice, Finncon, Minicon (noted in List of past Minicons), Novacon, Orycon twice, and Worldcon (noted in List of Worldcons). --DeafMan (talk) 12:50, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Looking at pages such as Greg Pickersgill and Mike Glyer, guest of honour status does sometimes get a mention in articles. However on others such as those on Forry Ackermann and the Hielsen Haydens, there is no mention. I haven't spotted oens that go into huge detail.--Peter cohen (talk) 13:47, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, having constructed the list above I'm bunging it in, since the solitary Microcon reference is jarring. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. (The P&TNH entries actually list every Hugo nomination, which would be a bit much here.) Maybe some vanity-hunter will promptly take it out again! --DeafMan (talk) 09:58, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm prepared to do one revert to re-instate it if that happens but not to get into a prolonged edit war. The key thing was to get rid of the Microcon sore thumb. A sore hand is fine as is no hand at all. And I had thought that Emerson said "small minds" until you disillusioned me.--Peter cohen (talk) 15:10, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Convention Guest 

message: In the basilisks section, it is mentioned that a similar concept appeared in a story about vampires. A certain combination of right angles is harmful to vampires in that story. Is that a needlessly obtuse reference to a crucifix? Icons such as the crucifix have been used to ward off evil since time immemorial; in other words, that idea is nothing new and I don't think it relates to the concept of basilisks well.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.200.175.214 (talk) 03:33, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: The "certain combination of right angles" may or may not be a way of straining to craft a secular excuse for vampiric aversion to the Cross, since the religious explanation is not satisfactory to a certain type of secular readership. However, the wording is framed in such a way as to bear a certain resemblance to the Langfordian basilisk. Nonetheless, this may be original research and may need to come out. --Orange Mike  |  Talk 14:10, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: The idea -- as presented in Peter Watts's hard-sf Blindsight -- is that in prehistoric times vampires were highly intelligent non-supernatural predators (on humans), whose nervous system was susceptible to an optical glitch resembling the effects of Langfordian basilisks. As I remember, they would go into epileptic spasms when their visual systems tried to deal with juxtaposed right angles. Inevitably, the rise of civilization and technology led to their extinction. It is of course implied that this is the origin of the "cross harms vampires" belief. --DeafMan (talk) 16:16, 2 June 2009 (UTC)

text: For a long time I've felt that examples from other people's works don't really belong here and should be deported to the useful round-up entry "Motif of harmful sensation". Unfortunately this was deleted for the crime of original research, leaving such material with no obvious Wikipedia home. The new edition-in-progress of the SF Encyclopedia has a BASILISKS theme entry whose first outright sf example comes from 1934.... --DeafMan (talk) 12:31, 10 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Basilisks 

message: The surname is spelt as above -- see http://ansible.co.uk/books/account.html or my SF Encyclopedia entry. Any way to prevent this being "corrected" to Loosely, which has happened at least twice? DeafMan (talk) 11:56, 26 March 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Spelling of Loosley 

message: I have commenced a Bibliography section using cite templates and tables for short stories, poems and/or book reviews. Capitalization and punctuation follow standard cataloguing rules in AACR2 and RDA, as much as Wikipedia templates allow it. ISBNs and other persistent identifiers, where available, are commented out, but still available for reference. Feel free to continue. Sunwin1960 (talk) 02:44, 16 August 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bibliography 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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