2003 - 06/2003 Meeting

Page Created: 09/18/10. Last Update: 09/22/10. Last Google Group Page Update: 03/30/08.

SAMUEL FLORMAN

Novels:

The Aftermath

Non Fiction:

Blaming Technology

The Civilized Engineer

Engineering and the Liberal Arts

The Existential Pleasures of Engineering

The Introspective Engineer

MEETING SUMMARY:

Meeting Date: June 14, 2003.

Meeting Site: Barnes & Noble, West Paterson, New Jersey.

Official Attendance: 25.

Meeting Program: Talk by Science / Science Fiction Writer.

Notes:

Meeting Memories:

Newsletter Account:

The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County held its June 14, 2003 meeting at Barnes & Noble in West Paterson, New Jersey. Attendance was lighter than usual, possibly as the result of heavy rains earlier in the afternoon.

Roy Greenberg lead the 7:00 PM discussion of STAR TREK fiction at the Final Frontier. Among the areas examined were comparisons between books featuring characters from the original show vs later series, mega storylines which crossed over from one series to another, new, e-version formats for professional TREK fiction, and stories featuring Federation ships which were created specifically for the book audience.

Samuel Florman was the evening's featured speaker. Mr Florman is an engineer and a principal in a construction company which builds hospitals, schools, apartment houses, and other facilities. He is also an author whose first novel, THE AFTERMATH, was recently released as a trade paperback by St Martin's Press.

Mr Florman's first five books were THE INTROSPECTIVE ENGINEER, THE CIVILIZED ENGINEER, BLAMING TECHNOLOGY, THE EXISTENTIAL PLEASURES OF ENGINEERING, and ENGINEERING AND THE LIBERAL ARTS. They are reflections and ruminations about the interface between progress and technology on the one hand and ethical behavior and moral consequences on the other. Without realizing it, he has weighed in on one of the central themes of science fiction, the interplay of two disparate worlds of Western thought, the world of art and the world of science.

THE AFTERMATH is a disaster novel in which the heroes are engineers. A large comet splashes down in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of California and pretty much wipes out all life on 98% of the planet. The 2% of the world which survives is mostly in the Republic of South Africa. The good news is that this is one of the richest areas in the world for a diversity of minerals and people. The better news is that a cruise ship filled with topflight engineers of every variety is in the area and escapes Armageddon.

The engineers strike a bargain with the mainland Zulus and other survivors. If the mainlanders supply the day-to-day necessities for survival, the engineers will rebuild civilization. THE AFTERMATH is the story of the first year after the cataclysm.

The situation is a familiar one to readers of science fiction. Eric Flint and S M Stirling are among those to recently utilize the premise. Within the genre, the scenario of rebuilding civilization from scratch goes back at least as far as Jules Verne's THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND.

The talk and question and answer session generated even more side discussions in the audience than usual. Robert Pinkus triggered a whole side conversation by asking why Western Civilization became the first Mechanical / Technological Civilization. Answers from within the audience ranged from "Someone had to be first" to any number of characteristics which might be unique to the Western tradition.

The author's real life experiences served as a template for portions of the novel. Mr Florman was in an Engineering Battalion during the Second World War. The group was assigned the task of rebuilding the infrastructure of an island that had been pretty thoroughly dismantled by US bombing.

It was during this time when Mr Florman realized that most of the engineers with whom he associated had little knowledge or interest in areas of knowledge outside their profession. After his discharge, he began to write articles targeted for engineers about history, ethics, and so on. These in turn became the basis of his engineering books.

He summarized the differences between THE AFTERMATH and his other books with: "The editor kept saying: Less science. More action."

Although turnout for the event was a bit light, it was a very focused and appreciative audience. Sell through of the books Barnes & Noble had brought in was about 40%, which is very good and made both the store and the author quite happy. At the conclusion of the meeting, a number of the group continued the evening at the Park West Diner.