David Langford
See first quotes from David Langford
12 Quotations from David Langford
| condom n. | 1986 Ansible (#45) Feb. 4/1 (heading) CONDOM [list of upcoming conventions]. |
| dark fantasy n. | 1987 in White Dwarf Dec. 13/1 ‘Dark fantasy’ is today’s posh word for ‘horror’; Barker’s considerable talents in this area lead to a few gobs of gratuitous nastiness, and also some terrific creations. |
| Frankenstein complex n. | 2002 The Last Robot Story in 3SF Dec. 13/2 The unknown terrorist cabal is trying to trade on humanity’s Frankenstein complex by throwing the blame on to robots—despite the incontrovertible fact, known to every schoolchild, that the First Law of Robotics will not permit a robot to harm a human being nor by inaction allow a human being to come to harm, while the Second Law…What’s wrong? |
| geas n. | 1997 The Case of Jack the Clipper in Interzone (#126) Dec. 17/1 Actually I use an old Irish charm I'd learned in my travels—a tiny geas that compels the hearer to acts of senseless generosity. |
| infodump n. | 1993 Editor my Destination in Quantum Spring–Summer 13/3 Worst of all, the crucial repetition of the ’Gully Foyle is my name‘ jingle near the end of the book is lost—jettisoned along with the disposable info-dump sentence that reminds us who the Scientific People are. |
| scientifictional adj. | 1996 in Interzone June 20/2 John Wyndham’s papers are up for sale…. George Hay, founder of the SFF, is not so keen and would prefer investment in other, more scientifictional areas. |
| shared world n. | 1989 in GamesMaster June 82/1 Deal mortal blows to the brain by sending ‘shared world anthologies’ in which many writers set stories in the same fictional ‘universe’. |
| skiffy n. | 2005 in Ansible (#216) July Meanwhile someone has decided that the award-nominated cover design, with its striking NASA/JPL Jupiter photograph, was not skiffy enough. Therefore, stars have been added. Stars which shine straight through that gas-giant planet and its moon. Really science-fictional stars. |
| Tuckerize v. | 1994 in Ansible (#89) Dec. 2/1 Ian Sorensen is unmistakably Tuckerized in Dreams of Dawn by Marti Steussy. |
| Tuckerized adj. | 1998 in Mimosa (#22) June 43/2 (quoting Mike Resnick) Rocket to the Morgue is filled with Tuckerized pros, not fen. |
| usuform adj. | 1985 The Third Millennium: A History of the World, AD 2000–3000 107/3 These miners were ‘usuform’ robots with interchangeable plug-in brain modules devised for specific jobs. |
| wetware n. | 1986 Critical Mass: To Be Continued in White Dwarf Aug. 9/3 You may not believe in killer programs which invade the brain, but Neuromancer, if you once let it into your wetware, isn’t easily erased. |