Another Sturgeon’s wisdom

Idon’t tend to read a lot of science fiction. I am a keen fan of Star Wars, I used to love a bit of Doctor Who in the distant and halcyon days of Tom Baker and anybody of my generation who doesn’t look back on the strange, inter-galactic camp that was Blake’s Seven with a fondness bordering on the unhealthy, has something wrong with them.

Not to mention Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. And the more contemporary Guardians of the Galaxy, which is great fun.

Couldn’t hack it with the film version of that great cult favourite, Dune, however. I found it rather taxing, to say the least, to deal with a script which included such gems as: “How fare the worms of Arakis?” and “Our water shall mingle with your water.”

People attempting to grasp and deal with great over-arching themes reaching far beyond the bounds of their chosen genre tend not to have much in the way of a sense of irony. Or humour. What they do have is a tin ear for dialogue.

So sci-fi has never been top of my book list. But I warmed, like an old star heating up for its final blaze of glory, to the words and outlook of an author whom I discovered only this week and completely by accident.

There are, you might surmise, only two possible responses to a search on th’interweb for the word Sturgeon (with or without a capital); one an endangered species of fish and the other an endangered species of politician.

But no. How I have lived so long without knowing about Theodore Sturgeon, US science fiction writer and critic of the 1950s, I do not know but I am now making up for lost time, bigstyle.

Mr Sturgeon it was who skilfully married the worlds of futuristic fantasy with the current painful state of reality in which most of us attempt to function.

When it was pointed out to him by a rather cruel fellow critic that “90% of science fiction is c***”, good old Theodore shot back with the sharp observation that “90% of everything is c***”.

This blinding insight into the state of the world is known as Sturgeon’s Revelation and it pretty much tells it like it is for many of us at the moment. I just hope it doesn’t give Nicola any bright ideas about how to “reflect” on IndyRef2.

Pension myths

The notion of the state pension is receding into realms of mythology that would make the aforementioned purveyors of science fiction look like the authors of drily factual tomes.

So I was rather glad to see that uberThespian and three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day Lewis has decided to throw in the greasepaint-streaked towel and retire from acting.

I like to think that it’s not so much that Mr Lewis has stared 60 in the puss but has gone with the actor’s instinct for knowing when to bring down the curtain and leave ’em wanting more.

Should the Day Lewis coffers prove a little light, a future source of pin-money might be found in dropping a few hints to some of those still labouring on at the coal face of public life about when to kindly leave the stage.

Picture: PA. Bringing down the curtain: Daniel DayLewis has retired at the top. Helen wonders if he could drop hints to a few others.