Or maybe me for all categories ;D?

;););););););)

Military/Political: President Theodore Roosevelt

Artist: Michelangelo

Inventor/Scientist: Nikola Tesla (Dr. Edward Teller is my alternate choice if Tesla has already been nominated)

Grab bag: SGM Billy Waugh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Waugh)

It would really help if people looked at who was already nominated before posting.

@ VashtaNeurotic

tl;dr

Military Leader/General: I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Cyrus the Great.
Or Sun Tzu for that matter of 'Art of War' fame.

Scientist: The only answer is Nikola Tesla. Quite sure he's been nominated before.

Wild Card entries: Jesus or Mohammed for being the most famous human beings ever. Napoleon and Shakespeare are probably close too.

Disregard my other post. This is my new four:

Leader/Military: LTG Winfield Scott

Artist: Robert A. Heinlein

Scientist: Edward Teller

Grab Bag: SGM Billy Waugh, for having the most badass career of all time.

Would Sun-Tzu be Artist because of literature or a Military Leader? That's not really any more than a question of classification.

Military Leader. Field Marshal Rommel wrote military-related literature; doesn't mean he was an artist. Sun-Tzu's Art of War could be considered a work of artistic literature, but it was originally written as an overarching strategic handbook. The lessons can be applied to non-military fields, but only if the lessons are interpreted allegorically.

I'm also going to suggest James Madison and Thomas Hobbes as Wild Cards.

Robert A. Heinlein I like too, I've read the novel "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" and it's great. The radio play I've heard a few times. But the real master in my personal ranking remains Phillip K. Dick. He is awesome. Dick's universe is uncomfortable and faulty, his protagonists are no heroes and his paranoiac-critical narrative technique remains unequaled.

Maybe we should make a separate thread for discussing our favorite Sci Fi authors. Philip K. Dick is a favorite of mine as well. The Man in the High Castle, in my opinion, deserves a prominent place in the postwar American literary canon. That being said, I think I rank H.G. Wells above him, and not just because Wells came first. War of the Worlds in many ways defined the genre as we see it today. I love Asimov too, but now that I'm reading a lot of his works for the second or third time, his characters are beginning to seem stale, two-dimensional, unconvincing.

To be perfectly honest, I've only read one Heinlein book ("Starship Troopers") but I was totally blown away. It was published in 1959, but it still reads like brand new over five decades later.

The moral and philosophical questions posed in "Starship Troopers" compare favorably across genres and against books of much greater length.

If there is *one* sci-fi book that unquestionably deserves (and is in dire need of) a cinematic reboot, it would be "Starship Troopers". That debacle of a film gives absolutely no justice to Heinlein's brilliance. /rant

I think the film needs to be viewed as a critique of the book, rather than an attempt at imitation. Heinlein presents his militaristic society as an ideal; the movie satirizes that ideal, juxtaposing it with propaganda clips deliberately reminiscent of "Triumph of the Will" etc.

Excerpt from a lame essay I wrote on this exact topic many moons ago:

"Heinlein’s Starship Troopers spawned a film bearing the same name, portraying this same perceptibly utopian society as decidedly dystopic. Director Paul Verhoeven and writer Edward Neumeier include deliberate references throughout to Nazi Germany, including intra-cinematic propaganda videos produced by Heinlein’s Federation that overtly mirror scenes from the Nazis’ Triumph of the Will. Further, Verhoeven and Neumeier lampoon the novel’s presentation of the appropriate treatment of the Bugs (i.e. the Other): a reporter begins to note that “Some say the bugs were provoked by the intrusion of the humans into their natural habitat, that a live and let live policy is preferable to war with the bugs…” only to be interrupted by Rico declaring to great cheering and applause that, “I’m from Buenos Aires, and I say kill ‘em all!” The Bugs are still physically horrifying- and the movie pulls no punches in its presentation of their capacity to maim, slay and dismember- however their grotesque physical appearance serves to further satirize Heinlein’s perception of “threats” like the Russians as demonstrated by his allegorical presentation of the same."

In retrospect that contributed nothing to this discussion. Oh well.

Also, please pardon my stupidass wordiness. It was high school.

"In retrospect that contributed nothing to this discussion. Oh well." I would have said something except there was that whole whatever it was between me and Yanik.

When does the nomination period close?

Also, can we get an update on the nominations from obi?

"If there is *one* sci-fi book that unquestionably deserves (and is in dire need of) a cinematic reboot, it would be "Starship Troopers"."

For the sake of argument...

War of the Worlds, or I, Robot? Both got shortchanged and really deserve a reboot, too (though Troopers really got the short end, true.)

I'm going to let this go until Friday before organizing again...

Partially to get plenty in there before I do that, partially because I'm busy with finals this and next week so gimme til Friday. :p

YHN,

indeed, artist need a sub-level for genre or it will strengths the thread. In Germany there is a firm and steadily growing community of Philip K. Dick. The Man in The High Castle has already a proud price as a paperback. In 2005 an American from LA auctioned his Dick-Collection over eBay and received for an US-first-edition from The Man in The High Castle a lot of money: 1000 USD.

http://www.philipkdick.de/feature_highcastle.html

With "Colony" Dick has crowned himself. In this story he connects his peculiar reality view with surreal elements on an exciting storyline. The text picks out his central theme (What is real?) like no one else and spreads a paranoia as it's only be found in a few of his early texts. The end is the "highlight" and leaves behind questioningly as well as wonderingly...

Thoreau

David Suzuki

+1 ^

Mansa Musa belongs in the leader category. "mansa" actually means leader/king in the Mali language. Though apart from the trivia generated by his entourage flooding the Cairo markets with good during his 14th century pilgrimage trip to Mecca, he did not really accomplish much. I suspect the OP was just trying to see if anyone had even heard of him.

With "gold" not "good". I don't know whether that was the auto-corrupt feature or my fat fingers.

Looking for more women?
Artist: Janis Joplin
Leader: Margaret Thatchrr
Grab Bag: Mother Teresa
Scientist: <brain freeze> Jane somethingorother - worked with Chimps?

Goodall?