SF, fantasy and horror fans get to grips with the reality of Japan crisis
“Now it’s the turn of the science fiction, fantasy and horror communities to give something back following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that has left the country dealing with the possibility of nuclear disaster.”
Genre for Japan
The online auction for science fiction, fantasy and horror fans to help Japan.
John Scalzi reacts to the news that Diana Wynne Jones has died
“News is coming across the Twitter that writer Diana Wynne Jones passed away in the night; I imagine it will be confirmed by official sources soon enough. I have no connection to Jones other than as a reader, but I think that’s enough to celebrate her life and mourn her passing. My favorite book of hers was one called Dogsbody, in which the personage of the star Sirius, accused of murder, is sent to Earth, where he has to live in the body of a dog, and in that form discover the truth about his situation.”
M. John Harrison: On both yr houses
“If science fiction and “literary fiction” so clearly share the social, structural & economic qualities of a genre or marketing category–a clear & obvious commodification–is it any wonder that both so often represent the very worst of what writing has to offer ? The effect of “literary fiction” on literature has been as destructive as the effect of the sf & fantasy genres on the fiction of the imagination. It has reduced surface to a kind of Farrow & Ball blandness, experiment to some clever jokes & humanity to charm. It’s the fictional equivalent of John Lewis.”
Red Dawn as “a deeply left-wing, pro-Sandinista” movie
“Conclusion: the scenario of Red Dawn is far too ridiculous for it to be a credible warning, therefore it is an allegory; the egregious and unnecessary presence of Nicaraguan troops makes it clear that this is an allegory about Latin America and the US in particular; the message of the allegory is clearly anti-imperialist; therefore Red Dawn is an anti-imperialist, pro-Sandinista document.”
Great Expectations, by Dickens Charles
“Great Expectations is a novel which has been historically acclaimed as a portrait of the Victorian society of Eng-land, and of the social mobility that was taking place during this time of upheaval. Named for the autocratic monarch of the country at that time, this period was marked by a gradual liberalisation of the native warlords (who began taking on a more political than military role) and of the gender-segregated and caste-based society. The author of the novel, Dickens Charles (Man or Male-person, a common Eng-land name), was one of the most representative writers of Eng-land.”
On the differences and relative merits of Pratchett and Adams
“It follows from all of the above that Adams was never a world-builder; I think he felt that the world we had was an absurd and rather shoddy mess which didn’t bear too much investigating, and any other worlds we visited would almost certainly be no better.”
Damien G. Walter asks: can fantasy ever tell the truth? A: Yes.
An interview with John Norman, Pornographer of Gor.
The latest issue of Stone Telling, “a new poetry quarterly that seeks to publish literary speculative poems with a strong emotional core”.