A bunch of people I like have launched a new group link blog, Big Blog of Cheese. There’s lots of good stuff there already.
(The only question is exactly how many blogs/journals can Niall Harrison keep going at one time; I’m going to stake out 13.)
Something To Bookmark Read More »
The likely controversial, but all-in-all far better second effort from Dave Itzkoff; the relevant (to me) paragraphs:
The Nebula Awards, bestowed annually by a literary society called the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, don’t have a special prize for the speculative work possessing the year’s most striking literary imagery. So I hereby invent the category myself, and declare its first winner to be Christopher Rowe for his story "The Voluntary State," a surreal work collected in the Nebula Awards Showcase 2006 (ROC, paper, $15.95) anthology. Rowe’s vision of an American South, hauntingly different from the one we know, begins with an artist sketching what appear to be children floating in a body of water. But as the inhabitants of this alternate reality know, the convincing cherubs that kick and struggle in the surf are not really children at all, but highly sophisticated decoys used by submerged predators. They are "nothing but extremities, nothing but lures growing from the snouts of alligators crouching on the sandy bottoms."
Rowe intends this scene, and its suggestion of swimmers enticed to their deaths by a Spielbergian impulse to save youth at all costs, to be taken literally. But as a metaphor, it is an extremely potent representation of the science-fiction and fantasy community’s complicated relationship with the idea of nostalgia — a dynamic simultaneously defined by an inextinguishable yearning to search for lost time, and by an eternal vigilance for the dangers that even a quick glance in the rearview mirror can pose to forward-looking genres.
Now’s as good a time as any to point out, once again, that "The Voluntary State" can also still be read online. As can Ben Rosenbaum’s also-rightfully-lauded "Embracing the New."
As for the column as a whole, the key thing to me is that it shows that regardless of what Itzkoff intimated in Ron Hogan’s PW piece, he is listening and does care about the field’s reaction.* A little bit. And that’s a good thing, because he could do a lot of good with that column, if he so chose. And hey, if that’s how it goes down, a list debacle like that seems almost a gift to a beginning literary critic — if it leads to a reevaluation of the critic’s tastes and an ultimate broadening of them. (And clearly, Itzkoff does have a measure of good taste; that was never in dispute, the narrowness of it as represented on the list was. I want to believe!)
Re: McCaffrey and the rest of the column — those are supportable, legitimate opinions, whether you agree with them or not.
*I doubt there was much other reaction.
Apparently, Asimov’s owner forced Sheila Williams to kill a story she’d bought by Jim Grimsley that dealt graphically with child abuse and technology. Much discussion about this at the Asimov’s message board (Gordon van Gelder and George R.R. Martin weigh in, among others); see also Scalzi’s take. I always half-wondered if mailing the first issue of Say…, which contained Scott Westerfeld‘s story, "The Child in Society,"* internationally would get us in trouble, but it never did. Nobody reads!
(*This story doesn’t actually have anything all that offensive in it — certainly nothing graphic — but boy, does it make you think it will. And later Scott sent us another taboo story. For awhile there, I thought he was trying to get us banned in Canada.)
Wiscon randomosity — I think I’ll repeat the numbered list format of BEA explication. Post title inspired by Gillian Welch’s "Everything is Free"; every spring I’m moved to pull out that record — Time (the Revelator) — and listen to it, but only this morning did it occur to me that all the songs I like best on it are about being an artist and how hard it is and how you do it anyway, if you have to, regardless of the compensation. Which seems as nice a soundtrack for talking about Wiscon as any.
1. Yes, it’s true, I spent much of the weekend feeling incredibly guilty about poor cat and dog at home alone (we hired a pet sitter). They’re pretty needy, after all. At one point, Christopher said, "We’re never traveling again, are we?" However, this eased off as we got closer to going back home and with regular reports from our heros, the Melissas, who did some extra checking in and quality time while we were gone. So, if I bored you with cat and dog whining — well, sorry.
2. As predicted, I went complete babbling fangirl when I met Nicola Griffith and Kelley Eskridge (also still kicking myself for not bringing copies of their books along to get signed), who seem to be two of the loveliest people on the planet and did an amazing joint reading of their essay "As We Mean To Go On" from Bookmark Now. Anyway, news from the reading: Griffith reports that the new Aud novel is turned in (and superlong: both bits of knowledge that make me go whee!) and Eskridge is starting a movement to teach managers how to be better at it (which is also very exciting and shouldn’t surprise anyone who has read her wonderful novel Solitaire) and there’ll be a manifesto and everything (I’ll link when it’s up). Oh, and Griffith is working on a strange, excellent-sounding memoir of her wild child days, which will include scratch and sniff and other cool things, and Eskridge is working on working on her next novel. End fangirlness.
3. Psych! One of the best parts of the weekend was seeing Geoff Ryman get fawned over as Tiptree winner. He’s just the most charming, generous, funny person ever and, it should be noted, the Tallest Man in Science Fiction. (I now have a dream of he and former Tiptree winner John Kessel in the same place at the same time and photos being taken with The Two Tallest Men in Science Fiction. It’s a good dream.) It turns out he’s also an amazing reader, really a performer, and just gutted the audience with a new story called "Pol Pot’s Beautiful Daughter." And, even better, he gave us a copy of The King’s Last Song, which makes me happy happy happy and I’ll be reading it as soon as I finish the dragon books.
4. KJF’s new book, as noted before, is going to be superamazing. Also, she is the funniest person I know. And she’s rocking this new t-shirts and jeans and chunky glasses look. A moderate amount of Veronica Mars talk was managed.
5. Did a reading of a small section of Aztec Dance Tunes, for which I was totally ill-prepared, and greatly enjoyed the readings of my far-more-prepared and brilliant readingmates, Karen Meisner, Lauren McLaughlin and Claire Light.
6. Speaking of which, Lauren’s reading piece is now up on Salon. Go read "The Perfect Man."
7. Once again, I didn’t meet Lawrence Schimel, although there was an unfortunate mix-up at the Ratbastards’ now-legendary karaoke dance party where I introduced myself to someone I thought was Lawrence Schimel, only turned out not to be, and, um, thought I was hitting on him. And was thus bewildered when I spooked and ran saying, "No! No!" when he asked, "Are you a cowgirl? Not even on the inside?" Whoops.
8. Lots of people it was great to see (more listing to come), including the Hugo-nominated John Scalzi (and his better half Krissy), who has posted some fab pictures including this one. Though perhaps I hadn’t counted on seeing quite this much of him. You have to admire someone who’s such a good sport. I’ll be sending the shirtless striptease photo later today, sir.
9. Finally got to spend a more acceptable amount of time talking to Meg McCarron and Holly Black, which makes me very happy.
10. It was beyond great to have a substantial amount of time with some of the posse: Kelly Link, Gavin Grant (who read from another great new story), Richard Butner (ditto), Barb Gilly (master mimic), Ted Chiang (bringer of logic), etc.
11. A few of us went on the batting clean-up field trip to see X3 yesterday (most people had been earlier in the festivities) — Christopher, Richard and Barb, Kelly and Gavin, Holly, Jeremy Lassen (VIP motherfucker) and Ted — then proceeded to tear it apart, while stilling bringing the geek love for the Xies. Problems aside, still a great deal of fun. If a grim, grim movie. And hello, can you really make plot points be people dying when we KNOW they aren’t really dead? The whole movie is predicated on a mysterious resurrection. C’mon! Actually, my favorite thing is that earlier that morning we’d been talking about lame devices that are overused in fiction written by children and other beginners, such as ending chapters with people constantly being knocked out or falling alseep, and Kristin added that she’d recently reread something she wrote as a pre-teen and was shocked at the amount of gazing off balconies … which is, of course, how X3 ends. With Wolvie staring forlornly off a balcony.
12. Chris Barzak is back in the U.S. of A. And is now SF’s official Master of Revels. This also makes me very, very, very, very, very happy; a happiness which would only be greater if I’d been able to monopolize a greater deal of time with him. But, still: yay!
13. Midori Snyder‘s daughter Taiko has the Best Voice Ever.
14. A completely embarrassing (in the good way) moment in which Midori introduced me to Terri Windling and revealed that she reads this blog. I am truly not worthy. (There was a droolworthy art by Terri in the art show; Christopher and I bought a couple of pieces after much deliberation over which we a) liked best and b) could swing the $$ for.)
15. I hate doing these things because I’m forgetting stuff and people.
16. Lovely sushi dinner with the gang. At our table, Matt Ruff and his wife Lisa Gold, Christopher, Kelly and me. Matt and Lisa were great dinner companions and I’ll definitely be picking up Margarettown by Gabrielle Zevin off his rec.
17. The Death of the Panel panel lasted for about five minutes and then we had a long give and take about alternatives to the panel and issues and ideas about how to make them better. Secretly, I am thinking the whole time: While that sounds fun, I go to readings and the bar.
18. The list of folks it was beyond the awesome to see/hang with/meet (who haven’t been pre-mentioned): Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld (as per usual, though not nearly enough of them this time), Doselle Young (though not enough of his wife Janine), Darice, Shana Cohen, Dave Schwartz (who I feel tragic for missing the reading of), Judith Berman, Sharyn November, Hannah Wolf Bowen, (Dr.) Susan Groppi and Matt Withers (whose fake blog is a mystery to me), David Moles, Ben Rosenbaum (mostly shirted), Chance Morrison (who I don’t think I saw after Saturday night; wah!), the fabulous Marcia, Carol Emswhiller, (H)Al Duncan, Jim Minz, Elad Haber, Alan DeNiro (karaoke star), Veronica Schanoes, Elizabeth Bear (except I kept seeing her from a distance, so this goes in the lame category of "see"), Steph Burgis and Patrick Samphire (oh, for more time!), Tim Pratt and Heather Shaw, Mary Rickert and Brian the Best Bartender Ever. Man, I hate this part. And the headsmacking of gobsmacking forgetfulness that will happen later, but, well, my memory is not good for this litany of names stuff.
19. Oddly, this year, this all sounds much more exhausting than it was. Despite worries of the "largest Wiscon ever" being unwieldy and stressful, it, well, wasn’t. Note how many times I’ve used the phrase best ever in this post.
20. It’s good to be home. I saw a camel, right up next to the road, eating grass. No, really.
Someone Hit the Big Score, or Read More »
Two Things (updated) Read More »
Well, I mean besides wandering the streets of Madison, taking in excellent readings and in the Governor’s Club Lounge knocking them back. Feels like going home. Here’s my convention schedule:
The Death of the Panel Sunday, 2:30-3:45 p.m. in Senate B – Gwenda Bond has declared that the Panel is Dead (you know, like the Novel and Science Fiction). Is it? And if so should we revive it? And how would we go about reviving this arcane art form without it Dying again? Scott Westerfeld, Justine Larbalestier, Paul Kincaid, M: Gwenda Bond, Christopher Barzak, Lenny Bailes (ed note: I know you may have seen elsewhere that JL is the moderator, but she has turned those duties over to me — mwahaha!)
Four Seductions Monday, 10:00-11:15 a.m. in Conference Room 2 – Karen Meisner, Lauren McLaughlin, Gwenda Bond, and Claire Light read from their work.
We’ll probably stumble into the hotel sometime around 10 or 11ish Thursday night, so we may not actually be around until Friday. It all depends on what time we leave and how long the drive takes.
Wiscon: Where I’ll Be Read More »
The Fountain Award winner has now been announced: Stephanie Harrell for "Girl Reporter" (One Story). Yay!
For those of you who don’t know (hey, the Fountain is newish; this is only the third year), the Fountain Award is given each year to "a speculative short story of exceptional literary quality, chosen from work nominated by magazine and anthology editors." And the winner gets $1,000.
I loved this story a great deal; follow the link above to see some thoughts about it from me and my fellow jurors Carol Emshwiller and Jim Kelly. Being on such a lovely and brilliant jury was a fabulous experience (the other jurors were Mary Anne Mohanraj and Jeffrey Ford). Suffice to say, there were a number of wonderful stories in the running, and many of them are on the honorable mentions list, which you can also see at the link above.
There’s a short interview with Harrell and an excerpt of the story at One Story and you can see a photo of the author’s pirate eyepatch and beautiful blue hair AND hear her read the story at KQED.
I want to single out a few other stories that turned up in my Fountain reading, but which aren’t on the list mentioned above. They are well worth your time to seek out:
"Alienation and Love in the Hebrew Alphabet" by Lavie Tidhar (ChiZine)
"The Belt" by Theodora Goss (Flytrap)
"The Boy Who Was Born Wrapped in Barbed Wire" by Christopher Barzak (Endicott Studio)
"Under the Bridge" by Hannah Wolf Bowen (ChiZine)
Fountain Award, Er, Awarded Read More »
Or cause for celebration, anyway. The latest issue of Strange Horizons includes a new Gavin J. Grant short story, "We Are Never Where We Are." (Via.)
A tardy post (hey, Wild Kingdom let us sleep in this morning), but can I just say Best Nebulas EVER!!!
Of course, it would have been nice to see Air win for Best Novel, but otherwise: YAY!!!
Congratulations to three fabulous ladies: Kelly Link (twice), Holly Black* and Carol Emshwiller!
Full list of winners at that link or behind the cut.
…