“[There] are futurists and there are fictioneers, and we excel at different things.” – Elizabeth Bear (While you are there, check out Charles Stross’ series of posts on “Common Misconceptions About Publishing.”) And their novels, of course, are very much recommended.
“There is no culture here in California, only trash. And we who grew up here and live here and write here have nothing else to include as elements in our work. … The West Coast has no tradition, no dignity, no ethics – this is where that monster Richard Nixon grew up. … [O]ne must work with the trash, pit it against itself.” – Philip K Dick. In a six part series, LAT interviews his friends and family giving a good picture of his middle age, paying particular attention to how California influenced his work. Read I am Alive And You Are Dead, if you haven’t yet. And here’s me with the PKD robot. His head went missing not to long after that photo was taken. Besdies Blade Runner, of course, most of his books were turned into unremarkable films…but I hope someone does Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said right, as it’s one of his more slapstick, cinematic novels. Really though, I would love to see someone like Lynne Ramsey or Darren Aronofsky take on Confessions of a Crap Artist.
Best new blog in 2010 already? Star Wars Modern is pretty great. (via AFC and greg.org)
Charlie Huston’s “Sleepless” reviewed by Ed Champion: “The sleepless are doomed to an early mortality, but this doesn’t stop sleazy Hollywood producers from recruiting them as extras. Nor does this hinder predatory industries, both on and off the Dow Jones grid, from tempting this withering demographic with shiny new pharmaceuticals. In one of Huston’s sly satirical jabs at the overstimulated life, the sleepless flock to an addictive multiplayer online game called Chasm Tide, where virtual economies bloom as real currencies flounder.” This book sounds incredible (especially at 4.23am EST) Previously: Who Needs Sleep?
Were I to come into an unexpectedly vast sum on money, Yohji Yamamoto’s meatpacking district shop is one of the first stops I’d make. Very sad to hear that that store and others are closing, as part of his bankruptcy filing. Recommended: Wim Wenders’s documentary about him, Notebooks On Cities and Clothes, in which he visits the Toyko studio and gradually comes to appreciate the vision and craftmanship, fashion as an art form.
Just a month ago, I was just asking Paddy what happened to Brody Condon’s “Neuromancer” project, which won the Rhizome award last year. I wanted to road trip out to Missouri to see the barnyard production. Well, that is on hold until next summer, but this Sunday “Case” plays at the New Museum. It’s a 6 hour long live reading of William Gibson’s classic with Sasha Grey. Catch me there, I’ll be in and out all day. Here’s an interview with Condon on Rhizome in the meantime: ” I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I am still interested in this notion of projection of self into other spaces via religious experience, drugs, role-playing, or immersive screen spaces, but I never imagined Case interfacing with the actual internets, he is immersing himself in Gibson’s idea of what he thought this future screen space could be”
“[Female] fans always knew that Kirk was low on the list of fuckable officers on the Enterprise.” I’ve avoided this meme, because I’d hate for it to undermine the huge female interest in the new Star Trek film…but….it’s undeniable–Spock is hot. Like, I-just had-a-really-great-dream-last-night hot. I’m not talking about Zachary Quinto, the actor. No, it’s Quinto as Spock, the hair, the lisp, the..logic. More from FlickFilosopher: “if there’s something particularly genius — and particularly geeky — about Abrams’ Star Trek, it’s that it acknowledges Spock’s sex appeal for smart women not as subtext but as overt text.” (More from i09 and EW.) If women ruled Hollywood there would be an all-Vulcan spinoff film immediately lined up with pointy ears for Adrian Brody, Ryan Gosling, and every other actor who looks like he’s read a book in the last three months. Previously: In Favor of the Sensitive Superhero
Allison Arieff looks at the ideas of inventor/author/cartoonist/former urban planner Steven M. Johnson. I like the “treadarounds.” He’s a prefab visionary, “a sort of R. Crumb meets R. Buckminster Fuller.”
I’m not a huge Joss Whedon fan. His sense of humor isn’t dark enough, his storytelling is too traditional, too obvious. Anyway, it really doesn’t surprise me, he’d make a comment suggesting women into SF are all kinda tomboyish and not that hot. I talked about this in my interview last winter with Deep Glamour — when you’ve got Rosario Dawson developing a sci-fi pilot and a girl from Danity Kane drawing SF comic books, you can’t say it’s in any ways “butch.” The big difference here is between fan culture and fanbase. All my hot friends love sci-fi. Would they go to cons? No. I’ll save explaining why (most) hot chicks don’t go to cons for another post.
“Science-fiction writers can’t write about popular culture, even high culture, without trotting out their own self-importance… If you’d look at most science-fiction practitioners, they basically come across like a Nashville hat act. They’re hicks.” – Bruce Sterling
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