Showing posts sorted by relevance for query chabon. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query chabon. Sort by date Show all posts

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Has Science Fiction Leaving the Ghetto Meant the Beginning of a Post Sci-Fi Age? Stupid Question #3182

I have always been a Sci-Fi fan, a scifi fan, and a skiffy fan. While there is much to admire in the philosophically or politically sophisticated science fiction story, or the well-written literary SF tale, I have always liked literature that knew what its purpose was and fulfilled that purpose. The purpose of a Sci-Fi story is to entertain an audience with visions of the possible, and impossible, in an exciting and enthusiastic manner.

The Sci-Fi story doesn't spend pages upon pages describing sophisticated political systems, though there is nothing wrong in doing so in other sub-genre of Science Fiction. Instead, the Sci-Fi story uses readily recognizable archetypes as shortcuts for the audience to follow. Sci-Fi is Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Luke Skywalker, Northwest Smith, and Vic Corsaire.

One could probably get into long arguments regarding what is or isn't Sci Fi versus what is or isn't SF (literary Science Fiction), and those are fun discussions to have, but that is not the intention of this post today. Today, I am here to once again lament those who insult and deprecate Sci Fi in favor of a literary sub-genre they believe to be a far more noble pursuit. For these individuals, the ideal Science Fiction tale ought to be literary and "important." The SF story should touch on topical issues and present intelligent arguments about these issues. Such works include, but are by no means limited to, works like Asimov's Foundation, the works of H.G. Wells, Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, Huxley's Brave New World, and Iain Bank's "Culture" novels. All of which are works to be admired, and are great literature and great Science Fiction, but none of which are the be all and end all of Science Fiction. In fact, many might not stumble into these wonderful stories if they weren't first enticed by the "fluff" contained in "skiffy."

As you can tell, I am an unabashed fan of the "skiffy." My fandom was carved deeper into my soul after I attended a Forrest J. Ackerman panel at the 2005 San Diego Comic Con. There's something about sitting in a room where the audience is fewer than 20 people in the audience of like-minded fans that solidifies one's fandom. It doesn't hurt when one of them is John Landis (sitting right next to you) and he keeps elbowing you just before Forrest Ackerman's punchlines and is mouthing the words to each of Forry's stories. It was obvious that Landis had talked with Forry numerous times and that each time was magical. That kind of excitement is contagious.



All of which brings me to an article by Damien Walter at the Guardian book blog. I first got word of the book blog entry thanks to the excellent folks over at SF Signal, where they asked if the "Sci Fi" label still applied. Their answer is identical to mine, "Yes, the Sci Fi label is still important." But after reading their post, and the piece in the Guardian, I realized that a short rebuttal of Mr. Walter's blog post was insufficient as a response to Mr. Walter's post.

In the Guardian piece, Damien Walter begs the question of whether we as a popular culture are now "post sci-fi." His central thesis seems to be that "with sci-fi filling up every corner of cinema and TV and mainstream literature borrowing its ideas freely" there is no further place for the literary tradition to advance now that it has become a cultural phenomenon. His post is an articulation which might as well be renamed "The End of Sci-Fi and the Last Man."

One of Walter's key arguments is that "the walls of speculative fiction [that dread phrase -- C.L.] as a genre are quickly tumbling down. They are being demolished from within by writers such as China MiƩville and Jon Courtney Grimwood, and scaled from the outside by the likes of Michael Chabon and Lev Grossman. And they are being ignored altogether by a growing number of writers with the ambition to create great fiction, and the vision to draw equally on genre and literary tradition to achieve that goal."

This is all well and good. It is even true as far as it goes, but it demonstrates (as Walter does elsewhere in the piece) a complete lack of understanding regarding the literary history of Fantastic Literature and Fantasy. What were the Iliad and the Odyssey, if not works of Fantasy or "Speculative Fiction?" What was A Midsummer-Night's Dream and The Tempest, if not Fantasy? The Faerie Queene? The Rime of the Ancient Mariner? Beowulf? The Oresteia? The Eddas? What is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein or Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward if not Science Fiction?

All of the above a great literary works, written to be great fiction, and yet all of them fit neatly within any imagined definition of Fantasy or Fantastic Fiction. True, few of them are Science Fiction qua Science Fiction, but SF is the sub-genre not the genre -- a simple fact that Walter gets horribly wrong in his piece. To quote, "yet the literary tradition that has its roots in HG Wells and Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe and George MacDonald, that grew through the writing of Tolkien, Lieber, Howard, Heinlein, Clarke, and Asimov, and branched into the modern genres of fantasy, horror and science fiction, may have reached its fruition."

HG Wells and Jules Verne are the "roots" of the tradition? One might think of them as the branches closest to the trunk of the tree, but the roots? Is Walter serious? All the writers Walter mentioned are influenced by those works of Fantasy that predate them. One might argue that the 20th century was one where the literary world felt compelled to carve unnecessary categories into the literary landscape, categories designed to serve market interests, but one oughtn't think of 19th century writers as the root of a tradition. Don't even get me going on how one would attempt to draw a direct literary line from Wells to Howard.

It is not baffling that Walter piled Modern Fantasy and Science Fiction together, as they are both sub-genres of the Fantastic Tradition. That is true, but so is the work of Michael Chabon. Anyone who thinks Gentlemen of the Road is an attempt to scale the walls of Fantasy genre fiction from the "outside" is woefully mistaken. Gentlemen of the Road is a wonderful story in the direct tradition of Fritz Lieber, with no pretenses to being something else. It should be noted that much of the fiction of Avram Davidson is as worthy of literary consideration as that of Michael Chabon, and was as genre breaking for its day.

Just because Michael Chabon can draw from literary traditions other than the Fantastic Tradition when writing a story isn't a sign that we are in a "post sci-fi" era. It is merely a sign that Fantastic Fiction is ending a period of incestuousness where it fed off of itself for as long as it could. The fact that people are talking about the science fiction, or fantastic, elements of "literary fiction" is a sign that speculative fiction [that dread term again] is overcoming a certain stigma given it by literary critics and by "fans" who deride the fiction within their sub-genre which seeks to appeal to a wider audience.



*3182 is the number of lines in the epic poem Beowulf and his used here because of the muddled way Damien Walter articulates the lineage of Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Please Forgive Me for Passing Edgar Allan Poe's Birthday Without a Mention


Yesterday, January 19th, 2010, was 201st anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's birth. Poe is a figure who looms so large over the genre that I most enjoy, that it is truly impossible to imagine my reading world without his early contributions.

What would Detective and Mystery fiction be without Poe's invention C. Auguste Dupin?

For that matter, what would Weird Fiction be without Dupin and his obsession with "Darkness" and his, and his Bosworth's, obsession with ancient and mysterious tomes?

What would modern Thrillers be without stories like "William Wilson" or "The Black Cat"? Poe's use of unreliable narrator in these tales, as well as in "A Cask of Amontillado," provides a wonderful tool for authors of Thrilling tales -- for authors of any tale.

What would the world of Literature be without The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket? It is possible there would have been no At the Mountains of Madness, Moby Dick, Land that Time Forgot, or "Dust of the Gods."

Poe helped to set the foundation for modern Science Fiction, Weird Fiction, modern Horror, Mystery, Fantastic Fiction...etc. Quite a remarkable achievement for a man who was long overlooked as a creator. Overlooked until those he inspired referenced him so often that his legacy could not be ignored.

To these reviewers Poe would have written (and G.R. Thompson argues that Poe did write in the Library of America edition of Poe's Essays and Reviews) the following:

THE GREAT FAULT of American and British authors is imitation of the peculiarities of though and diction of those who have gone before them. They tread on a beaten track because it is well trodden. They follow as disciples, instead of being teachers. Hence it is that they denounce all novelty as a culpable variation from standard rules, and think all originality to be incomprehensible. To produce something which has not been produced before, in their estimation, is equal to six, at least of the seven deadly sins -- perhaps, the unpardonable sin itself -- and for this crime they think the author should atone here in the purgatory of false criticism, and hereafter by the hell of oblivion. The odor of originality in a new book is a "savor of death unto death" to their productions, unless it can be destroyed. So they cry aloud -- "Strange! incomprehensible! what is it about?" even though its idea may be plainly developed as the sun at noon-day. Especially, we are sorry to say, does this prevail in this country. Hence it is, that we are chained down to a wheel, which ever monotonously revolved round a fixed centre, progressing without progress.


Thankfully, Poe cracked the spokes of the wheel and allowed future generations of writers to feel free to attempt originality and push the boundaries of what constitutes literature. After all, how dull would the world of Literature be if all short stories were -- as Michael Chabon describes much of modern short fiction -- "contempory, quotidian, plotless, moment-of-truth revelatory stor[ies]," devoid of fantastic, horrific, whimsical, or bizarre counterparts? Chabon laments that the "short story" post 1950 has returned to Poe's wheel and cries out for us to forget the critics and look for the new.

It was Poe's lesson first, but it is a lesson that requires constant renewal.

While I got so caught up in RPG/Conan geekiness yesterday that I forgot to honor Poe's birthday, our friends at The Cimmerian were not guilty of the same oversight.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

What Local Quality Authors?

It is understandable for the New York Times to look down upon Los Angeles and refer to it as a small city when writing articles about humorous counter-academy film awards. I can understand how Bob Harris, writing for the NYT can say, "And last week, the Golden Raspberry Awards, invented by a small-town California film buff, announced its Razzie nominations for worst movies." Mr. Harris is, after all, writing for the local paper of a city where the only thing bigger than its population is its ego about its importance.

Typical of articles written from a distance by someone looking down one's nose at an inferior Mr. Harris is incorrect in his assertion that the Golden Raspberry's were invented by a small-town California film buff." As Cathy Seipp points out writing about Razzies found John JB Wilson, "while it's true that a short while ago he moved to Cerritos (not a small town, but part of Greater Los Angeles/Orange County's sububran sprawl), he started the Razzies around 30 years ago while living in Hollywood. Then for many years he lived in the Valley, also part of the city of Los Angeles." But one can't expect someone in New York to have any respect for the West Coast and its offerings, it is (you should know) the center of American culture. Or should that be Culture?

Regardless, it is still understandable that a city 3833 miles away might not know the particulars of what that other city might have to offer. What isn't understandable is that the Los Angeles Times suffers from the same anti-Angelino disease. It is a newspaper that has almost without exception, in recent times, failed to understand and appreciate the city around it. To quote Fritz, "The Los Angeles Times is the last place to know what is going on in Los Angeles."

Let me give you an example. When former Runaways drummer Sandy West died last October the Los Angeles Times obituary was a wire-service story. It wasn't until December that the Times did their own in depth article. One might think that timely in depth coverage of the local community might be one way that the Times might increase readership.

In an effort to be more like the New York Times the Los Angeles Times began a Sunday magazine. The magazine is good, but it lacks some quintessential must read component. Essentially, it contains material that ought to be in the regular paper and lacks anything uniquely Angelino. One might think that if one is imitating the New York Times one could take a page from their book and serialize a novel by a local author. The New York Times is currently serializing a novel by Michael Chabon as their newest "Sunday Serial." The "Sunday Serial" features work by popular genre authors, though it is interesting to note the snobbishness of the NYT Chabon press release which claims that, "The selection marks a departure for The Magazine, which previously has featured genre fiction writers." What do you call a writer who has written a Superhero novel and whose most recent writing, the very one being serialized, is reminiscent of Robert Howard and dedicated to Michael Moorcock? Personally, I call him a genre fiction writer. But I guess when he's won the Pulizer (for the aforementioned Superhero book) and is from New York he's called a non-genre writer.

Why doesn't the Los Angeles Times run a serialized novel by one of our own local Southern California genre authors? I am certain that it would draw an audience. Why am I not reading Tim Powers' next book in the LAT? How about Stephen Barnes, Jerry Pournelle, Harry Turtledove, David Brin, Raymond Feist, J.V. Jones, Vernor Vinge, or even Cory Doctorow (I may disagree with him about intellectual property, but I like his writing)? We could even ask Mark Salzman, among many others, for non-genre writing.

I would postulate, I'd have to test it, that the LAT doesn't think of the Los Angeles area (and Southern California generally) as a place where authors of merit are to be found. It is likely that they think of Los Angeles as the place where broad entertainment aimed at the lowest common denominator is created and that Art is the purview of other cities, places like New York, Paris, and London.

Don't take any of the above snarkyness to be actual attacks at New York City, it is a wonderful place. I just don't like how Angelinos undervalue the city, and community, where they live. Since moving to Los Angeles, technically the Crenshaw District, in 2000, I have fallen in love with this crazy town. Though I have to admit, it is a little like a geode. It looks rough and ominous on the outside, but when you crack it open you can see all the glittering quartz. Hidden treasures are what Los Angeles is all about, but if you want to find those treasures you aren't often best served by the Los Angeles Times. You have to dig.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

New "John Carter of Mars" Anthology to Be Released in 2012

It would not be an understatement to say that Edgar Rice Burroughs is the reason I read as voraciously as I do today. My introduction to SF/F were the Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Anderson. My first glimpse into modern Fantasy was Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. The author who came to define the genre for me was Michael Moorcock. But it was Edgar Rice Burroughs who showed me all that SF/F can be. His fiction had everything. If I wanted to read "lost worlds" fiction, Burroughs was there. Historical fiction that bordered on Fantasy? Burroughs was there. Wild visions of other worlds that combined soap operatic romance with pulse pounding action? Burroughs was there. Westerns? Cave men? Dinosaurs? Bizarre Aliens? Post Apocalyptic adventure?

Burrough's imagination has always seemed limitless to me. His writing style was workmanlike and efficient in delivering its tale, and finding poetic beauty in one of his tales isn't always an easy task, but the story telling and the ideas are truly remarkable. He arguably created the genre of Planetary Romance with his John Carter stories (though they become formulaic at times), a genre that Leigh Brackett then mastered, but Burroughs returned to the genre in his Venus adventures and did a little post-modern deconstruction of the genre.

Burroughs showed me that written stories were the best tool to open up the imagination. He showed me in ways that a less prolific author, or a better writer, never could have. My mind filled in the details of the gaps in his writing, and it wondered what new genre Burroughs would be introducing me to in the next book I picked up.

What made Burroughs great, and why he inspired me to be a voracious reader, was that he wrote essentially every genre. My love for one author made me a lover of stories. Not a lover of stories of a particular genre, but of stories in the broader sense. It's the reason I'll read anything, and it's also the reason I'm able to talk with people about Gossip Girl, Hellcats, and uncountable Romantic Comedies. I love story, and I have Burroughs to thank for that.

I mention that Burroughs created my love of story because it was just announced that Simon and Schuster books will be releasing a new anthology of John Carter stories written by many of today's leading authors. The book is being edited by one of my favorite anthology editors, John Joseph Adams, and is scheduled to be released just before the new John Carter movie next year.

But it wasn't just the announcement that made me think about why I love Burroughs was the list of authors who will be contributing to the tome. If you were to ask me to create a list of authors "I would select" who would write in a publication featuring new tales of John Carter, it might look like the following:

1) Michael Moorcock
2) Lois McMaster Bujold
3) James Enge
4) Chris Roberson
5) Howard Andrew Jones
6) Ursula K. LeGuin
7) George R. R. Martin
8) Mike Resnick
9) C.J. Cherryh
10) Michael Chabon

Those would be the "big names" I would include off the top of my head. Some of these authors would be chosen for their own confessed love of Burroughs, and others to see what they would do with Burroughs' characters. I'm particularly interested in what Bujold would do.

Surprisingly, not one of those authors is listed as a writer in the upcoming publication. I actually find the lack of Moorcock and Roberson shocking...shocking I tell you.

Instead, this is the list of authors:

1) Joe R. Lansdale
2) Jonathan Maberry
3) David Barr Kirtley
4) Peter S. Beagle
5) Tobias S. Buckell
6) Robin Wasserman
7) Theodora Goss
8) Genevieve Valentine
9) L. E. Modesitt, Jr.
10) Garth Nix
11) Chris Claremont
12) S. M. Stirling
13) Catherynne M. Valente
14) Austin Grossman

There are many talented authors on the list, as well as a few I've never read. What sets this list apart from the list I wrote earlier, is that I wonder what exactly a John Carter story would look like from each of these authors. I have a good idea of what a Moorcock one would look like -- he did do his own Mars planetary romance series after all -- but I have no idea what Theodora Goss' version of planetary romance is. These authors come from across the speculative fiction spectrum. The list includes authors who write Young Adult Fiction, Horror, Short Fiction, Comic Books, "Literary" SF/F, and Classic Fantasy.

I excitedly await the volume and will be investigating the fiction of some of its authors -- the ones I haven't read yet -- to get a glimpse of what Adams has in store for us as Burroughs fans.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

I've Been 25 Random Thing'ed on Facebook

Yesterday, I was tagged by my friend Rob with the 25 Things "chain note." I spent about half an hour writing the response when I accidentally hit one of the hot buttons on my Firefox menu instead of hitting a tab. I had been switching between tabs to include links to some of the things I was commenting about and suffered the consequences. Specifically, I lost half an hour's writing as I backclicked and found that everything I had written no longer existed. It was a frustrating experience, so I am going to rewrite the post today. First, here on Cinerati so that the "world" can see it. Then I'll post it to Facebook.

So here's the gig:


Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)


And here goes:

1) I love to surprise people by having an affection for some part of popular culture that they do enjoy. I like it best when this is an unexpected shared "guilty pleasure." This is why I'll watch anything from "The OC" to "The Real Houswives of Orange County" as well as anything from "Heroes" to "Legend of the Seeker." I'm not one of those who seeks to lord my knowledge of a particular segment of popular culture, like...say... comic books or role playing games, over others. Rather, I am constantly exposing myself to new things in order to have these happy surprise moments.

2) I am pretentiously anti-pretense. There's a part of me that hates it when people talk about "THE WATCHMEN" as the "world's greatest graphic novel." First, it is a comic book. It was a 12 issue maxi-series. Second, it's really good, but there are so many good comic books that I have lost count. Third, most people who talk about how cool "THE WATCHMEN" "graphic novel" is have either a) never read it or b) are saying it to be "cool." It isn't cool to say WATCHMEN is good, it is merely true. It is uncool to say WATCHMEN is a "graphic novel." Maybe you are referring to the "trade paperback" or "Absolute Hardcover Collected Edition?" (Quotation marks around the first two reference are there to point out the error of the attribution in the first two quotes. The series is merely called WATCHMEN, comic book fans know this.)


3) I also think that Science Fiction and Fantasy Genre fans should ban Michael Chabon from receiving any awards until he tells off the literati in NYC. Michael is one of the shining lights of genre fiction. He could be the modern day equivalent of Lin Carter -- with far more talent. He could champion his influences so much that he ends up editing scads of anthologies and a line of books instead of doing a "McSweeney's" anthology intended for only the "literate" SF/F fan. Come on man! Help educate the literati that your GENTLEMEN OF THE ROAD is influence by Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories. Fans got it, your publisher pointed it out, but the critics totally missed it. Besides, they should be reading the Leiber stories. Maybe they can skip "The Snow Women," but the others...grrr. Your article on capes in the New Yorker was a good start (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/03/10/080310fa_fact_chabon), but I want more! Be a champion of the genre or no more Hugos for you! In fact, let's take your recent one away and give it to John Scalzi.

4) I like heavy metal, punk, goth, emo, pop punk, some rap, techno, classical, crooners, 50s rock, classic rock, and a long list of other music. I don't tend to listen too much to "modern pop," but I do think that Christina Aguilera has miles more talent than Britney and I own a couple Avril Lavigne cds. I am always in the mood for Prince. The same can be said for most Metallica. Let me put it this way. I like the Go-Gos, but I don't like Belinda Carlisle.

5) I prefer third person shooters to first person ones. This is because third person ones "tend" to have better stories than first person ones and they attempt to be more cinematic. It isn't because I get owned (pwnt) every time I log on to Xbox Live (though that does usually happen). It's more that I like "living the movie" more than I like taunting some 12 year old in Sheboygan as I repeatedly shoot him in the face.

6) Speaking of pwnt, Backgammon is Victorian English for pwnt and I have decided to use it on a regular basis. Some people might say, and I summon Balor FTW! I'll say, and summoning Balor means Backgammon beeyotch! Nice combination of bizarre Victorian formality and modern vulgarity, don't you think?

7) I am deeply devoted to my wife of 12 years (this May) and cannot imagine life without her. One look/call/email from her is a dose of condensed joy.

8) On that note. I always knew that I wanted children. I have worked with a lot of young people and really like kids. But I am amazed at how much I underestimated how much I would enjoy being the father of twin girls. I was excited when my wife and I decided to "try." I was overjoyed when I found out she was pregnant, and elated when I heard it would be twins. It all pales to the reality of hanging out with Nora and Clio. It gets better everyday. Which gives me some idea of how much they are going to break my heart from time to time.

9) I have currently put my study toward a Ph.D. in Politcal Science (focus in American Politics and Political Philosophy) at Claremont Graduate University on hold so that I can get an MBA at Cal Poly Pomona. I am at a point in my career where I want to transition from the non-profit world into the profit world and it makes perfect sense. My hope is to get hired by Mattel, Hasbro, or some sort of Entertainment Industry company. Some people think it's odd to put a Ph.D. at a top tier school on hold to get an MBA at a less prestigious (but still very respected) university. Not me. Anderson and Marshall are too expensive, in time and money, and work is able to reimburse all my Cal Poly tuition costs. Free = w00t.

10) This past year, I took my wife's last name. I told you I was devoted to her.

11) My daughter Nora Thekla Lindke is named after Nora Charles (of the Thin Man), my grandmother Thekla, and my wife Jody Lindke. My younger daughter (by one minute) Clio Millie Lindke is named after the muse of history (who Herodotus appealed to when he wrote his famous History), Jody's grandmother Millie, and my wife. In case you were wondering.

12) I believe that friendship is more important than politics. I actually have a whole theory that friendship is the root of politics properly understood. If a society is to be just, it must be a society of friends and when one treats those around him/her as friends one acts with greater prudence. One finds it easier to disagree agreeably with friends than with ciphers. That's not the whole theory (by which I mean philosophic outlook and not falsifiable theory, though I imagine one could design a falsifiable test given sufficient time).

13) My mother died of heroin addiction 10 years ago last October. Most of my friends know this, as I blog about it annually (http://cinerati.blogspot.com/2008/10/in-memoriam-ten-years-later-eugenie.html). The blog post is my gentile way of observing the jahrzeit.

14) One of my best friends from high school, he went to a different school than I did, committed suicide in April of 1999. We had just started rekindling our friendship which had stalled when I took my 5 year "semester off" from college. Eight years before he took his life, he told me how he would kill himself if he ever committed suicide. The method he described, was the method he used. I miss him desperately. He was a great person who introduced me to so many new things and gave me new ways of looking at things.

15) I'm a geek. I know this isn't exactly news, but it is true. I like comic books, role playing games, video games, and the occasional anime. If you can geek out about it, I'll try. That includes Formula 1. I'm a big Formula 1 geek.

16) I am a completist. When I am introduced to something new, if I like it I will try to find out as much about it as I can. If it is a game, I will buy it and all its expansions. If it is a philosopher, I will buy several translations of their works. For example, I like superheroes and role playing games. So I have made it a goal to own every superhero rpg ever published. So far, so good. That' includes Superhero 2044 and Supergame btw.

17) I still love every person I told I love them. Whether it was a friend or girlfriend, they still hold a special place in my heart.

18) I have been cruel to exactly 3 people. I am sure that I have pissed off or slighted countless others. I have been less considerate than I should have been many times (haven't we all?), but I have been cruel to only three. I didn't desire to be cruel any of the three times, but I was and I cannot forgive myself for what I did. If I explain the events to you, you might say something like "but you were young" or some other common saying -- I didn't kill anyone after all -- but there is no excuse for how I treated these people. One of whom I still love, though I haven't seen or heard from her in 20 years.

19) I love the TV shows I grew up with, but haven't liked any of the "re-envisioned" shows the networks have provided me. I prefer original BSG to the new one, which I think is too pretentious. The new Bionic Woman was horrible, as is the new Knight Rider. I have found that I like the shows "inspired" by the ones I liked. For example, I really dig CHUCK. This critique doesn't apply to movies. I liked the MIAMI VICE movie...a lot.

20) I am one of approximately 40 people who liked the SPEED RACER movie.

21) I have met most of my best friends because of my hobbies.

22) I truly value "non-partisan" non-partisanship. I love being the director of a program committed to increasing youth civic engagement. This means I want liberal young people to vote AND conservative young people to vote. To me non-partisan doesn't mean finding a "right" answer to a question, though some questions certainly have answers, it's about engaging and listening to everyone and helping them come to a better understanding of their own beliefs. I want you to become the best you possible (to be cliche). I love it when people not only have beliefs, but understand why they have them. I find they yell less when this is true.

23) I subscribe to THE ATLANTIC, HARPER'S, the digital versions of DUNGEON and DRAGON magazines, PYRAMID, REASON, THE NATION, THE NATIONAL REVIEW, and LOS ANGELES magazine. I usually pick up F1 at the news stand since it isn't any cheaper when subscribed to and it is always months behind schedule, it is shipped from Britain, either way.

24) I blog at http://cinerati.blogspot.com, podcast at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/geekerati, and my favorite daily blog reading indulgence is LA Observed http://www.laobserved.com/.

25) I love Los Angeles. It may well be my favorite city. San Francisco is great, Chicago is awesome, Montreal amazed me. But when I visited New York City and found that I had a proper West Coast disdain for "The City" (a term which always means San Francisco to me -- even though I am using it to describe NYC here), I knew I was a real Angeleno. Los Angeles is like a geode. People know it contains "sparkling riches," so they come here. Then they discover it is a pockmarked urban sprawl that doesn't look like the Oz they thought they were visiting. But after a while, you crack the city open and find a wondrous history and hidden treasures everywhere. New York tells you where to go to have a good time, Los Angeles challenges you to use your detective skills to find your joy. Whether that joy is mountain hikes, surfing, or looking around for landmarks from James Cain novels. I lived in the Baldwin Village (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_Village,_Los_Angeles,_California) part of Crenshaw (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crenshaw,_California) before moving to Glendale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glendale,_California).

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Watchmen Costumes Revealed and Other Random Geekery

Over at WatchmenComicMovie.com they have pictures of the cast of THE WATCHMEN movie in costume. The images were posted on the WB site at 11:55 PM last night, that's a easter egg for all you fans out there, and are quickly spreading through the internet.

I wish I were more excited about this production. Zack Snyder is directing, which bodes well. But this is still THE WATCHMEN we are talking about. It's the book that comic snobs use to praise themselves for being fans of an "art form." Here's a sample of dialog with one of these bozos:

ME: "Hey fellow comic fan, what books are you currently reading?"
COMIC SNOB: "Warren Ellis' new book, that new thing by Neil Gaiman, something edgy by Garth Ennis, the latest Grant Morrison, a bunch of indies, and I just picked up the ABSOLUTE WATCHMEN."
ME: "That's cool. How is the new Grant Morrison book, I find him to be hit or miss. ANIMAL MAN was great, but his JUSTICE LEAGUE left me flat -- as did his DOOM PATROL. He just seems to have no feel for straight books, or how to do camp without it being parody."
COMIC SNOB: "WTF?! How dare you question the great Grant Morrison. Next thing you'll be trashing on WATCHMEN, which is indisputably the best piece of writing in the latter 20th century and one of the best works of political philosophy to date."
ME: "I thought it was okay, but I think that Steve Ditko would take issue with the fact that Moore made Mr.A/The Question into an insane person. I still prefer the old Charlton tales that Moore based the Watchmen characters on. As for the political philosophy...you're kidding right? I mean taking a stereotypical 60s doomsday clock vs. the aliens story isn't exactly deep analysis, and his twisting of Objectivism is laughable."
COMIC SNOB: "You obviously don't know what you are talking about. You can keep your Keith Giffen written JUSTICE LEAGUE, I'll read literature."


WATCHMEN is the cool book to like and the sentiments that many of the snobs who like it have result in things like JT LeRoy and other manipulators of the "cool." The comic book literati, and the real literati who like WATCHMEN, are just too much for me. There's some rebellious part of my soul that wants to tell these pretentious boobs, who likely prefer Lichtenstein to Russ Heath, where they can stick their "graphic novel." I'll just open my long box, pull out the 12 issues and read the comic book.

As a comic book, WATCHMEN is great. As a "piece of literature," I'll stick to Chesterton and Faulkner. As a work of "political philosophy," I'll stick to Hegel, Marx, Strauss, Plato, and Rand.

All that said, I really do like WATCHMEN. I even actually believe it is of artistic and literary merit. I think it is genuinely great...though that ending is a little to John W. Campbell formulaic. As long as things like AVENGERS FOREVER, or better yet INVINCIBLE, are being overlooked in favor of something ideologically trapped in the Cold War cynicism of the 80s, I'll keep my own pretentious rejection of pretense.

It's the same reason I like Michael Chabon, but don't like most of his fans. They seem to want to be hip by liking "the best," but they lack the genuine desire for fun of a "real" fan.

I sincerely hope, and think, that WATCHMEN will be a good comic book movie. Peter Cannon -- Thunderbolt's costume, I mean Ozymandias's, looks great, but why is the OWL so thin?

My credo? "Down with Graphic Novels! Up with Comic Books!"

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

John Carter of Mars and The Queen of the Iron Sands



The 90s were a decade of either no news, or bad news, for fans of Planetary Romance, but during the 00's these fans have been experiencing a roller coaster ride of positive news and worrisome news.

For the uninitiated, Planetary Romance stories are a kind of speculative fiction that straddles the line somewhere between fantasy and science fiction. The stories are fantasy in that they often incorporate magic systems, princesses, and mystical experiences. They are science fiction in that they often take place on other worlds.

The genre was largely created by the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel A Princess of Mars featuring Burroughs' second most famous character John Carter of Mars. In story, readers encounter the Civil War veteran -- who is of indeterminate age and possibly unaging -- John Carter as he mystically transports himself to Mars (or as the Martian natives call it, Barsoom) after being near fatally injured. While on Barsoom, encounters alien races, falls in love with the most beautiful woman in the universe, and participates in large scale war. The book established the basic tropes for the genre, tropes which have been used to great success in literature and film in everything from Leigh Brackett's John Eric Stark stories to George Lucas' Star Wars films. There is a reason that Brackett was selected to write a draft of Empire Strikes Back and that reason is that Star Wars sits firmly in the genre of Planetary Romance -- as does Flash Gordon.

Planetary Romance stories are more about adventure, romance, and the unknown than they are about science or political commentary -- though there are exceptions. There are many wonderfully written novels and stories within the genre, but there is also material some consider to be offensive drivel. I can remember stumbling upon the Gor novels of John Norman because of some basic underlying similarities between it and Burroughs' Martian novels. Traditional Planetary Romance novels advocate Victorian sensibilities about virtue and heroism, much like Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (an interesting experiment is to read The Lost World and The Heart of Darkness back to back), and love is presented as an ideal akin to Courtly Love. The heroes of Burroughs' novels nearly swoon with affection for their beloved, a beloved who is perfect beyond compare. The Gor novels turned this on their head as Norman's novels were erotica disguised as Planetary Romance. Let's just say that this came as quite a shock to my 8th grade self, and to this day I don't have an appreciation for the Gor novels.

Needless to say, Planetary Romance is a rich and important sub-genre of fiction and one that I highly recommend.

Some of the roller coaster peaks in recent years have included:
  • The University of Nebraska Press editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian Stories, Moon Stories, and Venus Stories.
  • The Planet Stories line of books by Paizo Press.
  • Chris Roberson's Paragaea
  • Jon Favreau being selected to direct the John Carter movie. Even though he seemed overly influenced by the art of Frank Frazetta, and not enough influenced by the art of Michael Whelan or Frank Schoonover, Favreau was a great choice...before he had to leave the project and make an awesome version of Iron Man.

Some of the roller coaster valleys have included:
  • The selection of Robert Rodriguez to direct the John Carter of Mars movie. I'm a Rodriguez fan, but the thought of his "lowest budget possible" mentality underlying a John Carter film just rubbed me the wrong way. Sure his Harryhausen homage was fun, but...John Carter in DV Cam isn't my idea of cool.
  • The recent three Star Wars films which hinted at how good Planetary Romance can be, while simultaneously showing us how bad it can be.
  • The recent Flash Gordon series. Seriously, WTF?!


As noted above, a lot of the news -- good and bad -- for Planetary Romance fans centers around a John Carter project. One is still slated for production by Disney with Andrew Stanton at the helm, and Michael Chabon attached to the screenplay. So far that seems like good news for the Planetary Romance fan...but there is news about the project that should make fans worry too.

One can easily overlook that Stanton hasn't done a project like this before, Doug Liman hadn't directed a spy movie before Bourne Identity, because Stanton's other film work has been extraordinary. That's not what is worrisome. What is worrisome is the casting.

Taylor Kitsch (Gambit from Wolverine) has been selected to play the title role. Unless his performance in Wolverine was atypical, I cannot imagine him as remotely capable of capturing the charm and power of the Carter character.

I am less worried, but only cautiously optimistic, regarding the casting of Lynn Collins as Dejah Thoris. After all, who can play "the most beautiful woman in the universe?" That's a pretty tough title to live up to, but I like the fact that the casting director didn't equate beauty with "ultra-voluptuous" and try for Scarlett Johansson or someone similar.

Then there's the casting of Willem Defoe -- who has recently become a parody of himself -- and Dominic West -- who I loved in The Wire but who was ridiculous in Punisher: War Zone.


It's gotten to the point that every piece of news I read regarding the upcoming Disney film version of John Carter of Mars has made my inner geek want to run away and hide. Will it be good or will it be awful? The inner 8th grader cannot stand the pressure and needs some new Planetary Romance distraction -- a quality one.

Thankfully, Fantasy author Scott Lynch has recently released a free web-book (at least the first few chapters) of exactly the kind my inner geek needs. A few weeks ago, Lynch began e-publishing Queen of the Iron Sands. He's releasing the story as a "serial novel" and simultaneously paying homage to the classic of Planetary Romance and the serials of the early 20th century.

My inner geek now refuses to hide no matter how bad the news regarding the John Carter film gets and it's all to Scott Lynch's credit. No matter how bad the John Carter film ends up, I know that planetary romance as a genre will live on because talented people are still applying their skills to the genre.