Promo Bits: Kafkaesque edited by John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly
The wonderful folks at Tachyon Publications are up to mischief again with a new anthology called Kafkaesque, edited by John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly. I’m letting you all know about this book because I want it, and one of you is going to buy it for me for my Birthday, which is on the 6th of October. Seriously. You are. Or we’re not friends anymore, you hear? And I don’t care that the book doesn’t come out until November 2011. You can pre-order it. Or steal an ARC from a reviewer. It’s only wrong if you get caught… Anywho. Enough of that. Here’s the back cover blurb (ToC to follow): Franz Kafka died in obscurity in 1924, having published a handful of odd stories in little-known central European literary magazines. Yet modern culture has embraced the stark ideas and vivid imagery of his work. Even those who have never read a word of his fiction know enough to describe their tribulations with bureaucracy as “Kafkaesque.” Kafkaesque explores dystopian, comedic, and ironic fictions inspired by Franz Kafka’s work. In Philip Roth’s alternate history, Kafka survives World War II and immigrates to America, Jorge Luis Borges envisions a labyrinthine public lottery that evolves into bureaucratically-mandated mysticism. Carol Emshwiller invents an exclusively male society faced with its first (mostly) female member. Paul Di Filippo’s journalist by day, costumed crime-fighter by night, copes with the bizarre amidst the mundane. Also includes Kafka’s classic story “The Hunger Artist,” in a brand-new translation, as well as an illustrated version by legendary cartoonist R. Crumb (Fritz the Cat). Additionally, each author discusses Kafka’s writing, its relevance, its personal influence, and Kafka’s enduring legacy. The table of contents are as follows: “A Hunger Artist” (translated by Kessel) by Franz Kafka “The Drowned Giant” by J.G. Ballard “The Cockroach Hat” by Terry Bisson “Hymenoptera” by Michael Blumlein “The Lottery in Babylon” (tr: Hurley) by Jorge Luis Borges “The Big Garage” by T. Coraghessan Boyle “The Jackdaw’s Last Case” by Paul Di Filippo “Report to the Men’s Club” by Carol Emshwiller “Bright Morning” by Jeffrey Ford “The Rapid Advance of Sorrow” by Theodora Goss “Stable Strategies for Middle Management” by Eileen Gunn “The Handler” by Damon Knight “Receding Horizon” by Jonathan Lethem & Carter Scholz “A Hunger Artist” by David Mairowitz & Robert Crumb “I Always Wanted You to Admire my Fasting”, or “Looking at Kafka” by Philip Roth “The 57th Franz Kafka” by Rudy Rucker “The Amount to Carry” by Carter Scholz “Kafka in Brontëland” by Tamar Yellin Let me just say that the ToC looks bloody amazing. Ballard, Bisson, Borges, Filippo, Emschwiller, Ford, Roth, Rucker, Gunn… What an impressive list, don’t you think? My friend Kendra will hear about this anthology promptly. Because she’s kind of obsessed with Kafka… Admit it. You want this book too…
The Science Fiction Renaissance: Who is Our Messiah?
I had a rather strange and characteristically “me” conversation with my friend Adam the other day about the state of science fiction as a genre. One thing that keeps coming up in our conversations is how fantasy has seemingly abandoned the trappings of respectability for the more lucrative pursuit of market share, while science fiction has done the exact opposite. I’m not sure why science fiction lovers (not all, but a good enough chunk) have doomed themselves to respectability at the sake of readership, nor am I altogether certain that SF is weakened by its bid for respect (in part, yes). But it does make me wonder why there are so many fantasy authors that fans can’t stop talking about, while there are so few science fiction authors who seem to have the same impact. Adam often brings up The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi as an example of SF that could revitalize the genre. But are people paying attention, or are the only ones looking at The Quantum Thief the same people who were looking at SF before? I’d guess the latter, as sad as that makes me about the state of the genre I love so dearly. Perhaps the problem stems from the absence of SF in YA and children’s lit circles. There are hardly any SF novels in those categories, and the few that exist are more often of the dystopian variety than the space opera kind (which seems silly to me when you consider how much space opera is like the epic fantasies that dominate the YA shelves). The question becomes: who is our new SF messiah? Who can revitalize the genre by bringing in new readers and give back to the reading world all that glory and sensawunda that made the genre what it is/was? Or will SF sink into a smaller market share and stay there? I’m not saying that SF is dying. It’s not. It can’t die. Not while a huge chunk of the most successful movies these days are SF. Not while Star Wars and other franchises are doing just dandy. But I do get the sense that SF has become almost elitist in its pursuits. That there aren’t many gateway tales anymore (those we point to as gateway tales are often old, stuffy, and not exactly on the advertising list for publishers). I suppose I’m just worrying that we’re shooting ourselves in the foot here. Maybe this has something to do with what Damien G. Walter said about critics and the Hugos. Or maybe it just has to do with being embedded in academia. I think SF has its respectability. We just don’t need it. We don’t need to keep looking for it and trying to get more of it. What SF needs, it seems to me, is an awakening. A new renaissance.