SF/F Commentary

Movie Review: Contagion

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I’ve been looking forward to Contagion ever since I saw the preview with Matt Damon.  My friends know I have a soft spot for Damon; I honestly don’t know what it is about him.  He’s a good actor, sure, but there are plenty of good actors I don’t get excited about when I see they are in a new movie.  Damon, however…let’s just say I do a little dance when I see he has a new movie for me to watch.  Maybe it’s because of the Bourne films… Moving on. Contagion is an interesting take on a cliche theme:  that of the super infection which wreaks havoc on humanity while the government and society tries desperately to keep it under control.  Rather than focusing on the post-infection world, such as in Carriers, or a single family trying to survive the early hours of the infection (Right at Your Door), Contagion tries to show the bigger picture:  the family left behind by patient zero; the CDC director, field officers, and scientists trying to contain the infection, stifle panic, and find out where the infection came from and how it can be stopped; the government agents trying to paint the “right” picture; and the conspiracy theorist trying to uncover the truth.   In many respects, Soderbergh’s germaphobic thriller resembles films like Love, Actually in its multiple characters and storylines.  But while I loved Love, Actually, I think Contagion leaves a lot to be desired.  The film follows the characters in chronological order, displaying the days since the first infection on the screen every time there is a shift.  Of course, doing so presents problems, since the first focus character is also dead within five minutes (Gwyneth Paltrow); we never get to know who she is as a person, except through the activities of other characters, most of which result in destroying our sympathy for her (she turns out to have been cheating on her husband). And this is the primary problem with Contagion:  not enough time is spent with any of the characters to give us a good sense of who they are.  Their motivations are often strictly logical.  The father (Mitch, played by Matt Damon) becomes survival guru in order to save his biological daughter, who may or may not be immune to the virus; the budding scientist, Dr. Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle), takes a shot in the dark because, as we’re told, getting the vaccine through human trials will take months (hooray for the bureaucratic process); and so on and so forth.  There are too few surprises — except, perhaps, in the case of Alan Krunwiede (Jude Law), who starts as a conspiracy theorist with an anti-establishment bent, but then seems to become just as corrupt as the people he tries to depose.  The only character who seemed to grow by the end of the movie was Dr. Ellis Cheever (Laurence Fishburne), who begins as a somewhat warm-hearted figure, but concludes as a man who doesn’t care that doing what is right might also mean breaking the law.  But the other characters?  They’re empty.  Some are almost like cardboard cutouts of people we’ve seen in other disaster movies.  Too few characters show any development.  The focus is not on them (on their motivations, lives, feelings, etc.). Rather, Contagion seems more focused on structural storytelling.  On the one hand, I think this is clever, since the narrative jumps back and forth to show what an infection looks like from all angles (within a certain view, of course).  Most films which deal with contagion do so by showing a small piece of a larger picture.  Such narratives focus on small groups of characters, surviving together, rather than separately.  But Contagion shows everyone, from the family man, to the lowly scientist, to the journalists and field scientists and government officials and so on and so forth.  Doing so, however, means the film can’t focus.  It constantly shifts perspective to present new information (most of which we need, but a good deal of which is presented to the audience as medical jargon). I guess what I’m getting at is that Contagion feels uneven.  It spends so much time trying to get us invested in some of the characters and their struggles, but because the structure is focused on the processes of contagion and containment, the characters and emotional impact get lost.  While I appreciated the style of Contagion, which sometimes takes the form of documentary and other times as a thriller, I couldn’t help feeling detached from what was going on.  Hearing about all of the deaths isn’t the same as seeing them happen or feeling their impact on the screen.  Numerous characters hear about the millions dying from the infection, but so few seem to have any connection to it or show distress.  And without that connection, the narrative falls flat.  If this is a serious infection, why can’t we see what it looks like?  Yes, there are scenes which show us bodies being put in trenches, but these are few and far between.  Once the ball gets rolling, the infection is relayed to us in dialogue:  “it’s killed X.” The movie had a lot of potential, and many of the name actors do their best with what little is given to them.  But my overall feeling is that of disappointment.  This was not the thriller I was expecting.  I want more than style in my movies.  I want to feel something — to care about characters.  Contagion just doesn’t do that for me, which is a shame when you consider what the film is about:  people dying from an infection. Directing: 2/5 Cast: 3/5 (the cast is good, but they do so little on the screen it’s hard to give them more than 3 out of 5) Writing: 2/5 Visuals: 3/5 Adaptation: N/A Overall: 2.5/5 P.S.:  I also think the film is ideologically confused.  If you see it, pay attention to how women, pharmaceutical companies, and those who poke back at the government are

SF/F Commentary

Texas Wildfire Relief Fund: They Need Our Help!

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The firefighters in Texas need a lot of help.  Due to budget cuts, a lot of firefighters are being forced to pay for supplies out of their own pockets.  Cutting from fire departments and other public services is always a stupid idea, but Rick Perry did it anyway.  And now Texans are suffering the consequences.  It’s sickening and horrible. So what they really need right now is money.  Anything.  $1.  $10.  $20.  Whatever you can give. I know we’re all hurting right now with the economy.  But if you’ve got a little extra, help your fellow Americans fight off these fires and save lives and homes. Thanks! P.S.:  It’s probably best to use Paypal, since it’s faster.  Time is of the essence, after all.

SF/F Commentary

RIP: Terrance

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None of you even know about Terrance (unless you follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Google plus).  I didn’t have time to blog about him yet.  And now I’m telling you all about him having nothing good to say other than “well, he had at least one moderately good day in his life, and I tried to give that to him.” Terrance came to me after my friend Sarah messaged me on Facebook asking if I could foster a cat who was scheduled for death early last week.  He had had a terrible life with his previous owner, who had kept him on an apartment balcony for five years in Florida.  When he arrived at my place, he had an upper respiratory infection and looked fairly worse for wear (his previous owner clearly didn’t feed him well and the infection he got between surrender and arrival didn’t help at all). But I didn’t want him to be put to sleep without having a shot.  I took him in, gave him a place to live in the bathroom, with free reign in my bedroom (and the apartment at large when I was at home — I have lizards, so I had to keep them isolated…you know how cats are).  Things were going well.  The first day, he came out of the bathroom to hang out underneath my legs while I was on the computer.  Then that night, he spent five to ten minutes staring at me from the corner of the bed looking like he wanted to jump up and say hello. And, of course, that’s exactly what he did.  While I read, he slept between my legs with his head on my hip.  When I finally went to sleep, he slept next to me (and woke me up a few times when he got up to stare at me — this is a creepy thing to see in a black cat with bright yellow eyes and a drooling mouth (from the infection)).  And it all seemed like a really good thing. But this morning, after trying to feed him a little more liquid mush, he had some kind of attack.  He tried to walk away, lost his balance, and fell over.  Several seizure-like attacks rocked him afterwards, and I sat there with him not knowing what to do while he slowly fell away from the world.  By the time my friend managed to get to my apartment, he had stopped breathing.  It was awful and unfair.  Not for me, but for Terrance. This poor cat had an awful life because his owner was an awful human being.  Finally he was away from that.  Finally he was with someone who cared about his existence.  I’m not even a big cat person, being mildly allergic and all.  But I still wanted him to get better, to get fat and lazy like a normal cat, and to find a wonderful home.  That life was stolen from him. So I’m really bummed out today.  It’s not easy watching an animal die, particularly one so sweet as Terrance.  It’s not easy feeling helpless while it happens.  It’s not easy knowing that a few days in my apartment with a cat cold were probably the best days he ever had.  All of it is messed up and awful.  I hope his previous owner has karma slap her in the back of the head.  She deserves it. For now, maybe Terrance is up in kitty heaven with plenty of toys and people to love on him (along with whatever else belongs in kitty heaven). Below are some pictures, in case you want to know what he looked like.  Yes, he was beautiful (or handsome, as the case may be).

SF/F Commentary

SandF Episode #5.2 (Interview w/ Nick Mamatas) is Live!

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Over at The Skiffy and Fanty Show you’ll find a brand new interview with none other than Nick Mamatas, who I am referring to from now on inside my head as Master Splinter.  The interview went pretty well and we talked about a lot of fascinating things, such as Japanese SF/F, parasites, and his writing. Check it out and let us know what you think! ———————————————————- In other news:  I’m on my desktop again, because the keyboard on the brand new laptop apparently needs replacing.  This, needless to say, sucks…

SF/F Commentary

An Interview with Kevin Hearne

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Thanks to Kevin Hearne for taking the time to answer my ridiculous questions.  Don’t forget to check out my review of Hexed. Now for the interview: First things first: what drew you into writing in the first place, and why fantasy in particular?  I was drawn into writing by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. Chief’s voice is so well done and I wanted to be able to grab somebody the way that book grabbed me. I wound up writing fantasy mostly because that’s what I enjoy reading more than anything else. Your Iron Druid series draws heavily from Celtic folklore, including figures like the Morrigan and other members of the fae “pantheon.” Why did you focus specifically on the Celtic/Irish roots for your main character, Atticus? What is so interesting about Celtic folklore for you (and, perhaps, for us)? Part of this comes from my loathing for Disney and what they were doing to “fairies.” My daughter thought fairies were cute and helpful and delicate and it was driving me nuts. But then I realized it wasn’t just Disney — there were any number of other sources that had strayed quite far from the original Irish roots of the Sidhe. I’m an Irish/English mutt, so the focus on the lore was naturally interesting to me. For others, I’d think the mythology would be interesting in its own right, since the Irish didn’t follow the same patterns as others. Most cultures have goddesses of love, not gods, for example, and the Irish god of love, Aenghus Óg, was kind of a dick. An interesting aspect of your novel is that it places limits on the various religious deities and figures. Gods, we learn, can be killed. Every “faith” has a magic system unique to it, which has weaknesses or strengths in relation to other magic systems. How did this world in which practically every deity that ever “lived” actually exists come to be?  I asked myself why only the Irish pantheon would still be alive and well in the present day when there were so many other great traditions out there. And what it all came down to was that I couldn’t come up with a reason to make the Irish the “one true faith.” The great truth is that we all construct our own truths in our efforts to improve ourselves, and besides, it turned out to be much more fun to write with an inclusive view of the world than an exclusive one. Were you at all concerned that your audience would be too unfamiliar with the various mythologies Hexed plays with? Atticus does, after all, explain a great deal of things, but it’s obvious that he can’t explain it all.  No concerns at all. I respect the readers. Fantasy readers in general have some pretty good brains, and if they want to know more about something, they’ll go learn. As a reader myself, I love it when I find books that teach me something and spark a little personal investigation. Would it be fair to assume that you are a dog lover based on Atticus’ relationship with Oberon? In a lot of ways, the two characters have an intimate connection that most people wish they had with their pets (and dog-like critters appear frequently in your book). Why do dog-like “things” dominate the cast of Hexed?  I’m certainly a dog person, but the number of canine characters in this particular book is a coincidence. I didn’t have any particular point to make with them. But I can say this series was spawned around the characters of Atticus and Oberon—it was always a story about a man and his dog. All the rest of it came later: those two characters are the core. One of your main villains, the Bacchants, could be described as the moral antithesis of civilized society. Hexed walks a fine line in regards to their conduct, since a lot of what you describe as their modus operandi is sexual in nature. Were you concerned while writing the Bacchants that you might cross a line for many readers?  Yeah, I’m not really one who appreciates play-by-play accounts of sexual encounters, because if I wanted that, I could go grab something out of the erotica section. I’m assuming that my readers would similarly appreciate a couple of sentences to paint a broad picture and then just leave it at that. Hexed does deal with religion(s), and a good deal of emphasis is placed on “dead religions” and Christian faith. Was writing about such things a challenge, especially considering the potential for alienation your religious themes could have?  Challenging, sure. But completely and utterly fun. By choosing to be inclusive (the Jewish faith, which is very much alive, is also featured prominently), I’m also choosing to be respectful of all those various faiths. Every one is portrayed as puissant and vital to those who believe in them. I don’t go around dissing anyone, with the possible exception of Thor. So the only bone of contention I’ve heard is from people who are offended that I’m treating all religions with respect, as if their religion is the only one that matters. You can imagine how much I care for the opinions of such arrogant people. All three of your Iron Druid novels came out in quick succession (Hounded in May, Hexed in June, and Hammered in July). What do you think are the benefits and pitfalls of such a quick publishing schedule? The benefits greatly outweigh the pitfalls. I got plenty of attention and lots of fans who jumped into the series rather than waiting for it to end. In terms of pitfalls, the only downside is that I couldn’t keep up with the publicity side of things; I couldn’t write enough guest blogs and so on to keep up, and I was exhausted. Still, it was a good exhaustion, because everything I managed to find time to do paid some sort of dividend.

SF/F Commentary

It’s Still Not New (Literary Genre Fiction — Pah!)

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Kim Wright has an interesting article on The Million about why literary writers going out to write genre fiction. Here’s a rather amusing set of paragraphs: It will probably always be open to debate whether these innovations are the result of writers seeking creative expression and wider audiences or a calculated move on the part of publishers who are simply trying to sell more product, even if it means slightly misrepresenting a book to its potential audience. But either way, the future seems to be stories which combine the pacing and plots of genre with the themes and style of literary writing.  In other words, this crappy market may actually end up producing better books. Because hybrids, bastards, and half-breeds tend to be heartier than those delicate offspring that result from too much careful inbreeding. Just ask the Tudors. The best commercial writers were moving toward this anyway, creating highly metaphorical fantasy works and socially-conscious mysteries, expanding the definition of their genres even before the ex-pat literary crew jumped on the bandwagon. “We’re going to see more blending as everyone attempts to grab a larger audience,” predicts Patriarche, “and the literary snobs are going to have to stop looking down on genre.” Overall, the article is sound, but it does fall pray to an argument I’ve refuted before. Namely, that the whole cross-genre literary-genre fiction, and the literary authors who have crossed over to write the stuff, is new.  But it’s been going on for a while.  The only new thing is that people are starting to pay attention to it. And the sad truth Wright reveals is that people are paying attention because of the money: Scott Spencer, who has published ten novels dating back to the mid-1970s, was once able to live exclusively on the income from his books and “make this kind of old-fashioned writer’s life work.” But, noting the inherent contradiction between the ups and downs and further downs of literary writing and his need to make a living, he is publishing Breed There are other examples in the article, including a moment when Wright points out that many literary authors are turning to commercial forms of writing, all of which seems to contradict a statement made by a quoted publisher in the article about how writers just want to write. I don’t want to suggest that wanting to make a living as a writer is a bad thing.  In fact, it’s quite awesome to make a living doing what you love.  Rather, my issue is the continued colonization of genre history for the purposes of the literary elite.  All these literary genre books are following a tradition that has been around for nearly a hundred years, if not longer (though SF doesn’t get codified as a genre as we understand it until the 1920s or so).  Literary writers who claim that switching to genre or including “literary tropes” into a work of genre is somehow “new” or part of an “emerging trend” are people who simply don’t know the history of the genre they’re appropriating in order to fill their pockets (though not all literary writers are like this, if we’re being fair). And quite honestly, this all tells me that some folks are doing a piss poor job of learning their literary history. I am a genre writer, reader, critic, and academic.  But I’ve taken the time to learn non-genre literary history precisely because I understand that the two forms inform one another.  SF/F does not exist without modernism, postmodernism, and the various literary movements that followed, preceded, or lived within those movements. Maybe I’m just rambling and acting the fool here, but it’s high time people start acknowledging that genre has been an active participant in the development of our literary and general culture since its inception.  That’s not me saying that science fiction deserves to be loved by everyone.  Rather, it’s me saying that genre forms are inseparable from the cultural history in which we live, in which writers write, and so forth.  The same is true of non-genre forms too.

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