You all know about the Story South Million Writers Award, right? If not, then you’ll need to listen to the latest episode of The Skiffy and Fanty Show to hear our take on the top ten entries. Then you should go vote! Hope you enjoy the episode!
After a short delay, the new episode is here. James and his companions are stuck in the dark world below the earth while Arlin City fights of Luthien’s forces. But the world below is not what it seems. Listen to find out more: Chapter Thirteen — Download (mp3) Thanks for listening. Please give WISB a review on iTunes! (Don’t forget to check out what I’ve done to sweeten the pot for anyone who donates to the project. So far, six people have donated. Plenty of free things are available, from ebooks, paperbacks, random letters from me, and even a character written about you into the world of WISB. Please consider donating!) (All podcast chapters will be listed on the Podcast page.) P.S.: In case you missed it, I’ve agreed to do two very embarrassing things on camera if I meet my funding goal. Find out what they are here and support this podcast!
Criticizing the Syfy channel in the SF community is almost like fulfilling a requirement for entry. After all, the channel plays more wrestling and phony ghost-hunting/crypto-BS than any other channel on cable, which makes it really easy to hate if you’re not into such things. It wasn’t always that way, though. I remember watching old science fiction classics on Scifi (the name it used to have before they went moron and came up with Syfy). Godzilla, cheezy 80s flicks, The Twilight Zone, and The Outer Limits. All of those wonderful shows were there. Now? Not so much. But is Syfy detrimental to science fiction as a genre? Kyle Mizokami thinks so. One of his recent tweets reads as follows: Syfy’s express purpose seems to be to destroy the genre of science fiction. Mizokami is certainly being facetious here, but it might be worth wondering whether Syfy, in a general sense, is good for science fiction. I highly doubt the creators or its current “controllers” intend to destroy SF, since that would make their station pointless, but they certainly have made many decisions which many would consider damaging to SF, or, at the very least, damn well questionable. In defense of Syfy, I think it’s necessary to point out that they are the only station dedicated to producing original SF/F television. They’ve brought us the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica and various incarnations of Stargate, saved Sliders from certain incomplete death, and created numerous other wholly original series (some of them, I’m told, are damned good), movies (most of which aren’t so great), and so on. True, they’ve resorted to playing wrestling and other garbage, but it’s the only channel that actually plays science fiction on a routine basis, and maintains SF/F series as part of its “package.” Most of the major networks haven’t a clue what to do with genre when they have it and that means most of the genre shows that appear there are canceled in quick order. I’d argue that cable television is where all good genre television goes to live, while network television is where it goes to die. That said, I do think we have a lot to be concerned about with Syfy. Rather than play SF/F classics in poor-performing slots (to boost ratings, as I see it), they’ve gone towards “popular” things like wrestling, paranormal investigation nonsense, and so on. I think this is a bad thing for the station in general, but it is also worrying for SF/F fans, since it means the one network devoted to what they love is putting too much attention into junk that should show up elsewhere. Throw in the fact that their TV movies are more often than not just this side of kill-yourself-awful and it’s hard to think of Syfy as a channel that knows what it is doing. Quality television and quality re-run selection is absolutely crucial for SF/F. In general, I disagree with Mizokami. I don’t think Syfy is damaging SF…yet. But it has the potential to ruin genre television if it isn’t careful. It’s hard to call Syfy the worst TV station on cable when it wasn’t all that long ago that the greatest science fiction show in the history of television graced their channel (BSG). But when you watch something like Battle of Los Angeles, which is possibly the worst film ever made, what else are you supposed to think other than “they really don’t give a crap?” What do you think? Is Syfy bad for science fiction?
What? You don’t believe me? Well see for yourself: Morthûl, the dreaded Charnel King, has failed. Centuries of plotting from the heart of the Iron Keep, deep within the dark lands of Kirol Syrreth-all for naught. Foiled at the last by the bumbling efforts of a laughable band of so-called heroes, brainless and over-muscled cretins without sense enough to recognize a hopeless cause when they take it on. Machinations developed over generations, schemes intended to deliver the world into the Dark Lord’s hands, now devastated beyond salvation. But the so-called forces of Light have paid for their meddling with the life of Princess Amalia, only child of the royal family of Shauntille. Now, as winter solidifies its icy grip on the passes of the Brimstone Mountains, disturbing news has reached the court of Morthûl. King Dororam, enraged by the murder of his only child — and accompanied by that same group of delusional upstart “heroes” — is assembling all the Allied Kingdoms, fielding an army unlike any seen before. The armies of Kirol Syrreth muster to meet the attack that is sure to come as soon as the snows have melted from the mountain paths, but their numbers are sorely depleted. Still, after uncounted centuries of survival, the Dark Lord isn’t about to go down without a fight, particularly in battle against a mortal! No, the Charnel King still has a few tricks up his putrid and tattered sleeves, and the only thing that can defeat him now may just be the inhuman soldiers on whom he’s pinned his last hopes. Welcome to the Goblin Corps. May the best man lose This is just like when Simon Pegg wrote that movie based on my life as relayed through a zombie metaphor. Or very similar to how this guy stole my name to make an acting career for himself on 90210. (No, Mr. Moosekian, you cannot have my Twitter name.) Then again, maybe this is all coincidence and I’m simply an egotistical idiot with a blog babbling about how great I am via other people’s clearly far superior work… The cool news is that you can learn all about Ari Marmell at his website, which is cleverly entitled Mouseferatu. But perhaps it is just another coincidence that I happened to show a few minutes of Nosferatu (and D. W. Griffith’s Intolerance, incidentally) in my Survey of American Literature course today… Yeah, coincidence. That’s it. In any case, you can get The Goblin Corps right now! It’s available. Everywhere. P.S.: Pyr is awesome.
Well, today is the last day of the funding drive for The World in the Satin Bag. As of this moment, I am $135.44 short of my goal, which means I don’t have to do the Truffle Shuffle or Peanut Butter Jelly Time this time tomorrow if that number doesn’t change. That’s up to all of you, though. But if watching me embarrass myself doesn’t do it for you, remember that there’s lots of free stuffs to be had once the project is finished. But only for folks who donate! I need roughly 14 people to donate $10 each and I’m over the hump. Could you be one of those 14? Maybe. Maybe not. It’s hard to complain, though. Reaching $860ish in a month is not bad at all. Anywho! Thanks to everyone who has supported the project thus far. You rock! I will have the next chapter up this weekend, which will keep you all entertain, I’m sure.
For those of you who don’t follow John Ottinger’s Grasping For the Wind, you really should, because then you wouldn’t have to read this post telling you to check out my guest post there called “Our Inner Children and Childhood Suppression: Let Kids Be Kids.” Seriously, you should read it. But first, here’s a little taste: It’s only as we get older that our wonder and imaginations are clamped down on by society. Schools stifle creativity by resorting to “by the numbers” teaching styles and teaching goals. Parents begin to tell us to grow up, to act our age, to stop talking to ourselves in the corner or playing house or all those silly little games we used to play. Hooray for out of context quotes!
