SF/F Commentary

SF/F Commentary

Crowd-funding Update of Doom (New Perks)

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For those following my progress on G+, this will not be news to you.  If you’re not, then lots of news to come.  If you have no idea what I’m talking about, then you should probably read this. Currently, things rest as follows: –Straight donations:  $145 –Zombie Painting Auction:  $25 (+$25 match) The big update for the project is that there are now two official perks (one you’ve already seen, and one new one): Perk #1: Those who you follow my podcasts will know that my friend and I do a special segment for The Skiffy and Fanty Show called “Torture Cinema,” in which we review bad science fiction and fantasy movies (sometimes books) while drinking alcohol. Anyone who donates $50 or more (including via the auction) will get to pick a movie for us to watch starting in August. No voting. You get to be dictator for the day. There are only two rules: 1) the film must be SF/F (broadly defined), and 2) it must be something we haven’t reviewed yet. You can find the list of previous Tortures here: http://skiffyandfanty.com/torture-cinema/ Perk #2: I’m giving away a small collection of short stories for donations $10 and up (whether direct to me or through John Ward’s zombie painting auction). The stories will include:–“Burned by Sol’s Rain” (high-octane military SF involving time dilation and human/machine hybrids, among other things)–“Irlgem” (sword and sorcery story about a female knight and a murder and a dangerous magic item)–“Dear [Redacted]” (a humorous letter explaining why a planet as been marked for extermination, more or less)–“Interstellar Realty” (a humorous far future tale about customer service, real estate, mortgage payments, and robotic dogs) Sound cool?  I sure hope so… Anywho!

SF/F Commentary

English Majors Study Creative Writing (or, How to Look Like an Idiot)

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Apparently some people read “getting a PhD in English” as “getting a PhD in creative writing.” I find this hilarious because it demonstrates a profound ignorance of what studying English entails. Things I don’t do as a PhD student in English (that is as a necessary part of getting my degree):–Meet up for weekly book clubs–Join critique groups–Learn how to write fiction–Read fiction and nothing else–Make up imaginary interpretations for books so that I can sound smart What I actually do:–Read fiction with the intention of understanding its impact on culture (vice versa) or its critiques or its various other components, which are important as product of culture–Read philosophy, theory, history, politics, science, and other types of texts which are relevant to a cultural understanding of literature (in other words, everything relevant to a particular field)–Write essays which incorporate these elements as part of the same argument. (Basically, almost all English studies are Cultural studies these days.)–Anything related to these topics and not related to writing fiction, creative non-fiction, or other forms of non-argumentative of writing. Odd how different they are, no? What would you add to the lists?

SF/F Commentary

Survey Says: My American Lit Course Reading List

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I’ve finally finished my bloody syllabus for the survey in American lit that I will be teaching this fall.  Since some folks expressed interest in what I will be forcing my little college students to read, I’ve compiled the list in no certain order here (mostly chronological, though it may be).  The theme of the course is “labor and race,” though that is loose theme since the course is a survey, not a special topics.  But you’ll notice that the majority of the texts have to do with the working class, the Great Depression, race, Civil Rights, and so on. Anywho.  Here’s the list: (1901) “Old Rogaum and His Theresa” by Theodore Dreiser (1915) “War Brides” by Marion Craig Wentworth (1918) “Mine Eyes Have Seen” by Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1901) Up from Slavery by Booker T. Washington (selections) (1926) “Smoke, Lilies and Jade” by Richard Bruce Nugent (1931) Black No More by George Schuyler (1922) “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1930) As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (1933) “Miss Lonelyhearts” by Nathanael West (1935) “The Grave” by Katherine Anne Porter (1939) Christ in Concrete by Pietro di Donato (1955) “The Artificial Nigger” by Flannery O’Connor (1965) “Going to Meet the Man” by James Baldwin (1977) “Advancing Luna–and Ida B. Wells” by Alice Walker (1990) “The Death of the Last Black Man in the Entire World” by Suzan-Lori Parks (1968) “Lost in the Funhouse” by John Barth (1972) “When it Changed” by Joanna Russ (1969) Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut (1987) Dawn by Octavia Butler (1973) “The Girl Who Was Plugged In” by James Tiptree, Jr. Suggestions and thoughts welcome!

SF/F Commentary

The Magic Crowd-Funding-a-Laptop Project

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From Google+: All the details are below (what I’m doing, why I need to do it, what happened, etc.). Read through or skip right to the end for info about the cool painting John Ward is putting up for auction to help me out or other ways to donate (and some perks for doing so). What is it?  An attempt to raise $482 $306 to replace my laptop without taking out another student loan. I already have $30,000 in student loans for my B.A. and part of my M.A. The only way I can replace my laptop in a timely manner is to take out another loan, or crowd-fund. John Ward,  Mike Reeves-McMillan,  and Alison Marlowe were kind enough to suggest I try crowd-funding so I can keep doing what I do. I am eternally grateful for their support. Why do you need a laptop?  Much of what I do involves being mobile. While I can do most of that work from home on my desktop, it does severely limit me, as I cannot take notes in real time, record podcasts, etc. when I am not at home. It comes down to what enables me to do my PhD and “hobby” work at optimum efficiency. A laptop lets me do it all in one unit. The big issue is that I have my PhD exams this coming spring, which means I have to get a replacement ASAP. What happened? Unfortunately, what happened is more my fault than anything else. I made the mistake of leaving a glass of water too close to my laptop and my new cat (10 minutes before I decided to keep him) knocked it over while I was in the bathroom. After several unsuccessful attempts to fix the laptop, I came to the conclusion that it had died. Luckily, I did not lose any relevant work (Dropbox), but I did learn a valuable lesson. How do I help?  There are two ways you can help: 1) You can donate via Paypal using the my email — arconna[at]yahoo[dot]com (see below for a perk for donating) 2) You can head over to John Ward’s page and bid on his amazing zombie painting, which he has kindly offered up to help me out. Details for the auction will be located on that page. To sweeten the auction deal (for me, really), Mike Reeves-McMillan has offered to match the auction up to $250, which is incredible.  What are those perks you keep babbling about?  Here’s Captain America trying to explain all of this in typical Captain America fashion: Perk #1:  Those who you follow my podcasts will know that my friend and I do a special segment for The Skiffy and Fanty Show called “Torture Cinema,” in which we review bad science fiction and fantasy movies (sometimes books) while drinking alcohol. Anyone who donates $50 or more (including via the auction) will get to pick a movie for us to watch starting in August. No voting. You get to be dictator for the day. There are only two rules: 1) the film must be SF/F (broadly defined) 2) it must be something we haven’t reviewed yet. You can find the list of previous Tortures here. Perk #2:  I’m giving away a small collection of short stories for donations $10 and up (whether direct to me or through John’s zombie painting auction).  The stories will include: –“Burned by Sol’s Rain” (high-octane military SF involving time dilation and human/machine hybrids, among other things) –“Irlgem” (sword and sorcery story about a female knight and a murder and a dangerous magic item) –“Dear [Redacted]” (a humorous letter explaining why a planet has been marked for extermination, more or less) –“Interstellar Realty” (a humorous far future tale about customer service, real estate, mortgage payments, and robotic dogs) Perk #3 (alternate to #1): If you’d like to torture me in a more direct way, I will read the first chapter of any crappy SF/F book of your choice. It will be on video, and it will involve drinking. Yes, I am aware this may give me a brain disease, but sometimes pleasing others is worth it. Same donation level as #1. Perk #4: Anyone who donates (or has donated) $20 or more will receive a copy of Crux’s upcoming novel at release.  The novel is based on urban legends from the Elkhorn, Wisconsin.  Sounds pretty interesting to me. Is that all? For now. If you’ve got other ideas, such as forcing me to read from a really awful book while doing an impression (a bad impression), I’m not against the idea. You just have to let me know. As long as it’s reasonable, I’ll do it for $50. Call it whoring myself out for your entertainment, only I’ll have my clothes on and we won’t be in a cheap pay-by-the-hour hotel. If you have any questions, let me know.  And feel free to share the word!

SF/F Commentary

Top 7 Science Fiction and Fantasy Musicals

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I love musicals.  And I’m sure some of you love them too.  If you need a pick-me-up, sometimes a musical is just the right thing. These are what I consider to be the best SF/F musicals, selected by a jury of 5,000 Americans kept in an underground bunker for six weeks (part of the previous sentence is untrue — also, the following are not in any particular order): Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog Neil Patrick Harris + Nathan Fillion + Felicia Day + Simon Helberg = one of the best musicals ever made. Need I say more? Urinetown I saw a community college rendition of Urinetown a few years ago with my grandma and fell in love with it.  The humor is spot on and I find the socio-political theme interesting (tempted to teach this musical one day, actually).  I’ve included the show the cast put on at the Tony Awards, but you should also look up “Act 1 Finale,” which is one of my favorite tunes. Wicked Perhaps one of the best fantasy musicals out there, Wicked is, in my opinion, a tour de force.  Based on the book of the same name by Gregory MaGuire, it tells the story of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz.  A wonderful story rendered into an absolutely gorgeous musical. Spamalot You remember Monty Python and the Holy Grail, right?  Well, this is the musical version, more or less.  Originally starring Tim Curry, Spamalot gave us all the laughs and silly adventure that made the movie so great.  Plus, the songs are fantastic.  Sara Ramirez is amazing! Chitty Chitty Bang Bang This is my childhood.  Watching Dick Van Dyke flying around in a car while singing entertained me for hours.  It’s an adorable movie! The Rocky Horror Picture Show It’s a classic.  Also:  Tim Curry again.  Love everything that man is in… Nothing left to be said except this:  let’s do the time warp again!  You know the moves… Little Shop of Horrors Giant man-eating plant monster?  Rick Moranis?  Stunning puppets and fun semi-50s musical soundtrack?  Check, check, and check!  I love this musical for so many reasons, but most of all because it’s so damned twisted and weird.  And whoever made that green mother was brilliant.  You wouldn’t expect them to pull something off of such quality back then, but they did it. ———————————————What about your favorites?  What would you add to this list?

SF/F Commentary

Question: When Will the Tramp-Stamp Urban Fantasy Novels Die?

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Anthony Stevens was kind enough to ask the following question my Google+ page: When are the mass-market paperback publishers going to outgrow the cute-young-thing-with-the-tramp-stamp-and-a-sword/pistol/flaming-ball-of-plasma cover art? What comes next to catch our eye? Technically, that’s two questions, but I don’t have a life to prevent me from answering them. First, the “tramp stamp” urban fantasy cover trend is unlikely to go away anytime soon.  Why?  The simplest reason:  they’re selling.  The best way to change the way publishers package books is to change the way the public reacts to book covers.  Publishers aren’t stupid.  When they have a tried-and-tested method for selling books, they’re unlikely or unwilling to give that up just to appease someone’s sense of taste.  “Tramp stamp” urban fantasy is just one set of tried-and-tested cover concepts. And that’s the crux of the matter.  Publishers don’t really care about the outliers.  We’re not the primary market for their books (sad, I know). Second, predicting trends is kind of impossible.  What will replace the “tramp stamp” cover?  No idea.  The interesting thing for me is how women are going to influence this decision.  The majority of readers are now women (depending on the study, five times more women read than men), though fantasy readers are evenly split among the sexes.  All these numbers really don’t mean, much, though, since demographics are impossible to develop accurately from readers, with the exception of those statistics referring to all fiction readers.  But if we take the 50/50 split seriously for a moment, then we can get a sense of how publishers have responded to the urban fantasy boom in light of traditional reading demographics.  In the past, men were the readers, and so the cover trends, particularly in genre, had leaned towards supposed male sensibilities (look at some of those science fiction covers from back in the day and you’ll see what I mean).  Genre has been one of the stubborn holdouts on the gender parity front — science fiction is the worst of the lot.  Fantasy, however, started shifting noticeably a few decades ago.  But the covers haven’t.  They still feature the “tramp stamp” in urban fantasy and scantily clad ladies and damsels-in-distress in other fantasy subgenres. All of this is an attempt to get to my main point:  book covers in urban fantasy, and fantasy in general, are likely to trend towards the slow shift in readership.  Unless something major happens among men to convince them to become avid readers, it is likely that the trend in fiction overall will take hold in fantasy and, eventually, science fiction.  I think this will mean an artistic shift not to “girly” covers (whatever that means), but to covers which treat their subjects, particularly female characters, as individuals as opposed to stereotypes or stock imagery.  What will that look like?  Probably not unlike what you see elsewhere in genre, but maybe something else entirely. Then again, I could be wrong. What do you think will be the new trends in urban fantasy covers?  Or do you see the “tramp stamp” trend continuing indefinitely? ———————————————————– Note:  There are publishers who don’t fit the mold I’ve presented here.  Most, however, use covers primarily to sell product.

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