In the Duke’s Sights: Danielewski, Carroll, Butcher, and Helgadóttir
In the Duke’s Sights is a regular column where I talk about the various books and movies that grabbed my interest in the last week. Destroying the Novel So Your TV Will Make Sense! I won’t pretend to fully understand all of Danielewski’s work, but I own all of it and find his refusal to participate in normal novel writing fascinating. His latest novel, The Familiar Vol. 1, is apparently a deconstruction of the television series. io9 has some great shots of the weird formats in the book, which are, as Danielewski is known for, just plain weird. The book doesn’t come out until next month, so you’ll have plenty of time to pre-order. Bigfoot is Probably Real (or in a Book) Subterranean Press recently sent me an ARC of an upcoming collection of three Harry Dresden novellas. Since I’ve never actually read any of Butcher’s books, for which I will probably be summarily hung, I figure it’s about time I give his work a shot. This seems like a nice entry point: short and to the point! Granted, I actually really liked the Dresden Files TV series, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy the written work, too. This particularly set of stories has Harry working for, well, Bigfoot. That’s sufficiently goofy for me to want to read it. Really Weird Covers Creep Me Out! The cover for Jonathan Carroll’s upcoming novella from Subterranean Press reminds me of Aphex Twin’s music video for “Come to Daddy.” Go on. Watch it. You know I’m right: In any case, Teaching the Dog to Read looks like more of Carroll’s brilliant weirdness wrapped in a single 96-page book. The description says it all: Since the appearance of his first novel, The Land of Laughs, in 1980, Jonathan Carroll has been one of the most compelling, consistently versatile storytellers in modern imaginative literature. His extraordinary new novella, Teaching the Dog to Read, is quintessential Carroll: surprising, funny, and filled with unexpected moments and astonishing revelations. The story opens when mid-level office drone Tony Areal receives an extravagant gift: the Lichtenberg wristwatch he has always coveted. Shortly afterward, he receives an even grander gift: the luxurious—and expensive—Porsche Cayman that has always been the car of his dreams. Accompanying the car is the mysterious Alice, who knows more about Tony’s dreams and desires than Tony himself. This encounter opens the door to a rich and unexpected universe: the world behind the world. Teaching the Dog to Read is set at the intersection of the mundane and the miraculous, a place where reality itself shifts and shimmers with disconcerting suddenness. It begins in the realm of recognizable things and ends in a room where a bizarre—and invisible—reunion takes place. Along the way, it offers both grand entertainment and a visionary meditation on the complex connections between our dreaming and waking selves. The result is a master class in the art of narrative and a permanent addition to Jonathan Carroll’s remarkable body of work. The Stars, the Moon, the Inner Journey, the Outer Journey… Fox Spirit Books recently sent me several books from the far off mystical land of England. Among them was Margrét Helgadóttir’s The Stars Seem So Far Away, a tale about the Earth in its last days. Though the premise sounds familiar, the blurbs on the back of the book certainly enticed me, as they included high praise from Damien Walter of The Guardian and Adam Roberts, the celebrated academic and author. Both praised Helgadóttir’s prose, so it’s likely I’ll find something to love in this particular book. Thus, it goes to the big fat To Be Read pile! —————— And there you have it. Those are the things that grabbed my attention this week. What about you?
On Forgiveness and Redemption (Storify)
[Update: since a number of people are reaching my blog via this page, please see this addendum post, which includes an apology and other things related to this post.] You’ll need to click the “read more” because the darn Storify is so long that it floods my main page. [View the story “On Forgiveness and Redemption” on Storify]
On the Future of This Blog and My Bid for World Domination
Earlier today, I had a rather revealing conversation with Jay Garmon, Fred Kiesche, and Paul Weimer about Patreon, blogging, and being successful at both (Patrick Hester was also there, but he just wanted to talk about donuts…). As you know, I have a Patreon page. Over the last week or so, I’ve been wondering why it hasn’t been more successful given that this blog does have a few hundred readers and that I think I’m providing good content for sf/f-minded folks. Granted, I never expected anything nearly as successful as Kameron Hurley’s $800-and-climbing Patreon page for obvious reasons: she’s selling fiction (I’m not, though I wish I were); she’s sf/f famous (I’m kinda not really); and she has enough follows to drown a human being in a pool of bodies (I don’t). But I thought it might be a little more successful. So, I started asking questions on Twitter to see why that might be. Fred and Jay were the most vocal speakers on the subject, and each imparted upon me a set of core ideas that I realized I had never really addressed: There must be a focus (what you’re interested in beyond some generalized “thing”) There must be a “hook” (what makes it different from everything else) There must be a reason for reading (why should anyone care what you think) It dawned on me, then, that I didn’t have a focus. This blog covers just about everything: books, movies, TV, comics, SF/F controversies, writing, and other rambles. It isn’t really about anything except in the broadest sense. It’s about SF/F, which is sort of like saying “this is a blog about sports.” And in trying to be about SF/F, I’ve created something that is about too many darn things. For one man, that’s kind of ridiculous. After all, I am not Tor.com, which can talk about dozens of things because it has dozens of contributors. I am not SF Signal, which can do the same. I am not Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together, Fantasy Faction, SF Site, and so on and so forth. But I’m also not Adam Werthead, who covers bits of sf/f news, or Ian Sales, who maintains SFF Mistressworks, or Foz Meadows, who provides in-depth criticism of media and SF/F events from a particular feminist perspective, or Kameron Hurley, who does the same, and so on and so forth. I am trying to do all the things but essentially not doing any one (or two) thing(s) particularly well. That’s been a huge problem for this blog. I have so many interests that I want to do so many different projects. But I don’t have time to cover everything I want to cover in a year, and so I end up sort of half-ass covering a few of the things I love. The SFF Film Odyssey should have been completed last year, but I’m still inching my way along because I never focused on it. All these side columns are great ideas, but for one person, they’re kind of impossible to manage if you have two teaching jobs and a PhD to finish. Don’t get me started on my lackluster reviewing habits… So I started thinking about what I wanted to do as a blogger, what I wanted to do as a podcaster, and what I wanted to do as a writer and Patreon user. And it came to me that maybe it’s time for something to change around here. Maybe this blog has been stagnant for so long because I didn’t know how to make it better or to move on to the next thing or to focus on anything. I wanted to do all the things and I couldn’t admit to myself that, well, I just can’t. I can’t do all the things. Now I have ideas. Many of them. And I would love your input if you’re a reader of this blog. Here are some disjointed thoughts on what I might do for the future: The Thinning Package: Open a new page which will focus on a specific thing (SF/F Film Odyssey type stuff, for example) Change WISB to a personal webpage for my writing self (still sf/f-ish, but not focused in the same way) Move most of my review-related blogging to The Skiffy and Fanty Show blog The Shifting Package: Move my SF/F Film Odyssey and film-relate stuff to the Totally Pretentious blog and run a specific act there (something like the SF/F Film Odyssey on a regular basis) Change WISB to a personal webpage and a space for critical reflections on genre happenings (which would otherwise be poorly suited to The Skiffy and Fanty Show blog) Move everything else to S&F as above The Ultra Thinning Package: Kill everything I’m currently doing on WISB and shift my focus to one specific, regularly occurring thing (SF/F Film Odyssey type stuff, perhaps) Move reviews to S&F as above SF/F criticism mostly disappears because S&F isn’t really the place for my ranting nonsense. Note: obviously, I need to get this darn website off of Blogger and into something that looks, well, up to date for the year we’re actually in. Those are just some ideas. I don’t have the answers yet because I haven’t a clue what do. I’m only just beginning to think about how to change what I’m doing to make it better, not just in terms of the quality, but also in terms of my ability to “do” it. And I’m still not certain what I want to do when I set down a focus, except that I think it would be stupid of me to leave out my academic side. What I do know at this moment is that I can’t do everything, even if I would like to. I just don’t have the resources, and I think trying to do too many things is ultimately damaging my ability to do anything else well. The comments are now yours. Do let me know what you think about
Adventures in Teaching: Space Opera Course Recommendations?
In the upcoming fall semester, I will be teaching an upper division modern science fiction course on American space opera. That’s right. A whole entire course just on American space opera. Though I have a few ideas for texts to teach, I realize that space opera is a massive field and that I would be remiss not to poke the infinite knowledge of other science fiction fans for works I might otherwise have missed or which might serve my needs better than the things in my head. With that in mind, I’m looking for space opera recommendations! As of right now, I’m strongly considering teaching E.E. “Doc” Smith, Joe Haldeman, Tobias Buckell, Alfred Bester, Samuel R. Delany, Lois McMaster Bujold, and C.J. Cherryh. I have a lot of titles, but I’m not sure what I will choose to focus on just yet. Given the scope of the course, I may be limited in how much I can actually explore. So what am I looking for? 1) Short stories, novellas, and novels (no longer than 400 pages) which could reasonably be described as space opera OR playing in the space opera sandbox. The stories should in some way engage with the course description: Coined by Wilson Tucker in 1941 as a pejorative, the science fiction subgenre of “space opera” has become a staple of science fiction narrative, most popularly envisioned in film by the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises. But far from mere visual spectacle or adventure, space opera’s history suggests a complicated relationship between the subgenre and the contemporary culture in which it is written. From its roots in the often paranoid and sometimes blatantly racist narratives (e.g., “Yellow Peril” stories) of what I.F. Clarke calls “future war fiction,” to its development as a legitimate subgenre in the pulps and the Golden Age via writers such as E.E. “Doc” Smith and Alfred Bester, space opera has always been in conversation with its time. It reinforces contemporary values or, as science fiction is apt to do, it critiques or deconstructs those values. This course will explore the development of American space opera from its literary origins in late 19th-century “future war fiction” and the “Edisonades” to its codification as a subgenre in the pulps via writers such as Edmond Hamilton and E.E. “Doc” Smith. From there, the course will trace the legitimization of space opera as a subgenre in the Golden Age and the political blowbacks to its imperialistic and/or “conservative” themes or narrative tropes in the New Wave (Samuel R. Delany, et. al.) and New Space Opera periods (Tobias Buckell, C.J. Cherryh, et al.). Readings will consist of serialized fiction, novels, and critical readings on science fiction, history, or relevant literary or cultural theory. Students will be expected to keep up with the readings and to regularly participate in class discussion. Written course requirements will include two short essays, a group discussion panel, weekly discussion questions, and one final essay. 2) Specific requests: Stories which are considered precursors to traditional space opera Stories which helped define the subgenre Stories which pushed against the traditional form (particularly works form the New Wave) Significant works of New Space Opera 3) Short Story Oddities: though this course privileges American space opera, I may be able to fit relevant works of other non-US movements into the course (British Boom, etc.). 4) Non-fiction: essays (academic or otherwise) which explore space opera as a genre or which explore specific works of space opera (w/ their space opera-ness as central). There you go. Recommend away!
In the Duke’s Sights: Speakeasies, the Brooding Octavias, Tax Kings, Sorrows, and Machines!
It’s time to create a new semi-regular column where I talk about things that I’m eyeing for whatever reason and things that I’m currently enjoying (also for whatever reason). Because what could you want more than anything else in the world than my haphazard thoughts about random pieces of upcoming (or old) sf/f literature, film, and so on? Assume you can’t have pie as an alternative, because I can’t compete with pie. So here we are: on the cusp of discussing exciting new and old and time-indeterminate things! The Speakeasy People Are Coming For Us! This gorgeous book arrived in my mailbox on Wednesday, and, well, it’s gorgeous, no? Valente, of course, is a fine writer, so when something by her appears in my inbox looking all kinds of book sexy, I’m inclined to want to read it immediately. And the story? Sounds like something I’d enjoy! The hotel Artemisia sits on a fantastical 72nd Street, in a decade that never was. It is home to a cast of characters, creatures, and creations unlike any other, including especially Zelda Fair, who is perfect at being Zelda, but who longs for something more. The world of this extraordinary novella—a bootlegger’s brew of fairy tales, Jazz Age opulence, and organized crime—is ruled over by the diminutive, eternal, sinister Al. Zelda holds her own against the boss, or so it seems. But when she faces off against him and his besotted employee Frankie in a deadly game that just might change everything, she must bet it all and hope not to lose… The immediate parallel in 2015 would have to be Elizabeth Bear’s Karen Memory, even though they are drastically different sorts of books. Still, there’s a similar feel to them, so I’m likely to enjoy Valente’s book as much as Bear’s — which is to say a whole heck of a lot. Brooding Octavia’s! Given the vocal campaign against the SJW infestation of science fiction and fantasy, I think it entirely appropriate to give Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements (edited by Walida Imarisha and adrienne maree brown; 4/14/15 release) a prominent place in my “In the Duke’s Sights” feature. The anthology collects twenty stories which engage with movements of social change. I argued in an upcoming review for Strange Horizons that this kind of concentration of theme is precisely what exceptional science fiction anthologies do. It also appears to be a prominent trend, which I’m happy exists. Without a doubt, I desperately want to read this one! Tax Kings Who Wear Fancy Pants (Probably) If you haven’t already heard about Ken Liu’s debut novel, The Grace of Kings, then I’m put in the unfortunate position of having to tell you that you need to stop living under a rock. Liu has been talking up the book for the past week, noting on more than one occasion that The Grace of Kings is silkpunk which makes taxes fun. That’s perhaps the boldest claim about a book that I have ever heard, since tax season in the United States is objectively less enjoyable for most people than the following: root canals, being clawed by 90 very angry cats, having your foot chewed off by a badger, sitting through any Uwe Boll film…twice, and so on. You get the idea. Initial discussion of the novel has been quite positive. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to dig into it later this month. There Are Proper Sorrows, Surely! Coming later this month is Lindsey Drager’s The Sorrow Proper, a literary novel about technological change. It’s rooted in the present changes to publishing, but there’s some weirdness about the Many Worlds theory and a future where the public library system is no longer, which sounds like something I’d love precisely because it’s my worst nightmare. NO LIBRARIES? NO! The novel certainly seems intriguing, so I hope to get a chance to read it soon. The Lady Machines Will Ruin Us (Probably…Not) The one sf/f film everyone is looking forward to this month is Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, starring Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, and Oscar Isaac. Garland is fairly new to the director’s seat, but his written work includes 28 Days Later (2002), Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2010), and the under-appreciated Dredd (2012). For that reason, I’m actually looking forward to what Garland does with Ex Machina, and so you can expect my toosh in a theater seat once I’ve kicked this cold in the face. And there you have it! So…what are you fixated on at the moment?
5 Reasons I Won’t Read Your Work
Having reviewed books somewhat spottily for over half a decade, I’ve developed a mental checklist to use when deciding whether I will read or review a book. Most often, I just don’t have the time to read 159,997 novels in a year, so I turn down a lot of reviews because I know I won’t be able to get to it. Otherwise, I usually reject a novel for one of the follow reasons: 5. You write the kind of books I don’t generally like to read This one is obvious, no? I only read certain kinds of science fiction and fantasy, with rare exception. Anything outside of that narrow band generally gets ignored. Most people are like this because most people aren’t interested in every kind of sf/f literature. You’d be surprised how often I get review requests for things that I’ve never reviewed in all my lackluster years as a reviewer. Not nearly as often as others, I’m sure, but often enough that this is one of the top reasons I won’t review a book. I’ve pulled myself from a couple reviewer email lists because of this. If my preferences are for X, I don’t want to get requests for Q and G. It’s that simple. Note: that I have made exceptions in the past in no way means I will make exceptions all the time; if I did that, I wouldn’t have to make exceptions… 4. You don’t know how to do basic PR for your book The easiest way to get me to delete an email is to send me something that reads less like a review request and more like spam. You’re in bad territory indeed if I think your email will end with you claiming that you’re a prince with millions of dollars that you have bequeathed to me and that you need me to front the fee to transfer it to a U.S. bank… You know what I want in a review request? Simple: a) Basic information about the book (synopsis, title, simple comparisons; book cover; blurbs) b) Basic information about you (a bio!) c) An indication that you’re familiar with me, my blog, or my podcast (major publishers often get a pass on this because they keep big lists of reviewers). I don’t need your life story, weird attempts to make your book seem super awesome, etc. If you put some personality into a, b, and c, that’s wonderful, but leave all the other stuff out. 3. You spend too much of your time online talking about how under-appreciated you are I’ve only seen a handful of authors do this. They sit on their Twitter accounts talking about why nobody reads or buys their books and how awful that is. Not just once, which might be forgiven. Not just twice, which might also be forgiven. But so many times that it becomes a semi-regular occurrence. The problem with this has nothing to do with whether it’s true. It might be that you’re not appreciated as much as you deserve. Maybe you did write a great novel, but nobody is buying it for whatever reason. That sucks. But that’s also the writing “game.” If everyone could sell as many books as John Scalzi, then everyone would complain about not selling more than that. You can’t control how many books you sell. Not really. You can push them with PR campaigns and the like (see Kameron Hurley for an example), but the market isn’t something that can be easily “gamed.” Sometimes, you just won’t sell as many books as you would like for reasons you’ll never fully understand. Complaining about it, however, makes you look desperate. It might convince a few people to buy your books. But do you really want people to buy them out of pity? As a reviewer, I just don’t play that game for one simple reason: it’s already difficult enough to be objective about a book when you are embedded in online fandom; adding a negative emotion to the reading process makes objectivity even more difficult, so it is likely to negatively affect my reception of your book. I’d prefer to avoid that situation altogether. 2. You’re a grown ass human being but behave like a child having a temper tantrum Every so often, you’ll find an author handling author life rather poorly. They complain incessantly about reviews, they crowd fan spaces when they are clearly unwanted, and they handle criticism either of their work or their online writing in the same way as a child handles being told they can’t have another piece of cake. The line between author and work isn’t as clearly defined as some would like (a fact I’ll discuss in the next section). At some point, an author’s behavior begins to affect how I view the author’s work. I can’t help it, and in some cases, I don’t want to. If an author responds poorly to reviews, I’d rather review something else than risk getting on that author’s shitlist. Why? Because I don’t need the additional stress, and if I have the choice between reading something else I might like or risking getting crapped on by an author with a behavior problem, I’ll pick the first one. That doesn’t mean authors should shut up. There are occasionally good reasons to talk about a review (good or bad) or to address some controversy online, etc. Authors just need to understand the line between “appropriate” and “inappropriate.” 1. You’re a giant, unapologetic, raging asshole In rare cases, the idea of separating an author from their work is fundamentally impossible. Some people are so incapable of being anything other than rude, conniving scumbuckets that it’s impossible to see their name on the book and not think about their behavior. We all know of one or two authors who are like this. They attack people with whom they disagree; they treat people who interact with them like worthless piles of human flesh; and they have such an air