RIP: Diana Wynne Jones
I hate being a day behind on things like this. If you don’t know already, fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones passed away yesterday after a long battle with lung cancer. She was the author of a number of fantasy works, including one of my favorites: Howl’s Moving Castle (which was turned into a Hayao Miyazaki film). She will be missed, but hopefully she’s in a better place.
A Book Blurb By Me (Andy Remic’s Serial Killers Incorporated)!
I follow Andy Remic’s blog, and earlier today he posted the cover art for his latest book from Anarchy Books (a new ebook publisher). And that cover features a quote/blurb by yours truly! See for yourself: Now, to be fair, the quote is attributed to SQT’s blog, but I wrote the review that Remic took the quote from (for Kell’s Legend)! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go scream and jump around in my apartment like a buffoon.
Arthur C. Clarke Award Nominees — Some Thoughts
Everyone has been pointing out the Arthur C. Clarke Award nominees in the last few days. And why not? The list has some really interesting books on it, including a second novel from one of my favorite new writers: Zoo City, Lauren Beukes (Angry Robot) The Dervish House, Ian McDonald (Gollancz) Monsters of Men, Patrick Ness (Walker) Generosity, Richard Powers (Atlantic) Declare, Tim Powers (Corvus) Lightborn, Tricia Sullivan (Orbit) You can probably guess who I am rooting for, right? If not, then you haven’t been paying attention the last few months. I’m all in for Lauren Beukes. Her second novel was amazing. She presents an astonishing level of cultural detail in the novel, which you don’t always get from fantastic works set in actual places. I really hope they select her, though she’s up against some stiff competition with a Tim Powers and Ian McDonald novel on the list, not to mention that a lot of people have been talking about Tricia Sullivan’s Lightborn, which could very well snatch up the award. It’s also good to see women nominated for the award, though they are still outnumbered by the menfolk. I’m not sure which other books by women would no only be eligible, but good enough for the award, though. Anyone out there have thoughts on that? Anywho. For those interested, I reviewed Zoo City here and my friend and I interviewed her for our podcast here. We’ll find out who won at the SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival on April 27, 2011.
Hugo Nominations? They’re Not the Only Ones
Everyone seems to be in plug mode for the Hugos, and so I’m going to join the game and let you all know a few of the things I’ve done in the last year that one can nominate for a Hugo: I am apparently eligible for Best Fan Writer for the work I have done on this blog. My short story, “To Paint the Kingdom Red” (Part One and Part Two), is eligible for the Best Short Story. The Skiffy and Fanty Show is eligible for Best Fanzine, since it is a podcast, and such things are now a-ok in the Hugos. (The second season starts this Sunday, by the way.) Crimethink: Politics and Speculative Fiction is eligible for the Best Related Work category. My essay, “Political Allegory: Receptions and Their Implications in V and District 9,” was published there alongside essays by Nisi Shawl, Jay Lake, Gary Westfahl, and others. It’s a damn fine collection that deserves a nomination. If you’d like to nominate me (or anyone else, for that matter), you can do so here. P.S.: This is the first year I’ve ever been eligible for a Hugo, by the way, with the exception of the Best Fan Writer category, which I’ve been eligible for since 2007 (I feel like this year I might actually be deserving of it, though, since last year was a very intense year for WISB). Overall, though, it feels good.
A Quick Note: The Silence and Caribbean Science Fiction
Readers of the blog will have noticed my silence for the last week and a half (with the exception of a handful of posts). This is entirely intentional, and I think you all deserve an explanation. The reason: I am working on my MA Thesis at this very moment (draft #1), which is due at 11:59 (and 59s) PM on the 31st (less than two days now). Needless to say, it has been excruciatingly difficult. I do expect to return on the 1st. No joke. I have posts. I will be posting. That’s two more days. You can handle that, right? For those curious about the about-ness of this paper, you’ll be pleased to know that I’m going to bore you with my rough abstract for the Eaton Conference, which I will be presenting at in February of next year: Caribbean speculative fiction has historically been primarily occupied with the fantastic—magical realism, folklore, and fantasy—with traditional elements of science fiction—advanced technology, space travel, etc.—mostly left to developed and developing nations, such as the United States, India, China, and some nations of the Latin American mainland. Careful study will show that this has little to do with disinterest on the part of Caribbean nations in matters of technology or space; in fact, a great number of Caribbean governments have played a part in the ratification of a number of United Nations amendments related to the space industry. There are exceptions, mostly notably in Cuba, which has a strong science fiction community that has gone largely unnoticed by Western mainstream audiences. Yet the Caribbean has found a strong voice in the science fiction works of Tobias S. Buckell and Nalo Hopkinson, both Caribbean-born writers who have secured their places in a now rising multicultural shift in Western science fiction—a movement split between the increased mainstream interest in “World SF” and the inclusion of non-Western settings and characters within mainstream SF itself. What is most striking about the inclusion of Caribbean views within Western SF is that many of the authors are expatriates, and this is particularly relevant when discussing the works of Buckell and Hopkinson. Both authors have imagined futures in which the Caribbean not only has a presence in space, but is also an active participant in the colonization of other planets. These futures reflect a modern Caribbean consciousness in which identity is complicated by the postcolonial situation, the problematic nature of expatriation, and the fracturing (or merging/creolization) of cultures; this reflection, however, is relayed through a space-oriented setting where Caribbean characters and cultures have coalesced and established themselves outside of the traditional postcolonial situation, and outer space itself becomes an object through which postcolonialism and its predecessor are combated or rendered mute, thus allowing for the formation of an identity that is not predicated upon an un-chosen past. In this paper I will analyze and discuss how Tobias S. Buckell’s trilogy of science fiction novels and Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robbers, along with some of her short stories, present outer space as an answer to the issue of “space” and cultural ownership within the Caribbean context. These writers, I will argue, imagine futures in which outer space is both an answer to the postcolonial situation in the Caribbean and a “space,” in the general sense, that is part liberatory and part identity-forming. And that’s that…
Merry Christmas Everyone!
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night (and morning/day)! May your holidays be happy and full of tasty food and other nice things.