Melded

With their usual flair for tapping into the current conversation, SF Signal have dedicated their Mind Meld feature to the question of gender imbalance in genre publishing. I've participated, alongside a wide selection of authors, publishers, reviewers and readers. Many of the responses are rightheaded, a few are objectionable (such as Kristin Kathryn Rusch's, whose claim that in the early 1980s "if you looked overall, you'd see that the numbers belied the argument that women were discriminated against" I will take at face value, not having any numbers at hand to refute it, but whose insistence that nowadays the inequality is similarly nonexistent seems to be rooted in willful ignorance), and most are interesting.

Reading: You're Doing It Wrong

I've been meaning for several days to post about this Times Online article by Rod Liddle, linked to by Bookslut, about highly acclaimed books that don't survive their era, and whose popularity comes to seem, only a few decades after their publication, inexplicable:

The columnist Catherine Bennett chose “the entire Virago imprint”, bemoaning the fact that, for political reasons, she had felt duty-bound to plough through Rosamund Lehmann and the like when there was Philip Roth waiting there, unread. ... Meanwhile, the historian Michael Burleigh suggested all “angry” black novelists (along with Herbert Marcuse and EP Thompson). Here’s a bunch of stuff we were all told we had to read by the political and cultural climate of the day; because it would be good for us and because, way beyond this, it was our responsibility to start patronising writers from minorities because it was only the oppressive white male cultural hegemony that kept them in an ethnic- or gender-defined ghetto.

...

What draws these nominees together? They perhaps captured a certain spirit of the age in which they were written, replete with its fashionable literary conceits, its political leanings (or lack of them), its mannerisms. And this is what characterises almost all of the books that were nominated. They were not so much deemed to be shocking at the time, or too difficult, or experimental – there is no Henry Miller on the list, or Robbe-Grillet, or Sartre. Instead, they seem to be books that fitted in far too comfortably with the sensibilities of a certain chattering-class elite when they were published.

There's a valid point hidden somewhere deep within this article, in that there are books whose popularity is very much a matter of capturing the zeitgeist, of being at the right place at the right time, and therefore ephemeral and puzzling to anyone looking back at it. Fashion also plays a major role in this process, and like shoulder pads there are some book fashions that people will look back on and cringe. But for the most part the problem here seems to lie less with the books in question and more with the people reading them. Leaving aside the point made by that Alison Bechdel comic strip that everyone has been linking to, that telling someone that a certain book will be good for them is a great way to ensure they won't enjoy or even read it, anyone who chooses books in order to make a statement about themselves, in order to be seen as progressive or even in order to support a political agenda, in short, anyone who makes reading choices based on anything other than their tastes and interests, is being very silly, and deserves exactly what they get.

It's a foolishness that goes entirely unacknowledged by the article--even as the people interviewed within it lament their misguided choices of decades past and the vanity that led to them, Liddle assumes that present-day readers are motivated by the same vanity. I wasn't terrifically impressed with it myself, but I'm fairly certain that most of the people who liked Zadie Smith's White Teeth did so for reasons that went beyond the fact that it was written by "an articulate, photogenic half-black writer." We're often told that the books we read reflect on our personality, but sometimes our reasons for reading, or not reading, them, are just as telling.

Many, Many Doctor Who Fans Just Punched the Air

The BBC press office reports:

Steven Moffat will succeed Russell T Davies as Lead Writer and Executive Producer of the fifth series of Doctor Who, which will broadcast on BBC One in 2010.

While this is obviously good news, I think it's a good idea not to let expectations run too high.  Though the plotting of all of Moffat's episodes thus far has been strong, I still haven't forgotten the spectacular implosion of Jekyll in its second half, in which Moffat's strong characters stood around spouting his incredibly clever and funny dialogue while nonsense of Torchwood levels happened to and around them.  It's also worth remembering that it's one thing to write a standout episode in a season, and quite another to oversee the entire season.  Though I'm sure that this is a step in the right direction for Who, we shouldn't expect the result to be thirteen weeks of "Blink."

And at any rate, there's the latter half of season four (in which I have been enjoying the Doctor-companion relationship almost as much as I did the one between Rose and Eccleston's Doctor, and all but ignoring the plots), and four Davies-penned specials to go.  It seems rather unkind to Davies--who is not a bad writer when he puts his mind to it, and who is ultimately responsible for bringing Who back to life--to make this announcement now.  As though it wasn't bad enough that so many fans have been actively wishing for Moffat to take his place for years, now he has to be a lame duck showrunner for another year, catering to a fandom which will, for the most part, be counting down the days until his term is over.

On the Other Hand, Can This Be Any Worse Than Southland Tales?

UK-based sales company Velvet Octopus will be launching sales in Cannes for S. Darko, billed as the sequel to the 2001 cult hit Donnie Darko. Fox has already taken North American rights.

Daviegh Chase reprises her role as Donnie's younger sister. The cast for S. Darko also includes Ed Westwick (Son Of Rambow, Gossip Girl), Briana Evigan (Step Up 2) and Justin Chatwin (Dragon Ball).

... Producers have spoken to Richard Kelly about the project but he is not involved in any official capacity at this stage.

Empahsis mine. Full release here. Link via Yair Raveh.  Oh dear.

Yippee

The Sarah Connor Chronicles is now is now officially coming back for a second season.

Between this, Joss Whedon's Dollhouse (now with 100% more Amy Acker), and the new Ron Moore show, next fall looks to be chock-full of SFnal goodness. And all of it on Fox. Go figure.

(Link via)

Linky Links

Something to tide you over while I battle the dreaded deadline-Passover combo.

• Andrew Rilstone has been writing about Doctor Who. As usual, I disagree with most of what he says (though he is dead on about Torchwood's full title), but love to watch him say it.


• I and several other more qualified and informed people sound off on the state of the short fiction market on another edition of SF Signal's Mind Meld.


• Against my better judgment, I am somewhat intrigued by the premise of Ron Moore's new show. Hey, it sounds better than Caprica.


• Small Beer Press have made John Kessel's collection The Baum Plan for Financial Independence available for free under a Creative Commons License. Two of the stories from this collection, including the title piece, made my list of favorites when I made my review of the Sci Fiction archives a few years back, so I'm quite eager to read the rest.

Two Great Tastes?

Via Bookslut comes this surprising report:

Heroes creator Tim Kring is collaborating with literary critic and novelist Dale Peck on a sci-fi/alternative-history trilogy that was sold at auction to Crown yesterday for an advance said to be worth a staggering $3 million.

I... just don't know what to say about this.

Now That Makes a Little More Sense

Israeli film critic Yair Raveh links to this clip off the I Am Legend DVD, of the film's original ending.



To be honest, though it's obviously better than the tacked on upbeat ending the theatrical version shipped with, I don't think this ending works perfectly either. There would have had to be changes to the body of the film too, which stressed that the transformed humans were still feeling creatures. There are hints of this in the theatrical version, when the zombie male goes to extreme lengths to rescue the woman Smith's character captures for experimentation, but considering that we're talking about flesh-eating zombies who have all but depopulated the Earth, I think a little more effort, and a corresponding emphasis on the Smith character's monstrousness towards the zombies, were necessary to bring this point home. For all I know, though, that's on the DVD too.

Back Through the Wormhole: Table of Contents

I've noticed several people linking to the series now that it's over, and to facilitate this, here is a link post.

1. Introduction


2. The Two DS9s - Did Deep Space Nine only get good in its later seasons?


3. The Menagerie - Alien races on the show


4. Looking for Ron Moore in All the Wrong Places - The obligatory Battlestar Galactica comparison


5. What Does God Need With a Space Station? - Deep Space Nine's treatment of religion


6. Ode to Kira - Just what it says


7. The Justice Trick - Odo and his troubled relationships with Kira and morality


8. Odds & Ends - A few more comments

Free Ted Chiang Story

Alright, so that's not really the point of the exercise, but it's what I'm choosing to focus on.  The preliminary Nebula ballot is up, and Fantasy & Science Fiction have already made their nominated stories available online (as are the stories from the webzine Helix).  Which is a nice change--usually the big three wait until the final ballot is compiled before making the nominated stories available.  So kudos to F&SF.

I'm obviously planning to read all the available stories (especially in the novella category, in which there aren't enough stories to whittle down), but the one that excites me is Ted Chiang's "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate."  Chiang, if you haven't read him already, is currently the gold standard for making a name for yourself based solely on SFnal short stories, and deservedly so.  He is, however, far from prolific, and a new story, especially one that has received so much positive attention, is a cause for celebration.  Enjoy.

World of Warcraft Courts the Geek Demographic

Which seems redundant.  But then, so is saying "I'm William Shatner, and I'm a shaman."

Well, They Are Back

Following up on previous reports to the contrary, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh are back onboard for the Hobbit movie.

Two things in that press release that trouble me:

1. A Hobbit sequel is in the works as well.
2. Jackson and Walsh are acting as executive producers. There's no word on whether they're going to adapt the book as they did for The Lord of the Rings, or whether Jackson is going to direct the films.

To be honest, I don't care that much about The Hobbit and whether it gets a decent film treatment, but I'd hate to see Jackson and Walsh wasting their time. One King Kong was bad enough.

(On a personal note, I realize it's been quiet around these parts. That may not change until the end of the month--though obviously the end-of-year roundups will appear on schedule--but I have lots of good stuff planned for January.)

"Brad Pitt's hell-bride emerges from the bog..."

Slate reviews Beowulf in verse:

Far had he fallen with Polar Express,
An animated washout whose technique
Obscured its content, thanks to CGI.
The Z-man's new technique, performance capture,
Looked creepy in those days. The critics snarled.

But brave Zemeckis takes them on again
With Beowulf, a 3-D spectacle
Like none before. The Anglo-Saxon poem,
Dreaded by school kids since the world was young,
His manly grip reshapes to graphic novel.

It's a good review, but no matter how many of them this film garners, and in spite of Neil Gaiman's presence as adapter, which at the very least means that someone in the vicinity of the production gets what the poem is about, I have absolutely no desire to see it. It looks like the unholy love child of The Polar Express and 300, and my lack of desire to see it is equal or greater than the sum total of my lack of desire to see either of these films.

And So It Begins

Publishers Weekly's best books of 2007.

It's November the bloody fifth.

I don't know about you, but I've got two whole months left in this year, and I damn well plan on reading some good books between now and its end. AtWQ's best (and worst) reads of the year will be posted at the end of December as God intended.

So there.

Warning: May Cause Deep Sadness

Hot off the season 3 DVD, the Veronica Mars season 4 'pilot', Rob Thomas's attempt to sketch out the show's revamped form with Veronica as an FBI agent: part 1 & 2. (See also the season 3 blooper reel.)

The crazy thing is, I actually have a list of likes and dislikes in response to this, as though it weren't just a sad reminder of something that'll (probably) never be but an actual prelude to a new season. I think the pace could use a little picking up, but I'm pleased to see Veronica surrounded by other smart, observant, driven people, something the third season toyed with but never fully explored.

You see? Madness! I was happier before I watched this.

Words Fail Me

Publishers Weekly reports from the Frankfurt book fair:

The Eggers book, an adult novel based on Maurice Sendak´s classic Where the Wild Things Are was actually acquired by Ecco last winter, but kept quiet until now. Foreign rights are in play at Frankfurt and Ecco publisher Dan Halpern is predicting, "I think it`s going to be his biggest book. I think it´s going to be huge." Ecco is publishing the book in fall 2008, to coincide with the Spike Jonze movie adaptation based on Sendak´s book, for which Eggers wrote the screenplay.

Other, rejected titles for this post: 'Um, What?', and 'I've Never Read Anything By Dave Eggers and Now I'm Glad.'

(Link via Maud Newton)

Insert Futurama Quote Here

What better way to test my ability to embed video than with the trailer for the upcoming Futurama film, Bender's Big Score?



The Nibblonians are back! Hurrah!

The film is going direct to DVD on November 27th, and later on will be broken up into episodes and aired on The Cartoon Network. The same deal applies to the three other Futurama films: The Beast With a Billion Backs, Bender's Game (how has that joke not been made before?) and Into the Wild Green Yonder.

(Link via SF Signal)

(My favorite Futurama quote, in case you're interested, is: "What are you hacking off? Is it my torso? It is! My precious torso!")

A Public Service Announcement

Hotel Chevalier, the short film that acts as a prologue to Wes Anderson's upcoming The Darjeeling Limited, is now available as a free download from the iTunes store (link from here, you'll need to have iTunes installed, but it is available for both Mac and Windows).

Though they are undeniably precious, I'm a big fan of Anderson's films. I can't help but wonder, however, whether he didn't peak with The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. The trailer for The Darjeeling Limited suggests that it's that preciousness (as well as his quirky visual sensibility) that Anderson is stressing in this film, and I have a strong suspicion that he is very close to going overboard with it.

They Made Him Do It

Via Israeli film critic Yair Raveh comes the trailer for Richard Kelly's upcoming Southland Tales. Kelly burned off a lot of my goodwill with the agonizingly awful director's cut of Donnie Darko, and Southland Tales's by-now infamous reception at last year's Cannes festival (which necessitated a radical recutting of the film into its present form) reinforces my suspicions that Kelly needs a strong hand to steer him away from his tendency towards pretentiousness. That said, the trailer itself gives off the same impression of grandeur and profundity that made me so eager to see Donnie Darko after watching its trailer, and which the film itself came very, very close to delivering. I am, in spite of my reservations, eager to see this.

In other movie-related links, Kit Whitfield's reading of Brad Bird's The Incredibles offers a compelling explanation for all the skeevy quasi-fascist undertones in that film (link via Torque Control), and this humorous (I hope) take on the Star Wars universe attempts to reconcile the original trilogy and the prequel films, and ends up concluding that Chewie is the puppet-master orchestrating events throughout A New Hope (via).

An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

The Last Starfigher: The Musical

I know I'm far from being the only person with a soft spot for this cheesy Star Wars knockoff, but this is still a peculiar notion. I guess the idea is that the thrills which, in the film, were supplied by effects-laden space battles will be substituted by the thrill of watching energetic song-and-dance numbers.

I'm actually going to be in New York next month. I don't arrive until after the show's run ends, but if I had the chance I'd be sorely tempted to give this show a look.

(Via Ed)