I know that DC is up to something strange with Batman. I’ve been letting the comics pile up by my bedside unread. I promised myself that I would catch up over my vacation, but I didn’t. Now io9.com has a story on Batman R.I.P. that I am avoiding. I just can’t take any more death this year. I’ve already had too much as it is. Even a fictional death will be too much for my system right now. Why do producers feel the need to shock their audiences? Don’t they realize that we derive a bit a comfort and pleasure from the stability of the characters that they create? I guess they don’t.
I just read a review of Nisi Shawl’s new book, Filter House, on Strange Horizons. It was very tough. It was tough because it seems so honest. I don’t believe that the reviewer knows Shawl and has an ax to grind. It was tough because he didn’t say the work was bad — he said it was mediocre. That is much worse, in my opinion. It was tough because this is a collection of most, if not all, of her stories to date. So this was a review of her as a writer. Tough, Tough, Tough. Here is are the points that the reviewer, Matthew Cheney, a respected literary blogger, made —
... it is [John] Gardner’s final point about the story as performance that is most important for distinguishing lifeless fiction from excellent fiction—mediocre stories are capable of creating a continuous (perhaps even occasionally vivid) dream in the reader’s mind; they can possess a philosophical impulse; they can deal with the expectations they set up. But they lack gusto and verve, chutzpah and charisma, fascination and savor. They are dead on the page and forgotten soon after they are read. While I find it easy to believe readers will experience Shawl’s stories in different ways—such is the case with any basically competent fiction—I cannot imagine how a reader who is sensitive to literature’s capabilities and possibilities could possibly say these stories offer much of a performance.
I don’t know how to feel about this. Nisi is a respected member of the black sci-fi community. I’ve heard about her for years. As a matter of fact, I was just about to buy this book. I must admit that I have never read her work. She has a story in Dark Matter that I thought I read, but I guess I somehow skipped it. I’ll make sure to read it and see for myself what her work is like.
I watched the Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man today. I may have seen it as a kid. I definitely didn’t remember it. “To Serve Man” was based on a story my Damon Knight (1922-2002), who co-founded Clarion. I’ve been wanting to see this episode ever since I read Storyteller by Kate Wilhelm, the other co-founder and wife of Knight. It’s pretty cool that I can see episodes on the internet like this instead of waiting for some classic channel on TV to decide to play it.
Great episode. A bit dated. It seemed to me that the linguist neglected to examine cultural cues in trying to translate the language. For instance, to interpret a Japanese character you need to understand how a Japanese person understands the world, i.e. their character for “Japan” is based on a sun rising over the land. Hence, they think of themselves as the place were the sun rises. If the linquest had done this he may have understood that the the book he had was a cookbook long before he got on the ship. Well, at least in “To Serve Man” the aliens only seemed interested in eating white people!
Other Worlds, Better Lives: A Howard Waldrop Reader is a collection of his stories. I read a bit of Howard Who? now published by Small Beer Press. I didn’t get into the book the way Geoff did. It did seem more up Geoff’s alley them mine. The book was good. It had an old world feel to it. I think the next time I read his stuff it won’t be a library book. Library books makes me feel rushed. I like to keep books around and savor them.
Yesterday I got my book order: Dhalgren by Samuel Delany, Acacia by David Anthony Durham, and Dubliners by James Joyce. I’m already struggling through Aye, and Gomorrah by Samuel Delany and I just started Blood Colony by Tananarive Due. There might just be too many books on my bed stand. I think I need to set aside more time for reading. I’m just not keeping up!