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You are viewing the most recent 20 entries August 16th, 200610:50 pm: What famous literary character are you?
Have you ever read a book and whispered to yourself, ?Oh, my God! That character is me!? Many English scholars have stated that the primary reason to read Great Literature is because it helps us empathize with our fellow man, it allows us to step in their shoes for just one moment and see events from their unique perspective. I admit there is a powerful connection that happens when reading about a condemned black man like Boo Radley or when the monster explains his harrowing tale to Dr. Frankenstein for the first time. But what about those characters that step on the page and reflect back a mirror image? While reading Jane Austen?s Pride and Prejudice, I realized Mr. Darcy had some very familiar features: - He is shy and prefers to talk to his close-friends over strangers, which makes people view him initially as supercilious. - He calls it like he sees it. No Bullshitting with him. Only the truth. - He is proud, but not to the point of arrogance. He knows his worth, his strengths, and weaknesses. He is confident and you can tell he really likes himself. - He likes his material comforts, but that doesn?t degenerate into wanton materialism. - Very family-oriented. - Very loyal to his friends. - He has the tendency to keep grudges. - He also has the tendency to make snap-judgements of other people. - He often either leaves a very good impression with people or a very bad impression rather quickly. Other than the fact that I am not an English Gentlemen from a rich family line, most of those attributes describe me perfectly. Now, of course, there is still the question of how objectively a person can view themself. I?ve met many people when talking about themselves who have obviously never heard of that little place we all like to call reality. However, most of the above traits are a mixture of how I view myself and how others have perceived me (or at least what they told me). I?ve read other characters that have had a few similarities here and there, but never before this had I encountered a character and realized that I was practically reading about myself, albeit in a slightly different setting and background. I wasn?t particularly looking for it, rather while reading it sort of just happened. Though, I did notice that I really liked Mr. Darcy from the second he appeared in the text. So what character from a book do you most resemble? I thought this would be fun to think about.
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August 14th, 200608:38 pm: A Gender Issue in F&SF?
So much has been said on this particular topic already. I probably won't be able to add anything new. I personally don't believe that Gordon has an unconcious gender bias on the very simple fact that he has published women before (Kelly Link and M. Rickert to name two). You don't need anymore evidence than that. You don't need to look at a single statistic. "But Eric," you might say. "Certainly a quick look at the table-of-contents shows there are significantly more men publishing in F&SF than women." I agree. No question about it. I could spend the next couple of paragraphs reiterating other people's posts about less women in the slush, not enough women submitting, and all that other nonsense, but that still doesn't change the mot important fact; Gordon has published women writers before and I'm willing to bet he will do it again if he likes their story.
If he does have an unconscious or a conscious bias, then how does he pick which women writers he will publish and which ones he won't? Picks their name out of a hat? Offers publication to every 100th woman that submits to him? Plays eenie-meanie-minnie-moe? Publishes only women who he thinks are hot?
If a different woman had written one of M. Rickert's F&SF stories (regardless that I consider this impossible for so many reasons relating to individuality, life experiences, and voice), would Gordon have published that same exact story? I am willing to bet he would.
So then what is the very simple conclusion that can be drawn from this? It's the story, not the sex of the writer that Gordon cares about.
"Wait a minute," You might say. "Are you saying that editors have personal tastes and don't all like the same type of story? That Sheilla Williams picks the stories she likes? Shawna McCarthy picks the stories she likes? Gordon Van Gelder picks the stories he likes?"
I know this is a very controversial and a difficult concept to grasp, and I might be going out on a limb here, but yep, I think editors choose the stories they like. Do they have biases? Of course! Everyone has biases! You reading this right now are biased and are already formulating an opinion based on those biases either agreeing or disagreeing with me (or to add more nuance, agreeing with some of what I have to say and disagreeing with other parts...or in extreme cases of ideology clouding your eyes and completely ignoring everything I just said).
But let's play Devil's Advocate for a second. Let's say, said male editor has an unconscious bias. What should that editor do? The publishing version of Affirmative Action? Is that really a solution? Can you picture an editor sitting there going: "Well, I really liked this story and initially I wanted to publish it, but then I realized I have an unconcious bias towards liking stories by white Anglo-Saxon males. So I instead decided to publish this other story, which I really didn't like at first and was actually going to reject because I got bored on page 1, but I realized I might just feel that way because it was from a woman and I've come to realize I have an unconscious bias towards women, and if I didn't have that bias I would probably have liked it, despite the fact that I haven't read anything past page 1 because I was so bored..."
I'll let you consider how ridiculous the above sounds. As for Gordon, he was one of my Clarion teachers. I like him a lot, and it annoys me that people are banding his name about in such a slanderous manner (so in that sense, I suppose, there's one of my biases).
There is one thing I do remember quite clearly from Clarion. The one short story draft that he did like at Clarion came from a female writer. The men who submitted drafts during Gordon's week with us got blasted, and rightfully so. While talking to Gordon during that week, I also remember him saying something like (and I paraphrase, and certainly don't encourage you to do this): "I would be willing to publish a person who threatened to burn down my apartment if I liked his or her story enough."
That doesn't really sound like a guy with much in the way of biases to me, but hey, what do I know?
So how does he pick the women he publishes for F&SF? As the Owl on the Tootsie-pop commercial might say: the world may never know! Or maybe he just liked their stories and he doesn't like yours!
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July 6th, 200609:02 pm: Pirates!
I finished reading Treasure Island today, which I mostly enjoyed. I found this book to be much more readable and enjoyable than Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . Not to say there weren't some sore spots. A couple of times the pirates were babbling I had no idea what the hell they were saying. Much of the sailor jargon used to describe the ship and actions of the sailors was lost on me. I found it difficult to imagine certain scenes in my head because of poorly constructed imagery, or possibly once again my difficulty in understanding sailor jargon; I particularly had this trouble in the scene where Jim Hawkins sneaks about in his attempt to recapture the Hisponiola. At other times, Stevenson demonstrates a penchant for writing beautiful prose, especially when it comes to his slow but thoughtful descriptions of the island, which breathes into his exotic Malaria-infested wilderness a blast of life and captures the deep sense of isolation confronting the characters. The problem with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is that the story is so far removed from the reader. The narrator hears about everything second-hand and this causes distance from the story. He doesn't really participate in the story, but rather observes, judges, and discovers its events from a distance. Whereas, Jim Hawkins, the narrator for most of this book, can also rightly be called a full-blown protagonist, participating directly in the adventure and getting into danger and experiencing change. To be fair, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde does benefit thematically from its rather convoluted structure, giving the story the feel of second-hand gossip, which works well in relations to its Victorian language and its commentary on Victorian Life. However, once finished rationalizing to myself the need for each book's respective aesthetics, it seems obvious to me that I much prefer Treasure Island . ---------------------------------------- Last night, I started writing a fantasy pirate story. Only wrote three paragraphs before heading to bed since I started at 11 PM and had to wake up at 7 AM for class this morning (though, that would've been a good night's rest in my Clarion days). I heard about two markets that have upcoming pirate issues (Shimmer being guest-edited by JJA of F&SF and the newly created Carnifex Magazine). I also possibly heard a rumor of one more good market looking for pirate stories, anyone which market that is exactly please inform me. I'm also trying to write the story so that if all else fails I can still shop this around to the usual markets afterwards. I have high hopes for this story. Then again, I have hopes for all my stories before reality hits (or as I like to call them critiques and editorial rejections). Coming soon to an Albatross near you soon. So drink your fill of rum, you skinless dogs (you might need it to read this story). And shout a hearty yo-hoo! Then its back to writing the Military Sci-fi novel that I've already finished two chapters. (in-person crit group looking at that this weekend). ---------------------------------------- Home to New York to see Pirates of the Carribean sequel tomorrow with my best bud, Jeff. Now I just have to decide what I want to bring home with me to start reading next. I suppose I do have all those crits to do for my in-person group by Sunday...
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July 2nd, 200612:55 pm: Test
Testing, testing 1, 2, 3. Trying to figure out why crosspost isn't working on livejournal.
11:38 am: Testing.
Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3.
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July 1st, 200609:44 pm: Testing
For some reason my most recent entries haven't posted to Livejournal. So... Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3.
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June 13th, 200610:18 pm: Thoughts on John's "controversial" story.
You know considering a lot people are down about John's story at buymeaclue's blog, I wonder if the negative criticism can actually be considered positive criticism. The point is whether negative or positive, people are talking about this story. They are going out of their way to discuss it, to provide capsule reactions to it, even if those are negative reactions. The livejournal responses have even reached two pages worth of comments. More interesting is the language being used to describe it. I believe it was Yoon Ha Lee who wrote: "I'm disturbed by the story's implications that the narrator Needed to Learn Forgiveness." This is exactly the point! Shouldn't a good story disturb you? Dante's Inferno disturbs me. The implications of John Kessel's "Stories for Men" disturbs me. Harlan Ellison's "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" disturbs me. Good stories disturb, they unsettle, they bring you out of your comfort zone. Or at least, that is what I believe. Then again, Joanna Russ' "When It Changed" and "In the Land of Two-Legged Women" by Huey Alcaro disturbed me as well in the negative way in which others are speaking of John's story. I don't particularly like those two borderline man-hating Sci-fi stories. So I do understand where the comments are coming from, and don't want to be accused of playing semantic games here. This makes me rethink my position to a certain degree. Also it makes me reconsider other examples of my favorite stories that don't necessarily disturb me or challenge me or wrench me out of my comfort zone. Two personal favorites such as "Goodbye, Columbus" by Philip Roth and "Little Gods" by Tim Pratt reaffirm truths I already accept with pin-point precision of emotional depth and empathic resonance with the characters than overturning my beliefs and world-views. So perhaps good stories either wrench you violently out of your comfort zone or they affirm what you already believe in a way you haven't considered before. For my take on John's story: At first the ending seems a little lame. Her acceptance of his excuse for sleeping with his sister. I can see why people wouldn't like the fact that the burden of the story's conflict suddenl changes to her; she's the one who can't learn forgiveness, even though he was the one who cheated. The ultimate question then is whether any person should ever forgive such a transgression; certainly the point of the boyfriend's over-the-top gifts is to show that he is absolutely sincere about his apology, affirmed when he mails his sex organs (a symbol that he will never cheat again and that he is even willing to practice a form of abstinence if the protagonist chooses to punish him in such a fashion). This is not a simple answer that can be responded to with a "yes" or "no". I would surmise that the people who don't like the story would respond with a "no", and the people who do like the story would respond with a "maybe". Strangely, I don't think there is a definitive "yes". It depends on the two people involved, which slowly leads me to my point... The story has a borderline Christian world-view, particularly that of Original Sin. The story encourages forgiveness and that whole scene I suspect isn't meant to suggest only she is a perfectionist, but rather the whole human race is a kind of perfectionist. Perhaps it is a form of arrogance to believe sending even the most extravagent gifts can purchase forgiveness like sending Spain or Saturday early (no matter how many good deeds you do and charities you donate to it won't get you into heaven). See what I mean when I say there is an underlying Christian World-View. Meanwhile, we are all really "disgusting" inside, or to put it bluntly, we are all sinners, we are all imperfect, we are all flawed. The story seems to suggest that none of us has the right not to forgive another human being who truly and sincerely asks for forgiveness. After all, we're not God or Jesus or Divine (we are not perfect), thus we have no right to deny forgiveness. By not forgiving ourselves, we thus create our own pargatory, or worse, our own hell. Or so the story seems to suggest. However, all this talk about Jesus harkens back to my early point about whether you forgive your cheating boyfriend or girlfriend. It all comes back to...love. This story to me is an affirmation of love. Only through true love can a person forgive such a transgression. That's why the answer is always either a "no" or a "maybe" because I believe love is one of those rare special things, one of the only real kinds of magic out there in the world. It might not have been right what the boyfriend did, but she forgives him because she loves him. The very fact that she writes letter after letter (instead of just being like, "hey get lost bozo) proves this to be true. I think the barrier to her realizing that she truly loves him is the protagonist's unspoken perception of her own perfection. Yes, she was the one who was wronged, but you either tell the guy to get lost and thus affirm that wrong or you forgive him and move on. You don't keep on holding it over his head and keeping him unfairly in a state of limbo, keeping one partner in a superior position, the upper position, the sort of position reserved for a god, for perfection, and the one who is putting the other in this metaphorical state of "limbo". It becomes clear early on that the protagonist is far from perfect, yet I also got the impression she perceived herself as close to it. So for me that final scene had less to do with her relationship and her boyfriend's misdeeds, and more to do with coming to terms with her own inequities (too much pride, in this case) that was preventing her from forgiving the ex-boyfriend, which she really wanted to do awhile ago, but couldn't because pride kept getting in the way. I'm convinced deep down she was really ready to forgive him and give it another chance by like letter 3 (just picking one arbitrarily), otherwise the story never would have continued past letter 3. So by the end the boyfriend's transgressions had really ceased to be the main source of the story's conflict; it was really her pride that was the source of the story's conflict.
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June 11th, 200611:51 am: Back!
So I am back from the Bahamas: Pics soon to follow. This is my 4th time going to the Atlantis at Paradise Island. My parents own a time-share at the Harborside so we go as a family every two years. I have to admit the vacation felt a bit lackluster compared to previous trips. Not to say it was boring or bad (a crappy trip to the Bahamas is still better than a really good trip to Florida, after all); I also don't wish to sound ungrateful. I chalk up this lackluster feeling to the fact that I sojourned at Paradise Island four times already. The first two trips I was young enough to go into the "Teen Club" (12-18), so inside I was surrounded by people my own age to chill with and likewise similarly aged girls to hook-up with. Ironically enough I hooked-up both those years. Obviously I can't do that anymore because I'm too old and I'm not a pervert. Then in the third year I got to take my best friend Jeff. We were now over eighteen and could gamble, but we spent most of the day chilling at the pools and would hit the bars at night. I'm not a huge drinker; I consider myself more of a casual drinker. It was cool to go out a couple of nights and get drunk or just explore the hotel, but by the middle of the week I just wanted to just chill, not drink, maybe hit the hot tubs during the day and read a book (which he didn't want to do because he is one of those "I'm on vacation, I can sleep and relax when I get home" sort of people). So I felt like there was a lot of extra stress; not that I can't handle a little peer pressure, but jeez, I was on vacation and the last thing I wanted to do was deal with that sort of shit. I'm the sort that likes to do things and likes to relax on a vacation, splitting it evenly down the middle. So this year I went and didn't take Jeff. Not really sure I had the option to do so anyway. My mom invited my little baby cousin and my uncle and aunt instead. Then in the 2nd half friends of the family, Sean and Debbie came. Like I said, I had fun, but it was noticeably lackluster compared to previous years. I didn't chill at any of the actual bars on this vacation because I had no one to sit with, so I would get drinks at like the pool bars or in the casino. I loved some of the new resterants they opened, especially Bahimini Road (which is real Caribbean food). I won some money at the casino. ::shrugs:: I want to go back after they finish adding all new stuff. And perhaps with a future serious girlfriend (right now that could be a long way off). On this vacation I finished reading: - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Loius Stevenson - The Secret Sharer and Heart of Darkness by Thomas Hardy - Looking for Jake Short story Collection by China Mievelle Thoughts: My favorite book of the bunch was The Great Gatsby by a long shot. I never got the oppurtunity to read it in school, but I absolutely loved it and am glad I chose to read it for this vacation. Perhaps I could relate to this book because I actually do/used to live on Long Island. But what stuck out as beautiful were the characters, they were three-dimensional, distinct from each other, and I felt something for their emotional plights. The Victorian language of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kept acting as a kind of barrier to the actual story. It was very different than I excepted; I prefer Dracula. I still haven't read Frakenstein (though it is sitting right here in my room up in Rhode Island). I hear that book is very different from what you would expect as well. Even though the story itself was only okay, I may be working on a bit of Literary criticism on the book. I enjoyed Hardy's almost dark and poetic descriptions in "The Secret Sharer", but found those descriptions and the constant internalizing made it difficult to follow the more famous "Heart of Darkness". Heart of Darkness was the least pleasurable and most difficult read I had on this trip. An actual full-blown review to come of Looking for Jake at Tangent, so I don't want to give anything away in these mostly personal reaction capsule reviews. Last night I finished reading: The Iliad (also very different from what I expected). Coming soon: Much, much more!
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May 12th, 200612:05 am: My Superhero and Away for the next two weeks
<td>
</td><td> 55%</td> </tr><tr><td>Wonder Woman</td> <td>
</td><td> 47%</td> </tr><tr><td>Batman</td> <td>
</td><td> 45%</td> </tr><tr><td>Supergirl</td> <td>
</td><td> 42%</td> </tr><tr><td>Iron Man</td> <td>
</td><td> 40%</td> </tr><tr><td>Catwoman</td> <td>
</td><td> 30%</td> </tr></table></td> <td>Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.  </td> </tr></table>
Click here to take the Superhero Personality QuizI think I do have a strong will power and a good imagination, but I don't really consider myself particularly hot-headed. Anyway, I'm going to be gone for the next two almost three weeks. Should be back June 1st. New York City with my parents and siblings for Mother's Day weekend. Long Island from Monday to Wednesday. Train to Florida. Couple of days there. Then one day cruise to Paradise Island, Bahamas. I'll be in the Bahamas for a week, then back to Florida and up to New York. I should be home by June 1st or 2nd, I believe.
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May 10th, 200611:21 pm: Top 50 Speculative Fiction Short Stories
Larry recently posted his list of top 50 favorite reads. I thought I?d vary it up a little bit. These are my personal favorite top 50 Speculative Fiction short stories. Please note, this is based off only what I have read, which is limited. I am not making any claims that these are the most meritorious stories ever written in speculative fiction; Instead, you should treat this as Eric Bresin?s personal favorites. Nothing more, nothing less. Top 50 Speculative Fiction Short Stories 1) ?Faith in Our Fathers? by Philip K. Dick 2) ?I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream? by Harlan Ellison 3) ?Troll Bridge? by Neil Gaiman 4) ?Paladin of the Lost Hour? by Harlan Ellison 5) ?Meathouse Man? by George R. R. Martin 6) ?Stories for Men? by John Kessel 7) ?Creation? by Jeffery Ford 8) ?A Boy and His Dog? by Harlan Ellison 9) ?Jeffty is Five? by Harlan Ellison 10) ?Sandkings? by George R. R. Martin 11) ?Chivalry? by Neil Gaiman. 12) ?Little Gods? by Tim Pratt 11) ?Travels with The Snow Queen? by Kelly Link 13) ?The Wedding Gift? by Neil Gaiman 14) ?The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas? by Ursula K. LeGuin. 15) ?The Function of Dream Sleep? by Harlan Ellison 16) ?Exo-Skeleton Town? by Jeffery Ford 17) ?Miss Emily Gray? by Theodora Goss 18) ?A Little Learning? by Matthew Hughes 19) ?Eutopia? by Poul Anderson 20) ?Terrible Ones? by Tim Pratt 21) ?The Girl Detective? by Kelly Link 22) ?Murder Mysteries? by Neil Gaiman 23) ?Fable in a Cage? by Tim Pratt 24) ?The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World? by Harlan Ellison 25) ?Stone Animals? by Kelly Link. 26) ?The Five Cigars of Abu Ali? by Eric Schaller 27) ?Captain Fantasy and the Secret Masters? by Tim Pratt 28) ?Living with the Harpy? by Tim Pratt 29) ?Floating in Linderthool? by Jeffery Ford 30) ?Flies? by Robert Silverberg 21) ?The Jigsaw Man? by Larry Niven 32) ?The Calorie Man? by Paolo Bacigalupi 33) ?The Set of All Even Primes? by Jay Lake 34) ?Hell Notes? by M.K. Hobson. 35) ?The Floating Otherworld? by Tom Doyle 36) ? ?Repent, Harlequin,? Said the Ticktockman? by Harlan Ellison 37) ?All The Sounds of Fear? by Harlan Ellison 38) ?All you Zombies ??? by Robert Heinlein 39) ?Hart and Boot? by Tim Pratt. 40) The Night That All Time Broke Lose? by Brian W. Aldriss. 41) ?My Eyes are Nailed, But Still I See? by Brett Alexander Savory and David Niall Wilson 42) ?Basement Magic? by Ellen Klages. 43) ?Belathuhatchie? by Andy Duncan 44) ?Hook House? by Sherry Decker 45) ?The Red Bird" by Douglas Smith 46) ?The Light of Other Days? by Bob Shaw 47) ?Murder in the Shadows of Exile? by Steven Mohan Jr. 48) ?This Hand, Waving? by Simon Owens 49) ?Standard Deviation? by Anil Menon 50) ?Alienation and Love in the Hebrew Alphabet? by Lavie Tidhar Please remember that these are just the stories I picked at this particular moment. I suspect if I ever rewrote this list five years from now (without having ever read a single new short story) the top 10, maybe top 20, would stay relatively the same, while quite a few of the latter stories would change positions at random. A very interesting example is the fact that in my Tangent Review of Alchemy #2, I stated the ?The Venebretti Necklace? was my favorite story in that issue. It has been quite some time since that review was written and the one story that made it to this list from that issue, ?Miss Emily Gray? by Theodora Goss is the one that happened to linger in my memory while the I only remember vague snippets from the other story. This has been an interesting excercise. It will be interesting to see how this list changes in the future as I age, mature, get new perspectives on life, re-read some of these stories, and read other stories in the genre and outside the genre.
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May 8th, 200612:30 pm: Review of May 2006 F&SF
Tangent won?t let me review F&SF being that Gordon, the editor of the magazine, imparted his sagacious wisdom upon me at Clarion (definitely a worthwhile trade-off, in my opinion). However, since this is my blog and I am a subscriber to F&SF, I'll review anything I damn well please! Sorry this is so late (the next issue is already out), but I know nobody really reads this blog anyway so it doesn?t really matter I suppose. "A Herd of Opportunity" by Matthew Hughes is yet another story featuring Guth Bandar and the Jungian archetypal world of the noosphere. I found this to be a refreshing addition to the world?s mythos since this was the first of the stories to have a large portion of the narrative happen in the outside world rather than the archetypal noosphere. Guth Bandar arrives with his professor, Preceptor Huffley, on an alien world under the pretenses of aiding a sequestered religion. The religion pays the passage for the two scholars so that they can remove a distracting tourist culture that has sprung up around psychic alien creatures who have started to perform stories from ancient human myths. However, Preceptor Huffley and Guth Bander, really travel to the planet for an entirely different purpose. Like all the previous stories the author manages to infuse the strong archetypal imagery with a keen sense of humor. Mind you, Guth Bandar's solutions whenever he ends up in a sticking situation are always silly and ridiculous, however Hughes manages to sell it by making sure the story never takes itself too seriously in the first place. In a way, Hughes lampoons the current world of professional academia, sticking his tongue out at the politics involved, the backstabbing, the greed, the constant reinventing of the wheel with an almost fear towards unconventional ideas, and the arrogance of the Ph. D. Crowd. The story acts as a kind of metafiction questioning down to its very core whether academia should act so sanctimoniously about its various disciplines and studies; by writing the story in a tongue-in-cheek style, Hughes points out literature is no exception. "Bea and her Bird Brother" by Gene Wolfe starts as Bea enters the hospital to visit her dying father. Once there, he tells her the story of his life among the bird people and about her other brother whom she has never met. She, of course, believes this to be a dying man?s insane rant. The story relies on minimalist principles consisting of mostly back-and-forth dialogue and a few sparse descriptions. The speculative idea of "bird people" seemed a bit silly to me at first. However, once I re-read the story I began to appreciate its subtleties. The ending brings up an interesting question: was the father insane or telling a true story? Was Bea insane from grief at the end or did she really see what she thought? These open-ended questions and the symbolic resonance of Bird People as angels gives this a story a sad, yet powerful ending. The next story (?Passing Through? by Charles Coleman Finlay) I found difficult to review without giving major spoilers away, I also found it impossible not to compare it to The Human Stain by Philip Roth. So be forewarned there are SPOILERS for both of these stories. "Passing Through" by Charles Coleman Finlay is a story about a woman hiding a secret about her race propelled by ghosts to confront that secret. Finlay approaches ground covered far better by Philip Roth in his mainstream novel The Human Stain. In the case of Charles Coleman Finlay's story the comments and perceptions his protagonist shares when confronted with an interracial couple at the beginning are borderline racist, and when the ?twist? happens at the end, it doesn't really do much to change our perception of the character (so now we have a self-hating black). However, in the Human Stain when, the protagonist, Coleman Silk, makes his comment about "spooks" in reference to students absent from his class, we know that he means it literally as "ghosts" or "invisible and not present here" in the classroom, which adds a certain comical element for the reader who realizes exactly what he meant, and it becomes even more interesting when those missing students turn out to be Black and organize the African Americans on campus after the incident to crucify Professor Silk. (The term "spook" is derogatory term for African-Americans, for those who aren?t aware). This is made even more ridiculous and poignant when we later find out via flashback that Coleman Silk, is indeed, black himself pretending to be white so that he could go to a better college and have a better life. When taking all of this into account the story actually becomes a critique of P.C. language among other things. That novel takes on some risky themes, while Finlay?s short story affirms the sort of obvious and boring themes you'd expect from this kind of story. The speculative element seems tangential and just there to make it speculative; one could easily remove this element and replace it with say the character's personal guilt or grief without making it a ghost representing those emotions and not really change the story. I?ve Charles Coleman Finlay writer better stories than this, easily making this the most disappointing story in this issue. "Show Me Yours" by Robert Reed is a story about date rape and a woman toying with her roommate's new boyfriend, but all isn't as it seems. Some might be turned off by the "As You Know Bob" explanation that comes at the end to explain what is happening, but I thought it happened to work quite well with the goals and overall feel of this particular story (sort of dream-like at times). Although a revenge story by its nature, Reed avoids casting the protagonist into an unsympathetic light by giving the protagonist altruistic motives for her revenge rather than making it completely personal. "Diluvium" by Steven Utley is a story in a world where people from the future can journey back into the Paleozoic Era. In this tale, a scientist goes to rescue a Religious Creationist who is trapped on an area that is about to be flooded by a storm. Most of the story is a long debate between an Intelligent Design proponent and an Evolution scientist, which is normally a debate that runs the risk of being didactic and boring. However, Utley avoids this by not creating a story about advocating either side, but rather crafting one that analyzes the difficulties of anyone on the opposite sides of any argument ever seeing eye-to-eye because as this story shows both sides will even look perceive the ?evidence? differently. A particularly powerful scene is when both characters look up at the larger moon of the Paleozoic Era and both have different reasons why the moon appears as it does and cite this as evidence for their conflicting arguments. The beauty of this story is that its themes can be transferred from Intelligent Design and Evolution to Death Penalty and Anti-Death Penalty, Pro-Choice and Right To Life, etc. The take-away of this story can apply to all arguments, which is why I thought this was one of the deepest stories in the issue. "Billy and the Fairytale" by Terry Bisson is another one of his Billy fable stories. This time a fairy shows up to help Billy take care of his mean old dad. But Billy soon learns that his dad really wasn't so mean after all. I enjoyed this one more than the previous Billy stories, but I'm not really sure why. Not much to really say on this one. "Imitation of Life" by Albert E. Cowdrey is an interesting tale about a future where cities have been abandoned because of terrorism, disease, and other problems and replaced with small rural towns straight-out of a pre-Victorian English novel ripe with gossip, scandalous behavior, and town councils. The Progress Gang, which believes towns should be made even smaller, gets hunted down by mobs of business owners after they try to boycott and deny patrons access to their shops. However, the core of this tale is a love story. The rest is really a backdrop to show how times of duress can spawn love and how small towns don?t necessarily simplify things and protect you, but actually create more chaos. "Journey into the Kingdom? by M. Rickert is a story with multiple layers. The internal story is about a young girl living with her mother at a lighthouse that attracts ghosts from the sea, while the external story is a tale about a young man suffering from the death of his wife who reads this story written by a young woman in a coffee shop and falls in love with her. When a writer creates a convincing layered story like this, they often can create something powerful and amazing. The internal story borders almost on slipstream and imbued with a mythological quality (however, it never quite passes those borders). Rickert?s description of ghosts who melt into puddles on the floor after warming themselves by the fire refreshes the tired old ghost story.The external story is made all the more interesting as the author explores whether life truly mimics art. Probably my favorite story in the entire issue.
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May 6th, 200602:42 pm: The Words Defied me Today!
My story refused to be written today. Such rebellion will not be tolerated! ::sighs:: I ended up going through the scenes I wanted to write today and scetching out the basic events that must happen in each scene. So I suppose there technically were words today, but they are mostly sentences that said: "And then this happened, and this happened, followed by this because of this." It's been awhile since one of my stories became this difficult to write. Not sure if this is a good sign (it's a complex story and difficult to write) or a bad sign (I'm just not as interested in writing it as I thought). I could blame someone else like a proper American would. That's it! I caught Trent's writerly problems from reading his blog too much. The bastard! Poisoning me with writer's block and apathy! # Got invited to go out to various bars and such the past three days with friends. I declined each time. For some reason, I haven't been in a people mood lately (this past week). I think it is because I spent so much time socializing and interacting with people for the last 3 weeks. I guess I need to recharge or something. That whole introverted thing, you know? The three different Meyers-Briggs tests I've taken have all scored me as 75% introverted or higher (86% on one of them), which is pretty extreme. Keep in mind that 0 is neutral on this scale and there is another 100% in the opposite direction for the people who lean towards extrovert. I am a iNFj (Idealist Counselor) for anyone who is curious: Idealist Counselor Profile and here: Another Idealist Counselor Profile. So what I want to know is where are my psychic powers? # Coming soon: F&SF Review!
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May 5th, 200610:52 am: 1000 words on a New Story today!
1000 words on a new story today that I hope to send to the assassin anthology. Not very good 1000 words, mind you. Everything needs more detail, description, development. Everything is so damn raw. Even more so than my usual first drafts. But hey, it's only a first draft.
Considering its medieval Fantasy this story is very hard to get out. Unlike my last story most of the scenes are told through a straight-forward narrative, but in-between scenes I spliced random quotes from a historian looking back on the events (I am trying to accomplish something interesting thematically). We'll see if it works. The other problem is the deadline for this anthology is sometime in June, which doesn't leave me a lot of time to work on this story and get feedback.
But hey, let me worry about actually finishing a draft first.
Currently Listening to: The School of Assassins - Anti-Flag
Currently Reading: Literary Theory: An Introduction by Terry Eagleton
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May 4th, 200608:44 pm: Thoughts on Silent Hill the movie.
What does one make of Hollywood these days? On the one hand, you have the large group in the Sci-fi community who seem to attack modern Hollywood every chance they get. Supposedly modern Hollywood insults their intelligence and relies on special effects at the cost of storyline and characterization. Too often from this crowd, you hear the ever-predictable "they don't make movies like they used to" line, alluding to some majestic Golden Age of Films. Sounds familiar right? Ironically, you hear this same kind of argument about Sci-fi stories (let's go back to the Golden Age filled with space-cowboy adventures and a time when characters were good-old fashioned white boys before those Newwaver queers, women, and minorities took over. (See the opinion article: "Tough Times For Beset Manhood" by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold to understand what I am talking about). Consider for a moment, a film like The Brothers Grimm. Now, I am not arguing it was the greatest movie in the world, but it was entertaining, the special effects were incorporated extremely well, and the story works for the most part. For me that's a huge success. I go to the movies to be entertained. Not every movie needs to reach up to the standards of The Godfather. In fact, I expect the majority of films I go out to see won't and I don't expect them to. If I disliked any published story that didn't reach up to the level of say a "Faith in Our Fathers" by Philip K. Dick or a "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison or a "Stories For Men" by John Kessel, do you realize how many stories I would give bad reviews? Must every novel be as good as Dante's Inferno or The Illiad? Can't I read a Dragonlance or a Star Wars novel and appreciate it for what it is? It just seems that people in the Sci-fi community apply entirely different standards the second they go out to the movies as if the butter on the popcorn clogs the flow of blood to their brains. Strangely, I am much more lenient when it comes to films than I am with stories. My number one desire when going to a movie is to be entertained. Simple as that. Then I look at more rigirous criteria such as: originality, camera technique, uniqueness of style, depth of acting, dialogue and all those analytical qualities. Sometimes, I notice a correlation between quality technique and the entertainment value, but this isn't always the case. I have seen plenty of movies with sub-par dialogue, acting, etc., that I left enjoying because despite those flaws I found the movie entertaining. To be fair, I probably approach stories in this fashion as well. Entertain me, then I'll worry about your technique. Now before I go on to review Silent Hill it should be noted I happen to like big budget movies such as Armageddon Gladiator, The Lord of the Rings, as well as horror movies like Scream, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, as well as award-winning flicks like The Godfather, Casablanca, Pulp Fiction, Jaws, Forrest Gump, etc. This should give you some context of my tastes. Silent Hill is an under realized, but ambitious film. In a genre, which has become dominated by doppleganger slasher films, it is always nice to see a horror film that falls under the supernatural category. I am a sucker for horror with supernatural elements rather than horror films that rely on the insanity of a deranged killer (I suppose the same could be said for stories too). Not to say I don't enjoy such films (most recently Saw), but I feel they need to try extra hard to feel fresh or entertaining. The film is about a young adopted girl who keeps sleepwalking and having nightmares about a place called Silent Hill. Her mother decides to take her to this place that haunts her nightmares, an abandoned ghost town where it rains ashes from the sky. Fleeing from a cop who tries to pull her over, the mother loses her daughter after a car accident and must search the abandoned town as she slowly unravels its dark past and her daughter's mysterious connection to the town. I like that this film tried to piece together a variety of disparate elements and included many elements of the mystery. The monsters are genuinely grotesque (they make the Zenobites from Hellraiser look attractive) and would've been scary had the movie not relied so heavily on CGI. The major problem with the film, however, is not the CGI, but the execution of the story. The pacing feels extremely off through-out; mysteries are revealed too quickly, or revealed too slowly, or revealed at the wrong time in the movie. Although we are given clues throughout the film, they are nothing more than fleeting images to try and trick the film-goer into thinking they are playing along; we really don't understand what is happening until the very end when a character comes out and explains it all. You made it this far. Now you will get the truth.Well, thanks. But the film would've been more interesting had it made the clues more tangible so that the audience could solve it separately and didn't have to rely on the heavy-handed info-dump at the end (the reader's 50% anyone?). You can't help watching the film and feeling like something in the story got jumbled. It also doesn't help that the characters are poorly realized. Fine, the mother wants to find her adopted daughter in the scary town because she loves her daughter. The main motivation is taken care of, but why did she adopt her in the first place? (couldn't have kids? Sterile?) There is a lot of emotional development that could've been gained by fleshing her motivations and personality out more. Now that she has lost her daughter, does this make her feel like a bad mother? If she were sterile and lost her child, does she regret ever adopting? How did her own mother treat her and how does this affect her relationship with her adopted daughter? They could've briefly mentioned some of this in dialogue and helped develop this character into someone interesting. Overall, I appreciate the attempt at a more complex external plot and a supernaturalism that transcends the ever-tired ghost/haunted house and zombie stories, but there are some obvious flaws in this film. I haven't played the video games, so I'm not sure how it compares.
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May 2nd, 200606:49 pm: Fair Use and Copyright Law.
So I recently got a critique on my rock 'n 'roll story "Transcendence" mentioning I might not be able to quote lines from songs. I use one line from a Kurt Cobain/Nirvana song, one line from a Johnny Cash song, and one line from a John Lennon/Beatles song. It's a real shame because these lines fit so well in the story. Personally, I think I am well within my rights of fair use (after having done some research). I could definitely define my usage as satire or even criticism, the artists in question are dead (ignoring their band mates and the actual holders of the copyright at the moment), I am not making comercial money on the songs in and of themselves, I am quoting a very small portion of each song (no more than a line) and they make up an extremely small portion of the story. Then again maybe not, maybe I would lose in a court of law. The Fair Use doctrine in particular is very fuzzy and has room for argument on both directions. I think it would be a very interesting case. I believe other artists should be able to quote and utilize the work of past artists for allusions, criticism, satire, etc. as long as its in reason (you're not copying the whole work and it serves an actual purpose in your work). Even more so when the direct artist is dead. Whether I am in the right or wrong, I am still running the risk that an editor won't be so knowledgable on "fair use" and just assume there might be problems because of the lines and reject it out of hand. I suppose I could just delete the lines, but then I feel like the story loses something. In the end, I suspect this is the decision I'll make, but it's really frustrating and annoying. I'm really bummed out about this because I think this is one of the best stories I've ever written. Currently Listening to: "Louie, Louie" by The Kingsmen.
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April 29th, 200611:14 am: Lessons in Literary Theory Part II
Phenomenology: A literary theory based off Edmund Husserl's philosophy of the things we perceive being intended or reality consisting of endless phenomena where the unchanging elements of those objects (say a bunny) are the pure essence of "bunniness". Thus by seeing how I perceive something in my own private world and discovering what is eternal about that I can find truth. Applied to literary criticism, a phenomological reading ignores history, context, autobiography, and cares how the author perceives the world. It is non-critical. It tries to be object and prevent biases. If you read a Christian poem, you don't judge Christianity, but simply discuss how the poem develops the inner world the author must have experienced. It also probably makes an effort to link texts by a single author together and find unities of themes between them. Hermeneutics: Based off of Martin Heidegger's philosophy of Time and Being. This one is interested in the works of the past, present, and future, and how the work interrelates with those other works. One critic, Hirsh, felt it was important to know th authorial intent in order to ground ourselves in a norm of interpretation. He used this theory to separate significance and meaning. The meaning never changes (authorial intent), but significance changes with every time period and culture. However, others who follow this theory find that there is no such thing as a valid interpretation because time and culture is always shifting, always fluid, never stable. Presumably these critics don't separate significance and meaning. As new works are written in th future, it will change what this particular text means, as looking back at works in the past also changes the way we look at this text in the present. It compares the whole of the text with its parts. Please note, I do not claim any of these are right. This is me kind of trying to make sense of what I read in "Literary Theory: An Introduction" by Terry Eagleton. If you find something inaccurate or you disagree with in the definition sense, please feel free to correct me. It also should be noted that I found these theories a lot more ponderous and difficult to understand than the theories I mentioned in the previous post.
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April 26th, 200608:13 pm: New Story
Did some more edits to the Rock'N'Roll story. My in-person crit group had really nice things to say about it. Wendy even said she thought it was publishable with some minor edits. For this reason I'm terrified of over-editting this piece. A part of me wants to throw it up on the Albatross and see what my Clarionmates think, especially since I made a couple of major changes from the draft my in-person group read (such as making Gabby more integral to the story). On the other hand, my Clarionmates haven't gotten to critiquing my literary criticism I posted up on the Albatross (I get the impression everyone's been really busy lately) so I don't want to inundate them with submissions. I have no doubt everyone there will freak out when they get to a particular scene (when Gabby does something extremely explicit). I had this idea to balance her character off by including a famous "dead" female rock star because I realized I had included only males, but then as I hunted down names for famous female rockstars I realized why all the rockstars I used were male. There are quite a few living female rockstars, but I couldn't find a single scrap of information on any female rockstar who was dead (preferably a talented one who can hold their own with Cobain, Hendrix, etc.). Hmmm, another option may be to cut the explicit section of the scene and balance off Gabby's character some other way. The research or lackthereof has given me a possible idea that might be interesting for this story. And in other news... I might have solved my class issues. I decided to sign up for a Shakespeare Comedies 500 class. Got in touch with the professor and she said, I won't need to have taken 514. I haven't dropped the other 400 Drama class because I'm waiting to see what the course list will be for the Shakespeare class. I happen to have read quite a few of Shakespeare's Comedies multiple times already, but what attracted me to the class was the mention that we'd be comparing his comedies to other playwright's comedies of the time (which hopefully means we'll be reading them). I always wanted to read some of the other playwrights of that time period. Also, it would be nice to read some of the Shakesperean comedies I haven't read yet.
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April 25th, 200612:06 am: Courses and Complaining!
This was what my course schedule looked like last week for Fall 2006: Eng 480: British Restoration and Enlightenment Dramas Eng 510: Introduction to Prof study LSC 505: Organization of Information (Cataloging) LSC 527: Information Literacy Instruction Thoughts: Cataloging is going to be a bitch and a lot of work from what I hear. I really have no urge to take British Restoration and Enlightenment Dramas, but I don't particularly want to take modern poetry (the poem is the form I had the most experience with in my undergrad classes) and Modern Novels (which does sound a bit more interesting) is all the way at the Providence Campus (45 minutes without traffic) at 9:00 AM on a Tuesday (I can barely make it to my 9:00 AM class at the Kingston Campus (10 minutes away). Breaking News: Apparently they are now splitting Eng 510 (a required class) into two required classes 510 and 511 worth 1.5 credits eachover fall and spring instead of one class worth 3.0 credits. The class still meets at the same time, but will be bi-weekly. This annoyed the crap out of me when I first heard it. I have a bunch of theories why they did this: increase enrollment in other classes (sorry you're not a full-time student anymore so you have to sign up for another class plus this extra 1.5 credit class) and thus make more money, they mentioned that older students can attend some of these "seminars" (while new students are required to take them in the first place) possibly to refresh/reiterate things the students in the program for three years have forgotten since they took the class long ago (there is a seminar on conferences, on the Ph. D track, on publishing scholarly articles, etc.). A third reason might be to give the Chair of the Department (the one teaching the class) more time for other resposibilities. I was considering dropping the 400 Eng class: British Restoration and Enlightenment Drama, but now I can't because that would make a part-time student thanks to the splitting. I get the impression they don't want MA students to take the upper-level 500 and 600 courses until they have taken 510 and 514 (well, now 510, 511, and 514). Maybe I should email some of the professors and ask them if I would be lost if I signed up for a 500 class and haven't taken those other courses and don't have an extensive background in theory. Blah! Promise: I mentioned a post would be coming in a response to my "Am I a Racist" thread discussing "Cultural Voices or lackthereof in fiction". It will be up soon for anyone desiring to read it.
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April 21st, 200611:45 am: Literary Theory: Part I
For my own sake and to help improve my retention on the subject I'm going to be writing a few Literary Theory Movement for Dummies. Please note, these could be completely wrong. This what I gathered from reading Literary Theory: An Introduction by Terry Eagleton. Russian Formalism: A critical theory that appeared a little before the Revolution. They focused heavily on literary forms. For them, the importance of Animal Farm isn't that it's an allegory about Stalanism, but rather Stalanism just happened to make good material to craft an allegory. The form is key. They see narrative and language as deceptive devices and artificial, a way suspending the natural laws of the world and the way we would normally speak. However, this is the reason that literary texts are so interesting BECAUSE it is a suspension of the normal rules and utilizes specialized structures (such as the allegory) and specialized language that we wouldn't use in real life (think Shakespeare). Tristam Shandy for this reason is the most "typical" novel because it costantly interupts itself to extend the narrative (or so the Formalists claim, as I've never read this book myself). T.S. Eliot: Believed in a kind of 'Organic' literature that reeks of Fascism. In many ways, I think this is where we get the more conservative attitude of literature (some books are great and some are not). When a new great comes in (of course, Eliot knew his work would be included in this rudimentary Canon), the others shuffle over and make room for the newcomer. However, these works always knew that this work would one day join the ranks and the older works are reflected through the lens of these newer works. In a sense, all literature that is yet to be written knows if it will be joining this 'Organic' Canon. From the reading, I also got the impression he was into aesthetic readings (more focused on the language and the depth of allusions and depth of symbols, than the actual meaning of a text). Leavis: One of the first and most prominent Literary Critics. He was the editor of Scrutiny, one of the first Literary Criticism Journals. He advocated the Close-reading and Practical Reading. Practical Reading is to read the text closely and dissect it for meaning rather than talking and focusing on the aesthetics of a text. I.A. Richards: He came up with the idea of moments of the text being a slice of the author's psychological processes. I tihnk it would be like reading a book and saying at this moment the author was sad, the narrative here expresses hurt feelings for the loss of Grandma Joe. I could be wrong about what is meant by the author's psychological processes. New Criticism: Pioneered in America by the Fugitives. It eventually became the number one form of Criticism here. The group was interested in poetry. It was another criticism that was reacting to the changing times and the rise of liberalism. Basically, they saw poems as contradictions. One part would say one thing and another part another thing, but eventually these contradictions balanced each other, so the meaning you were left with is an indifference towards the changing world (and thus a kind happy acceptance). If anyone sees anything wrong with my Literary Theory breakdown, please reply to this thread because I'd love to learn more or even be corrected if I am understanding one of these theories incorrectly. More Theories to come as I continue reading the book and try to make sense of what I'm reading!
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