- Alan DeNiro quotes David Foster Wallace: "I think TV promulgates the idea that good art is just art which makes people like and depend on the vehicle that brings them the art. This seems like a poisonous lesson for a would-be artist to grow up with."
- Cornell University Library's "The Fantastic in Art and Fiction"
- Suggested Rules for Non-Transsexuals Writing about Transsexuals, Transsexuality, Transsexualism, or Trans ____.
- The Book Depository looks to be a good source for books from the U.K., and amazingly offers free delivery anywhere. The web editor, complete with blog, is Mark Thwaite, of ReadySteadyBook. The site includes an interview with Gabriel Josipovici. (In fact, this will probably be my source for Josipovici's new collection of essays, The Singer on the Shore...)
- Nick Mamatas: The Website
- The British Science Fiction Association's critical journal, Vector now has a website, and it includes an essay I wrote some time back about the short fiction of 2005 that I'd encountered. It's an odd perspective, because I wrote it while being in the midst of reading way too many other things. I made that clear in the article, because sometimes it seems to me that critics should probably note their state of mind when formulating a criticism; not every situation affects judgment, of course, but sometimes, such as being in the midst of reading too much, it can (often in interesting ways -- I wouldn't privilege a more relaxed mindset over a more frazzled one, so long as the expression remains articulate).
- The new Ratbastards chapbook is now available for ordering. And there's a great deal on the backissues -- you can get 4 of the 5 previous editions for $19 (including shipping) or all 5 books for $24 (including shipping).
- Faces of the Grotesque
- I'm not a big fan of labels for fiction, but some of my best friends are, and there's nothing wrong with that. They enjoy debating things like the term "slipstream", and often come up with interesting insights by doing so. For instance, here, here, here, here, here. I've got a copy of Kelly & Kessel's Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology
, and it's a nice collection of stories, including a new one by M. Rickert (which should be reason enough for anyone to buy it). I love that they included excerpts from the discussion at David Moles's blog. If you like arguing about labels, the anthology will give you plenty to argue about. If you don't, just read the stories and enjoy them, because there's really not a dud in the bunch.
13 June 2006
Getting the Links Out
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I've got my copy pre-ordered, mostly because of some of the writers in it that I love.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to ask- what is the big deal with M. Rickert? I think I must be missing something. I went and read a few more of her stories after being disapointed with The Harrowing and I still don't see what the big deal is.
I just don't lover her work- it's ok. It's good. But not something I would rave about, and the prose feels sloppy to me. What am I missing?
there's really not a dud in the bunch.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I'd go quite that far, but it's certainly got an extremely good hit rate, and the Ricker story is one of my favourites by her, now, I think.
I'm trying to write a review of the book; and specifically trying to write a meaningful review that doesn't just come down to "I agree with David Moles." Ah well.
(Oh, and there's also a Vector blog.)
I've written more fully about Rickert's work here, here, and here, but in general I'd say what has most impressed me is the complexity of the narratives, the openness to ambiguity within them, which, when it works, creates a rich reading experience (at least for me). I don't think it always works, and I do worry that some of her recent material is, for whatever reason, moving more toward ordinary storytelling (the last story of hers I read in F&SF began very well, I thought, and then was scuttled by an ending that tied things up too neatly). In her best stories, the prose is not sloppy at all, but it can feel that way if you're only looking at one of the levels of the story -- every sentence does have a purpose, every word a function, but the purposes and functions are often toward different goals. Even her least successful stories (and "The Harrowing" isn't one that did a lot for me, though I did enjoy it on a second reading more than a first) seem to be the product of an assured and thoughtful writer, so I jump at the chance to read any new ones, because compared to most of what's out there, even sub-par Rickert at least offers something to think about, because she seldom does anything in a predictable way. People will have different levels of appreciation for it, of course, and if what you're primarily looking for is just a fun read, "a good story", then she's probably not a writer who'll do a lot for you. (I'm not saying you are, Paul, just that that's probably the biggest group of readers who wouldn't be likely to connect to her writing.)
ReplyDeleteI meant to mention the Vector blog in the main post. Stupid me. There's a Vector blog. It's got all the things you'd expect from a blog connected to Vector, hence it's a Vector blog...
ReplyDeleteAs for duds, I tend to think of them as stories that don't work at all, and though I definitely prefer some of the tales in the book to others, and were I to have been the editor it would have been vastly different (as it would have been had anybody else been the editor, 'cuz that's how anthologies work), nonetheless, unless I've repressed a memory of one of them, all of the stories had at least some sort of spark of life in them for me.
ReplyDeletethe openness to ambiguity within them, which, when it works, creates a rich reading experience (at least for me).
Y'know- that's only something I've recently begun to appreaciate in works (ambiguity). Most of it due to reading Wizard/Knight, and having a sudden epiphiny of "Ah-ha!". It was one of those defining moments as a reader- that completely changes the way you read works and appreciate them.
Until then, ambiguity just turned me off.
I think I'll go back and reread Cold Fires. Might be able to appreciate it now.
Thanks for the tip about Feeling Very Strange. Now commences the long wait for the book to appear in UK bookshelves.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a big fan of subgenre labels normaly but the idea of slipstream (not a new one really just a new label) is a worthy one.