Christopher Hitchens writes:

Readers of Ballard’s memoir, Miracles of Life (a book with a slightly but not entirely misleading title) will soon enough discern that he built on his wartime Shanghai traumas in three related ways. As a teenager in post-war England he came across first Freud, and second the surrealists. He describes the two encounters as devastating in that they taught him what he already knew: religion is abject nonsense, human beings positively enjoy inflicting cruelty, and our species is prone to, and can coexist with, the most grotesque absurdities. What could have been more natural, then, than that Ballard the student should devote himself to classes in anatomy, spending quality time with corpses, some of whom, in life, had been dedicated professors in the department. An astonishing number of his shorter works follow the inspiration of Crash, also filmed, this time by David Cronenberg, in morbid and almost loving accounts of “wound profiles,” gashes, fractures, and other inflictions on the flesh and bones. Fascinated by the possibility of death in traffic, and rather riveted by the murder of John Kennedy, Ballard produced a themed series titled The Atrocity Exhibition, here partially collected, where collisions and ejaculations and celebrities are brought together in a vigorously stirred mix of Eros and Thanatos. His antic use of this never-failing formula got him briefly disowned by his American publisher and was claimed by Ballard as “pornographic science fiction,” but if you can read “The Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy Considered As a Downhill Motor Race” or “Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan” in search of sexual gratification, you must be jaded by disorders undreamed-of by this reviewer. Both stories, however, succeed in being deadpan funny.

The Atlantic: The Catastrophist

(Thanks Alex Burns)

This is a formula, a master plot, for any 6000 word pulp story. It has worked on adventure, detective, western and war-air. It tells exactly where to put everything. It shows definitely just what must happen in each successive thousand words.

No yarn of mine written to the formula has yet failed to sell.

The business of building stories seems not much different from the business of building anything else.

The Lester Dent Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot

Dent goes on to explain point by point, chunk by chunk, what must go into a marketable pulp story. I don’t know if this formula would still be effective today, but I suspect it could still be of some use to genre writers.

Thanks to Trevor for telling me about this a couple years ago, at one of the very first PDX0 meetups. I only just decided to find it today.

The short story, “Professor Bommsenn’s Germs” by Ernest George Harmer first appeared in the November 1887 edition of Belgravia Magazine.

Harmer describes a bald, large headed creature with a small body and “mesmeric” powers. It is perhaps the earliest piece of fiction to feature the mutant motif. Following is the Google Books digitization of the story.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been updating my timeline of mutants in popular culture, and have just discovered a wealth of information thanks to the independent scholarship of Josh Glenn, who is particularly focused on pre-Golden Age science fiction.

Of particular interest:

The Argonaut Folly. “It’s a fantasy about not just working, but living in close company with one’s most talented peers. Nietzsche wanted to do so; so did D.H. Lawrence and Andre Breton. I call it the Argonaut Folly because the Argonauts were the original band of talented individuals who together were able to accomplish great things, but whose very superiority (in my reading) rendered them misfits and losers among ordinary mortals.”

Superman, Homo Superior, Accelerated Evolution – Glenn’s history of mutants. Lots of material I’ve missed.

Above is a illustration from the December 23, 1893 edition of the Ottawa Journal’s reprint of HG Wells’s article ” The Man of the Year Million.” It may be the first visual representation of the famous “Greys.” The first description, however, may belong to Kenneth Folingsby, who wrote about a race of evolved beings in Meda: A Tale of the Future.

Iron Skeptic: A Media History of Gray Aliens

This makes an excellent companion to my Evolution of the Mutant in Popular Culture.

I will echo the comment from the bottom of that page that points out that there were many other representations of aliens in popular culture. The Grey-esque images the author links to sound relatively obscure compared to other portrayals by the time Grey sitings became popular.

A few questions:

1. Are there any older portrayals of “Grey-esque” creatures – in, for example, ancient tribal art?

2. When did accounts of Greys become particularly popular?

3. What is the likelihood that the earliest reporters of Greys had seen stuff like Amazing Tales covers?

FWIW, I like Douglas Rushkoff’s hypothesis from Playing the Future: the archetypal image of the Greys comes from the human fetus, and both their appearance and alien abduction phenomena correlate with the increased public debate over abortion.

Three years have passed since the collapse of the Tower of Pisa, but only now can I accept the crucial role that I played in the destruction of this unique landmark. Over twenty tourists died as the thousands of tons of marble lost their grasp on the air and collapsed to the ground. Among them was my wife Elaine, who had climbed to the topmost tier and was looking down at me when the first visible crack appeared in the tower’s base. Never were tragedy and triumph so intimately joined, as if Elaine’s pride in braving the worn and slippery stairs had been punished by the unseen forces that had sustained this unbalanced mass of masonry for so many centuries.

The Guardian: “The Dying Fall” by JG Ballard

(via Bruce Sterling)

The novelist JG Ballard, who conjured up a bleak vision of modern life in a series of powerful novels and short stories published over more than 50 years, died today after a long battle with cancer.

His agent, Margaret Hanbury, said tonight that it was “with great sadness” that the 78-year-old author passed away yesterday morning after years of ill health.

Hanbury, who worked with Ballard for more than 25 years, said he was a “brilliant, powerful” novelist. “JG Ballard has been a giant on the world literary scene for more than 50 years. Following his early novels of the 60s and 70s, his work then reached a wider audience with the publication of Empire of the Sun in 1984 which won several prizes and was made in to a film by Steven Spielberg.

Guardian: Crash author JG Ballard, ‘a giant on the world literary scene’, dies aged 78

Missed this, it was originally posted on Lovecraft’s birthday:

“Race prejudice is a gift of nature, intended to preserve in purity the various divisions of mankind which the ages have evolved.”
- H. P. Lovecraft, Letters

“Now the trickiest catch in the Negro problem is the fact that it is really twofold. The Black is vastly inferior. There can be no question of this among contemporary and unsentimental biologists… But, it is also a fact that there would be a very grave and very legitimate problem even if the Negro were the White man’s equal.”
- H. P. Lovecraft, Letters

“Of course they can’t let Niggers use the beach at a Southern resort – can you imagine sensitive persons bathing near a pack of greasy chimpanzees? The only thing that makes life endurable where Blacks abound is the Jim Crow principle, and I wish they’d apply it in New York both to Niggers and to the more Asiatic types of puffy, rat-faced Jews!”
- H. P. Lovecraft, Letters

[...]

None of these texts are unpublished, or difficult to find, or unclear. H. P. Lovecraft was a racist. But his fame and influence is unaffected by his bigotry. This suggests that when someone is accused of bigotry this accusation may be an attack on that person, not on their ideas or behavior. Because others are given a free ride while being just as racist. Some are chosen to be branded a racist and are never forgiven. Others are forgiven. Amnesty doesn’t seem to be based on the actual ideas or behavior of the accused.

Full Story: OVO

There are several more instances at the link.

Update: I’ve been working on expanding this timeline into a book. I’m currently in the research phase, but you can read my notes here. They are generally more up-to-date and correct than this timeline.

Any corrections, additions, or additional information would be much appreciated – please add comments below. Updates and corrections will be noted in the comments. (I haven’t been keeping up with this, I’ve just been making corrections and not noting them)

1809 – Philosophie Zoologique by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck introduces the concept of transmutation of species.

1844 – Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation by Robert Chambers. Best seller, popularized evolutionary theory after Lamarckian theory discredited.

1853 – First volume of An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races by Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau. “One of the earliest examples of scientific racism”

1859 – Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin. Introduced the concept of evolution. Amazon link.

1871 – The Coming RaceNarrators speculates that the Vril-ya are decedents of the Aryan race that will replace humanity, but a character tells him they are actually evolved from frogs. Some suggest this is parody of Darwinism, it could also be seen as a parody of Gobineau’s writings about the Aryan race (or both). More research is needed regarding the intent. Also, some have speculated that this is non-fiction. Clearly an influence on Blavasky, but to what extent? Still, the Vril-ya can be seen as the first speculation as to a race of humanoid replacing humans and may be the first mutants.

1881 – The Great Romance by The Inhabitant. A man puts himself into a suspended state and wakes up in the year 2143 to find that humans have evolved to have telepathic powers.

1884 – “The Artificial Man. A Semi-Scientific Story” by Don Quichotte, published in The Argonaut on August 16, 1884. The anonymous narrator of the story meets a sickly old man who turns out to be an 18 year old raised in a bell jar and fed chemicals through his stomach. The Artificial Man claims to be the next evolution of being that will replace humans, and that his race will in turn be replaced by more vigorous beings. Summary 1, Summary 2 Update: I no longer see this as particularly relevant, it’s likely a response to both Frankenstein and “Darwin among the Machines)

1883-87 “The Past and Future of the Human Race,” a paper presented by H.G Wells to his college debate society. Exact date unknown, cited variously as 1883, 1885, or 1887. Lost, but thought to have been revised into the later essay “The Man of the Year 1,000,000.” [1 2 3]

1888 Ernest G. Harmer, “Professor Bommsenn’s Germs” – a scientist uses electricity to evolve a germ into an evolved human. The mutant human has no teeth or hair and possesses some sort of mesmeric ability. A “spoof of current biology.”

1889 – 10,000 Years in a Block of Ice by Louis Boussenard. A man wakes up 10,000 years in the future to find a race of people with small bodies, large heads, and telekinetic powers. Audiobook.

Boussenard was a Spiritualist and is said to have predicted his own death and composed his own obituary. [1]

1891 Meda: A Tale of the Future by Kenneth Folingsby. A novel about a future populated by evolved humans with huge heads who are nourished by atmospheric electricity instead of food, and, thanks to their abnormally large brains, can control electricity and magnetism with their minds. Note: a “private circulation” edition was published in 1891, followed by a public release in 1892. The 1891 edition has a preface claiming the book was written in 1888, and the title page of the 1892 edition says “Written in 1888, Published in 1892.” Excerpts here.

1892 or 1893 – HG Wells publishes the essay “The Man of the Year 1,000,000,” in which he speculates humans will evolve to use their brains more than their bodies and would look something like the above illustration from the December 23 1893 edition of the Ottawa Journal.

1893 – Camille Flammarion, La fin du Monde (published in English as Omega: The Last Days of the World in 1897). Predicts a future in which humans have evolved to have smaller bodies and larger heads.

1895 – The Time Machine by H.G. Wells – features humanoids that have presumably evolved from humans. Full text with audio or Amazon link.

1896 – Henri Becquerel discovers radiation.

1899 – Marie Curie develops theory of radioactivity.

The Hampdenshire Wonder by J. D. Beresford

1911 – The Hampdenshire Wonder by J. D. Beresford. Features a child prodigy with a deformed head to make room for an over sized brain. Amazon link.

1912 – The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson

1924 – The Last of My Race: A Dream of the Future by John Lionel Tayler. Coins the term “Homo ignorans” – proto-Stapledon.

1927 – “The Machine Man of Ardathia” by Francis Flagg. “A modern American is unexpectedly visited by a creature encased in a glass cylinder and sustained by an intricate system of tubes. It arrived from a distant future in which artificial systems have taken over all physiological functions. The evolutionary link that connected such fully ‘mechanical’ Ardathians with still ‘natural’ humans were the Bi-Chanics.” Strong echoes of “The Artificial Man” here.

1928 – “The Metal Man” by Jack Williamson.Perhaps the first sci-fi story to deal with radiation creating a mutant race. Synopsis. The Metal Man and Others, The Collected Stories of Jack Williamson, Volume One on Amazon.

gladiator by philip wylie

1930 – Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon. Stapledon speculates as to human evolution of a span of 2 billion years. Includes genetic engineering, and a telepathic hive mind.

1930 – Gladiator by Philip Gordon Wylie. In this novel, a mutant is deliberately engineered by a scientist who injects a serum into his wife, creating a super human offspring. Full text. Site dedicated to the novel, including covers. Kindle book.

1931 – “The Man Who Evolved” by Edmond Hamilton. First story portraying the use of “cosmic rays” in creating super human mutants? Story appears in Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s (Book 1).

odd john by olaf stapledon

1935 – Odd John by Olaf Stapledon. First use of the term “homo superior”? First story about mutants born in disparate locations banding together? Amazon link.

1940 Slan by A. E. van Vogt. Early (first?) series of stories (later collected as a novel) dealing with a mutant race who appear human and hide to avoid persecution.

1945 – First atomic bomb detonated.

1945 – “The Piper’s Son” by Henry Kuttner, first of the “Baldie” series later collected as as Mutant in 1953. Mutant on Wowio. Amazon link.

1948 Children of the Atom by Wilmar H. Shiras. Amazon. (Serialization began in 1948, it was collected as a book in 1951)

strange adventures

1951 – Strange Adventures # 9 by writer John Broome and artist Carmine Infantino. First appearance of Captain Comet, the first (?) mutant super hero in comic books. May also be the first time a mutant appears as a hero rather than antihero.

weird woman mutant

1952 “The Weird Woman” – By artist Joe Sinnott (writer unknown). First known Marvel (known as Atlas at the time) comic book appearance of mutants. Tells the story of a mutant woman who has heard rumors of the existence of a male mutant, whom she seeks to find. At the end, a super powered male appears, presumably the mutant she sought. The mutants in this story appear to be amoral.

1953 More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon. Amazon link.

1954 “The Golden Man” by Philip K. Dick. The Father-thing short story collection contains this story.

1955 The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. Amazon link.

the midwich cuckoos

1957 The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. Amazon link.

men_atomic_brains

1959 “The Man With The Atomic Brain!” by artist Steve Ditko (writer unknown). First appearance in Marvel Universe of a mutant organization, which is located on an island (reminds me of the colony in Odd John)

1959 “The Mutants and Me!” Hints at the existence of an underground network of mutants in the Marvel Universe.

1960 Village of the Damned film debuts – an adaptation of Midwich Cuckoos, important early (first?) cinematic of mutants.

tad_carter_mutant

1961 – “The Man in the Sky!” by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, in Amazing Adult Fantasy # 14. Similar to “The Man With The Atomic Brain!” The character Tad Carter appeared much later in X-Men: Hidden Years

1961 Fantastic Four # 1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The FF are not generally considered mutants, since they were not born with their powers. They apparently mutated by radiation, however, like “The Man Who Evolved” and, later, the Ninja Turtles. reprints the first 10 issues of FF.

1963 Outer Limits episode “The Sixth Finger.” Clearly based on “The Man Who Evolved.” Early (first?) appearance of a mutant on television.

1963 X-Men # 1. First appearance of the X-Men. Amazon link. Can be seen as a re-envisioning of the The Man With The Atomic Brain!” and “The Man in the Sky!” – with a bald telepath bringing mutants together. This series made a deliberate effort to explore social issues through the metaphore of the mutant.

1964 Outer Limits episode “The Mutant” – At least one mutant had been seen on Outer Limits by this point, but this episode specifically uses the term “mutant.”

1971 “Oh! You Pretty Things” by David Bowie appears on the album Hunky Dory. Includes the line “better make way for the homo superior.” Amazon link.

1975 Giant Sized X-Men # 1 by . Introduces new version of the X-Men, including the existing character Wolverine. This version would prove to be much more popular. Marvel Masterworks: Uncanny X-Men, Vol. 1 reprints Giant Sized X-Men # 1 plus Unccany X-Men #94-100.

1981 Scanners. Popular cinematic treatment of the concept of a mutant race simultaneously banding together and trying to avoid detection by normal humans. Scanners on DVD.

1981 Spiderman and His Amazing Friends debuts, which features Iceman (from the X-Men) and original character Firestar, who are both mutants and said to have been X-Men members. The X-Men occasionally appear in the series.

1984 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles # 1 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. First of the Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtles. TPB collecting first 3 issues.

1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series begins.

Questions

What was the first use of the term “mutant” in a science fiction context?

What was the first deliberate use of the concept of the mutant to explore the issue of racism?

Where does the bald headed mutant archetype come from? Kuttner? Update: I’m now guessing this came from Folingsby and Wells, via various “alien” fiction. See: Media History of Grey Aliens.

Notes

Namor is considered to be the Marvel’s first mutant, but he was not identified as such until X-Men # 6 in July 1964.

Works referenced but not linked above

Science Fact and Science Fiction By Brian Stableford

Sci-Fi to Comics blog comments

Superhuman on Wikipedia

Mutant (Marvel Comics) on Wikipedia

A media history of greys

Science Fiction studies

New Atlantis Revisited

“With the Star Wars saga officially wrapped up with Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, fans will seek out any remaining sliver of that galaxy far, far away on screen. The Clone Wars animated movie gave them a little bit of light drone lasering action, but what really caught their attention was Kyle Newman’s Fanboys.

Set in 1998, the film tells the story of four friends who learn that one of their number has terminal cancer, and will die before he gets to see the long-awaited Star Wars prequel, Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Thus the gang scheme to break into Skywalker Ranch and steal a rough cut. This celluloid tribute to Star Wars fandom was supposed to hit theaters in August 2007, but distributor The Weinstein Company thought they could turn it into a bigger event. They hired Steven Brill to reshoot scenes with more dirty jokes and nudity, and removed that downer cancer bit. After news of the new version leaked, a grassroots online rebellion was mounted, spearheaded by a group called Stop Darth Weinstein who helped get Newman reinstated to deliver his version of the film, albeit two years later.

The saga wasn’t all bad for Newman. He met his wife, Jaime King, on the film. She plays a Las Vegas escort who plays Jedi mind tricks with one of the boys. The online support from fans who just wanted to see the original version also warmed his heart. However, the morning of his press junket in Beverly Hills, Newman was already visibly exhausted. The day was just beginning, but the journey to bring Fanboys to the screen was nearly over. All he had to do was keep his posture up on the sofa and answer questions about Weinstein as diplomatically as possible.”

(via Suicide Girls. Thanks Nicole!)

Another Philip K. Dick movie is coming soon: Radio Free Albemuth, starring Alanis Morissette as Sylvia, Jonathan Scarfe as Nicholas Brady, and Shea Whigham as Philip K. Dick himself.

Official movie site

IMDB entry

(Thanks Joe)

“Sir Terry Pratchett has been trialling a revolutionary new device that claims to slow, and even reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s. The award-winning author, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2007, is one of the first patients in the UK to try the anti-dementia helmet. The device sends intense bursts of light at a particular wavelength the a patient’s skull.

The helmet’s designer, Dr Gordon Dougal is convinced the device could transform the lives of thousands of people with Alzheimer’s, which currently affects 700,000 people in the UK. The Discworld author, who has donated over £500,000 to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, first contacted Dr Dougal about his invention last year. The County Durham-based GP said: ‘When Sir Terry’s people contacted me I was very happy to help. We made another prototype helmet and he has had that since last August.’

A custom-built helmet was made from a cast of Mr Pratchett’s head. It was then attached to the back of an armchair at the writer’s home in order that he could use it for the recommended six minutes each day. Mr Pratchett’s progress was assessed by a computer, which showed a small, but measurable, improvement in his condition after three months. More importantly, said Dr Dougal, the computer could find no signs of further deterioration during this period.”

(via The Daily Mail)

I want this one:

(via Once Upon a Geek)

A Giant Monster Will Destroy New York (Cloverfield (2008))
We Will Perfect Time Travel and Upload Our Consciousness to Computers (Freejack (1992))
Artificial Intelligence Will Run Our Lives (Silver Hawk (2004))
President Cheney Will Pass the Patriot Act III (Death of a President (2006))
Americans Will Struggle Through a Post-Apocalyptic Existence (The Postman by David Brin (1985))
The World Will Face Life Without Oil (We Were Warned: Tomorrow’s Oil Crisis (2008))
America’s Computer Systems Will Be Destroyed (Dark Angel (2000))
Humanity Will Go to War with an Alien Race (The Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982))
A New Conservative Party Will Displace the Democrats and Republicans (“From Our Point of View We Had Moved to the Left” by William Shunn (1993))
Disaster Will Strike on a Commercial Spaceflight (Orbit by John J. Nance (2006))
A Virus Will Kill 90% of Humanity (I Am Legend (2007))
The British Government Will Begin Dismantling Public Freedom (Last Rights (2005))
The Large Hadron Collider Will Cause All of Humanity to Experience a Flashforward (Flash Forward by Robert J. Sawyer (1999))
Korea Nationalists Will Try to Change the Timeline (2009 – Lost Memories (2002))
Earth Will Encounter Numerous Alien Threats (The Whoniverse (2007-2008))

Full Story: io9

(via Pickover)

The author Terry Pratchett – whose novels have sold millions of copies worldwide – has been made a knight in the New Year Honours list.

The writer, 60, who is best known for his hugely popular Discworld series of comic fantasy novels, received the honour for services to literature.

Sir Terry announced in December 2007 that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

He has since campaigned to raise awareness of the condition.

Full Story: BBC

(Thanks Cap’n Marrrrk!)

“Just when it appeared that George Lucas had finally laid to rest his epic saga of Jedis, Wookies and Ewoks, he has announced that Star Wars will return as a stadium experience. The Times has learnt that Lucasfilm has authorised Star Wars: A Musical Journey, a retelling of the story that will combine excerpts of the film with live orchestral accompaniment. Diehard fans may dream of Jedi Knights serenading Jabba the Hutt and C-3PO singing “Don’t cry for me, R2-D2” but they are likely to be disappointed. Producers for the show, which will have its world premiere in Britain, emphasised that although actors would be used to narrate the story, it would not be a stage musical.

The production, which condenses more than 13 hours of film into 90 minutes, will be more like a classical music concert performed in front of a cinema screen, 27m (90ft) wide. The audience at the 17,000-seat O2 Arena in southeast London will watch key scenes from the film as 86 musicians from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra play extracts from John Williams’s score. The composer has reworked the music for the show, which will take place on April 10. Other shows may follow, depending on demand.”

(via The TimesOnline)

“At one time or another Sue Lange has been one of the following (pretty much in this order): child, student, potato picker, first chair flautist, librarian, last chair flautist, babysitter, newspaper deliverer, apple picker, form cutter, drama club treasurer, track and field timer, Ponderosa Steak House salad server (before the salad bar days, of course), disco dance instructor, waitress, wire harness assembler, usher, Baskin-Robbins ice cream dipper, volleyball team captain, biology club treasurer, circuit board checker, form reader, day camp counselor, tutor, stock room attendant, nurse aide, chemistry technician, senior chemistry technician, right fielder, Plant Laboratory Supervisor–non-radiological, house sitter, first base, receptionist, stage manager, data input technician, actor, bookkeeper, vocalist, typesetter, songwriter, recording artist, home builder, viticulturist, Digital Production Manager, orchardist, and Applescripter. Lately she’s been writing.”

TiamatsVision- For those unfamiliar with your work, tell us a bit about yourself.

Sue Lange- Well I started out as a child, and then I grew up. After that terrifying experience I moved to New York City and discovered who I really was. Turns out I was musician so I started a band. Crabby Lady was the last incarnation. I stripped the music from my lyrics and published my story as science fiction (“Tritcheon Hash”). That went over like a lead balloon so I tried again (“We, Robots”). Blowing my modicum of success with the second book all of out of proportion gave me the nerve to try it once more, hence my third book, “The Textile Planet”.

TiamatsVision- How did the idea for Book View Café come about and what was involved in putting the site together?

Sue Lange- A number of people on the SF-FFW Yahoo group (women writers of speculative fiction) started yakking about offering fiction for free online to create some buzz for our work. We read stuff like Cory Doctorow’s manifesto on the subject and got inspired. Never one for talk without action, Sarah Zettel grew tired of our ranting and said, “Let’s do it.” A bunch of us got eager and jumped on the band wagon, and voila, BVC is born.

TiamatsVision- What do you see happening with Book View Café in the future?

Sue Lange- I think we’re going to become a publisher. We’re going to have a model in place for publishing Internet fiction and making money at it. We’ll know how to make it, serve it, promote it, and sell it. We’ll have a handful of formidable partners that will be able to distribute our product in the myriad formats out there. We’ll have content in Internet formats, ebooks, print books, and podcasts. Wherever there is content, we will be there.

Read the rest of this entry »

“Blogging has become something of a pop culture phenomenon. It’s a virtual platform that gives everyone – from novice to novelist – a unique voice and presence on the vast World Wide Web. The ultimate in self-publishing, upgraded for the 21st century.

But like the virtual social networks that bring people from around the world together, it seems like a natural progression then that bloggers would branch out from their individual self-expression and seek group affiliation. In the horror arena, a group of stalwart bloggers joined forces earlier this year to form the peculiarly named League of Tana Tea Drinkers (or LOTT D). The brainchild of John Cozzoli, who has helmed his own long-running blog called ZOMBOS CLOSET OF HORROR which explores the horror genre as reflected in all media and pop culture, LOTT D now includes 29 member blogs and continues to grow. Impressive in its variety, the LOTT D boasts member blogs covering everything from Frankenstein to Godzilla, slasher films to zombies, and childhood terrors to comic books. Spend a few hours perusing the LOTT D’s member blogs and you’ll find everything you need for a serious horror fix — from serious film commentary to some of the funniest genre observations, insightful original essays to button-pushing opinion pieces, and heaps of useful book and films reviews from classic to current.

The mission of the LOTT D is outlined on its virtual homepage:

“Our mission is to acknowledge, foster, and support thoughtful, articulate, and creative blogs built on an appreciation of the horror and sci-horror genre. Horror bloggers are a unique group of devoted fans and professionals, from all walks of life, who keep the horror genre, in all its permutations and media outlets, alive and kicking. Often spending long hours to keep their blogs informative and fun, horror bloggers share their unique mix of personality, culture and knowledge freely to fans of a genre difficult to describe, but easy to love.”

DSM recently caught up with Cozzoli (aka ILoz Zoc) and five of his LOTT D compatriots for an informal discussion about this groundbreaking new consortium of horror bloggers. Joining him are Stacie Ponder, FINAL GIRL proprietress and AMC columnist extraordinaire, Lance Vaughan (aka Unkle Lancifer), co-creator of the childhood terror site KINDERTRAUMA, August Ragone , author and renowned authority on Japanese film and culture who helms THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND GODZILLA, John Morehead, academic and explorer of the social, cultural, mythic, archetypal, imaginative, creative, and even spiritual aspects of the fantastic at his blog THEOFANTASTIQUE, and Mike Petrucelli (aka Pax Romano), witty commentator on the queer subtext of horror films from BILLY LOVES STU.”

(via Dark Scribe Magazine)

Susan Wright writes science fiction novels and nonfiction books on art and popular culture. New York City is her home, where she lives with her husband Kelly Beaton. After graduating from Arizona State University in 1986, Susan moved to Manhattan to get her masters in Art History from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. Susan is currently the Spokesperson for the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, a national organization committed to protecting freedom of sexual expression among consenting adults.

TiamatsVision- For those unfamiliar with you and your work, tell us a bit about yourself.

Susan Wright- I’ve written over 25 novels and nonfiction books on art and popular culture. Right after I got my masters in art history from New York University, instead of becoming a professor as I had intended, I started writing. I was lucky enough to get an agent and in 1994, I published my first Star Trek novel, “Sins of Commission”. I wrote 9 Star Trek novels in all, and I have a new story in the Mirror Universe Shards and Shadows anthology coming out in January, 2009 called “Bitter Fruit”.

I’m also the spokesperson for the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. I talk to the media about BDSM, swinging and polyamory to debunk stereotypes and defend our communities’ right to hold events. NCSF is a great organization, the only one devoted to helping people in need. The website is www.ncsfreedom.org

TiamatsVision- You recently released a book called “A Pound of Flesh”  which is a sequel to “To Serve and Submit” . What is this series about and what was your inspiration in writing it?

Susan Wright- These two books are about pleasure training houses in the 11th century – Viking sex! In “To Serve and Submit” , Marja is a submissive heroine who learns through her battles to save her homeland how to use her true nature to become a powerful woman. She falls in love with her master, Lexander. I got the idea from artifacts found in Newfoundland of Viking settlements, and I imagined what would that society be like if it had flourished. I knew the first “new world” settlement would include Native Americans as well as Vikings. Marja’s mother is a Skraeling and her father is Nordic so she straddles those worlds.

In “A Pound of Flesh” , Marja travels to Europe to save the slaves from the pleasure houses, but she has to fight Lexander, her former master and lover, to do it. I loved writing the BDSM scenes in this book because I think it makes the sex more creative – they aren’t the typical love scene. I have much more ability to move the story along during these scenes because the interactions are more intense.

TiamatsVision- Did you have to do any special research for this series?

Susan Wright- LOL! I found the leather community in New York City in 1991 and have been thoroughly involved ever since. So the BDSM is a completely natural expression for me.

For the Viking and real-world building, yes I did a tremendous amount of research. I also benefited because I studied art history for 7 years with an emphasis on the Middle Ages so I have a strong grounding in medieval societies.

TiamatsVision- Are there any future books planned for this series?

Susan Wright- Yes, but my editor left Roc and the future of this series is in doubt. At some point, however, I will return to Marja and Lexander’s story. They will go to Tantalis to deal directly with Lexander’s people who are enslaving poor misfortunates into their pleasure houses.

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“When Ry Cooder and I got to El Mirage Dry Lake, it was 110 degrees and heading to 117, hot enough to cook your head inside your hat. The Mojave Desert in daylight will cut the gizzard right out of you, Tom Joad once said, which is why the Okies crossed it at night. I put away the map and Ry pulled the S.U.V. through the gate and stopped. The gravel road fell away below us and vanished into the bone-white lakebed. The mirage was working: a shoreline shimmered wetly in the distance, made of bent sunlight and sand.

El Mirage Dry Lake sounds like a place one step away from nonexistence, but it’s about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, out among the Joshua trees. It’s not far from Edwards Air Force Base, in the Mojave’s military-paranormal sector, where secretive government installations lie low among the jackrabbits “‘ a land of spy planes, space aliens, off-road vehicles, sturdy reptiles and people with freaky desert habits, like racing vintage hot rods on dry lakebeds. It is, in other words, a critical stop on Ry’s California trail.

Ry Cooder “‘ the rock and blues guitarist, roots musician, record producer, songwriter and composer “‘ is a son of Santa Monica who has spent nearly 40 years exploring all corners of the musical planet, like a sharp-eared extraterrestrial on a lifelong voyage of discovery. (His two-CD career anthology, released last month, has a perfect title: “The U.F.O. Has Landed.” ) But even that barely covers it “‘ it’s strictly from his solo albums and the haunting scores he wrote for films like “Alamo Bay”  and “Paris, Texas.”  If you add all the records he has made with other musicians, like Gabby Pahinui, Flaco Jiménez, Ali Farka Touré, Mavis Staples, the Chieftains and, most famously, the Cuban all-stars of the Buena Vista Social Club, you can only wonder where on earth he could go next.The answer: his own backyard. Ry’s latest project may be his strangest and most ambitious. It’s a trilogy of concept albums, plus a short novel, that resurrects a lost California of places and people that Ry, who is 61, remembers from growing up in the 1950s. It was a dryer and poorer place then, but rich in things he likes, like simplicity and ingenuity, good musicians, cool cats and hot cars. Time and neglect have bulldozed most of it into oblivion.”

(via The New York Times)

“Book View Cafe is a new approach to publishing made possible by the Internet. While most of the fiction on the site is free, authors will also be offering expanded work, additional content, print versions, or subscriptions for a fee. Our authors are all professionals with publishing credits in the print world. The Internet is giving us an opportunity to make their out-of-print, experimental, or otherwise unavailable work to you. We love feedback on how we are doing.

Every day, new content available nowhere else will be served up on Book View Cafe: short stories, flash fiction, poetry, episodes of serialized novels, and maybe even a podcast now and then. The content will be archived and available after the posting date by visiting the author’s bookshelf.

Author’s bookshelves are accessed by using the pulldown menu at the top of the first page of the site. Current authors are:

Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
Brenda Clough
Katie Daniel
Laura Anne Gilman
Christie Golden
Anne Harris
Sylvia Kelso
Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
Sue Lange
Ursula K. Le Guin
Rebecca Lickiss
Vonda N. McIntyre
Nancy Jane Moore
Pati Nagle
Darcy Pattison
Irene Radford
Madeleine Robins
Amy Sterling
Jennifer Stevenson
Susan Wright
Sarah Zettel

Our blog is updated daily with posts from the member authors. Subject matter is up to the authors. There are no rules, guidelines, or speed limits.

Some of our authors will be providing additional work for sale. When this premium content becomes available, you can be sure we will be making announcements.  E-mail us if you’d like to be included on our mailing list and receive all the Book View Cafe news you can use. Although there is material for sale the site, Book View Cafe itself is not a profit-making organization. This is a cooperative effort between the authors. Book View Cafe welcomes donations to help pay for the site, site management, and upgrade efforts. We also welcome comments on what you’d like to see here or what we could do to improve your viewing pleasure: bookviewcafe@gmail.com”

(Book View Cafe)

“Science fiction is all about the future, but what does the future hold for science fiction?

These days, science can be stranger than science fiction, and mainstream literature is increasingly futuristic and speculative. So are the genre’s days numbered? We asked six leading writers for their thoughts on the future of science fiction, including Margaret Atwood, William Gibson and Kim Stanley Robinson.

Plus, we review the latest sci-fi novels, highlight the writers to watch and reveal the results our poll of your all-time favourite sci-fi films and books.”

(via New Scientist. h/t: Futurismic)

I’m a little late with this one. R.I.P. Michael Crichton.

“Science Not Fiction was saddened to learn of the death of Michael Crichton yesterday. His 1969 novel, The Andromeda Strain, alone would have been enough to make him a science fiction legend, but he turned out string of taut technothrillers, even equalling The Andromeda Strain’s iconic status with 1990’s Jurassic Park.

His greatest strength was in his ability to imbue his novels with a sense of authenticity; The Andromeda Strain was littered with realistic screenshots and computer printouts and came with a detailed (and entirely fictional) bibliography. Jurassic Park has become the cultural point of reference for discussions about biotechnology, cloning and genetic engineering. If Crichton had a weakness, it was his fondness for the theme which repeats over and over in his novels: technological hubris. Some advanced technology is confidently promoted by scientists as progress toward a better world. Unexpected side effects or interactions that the scientists overlooked in their dash to the future manifest themselves, and things get pretty messy from that point on (and to be fair, usually a really fun read.) But each time, it is implied that anyone who is not an overreaching scientist or an idiot would have known to leave well enough alone.”

(via Discover Magazine. h/t: The Daily Grail)

“With Hollywood hitting up comic books for blockbusters, a new comics publisher is looking to India for ideas. “The world is increasingly realizing that India is a source for creativity and great ideas, not just a back office to execute them more cheaply,” said Gotham Chopra, part of the management team at Los Angeles-based Liquid Comics.

One of the first projects for the publisher will be bringing its Ramayan 3392 AD (pictured) – a colorful, 21st-century re-imagining of Indian literary epic the Ramayana – to movie theaters. Liquid has teamed up with Mandalay Pictures and 300 producer Mark Canton for the film, which has a planned release date of 2011. Liquid sprang from the ashes of Virgin Comics, a shuttered enterprise from Richard Branson and the Chopra family that was meant to hammer the dense narratives of India and Asia into graphic novels for the American mainstream and beyond. Chopak and other members of the Liquid management team undertook the buyout of Virgin Comics to continue the quest at the new company.

Chopra talked with Wired.com about Liquid’s birth, a new wave of Indian comics artists and the challenge of bringing an ancient Sanskrit epic to the silver screen.”

(via Wired)

“When author Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with dementia, he was shocked to discover doctors could do little to help. For despite the fact that the condition affects more than 700,000 Britons (a million by 2025), research into its causes and treatment has been chronically under-funded. Patients and their families also have to cope with the stigma and ignorance surrounding dementia, as a report published today by the Alzheimer’s Society has revealed. In the belief that the only way to change this is to talk openly about the disease, here Terry Pratchett describes his own experiences.

Seven hundred thousand people who have dementia in this country are not heard. I’m fortunate; I can be heard. Regrettably, it’s amazing how people listen if you stand up in public and give away $1million for research into the disease, as I have done. Why did I do it? I regarded finding I had a form of Alzheimer’s as an insult and decided to do my best to marshal any kind of forces I could against this wretched disease.

I have posterior cortical atrophy or PCA. They say, rather ingenuously, that if you have Alzheimer’s it’s the best form of Alzheimer’s to have. This is a moot point, but what it does do, while gradually robbing you of memory, visual acuity and other things you didn’t know you had until you miss them, is leave you more or less as fluent and coherent as you always have been.”

(via The Daily Mail)