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From Stephen Elliott
At the BBC, writer Sarah Hall explores “the popular motif in science fiction of an all-women society surviving without men.” In the two-part program, Hall talks with authors, professors, and science fiction historians, looking at how science fiction “has been used to examine relationships between the sexes,” and how the genre “has examined the different ways of continuing the human race.”
(Via Bookslut)
...moreOver the summer, NPR solicited listener nominations and votes to compile a giant list of the Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books. Then SF signal took it a step further by creating an intricate flowchart based on that list. And then, they transformed that chart into a handy interactive guide.
...more“But if we are going to manufacture our reality, couldn’t we make it a bit better? The thing we seem to like manufacturing the best are enemies, and here we are all guilty. Al-Qaida manufactured a vision of the west dominated by Satan, and the west has manufactured a simplistic vision of the Islamic world to direct its anger at in response.”
Applauding science fiction’s ability to remind us of the constructed nature of reality, this Guardian article references Lavie Tidhar’s new novel, Osama, as a key example of the genre’s political possibilities.
...moreThe Guardian researches why the female presence seems to be diminishing in science fiction writing. Though there isn’t necessarily a shortage of female authors (or women publishers), there is a serious lack of female presence in the Guardian’s list of favorite science fiction writing books, chosen by readers.
...moreRay Bradbury conjures up for me images of sun-drenched Nebraska meadows, autumn landscapes beset upon by Buick-sized ravens and dusty towns overrun by sinister carnivals. He reminds me of the childhood I never quite had except in my head.
He’s the writer I remember enjoying the earliest and now he’s ninety-years old and still working.
...moreWhoops! MacMillian is in trouble with The World Bank for offering bribes to Sudanese officials in exchange for textbook contracts. (via Bookninja)
“35 essential posthuman novels.” (via Largehearted Boy)
On that note, this is what happens when musicians read sci-fi.
...more“Fantasy is not avoidable. The very act of writing fiction is a sin, a lie. One of Disch’s most haunting stories, ‘Getting Into Death,’ is about a writer (one who uses two pseudonyms, at least one of which Disch used himself) who orchestrates her death by fabricating warmth and sentiment toward everyone she has ever known, creating a surfeit of charmingly mawkish moments.
...moreToday is the birthday of one of my very favorite living writers, Samuel R. Delany.
(I spoke once here before about how I share with Junot Diaz an abiding love for Delany’s work.)
All it took for him to become my favorite was to read his legendary, mind-boggling and notorious sci-fi apocalyptic epic Dhalgren a few years back when I was living in an old Edwardian in the Sunset District of San Francisco and working for lawyers in the Lake Merritt District of Oakland.
...moreSomeone bought Agatha Christie’s old “battered” trunk for a hundred quid at auction, and in it, she found some jewels, most likely from the great mystery writer’s infamous collection. (via Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind)
Someone made a font out of Franz Kafka’s handwriting!
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Today’s theme is things that are good.
These appeal to me on at least three levels: 1980′s subway photography.
“The primary goal is to change the attitude towards living on a houseboat.”
Seed Magazine on the relationship between Science Fiction and Science.
...more“Felicino: I thought writers were the least reliable guys when it comes to define what they’re writing. And most of them don’t really care.
Gio: Well, as a reader and a writer, I care. Let’s see what they say out there.
...more“Science fiction writers don’t predict the future (except accidentally), but if they’re very good, they may manage to predict the present.
Mary Shelley wasn’t worried about reanimated corpses stalking Europe, but by casting a technological innovation in the starring role of Frankenstein, she was able to tap into present-day fears about technology overpowering its masters and the hubris of the inventor.
...moreNnedi Okorafor has an essay over at The Nebula Awards site about Africa’s relationship with science fiction, as well as a discussion on Penguin’s decision to make science fiction ineligible for The Penguin Prize for African Writing.
“As (director Tchidi) Chikere said, African audiences don’t feel that science fiction is really concerned with what’s real, what’s present….
...more“In 1973 Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow was awarded the Nebula, the highest honor available in the field once known as “science fiction” — a term now mostly forgotten.
“Sorry, just dreaming… [T]hough Gravity’s Rainbow really was nominated for the 1973 Nebula, it was passed over for Arthur C.
...moreThis week, the book blogs are scaring the ever-loving Jesus out of me.
Sure, there have been a few fun, interesting updates and interviews, but most of what they’ve been saying makes me want to build a series of tunnels in and around my house so that I can start planning the first push of the resistance.
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