"It turns reality up to eleven."

[eldritchhobbit]

Thank you to everyone who has sent kind birthday wishes and goodies my way today. :) I am so grateful for you, my friends!

And, speaking of birthdays, happy birthday to savageseraph and doctorwho42! May you both have wonderful days and fantastic years to come.

Happy first birthday, also, to Aural Delights, the little sibling of the audio science fiction magazine StarShipSofa!


I have two new links to recommend:

* A new online magazine of weird fiction has just made its debute. Arkham Tales offers "100 pages of the best weird fiction on the market," free for your reading pleasure!

* There's also a new website, Book View Cafe, that boasts stellar contributors such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Vonda N. McIntyre, among others. The site is a consortium of over twenty professional authors with extensive publishing credits in the print world. 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 corresponding blog is available via LJ as bookviewcafe.


And a quote for the day:

Science fiction is the holy fool of literature. It can say what it likes and get away with an examination of truly radical and subversive ideas because no one takes it seriously. When it's at its best, we're generally in trouble. Science fiction flourished during the social and economic upheavals of the 1930s, during the Cold War, and during the Iron Age of the 1980s. It should be flourishing now, damn it, but too many people who used to hang out with it have wandered off into some kind of fluffy make-believe world or other. Real science fiction doesn't make stuff up. It turns reality up to eleven. It takes stuff from contemporary weather—stuff no one else has bothered or dared to question—and uses it to make an end run on reality. It not only shows us what could happen if things carry on the way they are, but it pushes what's going on to the extremes of absurdity. That's not its job: that's its nature. And what's happened to science fiction lately, it isn't natural. It's pale and lank and kind of out of focus. It needs to straighten up and fly right. It needs to reconnect with the world's weather, and get medieval on reality's ass.

- Paul McAuley, as quoted in Fast Forward 2, edited by Lou Anders

Comments

[caster121.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

I tucked a little present for you into my LJ today.

All the best!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

You are the best. :) Thank you!

(PS. I just rewatched the RV/DMc interview in the DVD set. Is it me, or is it absolutely hysterical and endearing when RV's cell phone goes off playing the Magnificent Seven theme?)

[caster121.livejournal.com]

"Get Medieval on Reality's ass."

That sounds like a button or T-Shirt for MidSouthCon. :)

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Ha! Excellent idea. :)

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

A very happy birthday to you!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[ithildyn.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much!

[serpentcoils.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday! :D

It turns reality up to eleven. Had me thinking of Spinal Tap and lmao, thanks! XD

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! :D

Spinal Tap, indeed! LOL!

[greenhoodloxley.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday! I hope you're feeling much better! :)

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I am indeed.

[curtana.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday! And thank you for the link to Arkham Tales, I have a friend who writes Lovecraftian fiction from time to time and is always looking for new venues that will publish it :)

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm so glad the link is useful. It looks like a fascinating publication. I hope your friend submits something!

[bouncybabylemur.livejournal.com]

Happy Birthday! and all that.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[estellye.livejournal.com]

LOL, great quote. I'll look forward to Science Fiction getting Medeival on reality's ass. ;)

I hope you're enjoying your birthday! *g*

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

LOL! I'll look forward to that too.

I am indeed enjoying it - and I just laughed myself silly over your darling card!!! That is SO me. LOL. The tags are absolutely fantastic. You're so thoughtful - thanks so much! *hugs*

[euclase.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday, Amy! *hugs*

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! *hugs you back*

[ankh-hpl.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday -- and many, many more strange eons!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

LOL! Thank you so much! :)

[delenn1960.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday, dear Eldritchhobbit!!! Enjoy this day with your family and friends...and of course the sweet little dog ;o)

With a big hug from Delenn!!!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you so much! *big hugs*

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

What a great quote! I've always preferred hard science fiction and I've noticed how, over the years, it's been drowned out by fantasy. Not that I don't like fantasy; I do. But that seems to be practically all there is anymore.


Oh, and Happy Birthday!

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

And I agree with you wholeheartedly. I thought that was a very appropriate and accurate quote.