eldritchhobbit

It's official! I'm delighted to say that I'll be giving two hour-long talks at Loncon 3: The 72nd World Science Fiction Convention in London this summer. One will be with the Young Adult Track, "Millennials and Worlds Gone Wrong: Or, Why These Aren't Your Grandparents' YA Dystopias," and one will be with the Academic Track, "Sherlock Holmes and Science Fiction." It looks like I'll be on some terrific panels, as well. I'll post my schedule when I know it. (Special thanks to peadarog!)

I'd also like to offer my congratulations to my undergraduate and graduate students who were chosen to present their original research from this semester formally during Lenoir-Rhyne University's campus-wide SOURCE: Symposium on University Research and Creative Expression. Three cheers for Elena Margo Gould ("Black Elk's Syncretic Spirituality"), Angelia Bedford ("Native Americans and the Criminal Justice System"), Liz Goebelbecker ("Spirit for Sale"), and Leah Phillips ("A Study of How Euro-American Disease and Medicine Affected the Nebraska Winnebago Native"). Well done!

Some Kickstarters of interest:
- Edgar Allan Poe illustrated "Ravings of Love & Death" (Thanks to Diane!) This one ends today!
- The Miskatonic School for Girls: Holiday Break Expansion (Thanks to sittingduck1313!)
- Geek Theater: Anthology of Science Fiction & Fantasy Plays
- Star Wars Lightsabers from Science Fiction to Science Fact

I'm back, and I have updates, but everything will wait for now. What I want to do - indeed, what I must do - is share a few thoughts from my first viewing of Star Trek into Darkness. (These are my first, preliminary impressions; I'll see it again tomorrow, and my thoughts no doubt will develop further.)

General and Relatively Spoiler-Free Notes

* This film is an extended and deeply heartfelt love letter not only to the original Star Trek, but specifically to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. STII is by far the best Star Trek film to date, and one of the best science fiction films of all time, and so I find this to be completely right and proper. I was deeply moved by the generous (and - dare I say it? - beautiful) nods to the previous film. I suspect some of the deeper resonances will be lost on viewers who aren't familiar with Star Trek II, but, let's be honest: I couldn't care less. [See Footnote 1. Yes, this post has footnotes.]

* What absolutely makes this film, immediately, right out of the gate, and then throughout, is the remarkable and textured chemistry between Bruce Greenwood as Christopher Pike and Chris Pine as James T. Kirk. Greenwood steals every scene in which he appears, but he also draws a terrific performance from Pine, one that sells the very heart and premise of the rest of the film.

* Benedict Cumberbatch is, unsurprisingly, brilliant. His performance is exceptionally physical, from the details of each action sequence to the very manner in which he enunciates his words; in this sense, it reminds me most of his performance as the Creature in Frankenstein.

* Simon Pegg, bless you.

( Now to the Spoilers! )

Happy Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night. Today's a great day for reading a good book or watching a good film. :)


In other news...

* Reminder: if you'd like a holiday card from me this year, please respond here. Thanks!

* I'm currently reading the new novel authorized by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate, The House of Silk: A Sherlock Holmes Novel. So far, so good.

* I recommend watching the documentary The People vs. George Lucas (if you're like me, preferably in a venue in which you feel free to speak/shout your agreement aloud). I must say, my geek heart experienced some closure on the whole Lucas 'verse, thanks to this gem.

* I've accepted an invitation from the Institute for Humane Studies to give some guest lectures at Bryn Mawr College this summer. I haven't spoken there in several years. Should be great fun!


I'll leave you with this mashup of H.P. Lovecraft and The Peanuts (thanks to wellinghall):


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Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder, treason and plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.

* My latest dramatic narration for StarShipSofa, which is the first of a three-part reading of Rachel Swirsky's Nebula Award-winning and Hugo Award-nominated novella The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath The Queen’s Window, is now available on the most recent episode of the podcast. Parts two and three will follow on successive Wednesdays. (The same episode includes an interview with me on the subject of time travel, in expectation of my appearance with the amazing science fiction authors Connie Willis and Ted Chiang on July 23 at the Holodeck Online Time Travel Lecture.)

In other news...

• A new special collection from A Celebration of Women Writers: Pre-1923 Utopias and Science Fiction by Women: A Reading List of Online Editions. (Thanks to merrigold.)


• From the latest issue of Apex Magazine: "The Top 10 Experimental Genre Books You've Never Heard Of."


• The third edition of the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, the definitive reference work in the field, will be released online later this year by the newly-formed ESF, Ltd, in association with Victor Gollancz, the SF & Fantasy imprint of the Orion Publishing Group, whose support will enable the text to be available free to all users. Read more here.


• The Romance Relief auction on eBay for writer L.A. Banks should starts today. L.A. Banks has late stage adrenal cancer and donations to help are badly needed. (Thanks to marthawells.)

And a parting note...


see more Historic LOL


Today is the anniversary of the beheading of Sir Thomas More, so I'll let him have the final word:

"You must not abandon the ship in a storm because you cannot control the winds.... What you cannot turn to good, you must at least make as little bad as you can."
—Sir Thomas More, Utopia

* Happy Star Wars Day! May the Fourth be with you!

* Happy early birthday wishes to vyrdolak, pseudoanorexic, and lyria_theringer. May all of you enjoy many happy returns of the day!

* I'm getting ready to head up to Washington, D.C. I'll be back by the weekend. If all goes well, I'll be filming five lectures that will go online in the near future. *fingers crossed*

* Article recommendation: Peter Monaghan's review of Steve F. Anderson's new Technologies of History: Visual Media and the Eccentricity of the Past: "What Do Rocky and Bullwinkle Have to Do With History?"

* I'll leave you with the trailer for "The Day We Died," the season finale of Fringe. (Yes, that's Brad Dourif. Awesome, no? His character's name is Moreau. Very H.G. Wells, don't you think?)

"The past is routinely being remixed, reimagined, rescripted, and reappropriated in powerful and eccentric ways, often by individuals—fans, geeks, hackers, teens, and artists—who do not necessarily see themselves as engaged in the discourse of history at all."

Anderson elaborates in an interview: "It is very likely not the book by the Harvard historian that 300 people in the world read that gives us a historical sensibility and becomes part of how we behave in the world," he says. "It's The X-Files."

- Peter Monaghan, "What Do Rocky and Bullwinkle Have to Do With History?"

I've been thrilled at the response my last "History of the Genre" segment on StarShipSofa has received. (It was a survey of some of the authors of Native American descent who have contributed to the genre of speculative fiction, including Vine Deloria, Jr., Sherman Alexie, Gerald Vizenor, Drew Hayden Taylor, Daniel Heath Justice, Cynthia Leitich Smith, and William Sanders.) Thanks so much to all of you who've been listening!

My newest segment, which discusses the classic Winston Science Fiction series for juveniles, is now available in the latest episode of the podcast. You can download it or listen to it here. If you check it out, I hope you enjoy. (A full list of my past podcast segments, with links, is available here.)


And now, a smile for your day (thanks to agentxpndble):

In other news...

• Happy early birthday wishes to akaihyo, vonjunzt, and wiredwizard. May all three of you enjoy many happy returns of the day!



• The latest issue of Innsmouth Free Press is out, and February is the fundraiser month for this eldritch publication. Read about the I Heart Innsmouth campaign here.



• It's official: I'll be an author guest this spring at both StellarCon 35 and ConCarolinas 2011.



• From Financial Times, a discussion with playwright Nick Dear on his new stage adaptation of Frankenstein (for more on this, see here and here).
  
  
• Based on recent viewing, I have three quick film recommendations to share:
  
  -- Population 436 (2006) is a clever indie work of SF/horror that owes a debt both to Shirley Jackson's The Lottery and M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. It views like a mix between an episode of The X-Files and The Twilight Zone, and I mean that as a compliment. It's definitely worth watching, especially if you like your horror to be gothic, psychological, paranoid, and light on gore. Fred Durst actually does quite a nice job with his supporting but key role, as well.
  
  -- The Last Enemy (2008) is a BBC miniseries depicting a new-future dystopian UK. It gets off to a slow start but soon becomes utterly captivating with its chilling depiction of the surveillance state and its abuses. (We'll be discussion sections of this miniseries in my graduate university course on the dystopian tradition.) Both Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Carlyle, unsurprisingly, give understated but quite powerful performances. I highly recommend this thought-provoking work.
  
  -- Monsters (2010) is a refreshing work of SF/horror set six years after an alien invasion. It follows the trek of a reporter and a tourist as they pass through an "infected zone" in Mexico to try to reach the United States. I'm not sure what I expected, but I was surprised and impressed by the fact this film focused on the characters' journey through the post-apocalyptic landscape, relying on good writing, big ideas, and solid cinematography rather than special effects or stunts. We need more genre movies like this.

Holmes: "I followed you."
Sterndale: "I saw no one."
Holmes: "That is what you may expect to see when I follow you."
- Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot"

I have seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1. It's not a perfect film. But it is, unquestionably, my very favorite of the Harry Potter movies. And I have no doubt that, when I see it again, I will enjoy it even more.

A few non-spoilery, general comments: As I'd hoped it would, the film takes its cues from the novel and is dark, haunting, and adult in tone. It's by far the grittiest and most realistic of the films. The cinematography is breathtaking, and the three young leads prove that they've learned their craft over the years. I suspect people who haven't read the book may have some difficulties with the film; frankly, I haven't ever worried about those viewers, and I'm certainly not going to start now. Knowing it wasn't the novel, knowing it couldn't do everything the novel did, I had a personal list of things I wanted out of this film, and it delivered. In fact, it quite exceeded my expectations on almost every count.

( A few brief and spoilery comments. )

In other news, I'm getting ready to head out tomorrow morning, and I'll be out of state for a week. I'll be online to some degree, and I'll certainly try to keep up. I do, however, want to go ahead and send happy birthday wishes out early to darchildre, doctorwho42, barbedwriting, and savageseraph. May you enjoy many happy returns of the day, my friends!

Here are some links, FYI:

* From Geek Tyrant: "Now You Can Be Frozen in Carbonite Just Like Han Solo."

* From NPR: "Harry Potter: Boy Wizard... and Real-World Activist?"

* Harry and the Potters have a new album of remixes available for "name your own price" download. The a capella choir (Dumbledore's Chorus) rendition of "Save Ginny Weasley" is a hoot.

"For instance, this new idea that You-Know-Who can kill with a single glance from his eyes. That's a Basilisk, listeners. One simple test, check whether the thing that's glaring at you has got legs. If it has, it's safe to look into its eyes, although if it really is You-Know-Who, that's still likely to be the last thing you ever do."
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling

John Anealio has posted a new song, "Stormtrooper for Halloween." I find it hard to resist. Hmmm, I wonder why.

I hope you enjoy it, too:

Text of the Day: I simply can't recommend this haunting story enough. (You can read my review of East of the Sun and West of Fort Smith, the collection in which this story appears, here on Goodreads.) A Nebula Award nominee in 2004, I present "Dry Bones" by the amazing William Sanders (1942-present).

Teaser:
It was a hot summer day and I was sitting under the big tree down by the road, where we caught the bus when school was in, when Wendell Haney came up the road on his bike and told me somebody had found a skeleton in a cave down in Moonshine Hollow.

"No lie," he said. "My cousin Wilma Jean lives in town and she came by the house just now and told Mama about it."

I put down the Plastic Man comic book I had been reading. "You mean a human skeleton?" I said, not really believing it.

Wendell made this kind of impatient face. "Well, of course a human one," he said. "What did you think?"

Read the complete story here.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone!

* My most recent StarShipSofa "History of the Genre" segment, which this month is about the post-apocalyptic vision of Richard Jefferies (1848-1887), is now available in the latest episode of the podcast. You can download it or listen to it here. If you listen, I hope you enjoy. (A full list of my past podcast segments, with links, is available here.)
Here are links to After London: or, Wild England, which I discuss in my segment:
- at Project Gutenberg (text)
- at Librivox (audio)

* I have just confirmed that I will be a guest at the 2011 science fiction convention StellarCon 35.

* The current issue of World Literature Today focuses on World Science Fiction and includes fiction, poetry, essays, and interviews, including some terrific exclusive online content.


Last but not least, here is a commercial for the TomTom GPS system that uses Darth Vader's voice to provide driving directions. This is Vader's recording session...

"Science fiction is a discussion about what it means to be human in a changing world, and everyone is invited."
- Christopher McKitterick, "The Literature of Change"