Offered almost without comment: Both pages from Physical Culture And Self-Defence, one of the bazillion books at books.google.com. The internet keeps getting cooler. I note that you can download a PDF of the book for offline perusal. (Via Wondermark‘s David Malki!) Read more →
Category: Books
Goldstein interview and story
I’ve been a Lisa Goldstein fan since the first time I read The Dream Years. I have all her novels, including the ones she’s written under a pseudonym. Hell, in a strage bit of synchronicity my desktop wallpaper is Eric Fortune‘s artThis was a Tor.com bonus, so I’m not comfortable hosting a copy myself–but if you know how to use… Read more →
Punks and Parker
For some reason, reading that story about the 84 year old grandpa laying out the punks who tried to rob him makes me think of this panel from Darwyn Cooke‘s version of The Spirit: Speaking of Darwyn, his first adaptation of Richard Stark‘sa.k.a. the recently deceased Donald E. Westlake Parker stories is coming out soon. I was already pretty jazzed… Read more →
Aside
I am not one of the fifty. Sadness.
We Are Living In Science Fiction (Again)
When I was reading that story about the Canadian researched who uncovered the “GhostNet”–the gigantic system of compromised computers around the world, one that appears to be run out of China, and to target organizations of interest to China–my first thought was “Huh, that’s almost right out of Stross‘ Halting State. Apparently Charlie thought so too, since he just posted… Read more →
Ouch, my aesthetic sensibilities!
Courtesy of Andrew Wheeler, I bring you my new choice for dramatic readings, narrowly edging out me previous preference for reading passages from the Book Of Revelations with a hammy Southern Baptist preacher delivery. I’m not sure yet what voice to use to give the text the presentation it deserves. The text follows after the jump. Read more →
Lottery
Among the artifacts were a few scribbled notes and I recognized the handwriting. Chris McLaren was a film major who worked for us in the early ’80’s, a skinny kid who wore black clothes and spiked hair and had an intense interest in Alistair Crowley, Roman Polanski, the Illuminati and role playing games. Even when you were face to face… Read more →
Friends of my youth, a last adieu!
Reading last night about the death of Philip José Farmer, it occurs to me that the authors whose stories are part of my memories of early days, and who got to make impressions on me when I was much more malleable–and thus had a greater effect on my life–are a limited resource. And one that will only run out faster… Read more →
It has come
After more than 18 months of contemplation, I have finally broken down and tracked down a copy of the Codex Seraphinianus for myself. The cover surprised me a bit–I was expecting something in dark colours, more like an old school leatherbound Bible, not something that looks like this: The insides, though, are exactly what I was expecting, except that the… Read more →
The Child Of A Full Eclipse
I was not previously aware that Guy Gavriel Kay had “made his mark” as a poet before becoming a novelist. I can perhaps be excused for this, since my awareness of Kay started when I read his first novel (at age 11 or 12). To me, therefore, he’s a novelist, and one that I tend to automatically buy when he… Read more →
SF Writers Say Smart Things: WJW On Geek Fiction
I’ve never mistaken my hobbies for real life. I’ve always craved real life, even when I didn’t have one. I’ve sought out life, even when I didn’t know how. I’ve always tried to live real life, even when I didn’t have a clue. I travel a lot. I talk to strangers. I eat their candy. —Walter Jon Williams Go read… Read more →
More Book-y Bits
Did you get a chance to experience the cognitive dissonance that comes from VanderMeerian words read in a high-toned children’s literature type voice? Speaking of VanderMeerian weirdness, there was a nice little slice of it over at Tor.com. Sometime soon (yes, Real Soon Now) I will write another golden book post, and this one will focus on a Pat Cadigan… Read more →
Closing the book-related tabs
And here we go again… I’ve been reading Jeff’s daily reviews of the books in the Penguin Great Ideas series. While I don’t think I’m interested in trying to read all sixty of them in sixty days (despite Jeff’s examples and the exhortation of the Harvard University Press) I am very impressed with the presentation of the volumes, and have… Read more →
Smart Things: Gene Wolfe Knows The Score
The Commercial vs the Artistic in writing – is there a genuine difference between these two philosophies or are they artifical attributes? Are they in opposition, and if so, can they meet? The difference seems to me very genuine. The error is to think them antithetical. The purely commercial writer writes for the editor. The purely artistic writer writes for… Read more →
The Eldritch Dark
Now as the twilight’s doubtful interval Closes with night’s accomplished certainty, A wizard wind goes crying eerily, And on the wold misshapen shadows crawl, Miming the trees, whose voices climb and fall, Imploring, in Sabbatic ecstacy, The sky where vapor-mounted phantoms flee From the scythed moon impendent over all. Twin veils of covering cloud and silence, thrown Across the movement… Read more →
