…I’m following this advice that comedian J.B. Smoove gives to Macy Gray.
This notion isn’t new. The band Toto has known this for about thirty-five years now.
Author: Don
Coca-Cola Comic Book Orgy, or Quickie Review: HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR
Horse of a Different Color: Stories by Howard Waldrop
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
5 out of 5, with the caveat that I cannot be objective about this collection. Howard Waldrop is one of the few writers whose work I’ll buy the day it comes out, unseen and unreviewed.
If all Waldrop does is cleverly hide all sorts of historic/pop culture Easter eggs into most of his stories with barely any telegraphing, it would be a feat. Indeed, it’s a point of pride for me when I catch them. I immediately recognized bits of the Bird Man of Alcatraz in the story of the “Wolf-Man” of the same. But, here’s Waldrop’s trick: as always, there are moments I fail to spot the references, and it doesn’t affect my enjoyment of the stories one bit!
More importantly (to me at least), Waldrop’s characters almost always convey some sort of bittersweet piece of truth or wisdom that can only be gained from going around the proverbial block a time or two.
I did let a sliver of objectivity creep into my reading, but I won’t mention it here (you can find it in my story-by-story comments on the actual goodreads review page). It’s more of a technical quibble, anyway. Whatever.
Also, “Coca Cola comic book orgy” is now my favorite Waldrop line. If I had a band, I’d ask his permission to use it as a name.
Quickie Review: North American Lake Monsters
North American Lake Monsters: Stories by Nathan Ballingrud
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Plain and simple, if this collection doesn’t win the Shirley Jackson Award or the World Fantasy Award for 2013, there really is no f**ing justice in the world.
I hung on every word in this collection. I was enthralled by every story, something I haven’t felt since reading M. Rickert’s Map of Dreams. Ballingrud takes some rather standard horror tropes and gives the readers more palpable and disturbing reasons to fear them. In a lot of stories, the horror/speculative element serves as a possible pathway that can be chosen by a given character. What’s disturbing is that often times that pathway represents a viable, sometimes even a preferred, life option.
I found myself giving each story a 5* rating. But that isn’t to say the collection didn’t have it its… well, I’m so reluctant to say “flaws.” That’s much too strong a word, in my opinion. Let’s say, “Things that took me out of the story for a micro-second, of which I took note before re-submerging myself back into it.” There were two.
In the cover blurb, Maureen McHugh calls the collection “Raymond Carver territory.” There’s definitely a “K-Mart Magical Realism” thing going on here. The opening scene in “The Good Husband” would’ve made me think of “So Much Water So Close to Home” even if Carver wasn’t referenced in the blurb. One of the tiny, tiny problems I had, though, was being so effectively grounded in each main character’s POV–very Carver-esque characters–that I couldn’t help but notice when these characters, as they’re written, would think in un-Carver-esque terms. A construction worker seeing something “in a rictus of pain.” An ex-con encountering something “soporific.” A homeless man smelling “the ripe, deliquescent odor of river water.” (Maybe it’s more accurate to substitute “Raymond Carver” for “Gordon Lish,” but that’s another debate altogether.)
The other matter depends on how cynical a reader one is. What I might, and in fact DO, interpret as this collection being an examination of a singular theme from multiple angles might be interpreted by another reader as “the same story over and over again.”
I feel like I’ve given too much time to these issues relative to the actual impact on my reading experience. But it’s important to note that even despite them, the quality of the stories is such that I unreservedly give this collection a 5* rating.
“I’ll be here when you are ready / To roll with the changes…”
Getting a jump on 2014 by planning how to revitalize this space.
Stay tuned.
Bibliotheca Fantastica Is Out!
I’ve been remiss in announcing that at long last, the anthology Bibliotheca Fantastica, is finally out from Dagan Books! Here’s my introduction to the book. Trust me, this one is worth the wait! (Not that I’m biased or anything…)
You can pick it up through Amazon for your Kindle, or in a DRM-free format–the epub file epub, mobi, (which also works on your Kindle), or PDF either individually or as a bundle!
“On the deck of a starship / With her head hooked into Andromeda…”
I’m so not used to having a Monday off after a con that I forgot that I’d put in to have today off. That’s okay, because it affords me some much-needed extra sleep and the chance to do my Readercon write-up in what is, for me, record time!
That doesn’t mean I have the brainspace for anything coherent. I’m doing this while I’m awake, typing up little bits here and there, and then I’ll set it to post after I get to bed. Then once I’ve had more sleep and time to reflect, I might talk about some panels later.
1
I think I’ve lost my con “honeymoon period.” But that’s a good thing in that I don’t waste too much time and energy anymore feeling like I’m taking up valuable oxygen better spent on Chiang, Datlow, Edelman, Di Filippo, Van Gelder, Hand, McHugh, Link, Kessel, Clute, &c. Hence, I didn’t take as many pictures of panels and readings this time around, though I have a few. I have yet to really look at which are worth posting.
2
Every year, I feel conflicted about buying books at Readercon (and other cons, for that matter). I don’t have unlimited space for physical books and I damn sure don’t have unlimited funds. Most Readercons though, I tell myself, “Screw it,” and buy large quantities anyway. This year though, the internal conflict came to a head to the point where it actually killed my buzz walking into the Bookshop. Still, I didn’t come away empty-handed. I just bought more strategically…
3
I’ve reached the point where going to cons is (slightly) less about the programming and more about connecting or re-connecting with people. And I got to do that with 99% of the people I wanted to see. But on the other hand, I felt that having precious little public space to sit and congregate (due to hotel construction) led to four days of “catch-as-catch-can,” with a number of folks (i.e. others who told me they’d felt this way, too) trying to catch-as-catch-can everyone else they wanted to talk to.
4
All that to say that when I had time with people, I didn’t always have the space and vice versa. But it wasn’t impossible, obviously. When I could have space and time at the same time, it was AWESOME.
5
Having said all that though, I felt the love!
6
I could shout-out/link everyone I talked to, old and new, but there were just too many! Some folks have already found me on Twitter!
7
Cards Against Humanity is my new favorite game.
8
Panel note-taking with Evernote on mobile devices + swipe typing = WIN!
9
Most valuable panel to me, “The Work/Work Balance.” There might’ve been very little that I hadn’t heard before, but hearing from seasoned–and I mean seasoned–professionals that the solutions are as old as the problems was exactly what I needed at this point in my life.
10
Money quote:
“No future I ever envisioned had Republicans in it.”
– Howard Waldrop, during “The Real Utopia” panel before going on to talk briefly about all the goings-on in his state of Texas.
#
I WILL give a shout-out to the ConCom and everyone who volunteered. Thanks for the memories and hopefully I’ll see y’all at Readercon 25!
Chapter LX
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| From Heavy Metal |
We’re still 18 years away from 2031 when, if I’m still around, I’ll be 58 but still look the way I do now depending on what sort of genetic and/or cybernetic modifications I’ll be able to afford. But that doesn’t stop me from feeling like an ancient relic now.
But believe it or not, I’m in a better space than I was this time last year. Just.
Let’s just say that I’ve now lived long enough to get to the point where I can completely relate to what the late, great fellow-Clevelander Harvey Pekar says…
Don’t fret. Our man isn’t that hopeless. Granted, I’ve never been one of those people who fully appreciated the whole “adversity makes you tougher” idea. But I’ll tell you this–adversity has sure made me shrewder. It’s made me smarter. It’s made me hungry for the things I want in life. And it’s damn sure taken my patience away from the things that would stand in my way.
So, I take the ups and downs. Because as Robert Lamm sings…
We’ve all had our highs
The lows we can’t command
Sleeping through insomnia
It is more than you can stand
Boy, is that right.
I have a day off tomorrow. But not the day after. In the meantime, I’ll not be taking comments from the peanut gallery just now. In fact, I’m likely fast asleep. I love time-shifting this stuff.
See what I mean? Shrewder!
“Help I’m steppin’ into the Twilight Zone…”
Just got word that my presentation proposal, “Singing the Body Electric: The Symbiotic Relationship Between The Twilight Zone and the Literature of Speculative Fiction” was accepted for the 2013 Rod Serling Conference!! Now to finish constructing it–it’d been on the back burner for a bit.
The conference, up until my previous go ’round, had always been held in town here, where Rod Serling lived and taught. This year, the conference will be out in Los Angeles where Serling worked. I knew this beforehand and thus, no WFC or Dragon*Con for me this year unfortunately. But I’ll still be at Readercon!
“Are you gatherin’ up the tears? Have you had enough of mine?”
My goals for the past Memorial Day weekend are clearly stated in the first two verses of this song. And got’dammit I needed it because the pace of my life has been breakneck. Two days back at work, and it almost doesn’t feel like I’ve had a break.
I had I week where I had meetings on 3 out of the 4 edges of campus. I’ve “achieved” the level where I have to leave a meeting early just so I can arrive 10 minutes late to my next one. Where it’s up to me to make executive decisions about which meetings to beg off meetings, or face walks like this.
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| Hell no. |
For these, and other reasons, I’ve been on silent running. Every day is a battle to reclaim energy to have a high-level of executive functioning the next day. I’ve time-shifted this entry–I’m sleeping as this goes out. It’s fine for now. But my life just hasn’t left me much to talk about on teh social medias on a daily basis without sounding like I’m just aching and moaning.
I am catching up, though. I’m closer to it than I’ve been in a long time, but not as close as I want to be. I’ll get there soon. And then, that’s when the last verse of “Funk 50” will become relevant.
“I’m gonna take the stone of Sisyphus. I’m gonna roll it back to you.”
Alternative Alamat: Stories Inspired by Philippine Mythology by Paolo Chikiamco
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In his introduction, editor Paolo Chikiamco spells out the payoff and the problems involved in putting together an anthology of remixed Filipino myths. “We are a nation of many indigenous cultures–numbering anywhere from sixty to over a hundred, depending on who you ask–with distinct oral traditions.” There are resources and strategies aimed at sussing all this out (see the appendices at the end of the book); guideposts to avenues of research in which even some Filipino scholars fear to tread. In the end though, the most meaningful way to relate to these myths (or those of any culture’s, for that matter) is through story.
Some stories were weaker than others, as can be expected, but even these had something to offer–one in particular that I thought might’ve been the weakest might have had the best writing. These stories seemed to share a similar overall flaw IMO: the focus on the inscrutability and strangeness of the supernatural characters who didn’t seem to be too bothered by it one way or the other. (An attitude that seems distinctly un-Filipino).
The anthology really picks up steam in its latter half, though. The better stories weren’t just simple retellings, but remixings and straight mash-ups of various myths, time periods, genres, and even modes of storytelling. One of my favorite pieces has an ending which cleverly hinges on the blending of Christianity and folk belief for which the Philippines is famous.
All in all, an easy 4 stars for me.