12-03-09: SF in SF Panel Discussion with S. G. Browne, Jeff VanderMeer and Terry Bisson, November 14, 2009
"There will be a test."
— Terry Bisson
One of the fun aspects of SF in SF are the occasional gyrations that we all make as the definition of "what fits in" is conveniently expanded to include writers who may have never thought of themselves as "science fiction." Actually, what generally happens in that case is that the "SF" get expanded to read "speculative fiction." But perhaps a better meaning is, "Something Fun."
As fun goes, you’d be hard pressed to fund three guys more suited to presenting it in a panel discussion than S. G. "Scott" Browne, Jeff VanderMeer and your ever effervescent host, Terry Bisson. This discussion quickly tossed the "science" and focused on the variety of fiction all of these authors have written over the years. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this for me is that Jeff VanderMeer is so relentlessly literary, while Scott Browne is a horror head. I come from both schools, with an education and an abiding interest in literary fiction (the stuff I like, anyway) and a sort of self-taught degree in Eighties Horror. It was the latter that sucked me into the world obsessive book collecting and the former that helped define my catholic and often peculiar tastes — at least so far as the genre fiction world is concerned. Put writers with these two "inception points" at a table with Terry Bisson whose work is truly all over the map and quite unique, and you get the conversation you can hear by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
Thomas Frank
12-02-09: Tears of a Clown : Thomas Frank Unbuilds Glen Beck
Language gets misused more often than it gets used — if the goal of language is to communicate the truth clearly and effectively. As readers and as a listening audience, we have to pay attention to the use and misuse of language out there in the wider culture, because a world where that book can become some insane bestseller is created by the wider use of language in that culture. If we all preface every sentence with, "Cluck, cluck," our bestsellers are likely to read like a bull session overheard in a chicken coop. Thomas Frank, author of 'what’s the Matter with Kansas?' and 'The Wrecking Crew' knows a thing or two about how language is tormented in the wider culture. And he's been studying the Fox networks who assert that they should be guarding those chickens.
In particular, Frank took on the unenviable task of looking into the life and work of Glen Beck, now the loudest mouth in the henhouse, and the result is the funny and frightening "Glen Beck's Holy War: How an Unlikely Talk Show Host Became the Savior of the Right," running in his this month's Playboy Magazine.
Readers know I enjoy horror fiction; the horrors of this actual world, not so much, perhaps. But Frank's article is important in its vision of language tortured beyond the imaginations of the Eli Roths of this world. Also, it's really fun to read and sort of amazing. Beck is an almost Fortean character who can apparently cry on demand. And he;s a lot of fun to unbuild, to take apart like a stack of Jenga pieces. Remove one piece and the whole illogical mess comes tumbling down. So instead of listening to frothing rants of politics mutated by nuclear radiation into horrific entertainment, why not sit back and enjoy the smooth styling of my conversation with Thomas Frank by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
12-01-09: Jeff VanderMeer Reads at SF in SF : The Professional Cockroach and other Tales of Terror
Not surprisingly, when Jeff VanderMeer took the stage to read at SF in SF on November 14, 2009, he did things ... a little different.
"Rick," he asked me beforehand, "do I have to sit down?"
No, he didn't have to sit down, and no, he didn't even have to exactly read during the reading part. Now, if Jeff is still on his way to you, then you might want to give this a pass because it might reveal to you secrets that could destroy your mind. And even if he's not coming your way it could reveal to your secrets that could ... wait for it ....
Destroy your mind. A mind may be a terrible thing to waste, but there are worser wastes in this worser world. Jeff talks, he reads, he runs around the stage to the extent that my very expensive cables allow. Jeff talks about cockroaches, professional and otherwise. If you are a great friend to cockroaches, again, consider giving this audio a pass. It may offend the cockroach lover in your. (Unless you love eating cockroaches, in which case there must be little that could offend you.) Whatever you do, don’t email Jeff this URL, whatever you do, don't let on that out of both laziness, desperation, and wait one more thing, orneriness, I have posted this link to the MP3 audio file of Jeff breaking a Variety of rules at the Variety Children's Charity Theater.
Jeff VanderMeer
11-30-09: A 2009 Interview with Jeff and Ann VanderMeer
"We're kind of surrounded by the artifacts of fantasy every day and it is part of our daily life."
— Jeff and Ann VanderMeer
Speaking of writers who cite Borges as an influence, let me introduce you to Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, who of course, need no introduction. Ann's the editor of Weird Tales and Jeff is the author of a boatload of books worth your time and money; his two most recent works cited here are 'Booklife' and 'Finch.'
When I sat them down together at the World Fantasy Convention, I had little idea that I'd soon be bringing them back together again via a complicated ISDN arrangement that found Jeff and I together at KUSP and Ann in Florida. The occasion was a conversation for a planned piece for NPR on how writers who work in the fantasy genre use their fiction to deal with reality, but it was mostly just an excuse for me to sit and have a wonderful conversation about the writing life with two artists who have a huge impact on fiction — and not just genre fiction. But the fantastic has everything to do with how they create, even when they're writing about the most mundane of situations. I have to say that the interview was one of those wherein I could imagine putting just about every reply of both contributors into a final piece. To hear my embarrassment of riches and have a rollicking good time with Fantasy's First Couple, just follow this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
09-01-10: Commentary : Tim Pratt Finds 'Sympathy for the Devil' : "...Hell for the company..."
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Dan Basta at the Blue Ocean Film Festival : "Experiential learning is the way we learn best."
08-31-10: Commentary : Peter S. Beagle Reveals 'The Secret History of Fantasy' : : Telling Lies for a Living
08-30-10: Commentary : David Doubilet Captures 'Water Time Light' : Painting with Pixels
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes : "Everything people have always feared about photography comes true underwater."
08-25-10: Commentary : Vendela Vida 'The Lovers' : Reading and Revelation
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A Live Reading and Interview with Vendela Vida At Bookshop Santa Cruz : "...there was an owl that came into this place we were renting one day..."
08-24-10: Commentary : Jeff VanderMeer and 'The Third Bear' : Absurd Is as Absurd Does
08-20-10: Commentary : Joe R. Lansdale Takes 'Deadman's Road' : Deader Than Thou
Agony Column Podcast News Report : On the Phone with Vendela Vida : "You do all this background information, most of which never makes it into the book."
08-19-10: Commentary : Gary Shteyngart Tells a 'Super Sad True Love Story' : Retro-Prescience
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Gary Shteyngart Live Reading and Interview at Bookshop Santa Cruz : "...please like me, this will make up for Hebrew school if all of you like me.."
08-18-10: Commentary : Mark Pilkington Unleashes Weapons of Mass Deception : "ECM+CIA=UFO"
Agony Column Podcast News Report : David Corbett and Barry Eisler for The Agony Column Live at Capitola Book Café, August 7, 2010 Q and A : "This is NewSpeak."
08-16-10: Commentary : Howard Norman Asks 'What is Left the Daughter' : The Past Always Rises
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Howard Norman : "I'd wanted to write from the beginning an epistolary novel; this is just an epistolary novel that's consisting of one letter."
08-12-10: Commentary : James O'Neal Copies 'The Double Human' : Proceeding into the Future
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Barry Eisler and David Corbett Live at Capitola Book Café on August 7, 2010 : "If anyone thinks it's absurd that the government might assassinate the founder of WikiLeaks, it's quite a bit less absurd than I wish it were".... — Barry Eisler
08-11-10: Commentary : Joe R. Lansdale Takes Huck Finn to 'Dread Island' : "Classics Mutilated"
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Barry Eisler Reads at The Agony Column Live on August 7, 2010 : "...they'll pick up that angle and run interference for us..."
08-10-10: Commentary : David Corbett Asks 'Do They Know I'm Running?' : Crossing Borders
Agony Column Podcast News Report : David Corbett Reads at The Agony Column Live on August 7, 2010 : "These Families are making incredible sacrifices..."
08-09-10: Commentary : David Mitchell and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet : The World is Ever the World
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with David Mitchell : "The periodic table of the human heart is still the same now as it was then."
08-06-10: Commentary : Tim Powers Sails 'On Stranger Tides' : History, Fantasy and the Reality of Reading
08-03-10: Commentary : Robert M. Price Spins 'The Tindalos Cycle' : Terrorize, Horrify, Repeat
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A Short Chat with Gary Shteyngart : "...the technology is outpacing our ability to absorb what it is doing to us..."
08-02-10: Commentary : A Second Tour Through 'The Passage' : Sending Characters into Time
07-30-10: Commentary : Subterranean Press and Robert R. McCammon Wake at 'The Wolf's Hour' : The Time Before Cheese
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books with Alan Cheuse : Allegra Goodman, 'The Cookbook Collector,' Noam Shpancer's 'The Good Psychologist' and Elie Wiesel 'The Sonderberg Case'
07-28-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space 2 : En Route, RJ Frith and Peter F. Hamilton
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010: Q & A : "The people you deal with at the publishers ... if they last the end of the week, you're lucky."
07-27-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space : UK Space Opera Demonstrates Excess is Not Enough (Part one, the Arrived)
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010 : "Well, I thought if I do faeries then nobody's going to say that I've got it wrong."
07-26-10: Commentary : Brian and Wendy Froud Seek 'The Heart of Faerie Oracle' : Cards, Books and a New Perspective
