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
03-12-10: Commentary : Karl Marlantes Scales the 'Matterhorn' : World-Building in the Past
03-09-10: Commentary : Paul McHugh Meets 'Deadlines' : Murdering the California Coast
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Paul McHugh : "..the strengths of good writing go all the way, across all the genres..."
03-08-10: Commentary : Joe Hill Grows 'Horns' : Devil and Detail
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Joe Hill : "Eventually, the wicked and the unworthy will get their just desserts on the business end of the Devil's pitchfork."
03-05-10: Commentary : Henry Porter Calls 'The Bell Ringers' : It Takes The Village
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Four Books With Alan Cheuse : Thrillers! : Henry Porter, The Bell Ringers; Keith Thomson, Once a Spy; Jo Nesbo, The Devil's Star; Hennig Mankel, The Man From Beijing
03-04-10: Commentary : Jo NesbØ Earns 'The Devil's Star' : Rewind
03-01-10: Commentary : Adam Haslett Invests With 'Union Atlantic' : Abstract Power Abstracts Absolutely
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With Adam Haslett : "With her, and with each character, how does the rhythm create a kind of musical argument?"
02-26-10: Commentary : Dan Simmons Heads for the 'Black Hills' : Unstuck in Life
02-23-10: Commentary : Adam Haslett Knows 'You Are No Stranger Here' : Stories from Strangers' Shoes
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Jedediah Berry Interviewed at SF in SF, February 13, 2010 : "...being at Small Beer has actually introduced whole worlds to me ..."
02-22-10: Commentary : Graeme Gibson's 'The Bedside Book of Birds' and 'The Bedside Book of Beasts' : A Feast for Your Mind, Your Eyes and Your Mind's Eye
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with Graeme Gibson : "Our common humanity, our common culture, will help make the connections."
02-19-10: Commentary : Ralph Waldo Ellison 'Three Days Before the Shooting ...' : One Book, Many Stories
Agony Column Podcast News Report : John Callahan and Adam Bradley and 'Three Days before the Shooting' : "I've moved through the phases of my own life, and I find those phases mirrored in the characters of this novel." — John Callahan "...capable of brilliance, eloquence and power; that's how I understand the second novel, as we see it in Three Days Before the Shooting, and that's certainly how I understand, and I think how Ellison understood, America." — Adam Bradley
02-18-10: Commentary : George Mann Scares Up 'The Ghosts of Manhattan' : Hard Core Pulp Action
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Speaking Frankly With Thomas Frank : From Tea to Shining Tea : "When I think about what I'm saying, it's so depressing..."
02-17-10: Commentary : Thomas More, Clarence Miller and 'Utopia' : Politics, Satire, Fantasy
02-15-10: Commentary : 'Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded' by John Scalzi : A Decade of Whatever
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni : "I have to work through the novel and then it comes to me, how it's going to end."
02-12-10: Commentary : Stephanie Merritt Becomes S. J. Parris : 'Heresy'
02-11-10: Commentary : Max Watman 'Chasing the White Dog' : Home-Made Hooch and Rebellion
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview With Sam Farr : : "The money came from Washington, but the uses for that money came from the local community."
02-10-10: Commentary : Anne Lamott Spots 'Imperfect Birds' : The Ties That Unbind
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Speaking Frankly: Thomas Frank on Re-Populism and Re-Launching The Baffler : "I have never seen 'populist backlash in a headline before."
02-09-10: Commentary : Douglas Clegg Returns to 'Neverland' : Is 1980's Horror Returning from the Grave?
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with David Drake, Part 2 / Complete : "I didn't have governor ... that is ... anything, endgame, was me killing somebody.""
02-08-10: Commentary : David Louis Edelman Completes Jump 225 : 'Geosynchron'
