Here is the New Statesman interview with author Terry Pratchett, where he talks about what will happen when he no longer is able to write. We all know death lies ahead in the future, but in Pratchett’s case he has acknowledged the disease that affects what he does for a living. It’s cruel when writers lose the ability to write, much like H.L. Mencken’s stroke that left him unable to read or write, or Jack Vance’s fading eyesight. Thankfully Pratchett has a support environment, and other options such as dictation software. I think when Pratchett finally hears that voice in all caps, we all shall wear midnight.
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F. Paul Wilson interviewed at the The Quillery about his most recent novel, Cold City, which opens a trilogy exploring the adult origins of Repairman Jack (we already had a trilogy that covered the teenage Jack). The new trilogy covers “two-and-a-half year period from late 1990 to early 1993” (since the books were updated the timeline switched from the original 1980s of The Tomb to more recent years). If you think you know Jack from the regular series, according to Wilson “he was full of surprises in Cold City, mainly because he was a different guy.” For more details on what Wilson’s up to next click on the link and read the interview.
Samuel Sattin at Salon argues that science fiction have never been more apocalyptic than now, with the focus on end of the world movies and books. Memories are short, as I remember countless novels in the 1980s and early 1990s just as grim or grimmer than the current zombie focus. Stephen King’s The Stand, Robert R. McCammon’s Swan Song, various Joe R. Lansdale stories and his two Drive-In books, a host of Cyberpunk novels and stories, and the original zombie phase with books like Dead in the West, and the Book of the Dead anthologies. The “now” is always foremost in our minds. My theory is they are tied to recessionary times, and the current trend will fade at some point.
Interesting article at io9 about early 20th century science fiction in Germany, mainly under Nazi rule. Some highlights:
In 1935, the government passed a strict preventative censorship law which required that all magazines be submitted to the government for approval before publication. The pulp publishers’ response was to try their trick of twenty years’ previous: change the names of the pulps but not the content of the pulps. The government’s censors were not fooled, and the government, angered, put much greater pressure on the publishers. And then the government proclaimed 1936 to be “the Year of the German Jungvolk,” with the aims that all of the German children and teenagers who were not already part of Hitler Youth would join it, and that all youth dissidence and all causes of youth dissidence would be eliminated.
and
Not every German pulp with fantastic content turned fascist. Up until their end, in 1939, both Tom Shark and John Kling remained as free as realistically possible of fascist content. (The lack of pro-Nazi ideology is what got Tom Shark cancelled, in fact–the German government ordered its cancellation on those grounds).
This is part one of an article, and the next one will look at the USSR.
Write-up about a history museum in Bonn about various science fiction highlights from the 20th century. Who knew that East Germany frowned upon the term “science fiction”?
The debate ranges, long before robots achieve their rumored takeover.
In this collection of brief science fiction reviews at Toronto’s The Star, reviewer Alex Good takes a swipe at Cory Doctorow’s latest novel, Pirate Cinema, for it’s underlying messages. According to Good, the novel “has to be judged a very irresponsible book.” Rather than focus on any literary merit, Good attacks the content of the book:
[Doctorow] peddles a dangerous fantasy, especially for a YA title: Trent is a kid who runs away from home to the big city, where he is immediately adopted by a lovable street-wise buddy and gets to enjoy a comfortable life of petty crime, playing around on the Internet, casual drug use, and sex with a cute anarchist girl, before becoming an overnight hero and global celebrity by splicing together a bunch of video popcorn (apparently this is the only thing artists are capable of in our age of cannibal culture, where all human life is dependent on the Internet). The fact that Doctorow is a good writer with a large following only makes it more essential that he take a big step back and think a bit more about what kind of message he’s sending.
Perhaps we instead should devote efforts to sending in police to raid the computers of nine-year-old girls? I don’t care much for glamorizing piracy, but IP laws need to examined and gain a measure of sanity. And, oh yes, this is a work of fiction, meant to entertain.
Recently on the Mew website the band hinted this tune, currently called “Klassen” (The Class), might be on their forthcoming album.
I’ll admit my bias up front: I’m a Mac user and I find any Windows OS baffling and user-unfriendly. Apparently Microsoft has ratcheted up their level of un-usability with Windows 8, at least on the desktop.
Read the original article for some fantastic quotes, like “having two environments on a single device is a prescription for usability problems.”
In Texas, I have seen the destruction of feral hogs up close, and actively tried to stop them. In Berlin, Germany feral hogs (as wild boars) apparently also is a major issue, with over 3,000 boars in that city. Although a few hunters stalk the parks and streets to cull the pigs, they face an uphill battle, just like many farmers in Texas and elsewhere in the US.
