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Category: Culture

And the papers say

September 7, 2003
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I’ve gotten my hands on the complaint in the White Wolf vs. Sony case. (Link to complaint back, since they redirected it to another server.) Be warned that there are big fat spoilers for Underworld in the complaint. Some notes, thusly.

The key White Wolf titles are Vampire: the Masquerade, Werewolf: the Apocalypse, Guide to the Camarilla, Guide to the Sabbat, The Book of Nod, Caine’s Chosen: The Black Hand, Under A Blood Red Moon, Children of the Night, Time of Thin Blood, and Transylvania Chronicles One: Dark Tides Rising. And, of course, Nancy Collins’ The Love of Monsters, which is apparently set in the World of Darkness.

There’s an extensive list of similarities between Underworld and various White Wolf titles. I have no doubt the similarities exist, but I think they’re on the same level as the similarities between L.A. Story and When Sally Met Harry. “Hey, the protagonists fell in love! And they live in major American cities!”

Some examples:

56. In the World of Darkness, some vampires are capable of amazing speed. In Underworld, some vampires move with amazing speed.

57. In the World of Darkness, vampires “have the strength of ten men.” In Underworld, vampires “have the strength of ten men.”

71. In the World of Darkness, the history of the vampires is written in an ancient text. In Underworld, the history of the vampires is written in ancient texts.

Cause, you know, histories of ancient secretive races are usually written in modern texts.

There are more specific correspondences, but nothing that doesn’t exist in prior art. White Wolf just doesn’t have the copyright on “tall and lithe” vampire assassins. Even female ones with “a dusky, classical tone to her skin and black hair.”

Empire and Martians

September 6, 2003
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Comic book pick of the week: Scarlet Traces. Ian Edington wrote it, and D’Israeli did the art. The story is a nifty little murder mystery, and the gimmick is that it’s set in England ten years after Wells’ War Of The Worlds.

“The Martians’ unwitting bequest to their would-be slaves was a form of technology as then undreamt of by mankind. Within a decade our brightest minds had unravelled its secrets, their machineries of war and subjugation adapted and assimilated into our everyday usage. The noble steed — our companion and carriage for millenia is replaced by a clockwork toy! Homes are heated and lit by a version of the once-dreaded heat ray. The great mills and factories of the North are now vast, mechanized estates. The British Empire is now truly a world power without peer, but I cannot help but wonder if we have lost something in the process.”

It’s kind of pricy, at $15 for 72 pages of story, but I like the sturdy hardcover format. It actually rather reminds me of Tintin, which I suspect is no coincidence — Edington and D’Israeli use the same regular grid as Herge, and some of the characters have those distinctive accents Herge loved to use.

Plus the world is a completely cool concept. The big panoramic views of London are beautiful; you can see a few of them here. Very striking.

Which to ban

September 6, 2003
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Clayton Cramer is fairly unhappy with Amazon because they’re selling a book entitled Understanding Loved Boys and Boylovers. It is an apology piece for pedophilia, and I feel pretty comfortable assuming it’s utterly vile.

I also don’t think Amazon should stop selling it, because of their position as a huge bookstore. Cutting off the channels by which a book reaches its readers is not strictly speaking censorship, but it’s a kissing cousin. This will become less of an issue as the Internet becomes a better medium for transmitting information, but at the moment I think a bookstore the size of Amazon still has an obligation to sell books without discrimination, however justified that discrimination might be.

Cramer disagrees.

“If Amazon.com sold a book titled, Fagbashing for Fun and Profit: How to Kill Homosexuals and Get Away With It or 99 Ways to Rape Women and Beat the Rap in Court, I would be just as incensed—and liberals would be hollering for Jeff Bezos’ head on a platter, instead of making excuses for Amazon.com publishing this trash.”

He’s incorrect. Amazon sells The Protocols of Zion, Mein Kampf, and (if you’re feeling like being outraged from the right) The Communist Manifesto.

Trying out a role

September 2, 2003
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Without my TiVo, I’d never have gotten around to seeing Audition, which would have been a pity. I think. As is, I spent half the weekend severely creeped out. For a movie without any supernatural trappings, it was about the most horrific thing I’ve seen since The Blair Witch Project. (Pre-hype.)

Confessional: I normally find Japanese movies a bit slow. I know it’s part of the cinematic culture in Japan and all; I just don’t have the mental pathways I’d need to appreciate the style properly. I’d been hearing about this Takashi Miike guy for a while, though; he cranks out five or six movies a year, he’s supposed to be totally transgressive and daring, and people either love him or hate him. So I snagged Audition from the Sundance Channel, cause what could it hurt?

I expected it to be a pretty sloppy gore-fest. I figured Miike was infamous for the boundaries he crossed, rather than the skill with which he crossed them. I also expected yet another Japanese movie with moments of action mixed with long slow interludes of mood development. An hour into Audition, as I was appreciating the patient build and the elegant cinematography and the sharp interjections of tension — ah, that canvas bag — I’d learned different.

The movie starts out as a romantic tragedy. Shigeharu Aoyama’s wife dies, and seven years later, he’s still dealing with his grief. There’s not a hint of anything beyond a quiet little drama which could easily open up into a story about a man who finds love again; it’s incredibly restrained. Sure, it’s kind of creepy to stage a movie audition in order to find a new wife… but you feel for Aoyama, and maybe it’ll work out. And that’s the first hour of the movie. Could be any TV drama of the week, except skillfully filmed.

Then, without a bump in the transition, the movie takes a left turn into a deranged mix of David Lynch and Tobe Hooper. There’s no gore for gore’s sake, but the camera doesn’t turn away from the horror for a single second. The layered flashbacks and dream sequences are a much-needed counterpoint to the terrible things which happen in the present, but even in that escape you can see the seeds of the tragedy to come.

I can’t emphasize enough how nasty things get. Think Meet The Feebles, except much better technically, real actors, and more blood. I also can’t say enough good things about Miike’s evocation of Japanese relationships. It’s a hard contrast to wrap my mind around, because despite the occasional flashes of brilliance from Wes Craven, you don’t normally get real social commentary from a movie as bloody as Audition.

Fascinating movie, but watch it at your own risk.

Jandek

September 1, 2003
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Since 1978, he’s released 34 albums. That’s sort of the standard entry point for discussing Jandek, because there’s not much else to say. There’s no conclusive evidence about the person who makes the records, and the music is inaccessible and dark. He lives in Houston, he releases about a record every year, and he charges $8 apiece for them (or $4 apiece if you order 20 or more). It’s sort of bluesy, sort of folky, sort of out of tune. Alas, since his record label reissued all the old vinyl on CD, you can’t easily find his songs on the Internet anymore.

A Guide to Jandek is the definitive web site. Jandek on Corwood will be the definitive documentary.

Hugo says

August 31, 2003
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The Hugo Awards ceremony was last night, and Locus provides us with the winners. I’m surprised by the Best Novel; I enjoyed Hominids, but it was a very strong year for this category and I would have given The Scar the nod.

Novel

Bones of the Earth, Michael Swanwick
Hominids, Robert J. Sawyer
Kiln People, David Brin
The Scar, China Miéville
The Years of Rice and Salt, Kim Stanley Robinson

Novella

“Breathmoss”, Ian R. MacLeod
“Bronte’s Egg”, Richard Chwedyk
Coraline, Neil Gaiman
“In Spirit”, Pat Forde
“The Political Officer”, Charles Coleman Finlay
A Year in the Linear City, Paul Di Filippo

Novelette

“Halo”, Charles Stross
“Madonna of the Maquiladora”, Gregory Frost
“Presence”, Maureen F. McHugh
“Slow Life”, Michael Swanwick
“The Wild Girls”, Ursula K. Le Guin

Short Story

“Creation”, Jeffrey Ford
“Falling Onto Mars”, Geoffrey A. Landis
“‘Hello,’ Said the Stick”, Michael Swanwick
“Lambing Season”, Molly Gloss
“The Little Cat Laughed to See Such Sport”, Michael Swanwick

Related Book

The Battle of the Sexes in Science Fiction, Justine Larbalestier
Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril, Judith Merril & Emily Pohl-Weary
Bradbury: An Illustrated Life, Jerry Weist
Dragonhenge, Bob Eggleton & John Grant
Spectrum 9: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner, eds.

Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

Angel, “Waiting in the Wings”
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Conversations With Dead People”
Firefly, “Serenity”
Star Trek: Enterprise, “Carbon Creek”
Star Trek: Enterprise, “A Night in Sickbay”

Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Minority Report
Spider-Man
Spirited Away

Professional Editor

Ellen Datlow
Gardner Dozois
David G. Hartwell
Stanley Schmidt
Gordon Van Gelder

Professional Artist

Jim Burns
David A. Cherry
Bob Eggleton
Frank Kelly Freas
Donato Giancola

Semiprozine

Ansible, Dave Langford, ed.
Interzone, David Pringle, ed.
Locus, Charles N. Brown, Jennifer A. Hall & Kirsten Gong-Wong, eds.
The New York Review of Science Fiction, Kathryn Cramer, David G. Hartwell & Kevin Maroney, eds.
Speculations, Kent Brewster, ed.

Fanzine

Challenger, Guy H. Lillian III
Emerald City, Cheryl Morgan
File 770, Mike Glyer
Mimosa, Rich & Nicki Lynch
Plokta, Alison Scott, Steve Davies & Mike Scott

Fan Writer

Bob Devney
John L. Flynn
Mike Glyer
Dave Langford
Steven H Silver

Fan Artist

Brad Foster
Teddy Harvia
Sue Mason
Steve Stiles
Frank Wu

John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

Charles Coleman Finlay
David D. Levine
Karin Lowachee
Wen Spencer
Ken Wharton

Woke up this morning

August 27, 2003
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This morning, Warren Ellis said:

It’s Wednesday. I want to see the world, please.

Send me a photo from your futurephone or webcam. Send it to dadatag@aol.com, which is an email address I have created for the purpose (dadatag = easy to key in on a phone). I will show what I receive here. (This will even work for Sprint PCS phones.)

Show me something.

And people are. Start here, and work forwards. Pictures of the world. Sparse prose, tying it together.

Remember A Day In The Life…? Like that, but raw and real time.

More bitchun

August 27, 2003
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Cory Doctorow’s written a short story, "Truncat", set in the same world as Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. It’s on Salon so you’ll need to wander through their day pass thing. But hey, it’s a good day for it. You get Kaufman agreeing with me on Pedro, a nifty article on Bollywood, and some Al Franken miscellanea.

Where was I? Ah, yeah; it’s not a bad story. It’s more transfictionalist stuff, which is all good, but there’s still a tendency to neglect the characters in service of the cool technological concept. Campbell would love Doctorow, which is not a bad thing. Worth reading.