[SciFiNoir Lit] Re: ...is anybody reading ANYTHING?
I've been reading a lot of short fiction by Jeffrey Ford lately. Not SciFiNoir but it's pretty wonderful cross-genre work. I highly recommend. Jenn --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, ravenadal ravena...@... wrote: This is supposed to be a SciFiNoir LIT group...is anybody reading ANYTHING...sci fi? ~rave?
Re: [SciFiNoir Lit] ...is anybody reading ANYTHING?
One other note... word is Universal Pictures bought the rights to Jordan's works and--in some kind of fantasy fraticidal match-up--there's talk of an Eye of the World movie set for 2011, same time as The Hobbit sequel. Why anyone would try to make a movie out of Jordan's epic (which spans 15 books) is beyond me. Even if they decide to make it animated (which is rumored by some), it's still way too much to put on a big screen. And given Jordan's complexity and detail, going to be hard to merge/cut books. Not to mention the screams of bloody murder that would arise from his fans. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117990464.html?categoryid=13cs=1 On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 2:17 PM, Jeff Carter mbsj...@gmail.com wrote: Um did you say late Robert Jordan? -Original Message- From: Sincere sincere1...@gmail.com sincere1906%40gmail.com Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 11:45 AM To: SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com SciFiNoir_Lit%40yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [SciFiNoir Lit] ...is anybody reading ANYTHING? lol and i thought it was just me... :) I'm reading A New Spring- the Wheel of Time prequel by the late Robert Jordan... it's been sitting on my shelf forever, and I finally just picked it up and started thumbing through it. Walking through Brooklyn, found a copy of RA Salvatore's The Orc King on the stoop of a brownstone--one of the many tales of Drizzt Do'Urden the dark elf from the Forgotten Realms Fantasy series. I read the original Drizzt novels (along with the accompanying Icewind Dale books) way back as a kid. I didn't keep up with the continuing novels or spin-offs. So I have to go on wiki just to catch myself up to what the heck's been going on. I'm sure tales of the ebon-skinned evil elves will get under my own ebon skin as I read... though I always did like the storyline. When this semester ends, I might dive into it. Sin aka Black Galactus On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 11:30 AM, ravenadal ravena...@yahoo.comravenadal%40yahoo.com wrote: This is supposed to be a SciFiNoir LIT group...is anybody reading ANYTHING...sci fi? ~rave? [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] __._,_._ [The entire original message is not included] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[SciFiNoir Lit] J.G. Ballard, author of 'Empire of the Sun,' dies at 78
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090419/jg_ballard_090419/20090419?hub=TopStories J.G. Ballard, author of 'Empire of the Sun,' dies at 78 The Associated Press LONDON -- Writer J.G. Ballard, best known for the autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun, which drew on his childhood detention in a Japanese prison camp in China, died Sunday, his agent said. He was 78. Ballard was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2006. He had been ill for several years and died in London at the home of his long-term partner, his agent Margaret Hanbury said. She did not give the cause of death. His acute and visionary observation of contemporary life was distilled into a number of brilliant, powerful novels which have been published all over the world and saw Ballard gain cult status, Hanbury said. Ballard was born in Shanghai, China, and was interned there in a prison camp by Japanese troops in 1941 -- an experience he drew on in the 1984 novel Empire of the Sun, later adapted as a film by U.S. director Steven Spielberg. The writer moved to Britain in 1946, where he lived until his death. Ballard was sometimes controversial. His 1973 novel Crash, which explored contentious themes about people who derive pleasure from car accidents, was made into a film by David Cronenberg in 1996. J.G. Ballard has been a giant on the world literary scene for more than 50 years, Hanbury said. Following his early novels of the 60s and 70s, his work then reached a wider audience with the publication of Empire of the Sun in 1984, which won several prizes and was made into a film, she said. The book told the story of a young boy living through Japanese occupation of Shanghai, detailing his struggle and complex emotions toward the invading forces. I have -- I won't say happy -- not unpleasant memories of the camp. I remember a lot of the casual brutality and beatings-up that went on, but at the same time we children were playing a hundred and one games all the time! Ballard once said of his childhood internment. Born James Graham Ballard, the author was a sharp critic of modern politics, who once mocked the West's search for near mythical weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, in the buildup to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Ballard focused heavily in his work on what he saw as the negative effect on mankind of advancing technology and rejected the belief that humans can constantly improve themselves. Ballard often portrayed social and technological developments as adding to a sense of human worthlessness, rather than aiding the progression of mankind. The enlightenment view of mankind is a complete myth. It leads us into thinking we're sane and rational creatures most of the time, and we're not, Ballard said in a 2003 interview with Australian newspaper, the Age. Ballard was educated at Cambridge University and served as a British Royal Air Force pilot before working as a writer. He revealed in a January 2008 interview that he had been diagnosed in 2006 with advanced prostate cancer. Ballard married Helen Matthews in 1954. She died in 1964. He is survived by their three children. There was no immediate word on funeral plans.
[SciFiNoir Lit] Re: OT: Best African American Fiction 2009
I contend this argument, though factual, is disingenuous. If we were discussing Italian-American literature or German-American literature or Irish-American literature the absurdity of including Central and South American writers in that survey would be self-evident. Let me reiterate that expanding the definition of what constitutes an African-American writer harms rather than helps those writers of color who write about the unique African-American experience. If you are going to publish a pan-American book, call it what it is. ~(no)rave! --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, md_moore42 md_moor...@... wrote: Wait---don't the Americas include both South and North America and this entire side of the globe? I think that I had this same discussion on Neil Gaiman's website about the American center being located in the center of American midwest (in American Gods). We aren't the center of the Americas. And Black folk live in both North and South America. --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, ravenadal ravenadal@ wrote: I understand the premise that slave ships also stopped in Puerto Rico and that the Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti but while Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of America, the Dominican Republic is not. So while immigrant Diaz can be construed as a Dominican-American writer or even a Pan-American writer, he is not an African-American writer. Once again, while I acknowledge Diaz is a fine writer, his inclusion dilutes the very notion of African-American writing. And, when editors feel the need to broaden the category it fosters the erroneous notion that there aren't enough real African-American authors to include in such an anthology. ~(no) rave! --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, Chris Hayden belsidus2000@ wrote: I have read Oscar Wao - I highly recommend it - and I have met the author, Junot Diaz, (I agree on both counts. I met Junot too when he had put out Drown. Cool cat. Down to earth. Go hear him read. but I am confused as to why an excerpt from this book is included in the best African-American Fiction of 2009. (I suspect that Messrs. Early and Harris are trying to broaden the definition of what is African American--a stance which I agree with. Junot is Dominican American and, like Puerto Ricans, there is a strong African strain in their blood lines. I may direct a query to them. Harris, anyway. Gerald Early is one of the most paranoid Negroes alive and never responds to any queries. He lives and works right here in St. Louis, by the way. Maybe he is scared of St. Louis Negroes. There is good reason. Maybe he knows something we don't) --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, ravenadal ravenadal@ wrote:
Re: [SciFiNoir Lit] ...is anybody reading ANYTHING?
--- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, Tracey de Morsella tdli...@... wrote: What are you reading? I am reading Alan Moore's graphic novel Watchmen (and enjoying the hell out of it) and the Octavian Nothing duology (I adore the language). Although the two Octavian Nothing books take place in pre revolutionary America, they are about a preternaturally gifted young black slave plopped into a strange new world and his first person account of trying to rationally navigate that maddingly contradictory world. ~rave! http://theworldebon.blogspot.com
[SciFiNoir Lit] Big Big Sky trailer
I really, really wanted Kristyn Dunnion to be black (Nalo Hopkinson is the editor) and she really, really isn't. But what the heck, I'm putting this on my wish list, anyway. ~rave! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B1c5KVxZlw http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol14/no19/bigbigsky.html
[SciFiNoir Lit] Re: OT: Best African American Fiction 2009
(I suspect that Messrs. Early and Harris are trying to broaden the definition of what is African American--a stance which I agree with. I also agree. I just wouldn't have the heart to exclude Black people from the islands simply because the U.S. hasn't gotten around to owning them yet. I don't think it lessens the African-American experience and I'm of the more the merrier frame of mind. The mutt and misfit in me just can't help but bend the rules whenever I can. Chaeya
[SciFiNoir Lit] Re: ...is anybody reading ANYTHING?
--- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, ravenadal ravena...@... wrote: I LOVE Childhood's End! The fact that the last man on earth, astronaut Jan Rodricks, was a black man (as was his sister who Clarke describes as the most beautiful woman in the world) really rocked my world back in my sane and sober youth. I believe Rodricks was the first black person I encountered in a sci-fi novel (outside of Ray Bradbury's black Martians in The Other Foot from his collection, The Illustrated Man). This book had a profound effect on me. ~rave! Thanks for reminding me about that. I have a list of older sci-fi I want to re-read because I was either too young or just forgot about it. Some books manage to stay with me like Brave New World and Contact. But even had I remembered them, I still think they're worth reading again. Chaeya
[SciFiNoir Lit] Re: OT: Best African American Fiction 2009
Hear!Hear! We really need to stop being so insular. --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, Chaeya cha...@... wrote: (I suspect that Messrs. Early and Harris are trying to broaden the definition of what is African American--a stance which I agree with. I also agree. I just wouldn't have the heart to exclude Black people from the islands simply because the U.S. hasn't gotten around to owning them yet. I don't think it lessens the African-American experience and I'm of the more the merrier frame of mind. The mutt and misfit in me just can't help but bend the rules whenever I can. Chaeya
