The Skiffy and Fanty Show, Interjection A is live!

We have a short episode this week due to computer problems (namely, with Jen's).  This week I talk about zombies, fantasy awards, digital piracy nonsense, and silly things political talk show hosts say about science fiction books.

If you'd like to check out the episode (it's about 16 minutes), you can do so here.

Thanks!

Haul of Books 2010: Stuff For Me v.25

Some things I've learned over the past few months:

• The mailman is a moron and thinks very thick books that obviously don't fit into my mailbox should instead be folded up and crammed in there anyway.
• People have my address who shouldn't and are at least kind enough to send me things I like instead of trying to kill me in my sleep (i.e. they send me books).
• Bookstores are my crack.

With that in mind, here are the books that I've managed to add to my collection:

Book Review Up: The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell

I haven't reviewed anything in far too long.  This has partly been due to graduate school and partly due to my disinterest in a number of books that have appeared in my mailbox.  I'm hoping this is a phase, though.

In any case, I think my review of The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell is the best review I've written yet.  Maybe I'm wrong about that, but I am quite proud of that review.  Yes, it's a glowing review, but that's because I loved the book (plain and simple).

So if you'd like to check out the review and see what I thought about The Reapers Are the Angels, you can do so here.

New Poll: Do you stop reading authors whose political beliefs you vehemently disagree with?

A new poll is up, folks.  This is partially in response to the Elizabeth Moon fiasco, but mostly in response to the occasional discussions among readers and authors about whether one continues to read authors who hold unfavorable political beliefs (such as Orson Scott Card or John C. Wright, et. al.).

There are three answers:  yes, sometimes, and no.  Simple enough, right?  You can find the poll on the left sidebar (scroll down a little).  But if you'd like to leave a more detailed comment, feel free to do so here.

The poll will run for two weeks.

Poll Results: How do you feel about book bannings?

The poll has been over for a while now, but I haven't had time to take it down and replace it with a new one yet (or present the results to all of you).  So, without further delay, here are the results are:

• 81.25% said that book bannings are "pure evil."
• 18.75% said that book bannings are "rarely necessary."
• Nobody said that book bannings are "sometimes necessary" or "great."

Am I surprised by the numbers?  Nope.  My blog is a literature-oriented one, so finding out that my readership mostly despises book bannings makes perfect sense.  I would have been more surprised if some of you had said book bannings are "great."

But I do have a question:  why did some of you say that book bannings are "rarely necessary?"  What constitutes "rarely necessary?"  Is it because you are of the opinion that pornography (in the literal sense, not the literary sense) shouldn't be in libraries, or do you think certain books (in the actual written sense) shouldn't be in libraries?  Leave a comment if you're one of the few who said "rarely necessary" on the poll, because I'd really like to know your opinion on the matter.

Anywho.  A new poll will be up later today.  Thanks for voting!

Literary vs. Genre Fiction: The Line? (Part Four)

[The second to last piece in the series.  You can read the previous pieces at the following links:  Part One; Part Two; Part Three.]

4.  What are some common myths that people have about genre fiction in general?


I probably should have stuck #3 and #4 together, since this post is going to seem slightly anticlimactic.  Regardless, Delmater makes both a false and a correct assertion about the myths about science fiction and its connection to television and film.  I'll tackle the latter first.

Look, a giant smurf!

Delmater begins her 4th true point (since the 5th is actually a short, but hopeful explanation about Abyss & Apex's purpose and, thus, has nothing to do with this series of posts) by saying that "Hollywood tends to simplify good science fiction or fantasy stories and rely heavily on special effects."  I've said as much before (oh, look, an Avatar link again), but what is most striking to me about this problem is that there seems to be very little reason for doing so, except, perhaps, to cut costs everywhere possible.  Not every high-brow science fiction film has flopped at the box office--quite the opposite, in fact.  In the last few years we've seen films like Inception and District 9 come out on top, both in the "serious" department and among science fiction viewers.  The same is also true of other genres, such as fantasy (hello Lord of the Rings) or horror (The Sixth Sense or The Exorcist--to name an oldie).  There simply isn't a reason to produce garbage as far as I can see.  But maybe Hollywood has insight into things that I don't, because it continues to produce a combination of both forms, with the less adequate form dominating the slots.

But Delmater also makes two rather interesting points:

• Potential readers assume that SF and F literature is no different than its film equivalent AND
• That the viewing public refuses to acknowledge that good genre TV or movies are actually genre to begin with (a kind of Atwood-ian reality denial, if you will).

Both are false for rather complicated reasons.  In the first case, I would argue that the reason SF/F viewers don't read the literature has more to do with the fact that they know the literature is not like the film equivalent at all, except when it is made clear that a particular show or film is an adaptation of a book.  There are Star Wars novels, of course, but the vast body of SF novels are not high-adventure, popcorn monstrosities, but forays into the serious side of things, to varying degrees.  The sad reality is that most people do not read because they want deep messages or beautiful prose; they read because they want to be entertained.  Genre fiction largely gets a bad rap in this department (particularly in the case of SF) because it tries so hard to be "legit."  There's nothing wrong with high-brow genre fiction, but we shouldn't be surprised that the general reading public is not necessarily interested in such things in book form, per se (why they are interested in the film versions is a different question).  Still, there is a clear disconnect between genre literature and genre film, and I would argue that another contributing factor is the same factor that has led to decreased reading numbers:  film is simply the desired mode of storytelling.  We don't have to like it, but there it is.

Michael Bay kills this
 guy with a lens flare...

As for the second point, I think Delmater is trying to place genre film in the same category as SF literature a la Margaret Atwood's comments about the genre.  Very few people are unwilling to admit that something like The Dresden Files (Delmater's example) is fantasy, or that Battlestar Galactica is science fiction.  Some viewers might not know what SF or F are (or they might have odd definitions for both genres), but that is a separate issue from refusing to acknowledge that something is SF or F when obviously it is.  The film world is remarkably more open than the literature world.  Why?  Because without genre fiction, film would not be what it is today:  one of the most lucrative entertainment industries in human history.  Science fiction films have changed the game numerous times in film's short history (2001:  A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, and even Avatar); it will continue to change the game as technology improves and filmmakers experiment.

But if we're to take anything away from Delmater's answers, it is that there are a lot of questions left to be answered.  The bimonthly obituary for science fiction has proven one thing to me:  that most of us have no idea what is causing the decline in SF readership.  Figuring out what is causing the various problems that plague genre fiction will be beneficial to the genre as a whole.  It's time to stop guessing and start getting some answers.  Once and for all.

And that concludes my short series on the literary vs. genre fiction line.  I hope you enjoyed them!

Some Writerly Things of Interest

I've been getting a lot of emails about various writing projects and I thought it would be a good idea to let you all know about a few of them.  So here goes:

• Imperfecta
  An interactive fiction project by N. A. Vreugdenhil in which you, the readers, select who dies in each upcoming episode.  It's an idea that has been tried before in different forms, but I think the added bonus of having direct influence over who dies could be fun.  It's almost like a reality T.V. show, only you can actually kill the people you don't like.  Check it out if you're interesting.
  
• Top 50+ Novels for Tech Geeks
  This site has an interesting list of books for tech geeks.  I assume a tech geek is someone who goes gaga over devices (like iPhones or computers), and the list itself does seem to reflect that sort of lifestyle, although there are a lot of books that are biology-based on the list.  Still, it's interesting.
  
• Five Must Read Science Fiction Books That Aren't Classics (Yet)
  This is actually a guest post of mine.  I forgot to mention it to you all on this blog, but you should check it out.  I've talked about many of the books on the list before, but they're good books and you should check them out.
  
• Ecolibris Green Books Campaign
  I heard about this some time ago.  The idea is that on Nov. 10th, 2010, over 100 bloggers are going to post their reviews of books printed on recycled materials.  That's pretty cool, don't you think?  If you're into the whole green thing, you should check the project out.
  
• 20 Essential Works of Cyberpunk Literature
  This is definitely one of the best lists of essential cyberpunk books/stories I have seen in the blogosphere.  It's somewhat multicultural and includes a number of texts that nobody ever includes, even though they are practically inseparable from the development of cyberpunk as a subgenre (like Bethke's "Cyberpunk").  A good list from a very strange source...

And there you go.  I have no doubt that there are plenty of other things going on, but I can't keep up with all of it!

A Brief Complaint Against Barnes & Noble

Those of you who follow this blog may have noticed that I have been silent for almost two weeks. This isn't because I don't like you all, or that I haven't wanted to post on here. I've simply been incredibly busy with graduate school, and studying for exams that I need to pass to graduate, unfortunately, supersedes posting here.

That said, I have come out of hiding to lodge a brief complaint against Barnes & Noble, who, as far as I can tell, told me a half truth during my long "should I buy an eReader" escapade. As some of you know, I bought a Barnes & Noble Nook. Many of you may not know that I am quite fond of it. It's a nice little device, it looks lovely, it reads lovely, and it has been a tremendous help for opening my reading space (with the exception of the last two weeks, in which I've been reading nothing by Jacques Derrida and intensive feminist, utopian, and science fiction theory, all of which are wonderful, but also far from simple). So what's my problem?

Well, when I was considering the Nook, it was made very clear to me that the upside of the Nook

The Skiffy and Fanty Show #22 is live!

There wasn't an episode last week due to some scheduling conflicts, but we're definitely back on track this week.  In episode #22 we talk about The Hobbit, the recent events surrounding Elizabeth Moon's Muslim comments, and evil media pirates and the evil people that want to stop them.

Feel free to check out the new episode here.

Oh, and because we have a question of the week for our listeners in every episode, I thought you'd all like to know that this week's question is a poll!

Literary vs. Genre Fiction: The Line? (Part Three)

[And now for part three. You can read parts one and two here and here.]

3. What are some common myths people have about fantasy and/or science fiction?

The interesting thing about Delmater's response is that she offers a myth held by genre readers as a myth held by general readers. She says that the reason few people come to science fiction is because they assume it is "very hard to understand—too scientific—or that it is all about robots and ray-guns, and that it is best suited for children or the simple-minded." There are a lot of problems here (other than the odd contradiction).

Literary vs. Genre Fiction: The Line? (Part Two)

[And now for the second part. You can read Part One here if you haven't already.]


2. Does the line do more harm than good?

Delmater thinks so. She suggests that genre fiction has been ghettoized by being shoved into the backs of book stores, relegated to tiny little sections, or mislabeled to sell more copies a la Michael Crichton (her example). The problem? As far as I can tell, Crichton was already labeled as a genre writer, just as a writer of thrillers, rather than science fiction. Genre fiction includes a lot of genres outside of fantasy and science fiction, such as romance, mysteries, westerns, thrillers (of all varieties) and other categories that I can't think of at the moment. Should Crichton have been categorized as science fiction? Yes, in most cases. The fact that he wasn't doesn't mean that he doesn't write genre fiction, just that he wasn't categorized as the most appropriate genre. At worst, Crichton has had his work shoved into the general fiction section, which is not actually a section that should be misconstrued as meaning "literary." The kinds of stuff that appears in general fiction are just the things that publishers label as general fiction. Literary fiction sits in that section, but so does a lot of other stuff that is less-than-literary.

But what about the whole shelving issue? Well, every chain bookstore I have been to has genre fiction right

The Skiffy and Fanty Show #21 is Live!

A new episode is up for anyone who is interested.  This week's episode is all about the Nobel Prize for Literature, insane policies of the future, and one of the most hated science fiction movies ever made. You'll have to listen to the episode to get the specifics.

If you'd like to download the mp3 or stream the episode online, you can do so here.  Thanks for listening!

Literary vs. Genre Fiction: The Line? (Part One)

Abyss & Apex's most recent editorial features a series of interesting questions asked by a seventeen-year-old student about the difference between literary and genre fiction. These are questions we've heard before that are worth answering, but what I find most curious are the responses by Wendy S. Dalmater (editor of Abyss & Apex). Her responses routinely drag up false stereotypes that we've seen perpetuated for decades, not because there is any truth to them, but because they're convenient for creating that "us vs. them" situation. After all, the divide between literary and genre fiction has been a ridiculous battlefield since the non-genre world realized that genre fiction, in all its stripes, wasn't going away. I'd like to dispel some of these stereotypes, and, by way of critiquing Dalmater's responses, answer the questions myself (in five parts).

Part One: Why do you think there is a line between literary and genre fiction?

Book Giveaway Winners!

Two lucky people have been selected to win copies of The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett!  And they are:

Loopdilou

And:

redhead

Congratulations to the both of you!  You'll receive an email from me shortly.

The "Bully" That Therefore I Am: Final Thoughts on Fail-ty and Social Activism

The last week or so has been somewhat illuminating.  First, I stumbled upon Lavid Tidhar's coverage of the Elizabeth Moon Islamaphobic rant (a.k.a. the Moon Fiasco, which sounds suspiciously like a silly children's detective story); when I say I stumbled, I mean that with the utmost sincerity, as I had not been looking for it, nor had I known about the incident until said stumbling.  Then K. Tempest Bradford talked briefly about scare quotes and, as a subtitle of sorts, the distracting nature of others attempting to label social activists as some derivation of "fail" (fail fandom, fail community, fail Nazi, and so on), specifically in relation to the Manifesto of No-Consequence that I linked to here.

And then it happened:  I got called a bully by an anonymous individual in the comments located here.  Why?  Because apparently if you post something on your blog that offers a critical view of another viewpoint (or comment on another blog posting about an incident related to it, or both),

Giveaway Ends Tomorrow!

Just a reminder to everyone:  tomorrow is your last chance to sign up to win one of two copies of The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett!  It's a really fantastic non-fiction book that gets right to the heart of the book thief world.  I loved it, and I bet some of you will too.

Entering is easy; all you have to do is go here and leave a comment telling me about your most valuable book!

Anywho.

New Poll: How do you feel about book bannings?

I thought it would be nice to have a poll about book bannings, since that's what everyone has been talking about for the past week.

So, how do you feel about book bannings?  You can leave your answer on the poll, which you can find on the left sidebar, or you can leave a detailed explanation in the comments for this post.

Vote away!

Poll Results: Which eReader is the best on the market today?

A few weeks ago I put up a poll about eReaders to see what you all thought were the best on the market.  Now for the results:

• 27% said the B&N Nook
• 53% said the Amazon Kindle
• 7% said the Sony Reader
• 13% said the iPad
• 0% said the Cruz Reader, the Kobo, and Mobiles

I'm somewhat amused by these results.  There's been a lot of talk in the last year or so about how great mobile phones are for reading books, ad yet nobody selected that as an option from the list.  I suspect this is because many of you subconsciously or consciously took "the best" to also mean "the best suited for the job." But that's a guess on my part.

Note:  I'm surprised the Nook is so low on the list.  It's #2, but being an proud and happy owner of one of those little devices, I have to admit that it's really a wonderful thing.  I think it's the best of the ones I've seen so far.

Anywho.  Thanks for voting!  There will be a new poll up later today!

Publication: "To Paint the Kingdom Red, Part Two" in Residential Aliens

The second and final part of my fantasy short story, "To Paint the Kingdom Red," is up at Residential Aliens!  Check it out and leave a comment letting me know what you think.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show #20 is Live!

Another episode!  This week should be a little more serious than in the past:

Controversy attacks, and we're on top of it like a fly waiting until the last second to get the leftovers from the dung beetles. This week we talk about Harlan Ellison's last convention appearance and the problem (or lack thereof) of consumer activism in the science fiction community. Plus, the episode is full of gender stereotypes, ridiculous arguments made by other people, and general insanity. We had fun making it, and we're sure you'll enjoy listening!

Okay, so maybe the description doesn't make it sound all that serious, but trust me when I say we get down and dirty in our main segment.  You can listen or download the episode here (we're also on iTunes).

The Hard Working Writer Should Be a Hard Writing Writer

The last few years have been really interesting for writers and readers alike.  Publishers, writers, self-publishers, and others have been pushing for the view of the writer as one who must not only write, but do everything else too.  While I understand why this vision is necessary (published authors have to sell books and all that), I am also opposed to it in principle.  The only thing that should be important to the writer, in my opinion, is the writing.  Selling books, gaining fans, and so on are important, but secondary items.

These things are not part of the vision I want to cling to.  I would love to live in a world where the hard writing writer is the one who gets the attention, because telling a good story is more important than anything else.  Period.  Stop telling me about learning how to market yourself and all that mumbo jumbo.  I get it.  Writers have to do this, and it's something I know I'll have to learn