11-13-09: Donald Sidney-Fryer Reads at World Fantasy Convention, 2009 : Clark Ashton Smith and the California Romantics
I have got to say that I really, really like Donald Sidney-Fryer and his wildly antiquarian poetic readings. He's absolutely possessed when he reads, and his voice is incredibly powerful. He has a diction and accent like no other reader I have heard, even though both are in some sense, sort of familiar.
Poetry is a peculiar literary pursuit these days. There's a lot of great poetry about, but there's also a great deal of poetry that is now supposed to seem quaint or out of date, or — unfashionable. The work of Clark Ashton Smith and a group of writers who are called the California Romantics is a prime example of poetry that was fashioned with passion and a sense of rebellion against the oncoming train of modern, surreal poetry that at the time was being championed by no less than Ezra Pond and T. S. Eliot. That was a hard double-threat to meet, and the rhyming styles of the late nineteenth century went by the wayside.
Well, not entirely. Donald Sidney-Fryer has taken up the torch and his totally wonderful reading will turn your head round sideways. Sidney-Fryer preserves the power of those words and booms them forth in a voice that could call down the Elder Gods from their cyclopean realms. But there's a sly sense of fun in what he does, a sense of revel as well as revelation. When he brings down the final curtain on humankind in the heat death of the universe, you kind want to smile because it’s all so cool, so powerful, so beautiful. Here's your link to worlds you'll never traverse, to words you will never hear spoken with such power.
11-12-09: FBI Agent George Fong at Book Passage Mystery Conference
"As a law enforcement agent, personally, I've worked on several cases, a number of cases, in which your eyes see things in a different light at the end of an investigation." — George Fong
Sometimes the interviewer has to learn from the interviewee. And it's not just the fact the interviewee has to speak of, or the opinions you're trying to evoke. Sometimes you have to figure out a whole new approach to a guest.
That was certainly the case when I interviewed George Fong, an active FBI Agent who was attending the Book Passage Mystery Conference back in July. I save these things for a rainy day, and though it's not raining yet, I remain ever hopeful. I heard Fong speak briefly on a panel, and then set up an interview, with one approach to him lodged firmly in my mind. Alas, it proved to be the wrong approach, and hardheaded me, it took me about thirty minutes and an essentially complete interview to figure out what was wrong. Fortunately, I did figure out what was wrong — and fixed it. You can hear my second conversation with George Fong by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
11-11-09: World Fantasy Convention The Google Books Settlement:
Russell Davis, Karen Wester Newton, Charles Petit, Jay Lake, Christopher Kastensmidt, Dan Gamber (moderator)
"I can't claim it — even though I wrote it." — Russell Davis
Here's what the website/little book had to say about this (death) panel:
"The Google Books Settlement has caused worldwide controversy and will have a marked effect on every author and publisher. Hear various viewpoints on this issue."
It's sort of like saying, "Well, you can throw this match in that pool of gasoline, but there might be some side effects."
Animated does not do this panel justice. So, let me say, up front, that, whatever they're paying Russell Davis for being the Prez of Sifwa (Science Fiction Writers of America): It ain't enough. It ain't nearly enough. That guy is a rockin' firebrand, folks and if you doubt my words, well ...
Before I finish that thought, I just want to say that what I really liked about this panel was that it was not cut and dried, "Angelic Us versus Evil Google." (Hey, isn’t their slogan "Don't be evil"? When did that fall by the wayside?) I've got to say that even I don’t know where I'd stand on this issue, though clearly Google has asserted as a right something that is most assuredly a privilege. That said, this is not a black-and-white argument, though Davis wears one hell of white hat. It might have been nice if Google would have made an appearance. They definitely stepped in it by not doing so, even though someone who claimed to have worked for them in the audience swore that they really didn't mean to be evil. Still, when you can own several medium size countries with you last year's earnings, not showing up here is a prime bit of foot-shooting expertise. Especially when the opposition has a lineup like David, Karen Wester Newton, Charles Petit, Jay Lake, Christopher Kastensmidt, and Dan Gamber. You can find out why I think Davis deserves a pay raise by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
11-10-09: Three Books with Alan Cheuse
Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna
Charlie Huston, Sleepless
J. M. Coetzee, Summertime
There are a lot of books out there, jostling for your attention. They fire them out of a cannon at me, and at NPR's Alan Cheuse as well. This month, we had a particularly fruitful selection. Who can not love Barbara Kingsolver? And what will the esteemed book critic for NPR make of Charlie Huston's science fiction apocalypse? How will J. M. Coetzee manage to hold a reader's interest as he writes about himself as if he were dead? What books do you think you want to read?
I had one hell of good time talking about books with Alan Cheuse this time around. It's a subject that we both take quite seriously, a subject that we believe all citizens should take seriously. How else can you engage with your world if not through reading, especially fiction? Fiction offer us the opportunity to experience lives we could never ourselves live; for example, Trotsky's life and untimely death in Kingsolver's 'The Lacuna,' or a world without sleep in Charlie Huston's 'Sleepless.' Or the literary Moebius strip that winds through a hall of mirrors in J. M. Coetzee's 'Summertime.' The deal is that each of these books will ask for a bit of your life, with the promise of giving you more than you expect in return. You can follow this link and hear which are worth your time — which are worth your life — by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
11-09-09: A 2009 Interview with E. L. Doctorow
"They opted out — which is not that unusual an American phenomenon" — E. L. Doctorow
Some things are made easy. I didn't expect the E. L. Doctorow interview to be one of them. I drove out to San Francisco on a chilly winter morning expecting to have to fight for a parking place — not to have one open up magically directly in front of the hotel. Free parking. It was like hitting the magic corner in Monopoly.
With that small sign, things started to look up. I spoke with E. L. Doctorow in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel in San Francisco, which occupies it's own city block. Sunday morning or not, it was crowded and loud, but we found a quietish corner off to the side, in what I believe was called an executive lounge. Having just lived inside Homer Collyer's head for a notch over two-hundred pages, it didn't surprise me when Doctorow started to read and I felt as if I were talking to a man who played Homer Collyer on the stage, in a play that ran as long as the Collyers' mythic lives run in Doctorow's novel. And Doctorow himself admitted that he had not managed to shake off Homer's voice; he was suffering a sort of writer's hangover, still immersed in the chilly world he so beautifully portrayed in prose. And yes, while there is no pretense of 'Homer & Langley' being anything other than a novel, the elegiac feel of Doctorow's writing gives the novel something of the feel of a heroic historical poem, perhaps by the spectre of Homer's namesake, living vicariously through the American twentieth century with a sort of visionary wonder. You'll hear those same cadences in Doctorow's own words, by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
07-30-10: Commentary : Subterranean Press and Robert R. McCammon Wake at 'The Wolf's Hour' : The Time Before Cheese
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books with Alan Cheus : Allegra Goodman, 'The Cookbook Collector,' Noam Shpancer's 'The Good Psychologist' and Elie Wiesel 'The Sonderberg Case'
07-28-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space 2 : En Route, RJ Frith and Peter F. Hamilton
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010: Q & A : "The people you deal with at the publishers ... if they last the end of the week, you're lucky."
07-27-10: Commentary : Rule Britannia, In Space : UK Space Opera Demonstrates Excess is Not Enough (Part one, the Arrived)
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Brian and Wendy Froud at SF in SF on Monday, July 19, 2010 : "Well, I thought if I do faeries then nobody's going to say that I've got it wrong."
07-26-10: Commentary : Brian and Wendy Froud Seek 'The Heart of Faerie Oracle' : Cards, Books and a New Perspective
07-20-10: Commentary : Adam Elenbaas is Caught by 'Fishers of Men' : The Gospel of an Ayahuasca Vision Quest
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live, July 10, 2010 : Alan Cheuse and Peter S. Beagle : "There are certain phrases I'm leery of using; one's "the creative process" and the other is "inspiration." ” Peter S. Beagle "Habit is the best thing for you if you're trying to write prose." ” Alan Cheuse
07-19-10: Commentary : Phil Cousineau is the 'Wordcatcher' : A Selectionary for Curious Mind
07-09-10: Commentary : Harlan Ellison's 'Deathbird Stories' : Back from the Dead and Ready to Party
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books With Alan Cheuse : Everything by Kevin Canty, The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson by Kim Stanley Robinson, and Glorious by Bernice McFadden
07-07-10: Commentary : Kitchen Testing 'The New Vegetarian Epicure' and 'Get Cooking' : Lentil Power
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live, June 26, 2010 : Mollie Katzen and Anna Thomas, Part Two : "'You should really write a cookbook,' and I thought, 'Yeah, that's a good idea...'"
07-06-10: Commentary : Anna Thomas Cooks Up 'Love Soup' : Recipes, Menus and Meals
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live, June 26, 2010 : Mollie Katzen and Anna Thomas, Part One : Time to Get Cooking Because You Love Soup : "It makes a huge difference really, really, it does, to completely clean up when you're done."
07-05-10: Commentary : Abraham Verghese Will Not Be 'Cutting for Stone' : Stories of Spirit and Words of Comfort
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Abraham Verghese : "Literature has a wonderful ability to restore your imagination for the suffering of others."
07-02-10: Commentary : Sloane Crosley Asks 'How Did Get This Number' : Excellent Essays for the Short of Temper
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Live Interview With Sloane Crosley : We Did Not Mention the Title of Her Essay 'Fuck You, Columbus'
06-30-10: Commentary : Mark Charan Newton Enters 'City of Ruin' : Inspector Jeryd Rides Again
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Panel Discussion at SF in SF on June 12, 2010, with Seanan McGuire, Deborah Grabien and Terry Bisson : "Coke Black was just a horrible thing unleashed on an unsuspecting world."
06-29-10: Commentary : 'Twelve,' 'Thirteen,' Tongues of Serpents,' and 'The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack' : Historical SF & Horror Makes Rousing Summer Reading
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Seanan McGuire Interviewed at SF in SF, June 12, 2010 : "If I have my unbreakables, I can set my conditionals."
06-28-10: Commentary : Jennifer Egan Gets 'A Visit from the Goon Squad' : Revisiting the Novel Genre
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Conversation with Jennifer Egan : "The characters and the action led the way... I was led into the future not so much because I was thinking, 'I want to write about the future,' but more because I wanted to re-visit this particular person."
06-23-10: Commentary : Adam Langer Corrals 'The Thieves of Manhattan' : Lies, Balderdash and the Absolute, Unvarnished Truth
06-21-10: Commentary : Linda Greenlaw is 'Seaworthy' : Back to the Grand Banks in Not-So-Grand Style
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Linda Greenlaw : "Well, I call him up and tell him I'm going to the Grand Banks and he pretty much signs himself right up."
06-17-10: Commentary : Georges-Olivier Châteaureynaud Lives 'A Life on Paper' : Translating the Ineffable
06-15-10: Commentary : Donald R. Burleson Whispers 'Wait for the Thunder' : Stories for a Stormy Night
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books With Alan Cheuse : Lucyby Laurence Gonzalez, Spies of the Balkansby Alan Furst, A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
06-14-10: Commentary : James P. Othmer Drinks the 'Holy Water' : Backing Into the Future
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2009 Interview with Juliet Schor : "...We need to move to much more open, collaborative, sharing knowledge systems."
06-10-10: Commentary : Brett Easton Ellis Peers Inside 'Imperial Bedrooms' : Panic After the Year Zero
06-09-10: Commentary : Dan Dion and Paul Provenza Free the '!Satiristas!' : Bleeding the Comedians
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Conversation with Paul Provenza and Dan Dion : "I was raised to respect the printed word so much, when I was in school, I couldn't highlight books..."
06-08-10: Commentary : China Miéville Unleashes 'Kraken' : Comedy of Tentacles
06-03-10: Commentary : Justin Cronin Enters 'The Passage' : A girl who saves the world
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books With Alan Cheuse : The Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson, The Nearest Exit by Olen Steinhauer, The Passage by Justin Cronin
06-02-10: Commentary : 'Animythical Tales' by Sarah Totton and 'Metrophilias' by Brendan Connell : Better Seeds
06-01-10: Commentary : The Return of The Agony Column : Logic, License and Habit
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2010 Interview with Karl Marlantes : "..these are common human foibles and failings, it's just that they get magnified in a combat, war situation..."
I had one hell of good time talking about books with Alan Cheuse this time around. It's a subject that we both take quite seriously, a subject that we believe all citizens should take seriously. How else can you engage with your world if not through reading, especially fiction? Fiction offer us the opportunity to experience lives we could never ourselves live; for example, Trotsky's life and untimely death in Kingsolver's 'The Lacuna,' or a world without sleep in Charlie Huston's 'Sleepless.' Or the literary Moebius strip that winds through a hall of mirrors in J. M. Coetzee's 'Summertime.' The deal is that each of these books will ask for a bit of your life, with the promise of giving you more than you expect in return. You can follow this link and hear which are worth your time — which are worth your life — 
