12-03-09: SF in SF Panel Discussion with S. G. Browne, Jeff VanderMeer and Terry Bisson, November 14, 2009
"There will be a test."
— Terry Bisson
One of the fun aspects of SF in SF are the occasional gyrations that we all make as the definition of "what fits in" is conveniently expanded to include writers who may have never thought of themselves as "science fiction." Actually, what generally happens in that case is that the "SF" get expanded to read "speculative fiction." But perhaps a better meaning is, "Something Fun."
As fun goes, you’d be hard pressed to fund three guys more suited to presenting it in a panel discussion than S. G. "Scott" Browne, Jeff VanderMeer and your ever effervescent host, Terry Bisson. This discussion quickly tossed the "science" and focused on the variety of fiction all of these authors have written over the years. One of the most enjoyable aspects of this for me is that Jeff VanderMeer is so relentlessly literary, while Scott Browne is a horror head. I come from both schools, with an education and an abiding interest in literary fiction (the stuff I like, anyway) and a sort of self-taught degree in Eighties Horror. It was the latter that sucked me into the world obsessive book collecting and the former that helped define my catholic and often peculiar tastes — at least so far as the genre fiction world is concerned. Put writers with these two "inception points" at a table with Terry Bisson whose work is truly all over the map and quite unique, and you get the conversation you can hear by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
Thomas Frank
12-02-09: Tears of a Clown : Thomas Frank Unbuilds Glen Beck
Language gets misused more often than it gets used — if the goal of language is to communicate the truth clearly and effectively. As readers and as a listening audience, we have to pay attention to the use and misuse of language out there in the wider culture, because a world where that book can become some insane bestseller is created by the wider use of language in that culture. If we all preface every sentence with, "Cluck, cluck," our bestsellers are likely to read like a bull session overheard in a chicken coop. Thomas Frank, author of 'what’s the Matter with Kansas?' and 'The Wrecking Crew' knows a thing or two about how language is tormented in the wider culture. And he's been studying the Fox networks who assert that they should be guarding those chickens.
In particular, Frank took on the unenviable task of looking into the life and work of Glen Beck, now the loudest mouth in the henhouse, and the result is the funny and frightening "Glen Beck's Holy War: How an Unlikely Talk Show Host Became the Savior of the Right," running in his this month's Playboy Magazine.
Readers know I enjoy horror fiction; the horrors of this actual world, not so much, perhaps. But Frank's article is important in its vision of language tortured beyond the imaginations of the Eli Roths of this world. Also, it's really fun to read and sort of amazing. Beck is an almost Fortean character who can apparently cry on demand. And he;s a lot of fun to unbuild, to take apart like a stack of Jenga pieces. Remove one piece and the whole illogical mess comes tumbling down. So instead of listening to frothing rants of politics mutated by nuclear radiation into horrific entertainment, why not sit back and enjoy the smooth styling of my conversation with Thomas Frank by following this link to the MP3 audio file.
12-01-09: Jeff VanderMeer Reads at SF in SF : The Professional Cockroach and other Tales of Terror
Not surprisingly, when Jeff VanderMeer took the stage to read at SF in SF on November 14, 2009, he did things ... a little different.
"Rick," he asked me beforehand, "do I have to sit down?"
No, he didn't have to sit down, and no, he didn't even have to exactly read during the reading part. Now, if Jeff is still on his way to you, then you might want to give this a pass because it might reveal to you secrets that could destroy your mind. And even if he's not coming your way it could reveal to your secrets that could ... wait for it ....
Destroy your mind. A mind may be a terrible thing to waste, but there are worser wastes in this worser world. Jeff talks, he reads, he runs around the stage to the extent that my very expensive cables allow. Jeff talks about cockroaches, professional and otherwise. If you are a great friend to cockroaches, again, consider giving this audio a pass. It may offend the cockroach lover in your. (Unless you love eating cockroaches, in which case there must be little that could offend you.) Whatever you do, don’t email Jeff this URL, whatever you do, don't let on that out of both laziness, desperation, and wait one more thing, orneriness, I have posted this link to the MP3 audio file of Jeff breaking a Variety of rules at the Variety Children's Charity Theater.
Jeff VanderMeer
11-30-09: A 2009 Interview with Jeff and Ann VanderMeer
"We're kind of surrounded by the artifacts of fantasy every day and it is part of our daily life."
— Jeff and Ann VanderMeer
Speaking of writers who cite Borges as an influence, let me introduce you to Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, who of course, need no introduction. Ann's the editor of Weird Tales and Jeff is the author of a boatload of books worth your time and money; his two most recent works cited here are 'Booklife' and 'Finch.'
When I sat them down together at the World Fantasy Convention, I had little idea that I'd soon be bringing them back together again via a complicated ISDN arrangement that found Jeff and I together at KUSP and Ann in Florida. The occasion was a conversation for a planned piece for NPR on how writers who work in the fantasy genre use their fiction to deal with reality, but it was mostly just an excuse for me to sit and have a wonderful conversation about the writing life with two artists who have a huge impact on fiction — and not just genre fiction. But the fantastic has everything to do with how they create, even when they're writing about the most mundane of situations. I have to say that the interview was one of those wherein I could imagine putting just about every reply of both contributors into a final piece. To hear my embarrassment of riches and have a rollicking good time with Fantasy's First Couple, just follow this link to the MP3 audio file.
New to the Agony Column
02-01-12: Commentary : Stan Lee Splashes 'Stan Lee's How to Write Comics' and 'Stan Lee's How to Draw Comics' : Lessons in the Form, From the Master
01-23-12: Commentary : Sara Paretsky Nails 'Breakdown' : The Machine Stops
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Interview with Sara Paretsky : "Everything in a courtroom is a story; it's not justice, it's combating narratives."
01-18-12: Commentary : Téa Obreht Conjures 'The Tiger's Wife' : The Grammar of Vision
01-13-12: Commentary : Hard Case Subterranean Block : Not from Bob's Basement Tapes
Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2012 Phone Interview with Lisa Randall : "...there seems to be some evidence, especially from one of the experiments."
01-10-12: Commentary : Archive Review: Terry D'Auray Catches Lawrence Block and 'The Burglar on the Prowl' : "A show well worth the price of a ticket."
12-29-11: Commentary : My Life in the Bush of Books : Island of Vice by Richard Zacks, Iago by David Snodin, The Coincidence Engine by Sam Leith and The Dipatcher by Ryan David Jahn
12-21-11: Commentary : Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman : From the Seedy to the Sublime
Agony Column Podcast News Report : Three Books with Alan Cheuse : 'Kill Bin Laden' ; Ryu Mitsuse, '10 Billion Days and 100 Billion Nights' ; Michael Crichton and Richard Preston, 'Micro'
12-20-11: Commentary : David Blackbourn Visits 'Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary in a Nineteenth-Century German Village' : Externalizing a Culture Clash
12-15-11: Commentary : Ayize Jama-Everett Reveals 'The Liminal People' : The Powers That Be
Agony Column Podcast News Report : The Agony Column Live with Lisa Goldstein and Ayize Jama-Everett, and music by Fenyang Smith, December 10, 2011 : "... let's look at what happens if people have abilities that other people don't have ..."
11-28-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Scott Wallace : "Within months of first contact, these groups experience a huge die-off."
11-22-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Charles Frazier, Part Two : "It's not me telling you, there's this storyteller voice."
11-21-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Charles Frazier : "If we're going in the wrong direction, we could turn around and go back."
11-17-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Gianni Mola : "The only way you can learn, I told them, is to watch me cook it."
11-11-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Karl Marlantes : "...the way I "think" about things, with quotes around think, is I tend to write them down..."
10-31-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Colson Whitehead : "In the Apocalypse, somebody's gonna have to do the grunt work..."
10-17-11: Agony Column Podcast News Report : A 2011 Interview with Russell Banks : "They are in a sense, permanently marked and thrown into this darkness..."
