Speakeasy

SF Signal has gotten a bunch of SF and Fantasy authors to put together lists of what they think are the most controversial SF/F novels. Ranging from Harry Potter and His Dark Materials to Neuromancer and Starship Troopers, each author outlines why they think these books are dangerous (or why they think other people thought they were dangerous). The discussions are really detailed, and there’s some interesting reading material to be found as well.

In the course of reading the above list, I followed a link to this article on JK Rowling and sexism, which argues that there’s a gender-bias in spec fic, showing up in the way Rowling is criticised. I didn’t agree with all the points the writer makes (I thought one bit about Tolkien was a bit off - you’ll know it when you see it), and some of the comments I found really annoying. But again, a really interesting discussion of a key issue in both SF/F and the wider publishing industry.

This website is great! It’s celebrating the short story as an artform, attempting to save it from the endangered literature list. (Seems to be run with the support of, or possibly in support of, the BBC National Short Story Award.) The best bit is that there’s a bunch of short stories available to download from the site, by authors including Ian Rankin, Rose Tremain, Michel Faber, Dominic Green and Katherine Mansfield.

Also in Short Stories this week, we’ve just come across Charleston’s Short Story Festival (That’s Charleston in the UK, not the US). With a full program of workshops and panels, and guests including Anne Enright, Alan Hollinghurst, Lionel Shriver, this festival seems like quite the big deal. Perhaps it’s time to play copycat and set up an Australian version?

Call My Agent! has just posted a great Q&A on the realities of publishing a children’s picture book. We get lots of queries on this topic, so we know there’s a bunch of aspiring picture book writers out there. Hopefully, some of you are reading this blog…

Lately, Publisher’s Weekly has had some really interesting articles on comics. One of them, about the ICv2 Confab report for 2007 (ICv2 is a pop culture trade website, that’s been running a graphic novel conference for the past couple of years), gives an overview of the comics/graphic novel industry for 2007. Apparently, graphic novel sales rose 12% between 2006 and 2007, and have increased fivefold since 2001. When I chased down the article on the ICv2 website, I found that graphic novels were worth about $375 million in 2007, periodical comics came to $330 million, and manga about $210 million. Each segment indicated rising sales and production. That’s a total of $915 million - around 2.5% of total US book sales (which is about $37.09 billion, according to the Book Industry Study Group).

In other Publisher’s Weekly comics news, they’re making a comic based on The Twilight Zone. And they’ve got a survey of graphic artists to watch for 2008. The ICv2 website also carries monthly lists of top 300 comics and top 100 graphic novels, in case anyone’s interested.

I have to ask, though, is there a graphic novel/comic book industry in Australia? I know there’s artists and illustrators out there - Shaun Tan and Eddie Campbell spring instantly to mind - and the AWM database has one, possibly two, dedicated comic book publishers that I can think of. And perhaps this is another arena where American imports just meet the needs of the market. Perhaps what comics industry we have represents the same 2.5% slice of our book industry, which in around 2004 had a net worth of $3.4 billion. But am I seeing the full picture? Does anyone know what’s out there for the average Australian Warren Ellis or Alan Moore? (Other than a strategic move to the US…)

…Don’t worry, we’re not actually posting on Michael Jackson.

Instead, this post recommends one of Bookslut’s very interesting feature article/interview thingies, about The Accident Man by Tom Cain (A thriller. Geddit?).

The article starts with the interviewer’s recount of meetings with Princes Charles and William, which only makes sense once the subject of Cain’s novel comes out. It’s premise is: what if there was a man who, among other things, caused Princess Diana’s accident? The interview with the author clearly illustrates how this book, which could have been a completely exploitative piece of sensationalist junk, became a clever, sensitive thriller.

There’s also a little bit of comment on the eternal Big-L literature vs Genre debate, with Cain quoting and agreeing with an argument made by Lee Child:

The idea that thrillers are peripheral to literature drives me nuts. The thriller concept is why humans invented storytelling, thousands of years ago. The world was perilous and full of misery, so they wanted the vicarious experience of surviving danger. It’s the only real genre and all the other stuff has grown on the side of it like barnacles.

There are a few scathing comments about the so-called literary elite, so beware. But the whole interview is worth a read, as Cain has heaps of really good things to say about his book, writing thrillers, and writing in general. Two thumbs up!

Saturday night saw the announcement of the 2007 Aurealis Awards - the awards for Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror.

David Kowalski’s The Company of the Dead took out both Best Science Fiction Novel, and the Golden Aurealis Award For Best Novel (This is the second year in a row that a first-timer has taken both of these awards. Last year’s went to Will Elliot, for The Pilo Family Circus).

Other prize-winners include Cat Sparks, Garth Nix, Lian Hearn and Kate Forsyth. Congratulations!

Clive Thompson over at Wired has posted this review of Cory Doctorow’s novella, which includes a great argument for science fiction as the new site of philosophical exploration, the new way to explore humanity and all its potential.

I have to admit, I could see his point about literary fiction, and the limits to what it can explore in relation to the big issues. Yes, literature that the majority can relate to, literature with characters that remind you of people you know, is fine. Great, even. But what if you don’t want to read a book that’s really just about the guy down the street? What if you’d rather read one that gives serious thought to what the world is going to do when half our land masses are under water? Or when human fertility runs out, or when that doomsday virus actually does make it out of the lab (you’ve all heard the conspiracy theories).

Science fiction, or ’speculative fiction’, to give it the umbrella title that adds in horror and fantasy literature, is not without flaws. It has it’s share of bad writing, but so does every other genre around. Spec fic is the only genre where a writer can twist reality as we know it - introduce a variable like German victory in WW2, for example, or the widespread existance of zombies - and see how humanity reacts. And it’s finally moving over into the mainstream. Cormac McCarthy, Margaret Atwood, Philip Roth, etc. have all abandoned the limits of reality for the unlimited potential of speculative fiction. Which, when it’s done right, can be some of the cleverest, most moving, most thought-provoking stuff out there. It can leave you feeling like the world might just make it through.

Or that we’re all doomed. Either one works.

According to The Age and the Guardian, a recently-released Marvel storyline in the Spider-man series has wiped out 21 years of Spidey’s history!

During the One More Day storyline, Peter and Mary-Jane Parker make a deal with a devil-like villian, exchanging the memories of their marriage to save the life of Peter’s Aunt May. The couple married in an issue in 1987, and according to Marvel, their marriage has been a problem for writers ever since.

Convenient, then. The deal with the devil also erases another contraversial storyline: Spidey’s unmasking. Spide-man pulled off his mask at a press conference in an issue released in 2006.

What fans are understandably concerned about is the continuity problems this raises. How will the writers deal with everything that’s taken place in the last 21 years? Will they just recycle the same storylines? Will Spidey just have to fight the same villains all over again?