Uncle Orson Boudlerizes Everything

First of all, thanks to Pat from the Fantasy Hotlist for drawing my attention to this abominable work of bigotry, by posting Scott Lynch's hilarious response to it.




Now, I'm sure if you read this blog (thank you, mom!), you must know of Orson Scott Card - author of the magnificent Ender's Game (Review), as well as Raving Maniacal Homophobe Extraordinaire. What you may not know is that he has taken up the heavy burden of writing a new version of Shakespeare's Hamlet in order to make it more "accessible" (the thing has obviously been around for a few years, but now the impending doom of a new Subterranean ultra expensive edition is upon us). Now, I like dumbing-down great literature as much as the next pretentious guy who really hates it when people do that, but THIS HERE ARTICLE further strengthened my opinion that Uncle Orson needs to see someone about those pesky feelings he's been having.

In the new "accessible" version of Shakespeare's naughty classic, most characterizations and themes have been swept away by the Proprietydozer, with Hamlet turned into an emotionless automaton. But Hamlet's Father apparently reveals a deeper, uglier truth about what is rotten in Denmark - HAMLET'S DAD WAS GAY! And not just your run-of-the-mill friendly neighborhood eternally damned sodomite sinner, but an evil recruiter for the abominable gay lifestyle, having managed to recruit Horatio, Laertes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by molesting them in their youth (it's the natural way to recruit children into the gay lifestyle, as Uncle Orson will be quick to tell you here). And what's even worse - it seems the father's decadent choice persists in the afterlife and Hamlet himself is doomed to spend some quality gay time with daddy in Hell. Ouch!

Needless to say the horribleness that is the very existence of this book has not gone unnoticed, and fans raised their concerns loudly enough for Subterranean to actually issue a reply, managing to not say anything at all (what's to say anyway?).

So what do you think? Is Uncle Orson a hero of modern Baudlerization, warning of evil recruiters, trying to infect innocent children with teh gay, or has age really done as irreparable damage to the poor guy's mind as I feel it has?

30 000 hits!

Yay! Go me! Thanks to everyone who keep visiting this blog! I know the book reviewing section has been lacking recently, but I will do my best to improve on that. And the comment section is always open, so don't be shy.

An interesting article on eBooks

This article from The Atlantic caught my attention. It's called "The Annoyance of eBooks" and deals with the issue of whether they will completely replace print or not. Me, I am on the fence. I don't think I am ready to part ways with the printed book, but I can't argue with the many advantages of e-publications. I guess time will tell, but either way, it's an interesting thing to read.

Wicked Pretty Things Not So Pretty Or Wicked After All

Snatched from Pat's Fantasy Hotlist:

====================

from Jim C. Hines website:

Last night, my six-year-old and I had a chat. I don’t remember how it came up, but he was talking about people getting married, and how boys have to marry girls. I pointed out that this wasn’t necessarily so, that in some states and many countries, boys could marry boys and girls could marry girls.

Being six, he laughed. “That’s silly. How would they have babies?”

It’s not the first time we’ve had a talk like this. I understand where his confusion comes from. Pretty much every cartoon on TV has male/female relationships only. Every movie he watches, every book he brings home from school… Any nonheterosexual relationship is simply erased.

Last month, Jessica Verday withdrew her story from the Wicked Pretty Things anthology after receiving a note from the editor which stated that her story “would have to be published as a male/female story because a male/male story would not be acceptable to the publishers.”

Wicked Pretty Things is an anthology of dark fairy romance … but apparently editor Trisha Telep assumed that meant straight romance only, going with the default erasure of any “nontraditional” relationships.

Verday later posted a response in which Telep apologized for causing offense, and said in part, “I sincerely regret the sequence of events which has led to Jessica Verday’s story ‘Flesh Which Is Not Flesh’ being excluded from the forthcoming anthology Wicked Pretty Things. This has been the result of a misunderstanding on my part which is entirely regrettable … I fully support LGBTQ issues.”

I understand and believe that Telep meant no harm. That it was a mistake, not intended to be hurtful. But it was hurtful.

Other authors such as Seanan McGuire, Lisa Mantchev, Lesley Livingston, and Karen Mahoney have pulled their stories from the anthology. Melissa Marr asked that her name not be used to promote the project (she had provided a cover blurb Correction: they were apparently describing the anthology as including stories with a “Melissa Marr-ish slant.”) Ann Aguirre pulled her story from another of Telep’s projects.

Running Press responded in an article titled The Misinformation Age, saying, “Third-party error and miscommunication went viral and led to the spread of untrue accusations of intolerance and censorship.”

Where exactly are these untrue accusations? I’m not aware of any lies in Verday’s post, or in the posts by the other authors involved. Is intolerance an inappropriate word to describe an editor who says “No gay love allowed,” even if it was a misunderstanding?

More importantly, why was this an issue to begin with? The publisher may have disavowed responsibility for Telep’s actions, but why did Telep immediately assume that a story in which two male characters were in love would be unacceptable?

Pulling a story from an anthology is scary. You risk alienating editor and publisher both, not to mention turning down a paycheck. You worry about appearing unprofessional. And you wonder if you’ll find another home for the story you worked so hard on…

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I’d like to extend an offer to any author who pulled his or her story from one of Telep’s projects as a result of this incident.

1- If you have not already found a home for your withdrawn story, I would be happy to read it.
2- If I like the story (and knowing most of the authors involved, I suspect I will), I’ll offer $100 up front to publish it here on my blog.
3- Each story will include a donations link. Once the initial $100 has been covered, further donations will be split 50/50. Half will be paid to the author, and the other half will be donated to a LGBTQ-friendly cause.
4- If I publish multiple stories, I will look into putting together an e-book collection of those stories, with profits again being split between the authors and a LGBTQ-friendly cause.

I get about 2000 unique readers each day, which is comparable to (or in some cases better than) the sales for a number of the anthologies out there. That said, I’ll certainly understand if the authors choose to look elsewhere. It sounds like Verday has already found another home for her story, which is great. My offer is not time-limited.

I am not trying to poach authors from Running Press. However, I do want to support and thank those authors who’ve chosen to publicly state that the erasure of non-straight characters and relationships is not okay. One way I can do that is by offering a home for those stories.

========================

Let's do, as a race, maybe grow up a little and move the frak on from homophobia eh? It's getting awfully stale as a hate topic...

Two responses to Leo Grin's essay

I found those two responses to the ludicrous Leo Grin essay I posted a couple of days ago.

The first one is R. Scott Bakker's awesome The Fourth Tribe (Or, Going for Baroque). Here's an excerpt:

...

Even as a kid, I read [Tolkien and Howard] as celebrations of things lost, as longwinded eulogies. Given this, you might say that Grin thinks this is fantasy’s vocation, to endlessly eulogize, and that writing that strays into the baroque or revisionary are not only morally and imaginatively bankrupt, they are symptomatic of some great disease of the soul that is presently claiming the world and humanity.

Sound familiar? It should if you read fantasy. This particular salad of attitudes and concepts – moral certainty writ on a cosmic scale – is precisely what you find in almost all premodern works of fantastic fiction, everything from Upanishads to the Holy Bible. Consider the hyperbole. Consider the way he structures his oppositions in the above quote: on the one side you have the sacred, the treasured and the cruciform, while on the other side you have, well, shit and piss.

Pure purity and abject pollution.

...

The other one is Bankrupt Nihilism by Joe Abercrombie:

...

I’m a little suspicious, I must say, of any argument that lumps Tolkien and Howard together as one thing, although Leo has made the photos of them in his piece point towards each other in a very complimentary fashion. I think of them as polar opposites in many ways, and the originators (or at least key practitioners) of, to some extent, opposed traditions within sword-based fantasy. Tolkien, the father of high fantasy, Howard the father of low. Howard’s work, written by a man who died at thirty, tends to the short and pulpy (as you’d expect from stories written for pulp magazines). Tolkien’s work, published on the whole when he was advanced in years, is very long and literary (as you’d expect from a professor of English). Tolkien is more focused on setting, I’d say, Howard on character. Leo’s point is that they both celebrate a moral simplicity, a triumph of heroism, but I see that too as a massive over-simplification. Howard celebrates the individual, is deeply cynical (could one even say nihilistic) about civilisation. Tolkien seems broadly to celebrate order, structure, duty and tradition. And I celebrate, well …

...

Both are pretty interesting, so make sure to check them out!

On the sacrilige of going off-Tolkien...

While browsing Pat's blog, I found this article, titled The Bankrupt Nihilism of Our Fallen Fantasists by Leo Grin from Big Hollywood. I found it extremely amusing in its fanboyish indignation and intellectual constipation, and would urge you to proceed with all due haste and read it. Hilarity and merriment are to be had! Here's an excerpt:

In the case of the fantasy genre, the result is a mockery and defilement of the mythopoeic splendor that true artists like Tolkien and Howard willed into being with their life’s blood. Honor is replaced with debasement, romance with filth, glory with defeat, and hope with despair. Edgy? Nah, just punk kids farting in class and getting some giggles from the other mouth-breathers.

Ah, the innocent joy of people being wrong on the internet...

The author of The Vampire Diaries has been "fired"?

I stumbled upon this piece of news over at The Wertzone. Apparently L.J. Smith - the writer of the hugely successful The Vampire Diaries series - has been fired by her publisher HarperCollins from her own series. It seems HC thinks that the recent books have deviated from the "core of the series". Honestly, I can't believe such a thing could happen in this day and age, but as the series started coming out a good twenty years ago, I guess it's not that impossible. Also, it turns out that Smith was only hired by the publisher to work on an idea they had. I imagine I'd be pretty pissed if it were a series I cared about. In this case I only find the whole thing mildly absurd and a little funny. Especially considering how huge the series has become recently around the whole vampire romance mania and the tv show. Honestly, I'm sorry for Smith, but I'm also chuckling a little.

2010 In Retrospect

I read a staggeringly small amount of books this year (you will notice that only two of my choices were actually published in 2010), due to life coming out of nowhere to intervene with my quiet geekiness. Also, this is the first time I've ever actually had to do this kind of thing, so I decided to keep it modest. If - Xenu willing - I'm here next year, I'll probably put more thought into the task.

So, here's

Roland's Random Lists of 2010:

Best books of 2010:



1. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Review)
There is absolutely no competition for my first place this year. Bacigalupi's environmental dystopia is easily one of the best books I've ever read, and I am happy it got all the acclaim it deserved. I am expecting great things from Bacigalupi, and can't wait to read his novella The Alchemist, if only to see what he would do when unleashed on the Fantasy field.



2. Dragonfly Falling by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Review)
After the first slightly uncertain steps Tchaikovsky made in his debut novel Empire in Black and Gold (review here), the second book in his Shadows of the Apt series showed how grand his world really is, and how much more complex it will get in future novels. The totemic relationship between kindens and their insect avatars, as well as the steampunk elements make for one of the most original epic fantasy worlds in a long time. The fact that Tchaikovsky seems to be getting better with each new novel doesn't really hurt either.



3. Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Review)
I honestly didn't know what to expect from Doctorow's dystopic YA tale when I started reading it. I am allergic to books that are too "savvy" when it comes to the techno-slang and online culture, but in this case the balance between that and actually good story-telling turned out to be so good that I instantly fell in love with the book.



4. Leviathan Wept and Other Stories by Daniel Abraham (Review)
Although slightly underwhelming - after the hype I'd been exposed to - Daniel Abraham's short story collection was among the events of 2010, and definitely shows an amazing storytelling potential. A name to pay attention to, without a shadow of doubt.



5. The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson (Review)
Although not the best of the series (that honor falls to Mistborn (review here, and here for The Well of Ascension)), The Hero of Ages was a great and mind-bogglingly epic conclusion to one of the best fantasy trilogies written in a long time. Sanderson's detractors keep pointing out his "shyness" when it comes to the topic of relationships and sex, as well as his two-dimensional characters, but in truth, the Mistborn series was almost a text-book example of how to do high fantasy without being numbingly cliche about it. And of course there is the gloriously good magic system(s) that seems to be Sanderson's trademark.


Author of 2010:



Brandon Sanderson
He may not be the brightest literary star in the fantasy genre (it's hard with competition such as George Martin, Gene Wolfe, Scott Bakker or Steven Erikson), but regardless of whether you're a fan or not, Sanderson's success can't be denied. 2010 saw the publication of three of his novels, and the guy doesn't seem to ease up or slip in terms of quality. To be as prolific and consistent is no small feat, and I believe it deserves recognition. As well as the fact that - my respects to both the late Robert Jordan and his most dedicated fans - he is single-handedly saving The Wheel of Time from an underwhelming and disappointing ending while writing with a speed three times that of its creator. So how was your 2010?


Biggest disappointment of 2010:



The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Review)
Yes, I know this book is on the top places in most other people's "best of" lists, and of course I'm not putting it in this category because I think it's bad. It just didn't connect with me in any conceivable way, and I felt it was completely unequal to the praise it got. And although Ian McDonald is obviously an amazingly talented writer, both this book and the 3/4 of Desolation Road that I read make me think that he just doesn't have the spark that makes the reader actually want to go on reading his work. Or at least he definitely doesn't have the spark that makes me want to...


Discovery of 2010:



Paolo Bacigalupi
There was a pretty big list of names to chose from, considering most of the writers I read this year I had no previous experience with. But Bacigalupi is easily the most promising of all of them, and I can't wait to read his next mature novel. Of course, my mild dislike of environmental themes might ultimately ruin the relationship, but so far it's all going so well...


Most underwhelming new voice of 2010:



Jon Sprunk
I feel slightly penisy for doing that, especially considering that Sprunk's Shadow's Son (review here) wasn't half-bad. Thing is, it was way, way, WAY too predictable and "by the numbers". I'd read it before. Many times. And in some cases more interestingly written. I guess that's the curse of the time we live in - you can only use the classical tropes if you are really amazing with them (Patrick Rothfuss), or if you introduce new elements (Adrian Tchaikovsky). And since Jon Sprunk did neither of those things, Shadow's Son read like something... tired. You don't want that from a debut novel. I am having my fingers crossed for the second part in the series to do better; I think Sprunk has the potential for that.


The books I'm most sorry I didn't get around to:

This is just a list of the titles I really wanted to check out, but couldn't read this year. There's no particular order to it.

Kraken by China Mieville
Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson
The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan
The Sorcerer's House by Gene Wolfe
Dust of Dreams by Steven Erikson
The Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham
The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
The Living Dead and The Living Dead 2 anthologies by John Joseph Adams
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
Anything by Glen Cook, Michael Moorcock, Alastair Reynolds, Paul Kearney, K.J. Parker and Richard Morgan


Well, that's all folks. 2011 promises to be utterly amazing on the SFF front, and I hope I have more time to dedicate to that, as the amount of forthcoming books I HAVE TO read is slightly scary. But anyway, Happy New Year to everyone, and I hope you didn't make any NY resolutions, as those are lame, but I also hope the year turns out to be all you're hoping it to be!

A Profound Personal Tragedy!

I just got an e-mail from Subterranean that the deluxe edition of China Mieville's Kraken is out and shipping. And that made me realize with painful clarity that none of those gorgeous hardcovers is shipping in my direction. Thought the world should know of my pain. I mean, what else are blogs for?!

RIP Realms of Fantasy

I just found out that Realms of Fantasy has folded. As much as the death of any hard-copy magazine pains me, I can't say that I was an avid follower of that one in particular. Still, it is sad. I am a firm believer in paper publications, and I don't think online ones could or should replace them completely. At the same time, reading reviews about books published half a year ago rarely makes me supportive either.

So anyway, here's a "Note From the Publisher" Warren Lapine. There are also some interesting ruminations on the subject on Pat's blog - check it out if you're interested.

Martin Freeman officially cast as Bilbo Baggins

Finally, some actual news from The Hobbit. Martin Freeman (of Love Actualy and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame) has been cast as young Bilbo Baggins. Some of the dwarves have also been announced:

Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield
Aidan Turner as Kili
Rob Kazinsky as Fili
Graham McTavish as Dwalin
Stephen Hunter as Bombur
Mark Hadlow as Dori
Peter Hambleton as Gloin
John Callen as Oin

Shooting is slated to begin in February 2011. There's still time, and a lot of names are waiting to be cast. The main question is whether sir Ian McKellan will return in his role of Gandalf, but with Peter Jackson directing, I'd say chances are good.

Brandon Sanderson's Long And Rambling Post On Future Books

Brandon posted a huge post on his site, concerning where he is now in his writing, how long his most anticipated projects - Memory of Light and Stormlight Archives Book 2 - will take to finish, as well as some further ideas he's working on. I was especially thrilled with Scribbler's concept, and can't wait for him to start working on his second Mistborn trilogy (supposed to be taking place in a 20th century-like setting). And he actually apologizes for deciding to take a three-month break, after what he's done these last two years! Gotta love such people.

Dollhouse Season 2 is out on Blu-Ray and DVD today

To all Whedon fans who didn't already know this - Season 2 of his latest show Dollhouse is finally out on BD and DVD. It had a short run, and didn't create the cult that Whedon's other shows have, but it is still very, very good, and definitely worth your money.

The Books Charles Stross will not write, parts 5 and 6

Charlie Stross continues his exploration of the never-to-happen universes in his head. Here are his last two posts:

Part 5, where he describes his time-shifting military unit sub-genre idea

and

Part 6, dealing with Halting State variations

As usual, both are worth reading, although probably less interesting than some of the previous posts on the subject.

The Books Charles Stross will not write, part 4

In the fourth part of his series of posts, Stross finally delves into the reasons why he will never write a third Eschaton novel (damn him!), and also describes the outline for its never-to-be story. To be honest, I am really sad there won't be another book in that universe, but I get the reasons why.

The Books Charles Stross will not write, part 3

In his third post, titled No plan survives contact with the editor, Stross describes the process of writing and pitching The Merchant Princes series, as well as the reason why it's not comprised of big fat volumes. Very entertaining, just like the previous two.

5000 HITS!

Now, I have no idea if that's good or bad for a blog that's only been up for three months, but it's a neat number, and makes me feel good. Thank you all for coming back to the Codex, and I hope you keep finding stuff to like here!


Edit: And thanks to ChrisW for pointing out I'm legally retarded and had the post title wrong!

The Books Charles Stross will not write, part 2

Here's part 2 of Stross' blog series, this time dedicated to the talking cat in Iron Sunrise that never happened. There's also a long passage from that "what if" storyline. Enjoy!

The books Charles Stross will not write, part 1

There is a post up on Charlie Stross' blog that describes a story concept that he almost wrote back in 2002, instead of the first part in The Merchant Princes sequence. It's pretty interesting, so check it out! I find myself impatient to finish The Hero of Ages, so that I can delve into some of Stross' stuff.

Some thoughts on bad taste

I just read Pat's post about how he debates whether to give up blogging. Now, I appreciate uncertainty as much as the next attention-whore, but what really struck me as strange, is how self-congratulatory the post seems to be. Instead of giving some specific reasons for wanting to retire, Pat goes on to list his many achievements. I know how sour-grapish this makes me sound, and I'd be the first to give the guy the credit he deserves. As a blogger, Pat has achieved a lot, and it would be petty to deny his accomplishments.

However, in recent years I gradually realized how fake his supposed modesty and down-to-earthishness are. So much attention is dedicated to his many successes that at some point one has to ask oneself how can someone be "just another guy", and at the same time insist on listing every little thing he's achieved? I mean, am I the only one seeing something contradictory in this sentence?

And although I've never taken myself very seriously, it's nevertheless heart-warming to realize that I have earned the respect of so many people, both in and outside the industry.

Especially followed by things like these:

Being on a first name basis with most editors-in-chief and big-name editors on both sides of the Atlantic means something, no question. But one of the most rewarding aspects of running this blog for so long is that I'm now on a first name basis with some of the SFF authors I've admired the most for years and years. People like Guy Gavriel Kay, Robin Hobb, L. E. Modesitt, jr., George R. R. Martin, and many others, have helped me enjoy this adventure on a more personal level.

In my own small way, I helped launch the careers of new SFF writers such as Scott Lynch, Naomi Novik, Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Brian Ruckley, Patrick Rothfuss, Carrie Vaughn, Peter V. Brett, and many more. The beauty of running this blog remains that it allowed me to discover so many talented authors and bright new voices in both the fantasy and science fiction genres. No, I don't deserve much credit, but I'm glad of the exposure I was able to provide for each of them.

And particularly this:

Jon Sprunk left this very nice and probably underserved comment on my Facebook page: "I consider you a voice of reason in a wasteland of useless chatter." It appears that quite a lot of people echo the sentiment.

Even if we accept that the guy just got carried away (and that's something I completely understand, although I'd be up-front about it myself), the last is a total slap in the face of all us bloggers, and completely unnecessary in a post about his supposed retirement. And so, when I read his Swan Song??? post now, all I see is a "show me some love" demand that is anything but honest in its intentions. If you want to quit blogging, you focus on your gratitude to your audience (and not as an aside, put after all the others like publishers, writers etc.), not on how awesome you are, and how great yet humble you are.

I am sorry, as I realize that people might take this post the wrong way. I still respect Pat for what he's done and achieved, and I do give him credit for his contributions to the SFF field. But I don't for a second think that he has ever contemplated giving up blogging. This post is in a very bad taste, and I firmly believe that masturbation is something to do in private.