Archive for the 'Miscellaneous' Category

Whedon On WGA Strike (2)

Constance Ash November 26th, 2007

Joss Whedon answers the New York Times, who try to characterize striking writers as latte-sipping dandies.

http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/11/25/joss-whedon-on-the-wga-strike/

[ The easiest tactic is for people to paint writers as namby pamby arty scarfy posers, because it’s what most people think even when we’re not striking. Writing is largely not considered work. Art in general is not considered work. Work is a thing you physically labor at, or at the very least, hate. Art is fun. (And Hollywood writers are overpaid, scarf-wearing dainties.) It’s an easy argument to make. And a hard one to dispute. ]

There is much more, and it is all wise.

Love, C.

Whedon Returns, With Dushko, With “Dollhouse”

Constance Ash November 1st, 2007

[ Whedon's new Fox series, called Dollhouse, stars Miss Eliza Dushku, best known as Faith to you Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans. And this show isn't just a pilot. It's already been given a seven-episode commitment by Fox. Woo!

Here's how Fox describes the series:

Echo (Eliza Dushku) [is] a young woman who is literally everybody’s fantasy. She is one of a group of men and women who can be imprinted with personality packages, including memories, skills, language—even muscle memory—for different assignments. The assignments can be romantic, adventurous, outlandish, uplifting, sexual and/or very illegal. When not imprinted with a personality package, Echo and the others are basically mind-wiped, living like children in a futuristic dorm/lab dubbed the Dollhouse, with no memory of their assignments—or of much else. The show revolves around the childlike Echo’s burgeoning self-awareness, and her desire to know who she was before, a desire that begins to seep into her various imprinted personalities and puts her in danger both in the field and in the closely monitored confines of the Dollhouse.

So, how did Dollhouse come about? When will it start, given the impending strike? And what are the chances a few Buffy alums might make it onto the show? To find out, read on for my exclusive one-on-one Q&As with creator and executive producer Joss Whedon and star and producer Eliza Dushku. (Pinch me.) You honestly won’t believe how fast this all happened, or where the idea first began! ]

Far more here, including the Q&A with Whedon.

http://www.eonline.com/gossip/kristin/detail/index.jsp?uuid=972f7d73-e0a2-43ea-abad-0abf6afba1f3&sid=fd-hot3-txt

The discussion about Dollhouse on Feminist SF - The Blog has raised some issues.

http://blogs.feministsf.net/

For example, this, written by Ide Cyan:

[ "Even creepier is the fact that these “childlike” characters, mind-wiped and “imprinted” to be anyone’s fantasy, obviously do not have the ability to consent to these jobs, thus turning any sexual assignments into rape." ]

Myself, I’ve always myself a bad taste re what has looked like Whedon’s predeliction for girly sex-bots and other perfect and perfectly compliant female forms, as they recurred more often than seemed seemly on Buffy, and he included one in Serenity.

Love, C.

Community

Lois Tilton October 14th, 2007

It was just over twenty years ago, as a newly-published author, that I joined the Science Fiction Writers of America. It wasn’t a difficult decision. Aside from a vague hope of discovering the Secret Pro Parties, I wasn’t thinking: What can SFWA do for me? Even less was I thinking, then: What can I do for SFWA?

Instead, I thought that I was honored and privileged to become part of the community of science fiction authors. My community.

Continue Reading »

Show Don’t Tell But Don’t Show Too Much

Madeleine Robins August 3rd, 2007

This morning’s while-I-was-thinking-of-something-else revelation: reading is a collaborative experience. Writing is done in the expectation of this collaboration, which is one of the things that makes it difficult (aside from the invention, the research, the craft). Movies are prescriptive: they show you what they mean. The best movies, in my humble, leave a little bit to our imagination, don’t spell everything out, make you work. The best books do too, but even there, you are using the author’s words to create a movie in your head. It’s a collaboration. That means the writer has to be careful not to put up blocks to collaboration; the writer has to allow the reader some leeway for her own imagination.

I’ve been thinking about this because I’m mid-way through a really interesting book, but keep stumbling over the details. Many of the details are delightful, but sometimes there’s just too many of them. It’s not worldbuilding, or at least not otherworld-building; the book takes place in the present, in our world. But I’m told every garment every character is wearing, and their fabric composition; I’m told about every tic and shiver, to the point that I can’t tell which of these tics and shivers are meaningful in terms of character reaction and which are just there. If I were workshopping this book, I’d tell the author that he’s so caught up in the movie in his head that he’s not leaving space for me to make that movie my own.

ETA: I appear to have posted this before I was actually done composing. My bad.

Depp lights up ‘Dark Shadows’

Constance Ash July 30th, 2007

How ’bout that — Depp gonna bite hisself some Barnabas of Dark Shadows.

 I probably got to Dark Shadows waaaay too late to find the charms, that I have been reliably assured are found there, but I failed to find any single one, the few times I’ve poked a toe there.

 But surely I am a minority re that, soze herez the newz, if you’all hadn’t heard.

 (I miss me my fish, my splendid, locally fresh caught, wild — not farmed fatty flabby fish fed on bio-engineered corn etc. — grilled to perfection, served with all that one would like with such fish, including the company of brilliant conversationlists in at least 6 languages, including 2 Créoles — and now, instead, I’m moving office in dirty, smucky air ….)

 Love, C.

A Peephole into the Wonderful World of Publishing

Madeleine Robins July 28th, 2007

The Business section of today’s New York Times has a fascinating piece on the economics of selling Harry Potter. Not publishing, mind, but selling. Think Barnes and Noble and Borders and Amazon made a killing? Not so much: between deep discounts, giveaways, parties, free shipping, etc., most of the major sellers are out of pocket on the season’s Biggest Book. Why would they do that? Goodwill, in part (that’s yours, the buyer’s). Competitive edge (note that Wal*mart is selling the book $.30 cheaper than Costco… I personally would pay an extra dollar to avoid Wal*mart, but that’s just me) and staying in the game. Getting people in the door, where they may buy more books–building a pattern, essentially, of book buying. Amazon, in particular, gets your email address and data, and gets to market less discounted books in the future.

Nothing in this industry is simple; half of the industry is working on a model from a hundred years ago; the other half appears to be pelting down the long hallway toward the future (electronic rights! POD! podcasts!). It’s just kind of illuminating.

Why fantasy writers get crabby

Katharine Kerr July 27th, 2007

What follows is a letter I wrote to a book reviewer in this morning’s San Francisco Chronicle. The review is available online; I have tried to post the URL here several times with no luck. If you want to read it — it’s quite good otherwise — go to sfgate.com, at the top you’ll see SF CHRONICLE in Gothic type. Click on that. Click on Datebook on its masthead. The Harry review should be at the top of the list of contents.

Dear M(s, Mr?) Mcmahon,

I am NOT writing to complain about your posting spoilers, first off.

I was very surprised by your remark that the Potter books have “some of the trappings” of fantasy genre fiction but “transcend genre.” I can only conclude that you don’t know much about modern fantasy fiction, or about British “school stories,” such as the “Boys’ Own Paper” genre. The Potter books are a very clever, very well-done arrangment of motifs, themes, character types, and situations from both genres — to say nothing of their over-arching plot, which is typical, not original.

I’m not saying this to disparage them. They’re well done. But why you’d call them “literature” while sneering at the genre fiction that gave them birth is beyond me. As a writer of fantasy fiction, it bothers me when reviewers make that sort of dismissive statement, especially when they are reviewing a piece that most definitely fits into genre.

Yours,

Katharine Kerr
http://www.deverry.com/

Le Guin tells it like it is

Katharine Kerr July 17th, 2007

By all means check this out:

“On Serious Literature”

http://www.ursulakleguin.com/Note-ChabonAndGenre.html

Much laughter,
Kit

Fish For Dinner

Constance Ash July 5th, 2007

Leave for airport at 5 in the a.m.

Should have the fish by dinner time.

Love, C.

Indiana Jones, #4

Constance Ash July 1st, 2007

The latest (last?) installment of the Indiana Jones treasure hunts of golden ages past is currently being filmed in New Haven, Connecticut, with an emphasis on the Yale campus, and particularly its main library, Sterling.    This time the era is 1957 — the make of the one of the greatest cars ever made, the the 1957 Chevrolet.  Yale has stood in for Marshall College, if I recall correctly, in the previous films. 

John Crowly, elsewhere, posted a photo of himself walking past a circa 1957  New Haven Woolworths.

 You can find the tale, plus photos, here.

 [ Lavish preparations were under way to build a ramp outside Sterling and an 80-foot-long tunnel inside. The tunnel will protect books and other materials in the building from fumes once the motorcycle enters. It needs 80 feet just to brake.

All week, spectators were able to play spot the fake because of the steps the filmmakers had taken to ensure that real landmarks were not damaged. For instance, the wrought iron entryway known as the Vanderbilt Gate was quietly replaced with one made from balsa wood and plastic foam swimming noodles.

Doug McDermott, a plumber for Yale who was eyeing the bevy of vintage cars parked on College Street on Thursday, seemed unworried. “They can’t do any more damage than the students do,” he said. Besides, he said, if they do, “it keeps us busy.” ]

Love, C.

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