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More unrelated rambly bits
Jun. 16th, 2010 09:55 am1. In a nice burst of optimism, I went ahead and registered for World Fantasy Con. Still not entirely sure that the stars will be completely aligned for this, but they will be more aligned now that I've actually registered.
(Alas, Readercon and World Con are both out this year. Next year, perhaps!)
2. Just finished up Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood. To answer a small discussion we were having earlier, yes, she is a speculative fiction writer, however she may want to define herself.
With that said, I can't really recommend this book, mostly because I couldn't find myself believing in the dystopian world she's created here – not so much the environmental disasters (that I can believe) but rather, the human response she depicts. It feels contrived, and wrong, and rather like a writer trying to make a point.
3. Not that I should really be critiquing: my own writing at the moment is kinda like slogging through a wetland with little water and a lot of mud and without even the saving grace of a few lazy alligators, let alone lovely little orchids, or, which would be more to the point given the writing I'm attempting to do, large alligator eating orchids TAKING OVER THE SWAMP.
4. We've been watching The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells, a miniseries with laughably bad special effects. What I find interesting though is not so much the special effects, but the half-hearted whitewashing of the, er, unconventional personal life of H.G. Wells, who in real life left his first wife for his second, and then proceeded to have numerous affairs and attempted affairs, including a rather creepy attempt to seduce Edith Nesbit's adopted daughter. The film entirely omits Wells' first wife, transforms his second wife from his student to an independent teacher (and biology professor at , and leaves out all allusions to the later affairs, having Wells outright declare that Jane was the absolute love of his life, leaving him uninterested in other women. Which is all well and good, and something I initially assumed was meant as a nod to keep things family friendly – and the show focused on science fiction/fantasy stories, instead of soap opera – until the show unexpectedly showed Jane and Wells moving into together and sleeping together well before marriage. Mind you, this actually happened; I was just surprised that having whitewashed the truth so far, they didn't just complete the whitewashing and have the two wait for marriage, but I suppose they felt they were already stretching the truth enough.
(Alas, Readercon and World Con are both out this year. Next year, perhaps!)
2. Just finished up Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood. To answer a small discussion we were having earlier, yes, she is a speculative fiction writer, however she may want to define herself.
With that said, I can't really recommend this book, mostly because I couldn't find myself believing in the dystopian world she's created here – not so much the environmental disasters (that I can believe) but rather, the human response she depicts. It feels contrived, and wrong, and rather like a writer trying to make a point.
3. Not that I should really be critiquing: my own writing at the moment is kinda like slogging through a wetland with little water and a lot of mud and without even the saving grace of a few lazy alligators, let alone lovely little orchids, or, which would be more to the point given the writing I'm attempting to do, large alligator eating orchids TAKING OVER THE SWAMP.
4. We've been watching The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells, a miniseries with laughably bad special effects. What I find interesting though is not so much the special effects, but the half-hearted whitewashing of the, er, unconventional personal life of H.G. Wells, who in real life left his first wife for his second, and then proceeded to have numerous affairs and attempted affairs, including a rather creepy attempt to seduce Edith Nesbit's adopted daughter. The film entirely omits Wells' first wife, transforms his second wife from his student to an independent teacher (and biology professor at , and leaves out all allusions to the later affairs, having Wells outright declare that Jane was the absolute love of his life, leaving him uninterested in other women. Which is all well and good, and something I initially assumed was meant as a nod to keep things family friendly – and the show focused on science fiction/fantasy stories, instead of soap opera – until the show unexpectedly showed Jane and Wells moving into together and sleeping together well before marriage. Mind you, this actually happened; I was just surprised that having whitewashed the truth so far, they didn't just complete the whitewashing and have the two wait for marriage, but I suppose they felt they were already stretching the truth enough.