Ernest Hogan's Blog, page 2

CHICANONAUTICA INTERRUPTED BY CHICANO ART . . .

Chicanonautica gets interrupted by Chicano art at La Bloga.

There's a Aztec leisure suit . . .

 Surrealist collage techniques:

Rasquachismo:

And a strange book :

WILD IN THE STREETS OF PAMPLONA AND AZTLÁN

The animal rights protests, again, were a suitable preface. More like an opening ceremony than ever. Could be another outtake from a surrealistic, sadomasochist, spaghetti western. Naked bodies splashed with fake blood.  And the Virgin Mary. Sets the mood. 

The bulls are extra rambunctious this year. Runners fall before they come near. They plow through the crowded street, charge the spectators. They seem to have caught the psychological virus that has been warping human behavior this year.

I could say that I watch these things because I’m researching my science fiction bullfighting novel (the world doesn’t want it, so it’s probably just what it needs . . .) but I admit I’m obsessed with the running of the bulls at the fiesta of San Fermín in Pamplona, Spain, is not for the macho posturing, but the chance to see people facing fear. Any frame of a video of an encierro is loaded with drama. Not just around the bulls, with human bodies close to hooves and horns, but around the edges. 

 

People dressed to run are often frozen with fright, clinging to a wall, faces twisted, others on the ground, twitching in fetal position.

This is why, like bullfighting–the mother of all art forms, dating back to the Neanderthal rodeos–is more a sacred ritual than sport as recognized by Western Civilization. If we lose these traditions, we will lose an important part of what it is to be human. 

Transhumanists be damned. We need to go wild in the streets.

Speaking of wild in the streets, I watched the 1968 movie by that title again–such things help me keep a perspective in time of political turmoil. I see it differently now that I am older and our situation is more desperate. Funny how people will give a charismatic figure with an appealing message power. Wonder if Trump ever saw it?

Has anyone else noticed that the “don’t trust anyone over 30” attitude has come back among youngsters in the last couple of decades? Some people wouldn’t mind being put in a “retirement” camp with free drugs. What is utopia to some is dystopia to others.

Meanwhile, a fascist state is being built around us. What ICE is doing is becoming more than political performance art with occasional casualties. We are going to have to face our fears, in the streets, maybe even our homes.

We’ll see what we’ll all be doing when it comes to our towns. It’ll be like the monster movies I grew up on, with crowds trampling each other while rushing to escape the giant insects and/or reptiles. Will we run, drop to the pavement in terror, or even fight? Is sci-fi far-out enough to prepare us?

Que sera, sera, as the old song goes. There are more encierros, I’ll be watching them first thing in the morning until the last day. 

And then . . . the future!

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CHICANONAUTICA CELEBRATES INDEPENDENCE DAZE 2025

Quite a daze in Chicanonautica, at La Bloga:

In honor of the 4th of July:

And the state of the union:

In a peculiar mood:

Do all aliens look alike to you?

DISPATCHES FROM THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS: LOVE, A BIG BITE OF THE UNIVERSE, UFOS, AND MORE LOVE

 

My life is suddenly full of things that take me away from reading.There was that scorpion that stung my wife (nine times!) . . . And now we're checkingthe news to see if it’s World War Three yet . . . 

But enough of this . .. 

GOODBYE by Steven Utley

A short, bittersweet take on time travel. A man has an affair witha woman from the future is left only with anger, grief, and frustration. Daressuggest that a favorite fantasy probably isn’t a good idea. Somewhat dangerous,but it won’t change the world. It is a good story, though.

PRIMORDIAL FOLLIES by RobertSheckley

For you younger folks out there, Robert Sheckley deserves anintroduction. He is one of the funniest, and most original science fictionwriters. If you like Douglas Adams, you should check out Sheckley. You’ll bedamn glad you did.

He collaborated with Harlan on one of my all-time favorite stories,“I See a Man Sitting in a Chair, and the Chair is Biting his Leg.” It’s wayahead of its time and manages to live up to that title. It’s in the collection TheRobot That Looked Like Me, I have a paperback that quotes Harlan: “If theMarx Brothers had been literary fantasists, they would have been RobertSheckley,” yet Harlan isn’t credited for his contribution. There’s probably aninteresting story behind that . . .

And Harlan’s account of its writing in Partners in Wonder ishilarious.

Though not as good as “I See a Man . . .” in “Primordial Follies”Scheckley is in classic form. It cracks the confines of the science fictiongenre, barrages the reader with weird ideas in an absurdist romp thatchallenges all ideas about the universe, its creation, and destruction. It’salso about the dangers of eating.

Is it just me, or have people gotten batshit crazy about eating inthe last few decades? It could make an interesting anthology. Hmm . . .

MEN IN WHITE by David Brin

This one was a disappointment, even though Brin is a great writerand the story is well done. It reverses the Men In Black concept. Turns out allthe UFOs, the paranormal, and conspiracy theories are true. A dangerous enoughidea, but, even though I’m as skeptical about such things as Brin and Harlan,but I’ve exposed myself to a lot of UFO lit. Hell, I’ve even seen one. Thatstuff makes the story seem rather ho-hum.

I hesitate to recommend the book Hollywood Vs the Aliens byBruce Rux. My hesitation is because I swear that it felt like I could feelbrain cells dying while I read parts of it. Examples: Rux suggests that GeneRoddenberry enlisted Harlan in a media conspiracy to make the subject of UFOslook silly, and Nixon had The Rocky Horror Picture Show made todiscourage U.S. military personnel from having sex with aliens. Pursue at yourown risk.

INTERMEZZO 6: CONTINUITY by D.M. Rowles

Speaking of UFOs, this flash piece is a tale of alien abductionthat turns the whole idea of alien abduction inside out. A love story with ahappy ending. 

And now back to my dangerous, apocalyptic, crazy summer . . .

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CHICANONAUTICA DELIVERS XICANXFUTURISM NEWS AND OTHER STRANGE PHENOMENA

 

 It's news and other weirdness in Chicanonautica, at La Bloga:

 

Because Xicanxfuturism was too big . . .

So it had to be split in two:

 

 Then there were other phenomena:

 

It's sci-fi, and beyond . . .

DERANGED INTERLUDE

What can you do when you're teaching a class on writing Chicano science fiction while protests are spreading like wildfire across the country, drones and missiles are flying, and scorpions are showing up in the bedroom?

What else? A road trip! An overnight getaway during our mid-week days off.

Did I mention that it’s getting into the triple digits in the Metro Phoenix Area? And this summer is busy and crazy?

It’s cooler up north, Sedona, Cottonwood, Jerome, Prescott . . .

Is it weird, or are we all hallucinating?

Even computers hallucinate these days.

Mythical creatures are going high tech.

You can’t tell the aliens from the natives.

Salvador Dalí, your ants have gotten loose again.

Is this Mayalandia or Loch Ness?

It's a world of hairy bandidos and stairways of doom.

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CHICANONAUTICA WRITES IN A MASS DEPORTATION

Chicanonautica is all about how I wrote a story about a mass deportation, over at La Bloga.

So here we are . . .

While I'm giving writing advice . . .

Time to be like Oscar Zeta Acosta . . .

And don't be afraid to be crazy . . .

DISPATCHES FROM THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS: A NIGHT AT THE OPERA, DAMMIT!

Almost summer. Another apocalyptic one. This book review is taking up a fatchunk of the year, but then, in this year, I need it. Now . . .

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA  by Robert Wissner

We come to the kind of story that this anthology wasintended for. A truly dangerous vision! It breaks all the rules and tearssociety to bloody shreds. Not only are the traditional restrictions of the pulpscience fiction magazine shattered, but so are the barriers of genre—is itspeculative fiction? Satire? Fantasy? Horror? Could it actually be mainstreamliterature (something that Harlan always aspired to)? Then it gets to a bizarreplace where slapstick collides with surrealism and dada. 

The weirdest thing is, it probably could happen. Some avant-gardeperformance art piece going out of control. If the right individuals read it .. .Talk about dangerous.

It’s like the scene in the Marx Brothers movie A Day at theRaces (not A Night at the Opera) where Harpo demolishes a piano sohe can play it’s guts like a harp, but it goes far beyond that—like Luis Buñuel took over, in his close-up-on-a-sliced-eyeball mood, then the mayhem popped out ofthe screen and attacked the audience.

Culture. Entertainment. Art. Life. Silly distinctions.

I’m deliberately not describing the story because J. Michael Straczynskiis right--it’s best for the reader to be surprised by this diabolical gem.

It’s almost as if the preceding stories were meant to lull thereader into a false sense of security. Yeah, you can take all this so-calleddangerous stuff—then: AIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!

The mad genius who came up with this masterpiece only published ahandful of stories in what they called “original anthologies” in the Seventies.Most of them were variations on the Dangerous Visions theme. The NewWave. Ah, kiddies! Them wuz the daze!

Googling him comes up with Robert Wissners who were (several obituaries)doctors in various states of the union. For whatever reason he has dropped offthe ever more exacting radar. Maybe he was one of the doctors. Maybe he died.Maybe he just got fed up and went off to do something reasonable with his life.

I’d like to think that he’s still alive and well somewhere, and insome peculiar way, getting the last laugh.

In some high school campus, a quirky lass is slippingthis story before the unprepared eyes of a quiet lad who led a sheltered life,and maybe the two of them will live outrageously, if not ever after, for onebright, shining moment. The image makes me smile . . .

Thank you, Robert Wissner, wherever you are.

 

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CHICANONAUTICA CROSSED THE INTERSECTION OF XICANXFUTURISM AND GONZO SCI-FI

It's a crosscultural crosswalk crossfire in Chicanonautica at La Bloga.

Looks like some hombres ain't to bad anymore:

 And reality ain't what it used to be:

Are we sci-fi yet?

And what about Anna's Humming bird, besides mutations?

GETTING READY FOR CLASS

I better get ready. For class.

No, I haven’t gone back to school. I’m gonna be the teacher again.

Me. A teacher. Never thought that would happen, me and schoolnever getting on so good and all . . .

Turns out I’m not too bad at it. In all these decades I’ve been awriter, I’ve learned a few things, and people are willing to pay to hear it.

Granted, it meant I had to stop and think about it. I don’t liketo think about it. If I was the type to make a list of rules I’d start with“Don’t think about it–do it.” I don’t care for talking about writing, but will do it for money.

There are people for whom talking about writing is their idea of agood time. I try to avoid them and wonder if their writing is as boring astheir yacking.

Same for those who want to talk about creativity, and ways to getin the mood. I’m always in the mood. My dangerously overactive imaginationgrinds away all day and night all the time. Why do you think I became a writer?

I have a file of notes of things to bring up, and I’m going overthem, making changes and additions. People have asked me to publish thesenotes, but they’d make pretty lousy reading. They really are just a bunch ofnotes. I put them in order to give me things to talk about during each dayof the class, and to use if the students (me having students . . . still soundsweird) run out of things to say.

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It would be great if they were a lively bunch, and we spent thewhole time throwing around ideas and experiences, inspiring each other, y’know,being creative . . .

Sometimes I change my mind about things. Rules come, and go, forreasons. I like to break them now and then to see if they still apply. I breakmy own rules, to keep myself on my toes, and to weed out the clichés that peoplesay in creative writing classes because they're just are too lazy to come up with realadvice.

That’s pretty good. I should put it in the notes . . .

If I go over it, and think (ugh!) about it, my confidence willcancel my imposter syndrome, and I’ll be able to seem enough like a teacher tomake the students feel they got their money’s worth.

I’ve never had imposter syndrome about being a writer, or anartist. Throw me into just about any kind of creative activity–even if I’ve notraining or background in it–and I’ll come up with something, even if it’smaking a fool of myself.

People like it when I make a fool of myself. It's good not to takeyourself too seriously. That could be a rule . . .

But I’m uncomfortable being a teacher. I’ve also felt it as ajanitor, housekeeper, and a bookstore clerk, though I got good enough at thatso when it came time to become a library worker (NOT a librarian, I do thegrunt work) I could slip into that role. 

Maybe I’ll be doing more of this in my old age. If the price isright.

 

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