Nick Mamatas's Blog, page 8
July 21, 2016
I AM PROVIDENCE stuff
Got a couple other early reviews of I Am Providence.
From Hellnotes: This book is not parody, but rather some insightful knowing looks that fans of Lovecraft will get, but it is also broadly funny enough that those who have never read anything by the man from Providence will still laugh at. That is no mean feat and one that need to be applauded. So for all those reasons, consider I Am Providence highly recommended. It’s a must read for lovers of Lovecraft, laughs, mystery, and silliness.
From Pop Culture Beast: Snappy dialogue and interesting characters, it’s a fun read for anyone who’s experience of fandom includes conventions, message boards, or the tight knit communities that form on the internet.
And Tor.com: The central murder mystery is enjoyable enough, but secondary to the laugh-out-loud skewering of convention culture, complete with mansplaining panelists, petty writer feuds in the dealer’s room, and the distinct odor of unwashed socially awkward nerds living in close proximity for a weekend celebrating their favorite (admittedly racist, overwrought) author.
And if you're tired of hearing that I'd like you to pre-order the book in the hope of shipping 5000 paper copies in the first thirty days and thus getting an extra $2000, rejoice, as amazon is shipping the book two weeks early, claiming an in-stock date of July 25th. So I can only bother you to click here and buy your copy now for another week or so.
From Hellnotes: This book is not parody, but rather some insightful knowing looks that fans of Lovecraft will get, but it is also broadly funny enough that those who have never read anything by the man from Providence will still laugh at. That is no mean feat and one that need to be applauded. So for all those reasons, consider I Am Providence highly recommended. It’s a must read for lovers of Lovecraft, laughs, mystery, and silliness.
From Pop Culture Beast: Snappy dialogue and interesting characters, it’s a fun read for anyone who’s experience of fandom includes conventions, message boards, or the tight knit communities that form on the internet.
And Tor.com: The central murder mystery is enjoyable enough, but secondary to the laugh-out-loud skewering of convention culture, complete with mansplaining panelists, petty writer feuds in the dealer’s room, and the distinct odor of unwashed socially awkward nerds living in close proximity for a weekend celebrating their favorite (admittedly racist, overwrought) author.
And if you're tired of hearing that I'd like you to pre-order the book in the hope of shipping 5000 paper copies in the first thirty days and thus getting an extra $2000, rejoice, as amazon is shipping the book two weeks early, claiming an in-stock date of July 25th. So I can only bother you to click here and buy your copy now for another week or so.
July 18, 2016
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters, despite sharing the name of the 1984 film, is not a remake. Sadly, it isn't even a retread. It is a weird mess. If it is similar to anything, it is to the many tween-oriented TV shows on the Disney channel—mugging replaces acting, there are tons of close-ups and reaction shots that feel consistently one second off, and the jokes are almost designed to be simultaneously absurd and utterly low-key so as to avoid unseemly tittering or laughter in the theater.
There were some good moments. The beginning was legitimately scary (and a couple of the earliest jokes were good), though it was a total cheat—how did the fancy historical mansion's docent escape the haunted, locked basement? The author photo of two of the characters is classic, and it's almost centered in one or two shots. But the film is generally a sloppy wreck: Ghostbusters thinks old New York had lots of Pilgrims—more than would be at the Thanksgiving Day parade—that locals eat Papa John's pizza, and that Princeton has a "science department."
The characters are:
Erin, who is a half-speed Kristen Wiig doing a stammering nervous sketch comedy character who had a bad childhood experience. She's supposedly the protagonist, but this is really all I know about her.
Abby Yates, who is a one-tenth speed Melissa McCarthy, doing ah...you know, I don't even know. I liked all her previous movies, even the bad ones, because she is just allowed to go off and do extended bits, but she gets nothing here.
Holtzmann, by super-cute Kate McKinnon, with whom the Internet has fallen in love despite the fact that she is utterly awful. She's basically ninety minutes of drama club nerd trying to be cool by being "wacky" in the background—so that explains the Internet! It collectively self-identifies with acting stupid and aspires to be quirkily attractive. She does have a decent little speech at the end.
Patty, who is Leslie Jones. Patty's a far more interesting character, at least to start. She's an autodidact and a New York history buff who works for the MTA. Unlike her parallel character of Winston ("If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say") in the original film, she is self-motivated and makes herself a part of the group out of an interest in the events she's experiencing and as part of a need for friendship. A lot of the goodwill I had for her part of the film went right down the toilet though when she was reduced to one of the most racist of stereotypes: a bug-eyed feets-don't-fail-me-now Steppin Fetchit type who is terrified of ghosts. If you think that sort of thing is funny, you are in the Ku Klux Klan, good-bye. In the third act, she develops a spine, but inexplicably.
Kevin, the receptionist, who isn't a dumb blond man played by Chris Hemsworth, but someone whose character is so stupid that it doesn't even make sense. How does someone who doesn't know what a fish tank is at first glance get a motorcycle license? He's not a ditz or a free spirit or even a moron, he just doesn't behave like any human being ever would, ever.
The villain, Rowan, isn't much, but he is remarkably well-cast. He's supposed to be the sort of person who just projects an aura of discomfort and weirdness that other people don't like. And look at this face!
I'd love to see the Backstage audition ad: "DOUGHY WEIRDO NEEDED FOR MAJOR FEMINIST STATEMENT." He didn't have much to do though, as he drops out in the second act, and later assumes other forms.
The best performance is Andy Garcia as the mayor of New York, who does a sort of vaguely Trumpian, vaguely Kochian spiel.
The plot, such as it is, is very simple: Rowan wants revenge on the world, and has a knack for technology, so makes ghost-amplifying gadgets. The 'busters bust the ghosts in a couple of set pieces, one of which works well for low-key supernatural scares, and are asked by the government to admit being frauds to avoid a general panic. So they do, but it upsets them, and apparently Rowan has infinite resources despite being a hotel janitor who dresses like a bell hop (what?) but they can't stop him in time and the whole city goes kablooey and there is the now-inevitable sci-fi brawl over a giant swirling hole. It's much more of an actioner than the original film, which is just as as well only about 1 percent of the "jokes" are funny.
That really is it. Everything comes easy. The clues are simple enough to understand, Holtzmann has unlimited spare time off-camera to come up with super-gadgets, the characters all transform themselves into incredible athletes who never miss more or less immediately, and everything's always great. The jokes are mostly shoehorned in to conversations, with plenty of TV-style reaction shots and people muttering to one another about what an odd thing it was to say this or that, and there's an extended bit when a lowlife college dean spends two minutes of screentime waving his middle fingers at the characters. It's just stupid. A lot of Ghostbusters is just fucking stupid. Dan Ackroyd playing a cabbie who says he ain't afraid of no ghosts is about as "aaawwwwweeeesome!!" as it gets (not at all; it was just embarrassing). In the very end, the editor cannot be arsed to make the dialogue match up with the moving lips of the characters. How much did this picture cost to make again?
The ghost of a good movie has been busted.
There were some good moments. The beginning was legitimately scary (and a couple of the earliest jokes were good), though it was a total cheat—how did the fancy historical mansion's docent escape the haunted, locked basement? The author photo of two of the characters is classic, and it's almost centered in one or two shots. But the film is generally a sloppy wreck: Ghostbusters thinks old New York had lots of Pilgrims—more than would be at the Thanksgiving Day parade—that locals eat Papa John's pizza, and that Princeton has a "science department."
The characters are:
Erin, who is a half-speed Kristen Wiig doing a stammering nervous sketch comedy character who had a bad childhood experience. She's supposedly the protagonist, but this is really all I know about her.
Abby Yates, who is a one-tenth speed Melissa McCarthy, doing ah...you know, I don't even know. I liked all her previous movies, even the bad ones, because she is just allowed to go off and do extended bits, but she gets nothing here.
Holtzmann, by super-cute Kate McKinnon, with whom the Internet has fallen in love despite the fact that she is utterly awful. She's basically ninety minutes of drama club nerd trying to be cool by being "wacky" in the background—so that explains the Internet! It collectively self-identifies with acting stupid and aspires to be quirkily attractive. She does have a decent little speech at the end.
Patty, who is Leslie Jones. Patty's a far more interesting character, at least to start. She's an autodidact and a New York history buff who works for the MTA. Unlike her parallel character of Winston ("If there's a steady paycheck in it, I'll believe anything you say") in the original film, she is self-motivated and makes herself a part of the group out of an interest in the events she's experiencing and as part of a need for friendship. A lot of the goodwill I had for her part of the film went right down the toilet though when she was reduced to one of the most racist of stereotypes: a bug-eyed feets-don't-fail-me-now Steppin Fetchit type who is terrified of ghosts. If you think that sort of thing is funny, you are in the Ku Klux Klan, good-bye. In the third act, she develops a spine, but inexplicably.
Kevin, the receptionist, who isn't a dumb blond man played by Chris Hemsworth, but someone whose character is so stupid that it doesn't even make sense. How does someone who doesn't know what a fish tank is at first glance get a motorcycle license? He's not a ditz or a free spirit or even a moron, he just doesn't behave like any human being ever would, ever.
The villain, Rowan, isn't much, but he is remarkably well-cast. He's supposed to be the sort of person who just projects an aura of discomfort and weirdness that other people don't like. And look at this face!
I'd love to see the Backstage audition ad: "DOUGHY WEIRDO NEEDED FOR MAJOR FEMINIST STATEMENT." He didn't have much to do though, as he drops out in the second act, and later assumes other forms.
The best performance is Andy Garcia as the mayor of New York, who does a sort of vaguely Trumpian, vaguely Kochian spiel.
The plot, such as it is, is very simple: Rowan wants revenge on the world, and has a knack for technology, so makes ghost-amplifying gadgets. The 'busters bust the ghosts in a couple of set pieces, one of which works well for low-key supernatural scares, and are asked by the government to admit being frauds to avoid a general panic. So they do, but it upsets them, and apparently Rowan has infinite resources despite being a hotel janitor who dresses like a bell hop (what?) but they can't stop him in time and the whole city goes kablooey and there is the now-inevitable sci-fi brawl over a giant swirling hole. It's much more of an actioner than the original film, which is just as as well only about 1 percent of the "jokes" are funny.
That really is it. Everything comes easy. The clues are simple enough to understand, Holtzmann has unlimited spare time off-camera to come up with super-gadgets, the characters all transform themselves into incredible athletes who never miss more or less immediately, and everything's always great. The jokes are mostly shoehorned in to conversations, with plenty of TV-style reaction shots and people muttering to one another about what an odd thing it was to say this or that, and there's an extended bit when a lowlife college dean spends two minutes of screentime waving his middle fingers at the characters. It's just stupid. A lot of Ghostbusters is just fucking stupid. Dan Ackroyd playing a cabbie who says he ain't afraid of no ghosts is about as "aaawwwwweeeesome!!" as it gets (not at all; it was just embarrassing). In the very end, the editor cannot be arsed to make the dialogue match up with the moving lips of the characters. How much did this picture cost to make again?
The ghost of a good movie has been busted.
July 13, 2016
Some free, some cheap
My story "Der Kommissar's In Town" is now live at Nightmare Magazine for free reading. There's a little Q/A with me as well.
I'm pretty excited that my day job at Team Rocket is the latest Story Bundle! Check out the Japanese SF bundle here. It includes the first volume of Legend of the Galactic Heroes for you space opera fans out there, all three of the fiction anthologies I co-edited—The Future Is Japanese, Phantasm Japan, and Hanzai Japan—the Project Itoh duology, including PKD Citation winner Harmony, and more. It's a bundle, so you pay what you want (with a minimum) for either the first five books or all ten.
I'm pretty excited that my day job at Team Rocket is the latest Story Bundle! Check out the Japanese SF bundle here. It includes the first volume of Legend of the Galactic Heroes for you space opera fans out there, all three of the fiction anthologies I co-edited—The Future Is Japanese, Phantasm Japan, and Hanzai Japan—the Project Itoh duology, including PKD Citation winner Harmony, and more. It's a bundle, so you pay what you want (with a minimum) for either the first five books or all ten.
July 11, 2016
I AM PROVIDENCE creaks to life...
My forthcoming novel I Am Providence (pre-order now for August release!) received a starred review from Booklist, which reads, in part:
This smart, fun novel is filled with hilarious satire. The story takes an honest look at Lovecraft’s troubling legacy of racism and sexism and how it comes into play during this current revival in his popularity, but you can also feel Mamatas’ true affection for the author and the larger community of misfit horror authors.
The BL reviewer also extended her comments on her own website, writing: ...the entire book reads like a Lovecraft tale with the other protagonist caught up in the nightmare. Such a smart and fun book. But what is its genre? Ultimately I think I would put it in horror because it ends up open on Colleen’s fate (but the mystery is solved for readers) and it is very chilling, but the mystery is solid and would be enjoyed by those readers too.
She also tweeted to her librarian followers about the three books she reviewed this month:
Publishers Weekly was less enthusiastic about the amateur sleuth/mystery elements, but after some plot discussion (which it gets a bit wrong, but purposefully to avoid spoilers I believe), agrees that Mamatas provides a heartfelt homage to Lovecraft lore, perfectly captures the antics of conventioneers, and comments on the cutthroat politics of online publishing and the recent discussions of Lovecraft’s bigoted views.
In non-novel but yes-writing news, the latest issue of Dark Discoveries is available for purchase. It's the "war and apocalypse" issue. I was asked to write a story of "military horror" and so visit the Polish-Bolshevik war in "The Great Armored Train." There's also and interview with and an excerpt from the latest novel by Joe Hill.
This smart, fun novel is filled with hilarious satire. The story takes an honest look at Lovecraft’s troubling legacy of racism and sexism and how it comes into play during this current revival in his popularity, but you can also feel Mamatas’ true affection for the author and the larger community of misfit horror authors.
The BL reviewer also extended her comments on her own website, writing: ...the entire book reads like a Lovecraft tale with the other protagonist caught up in the nightmare. Such a smart and fun book. But what is its genre? Ultimately I think I would put it in horror because it ends up open on Colleen’s fate (but the mystery is solved for readers) and it is very chilling, but the mystery is solid and would be enjoyed by those readers too.
She also tweeted to her librarian followers about the three books she reviewed this month:
RL3Ts-- if you can only get 1, get @NMamatas. This book is horror and mystery with tons of #fandom love and satire https://t.co/H6Uaq9l0sA
— Becky Spratford (@RAforAll) July 8, 2016
Publishers Weekly was less enthusiastic about the amateur sleuth/mystery elements, but after some plot discussion (which it gets a bit wrong, but purposefully to avoid spoilers I believe), agrees that Mamatas provides a heartfelt homage to Lovecraft lore, perfectly captures the antics of conventioneers, and comments on the cutthroat politics of online publishing and the recent discussions of Lovecraft’s bigoted views.
In non-novel but yes-writing news, the latest issue of Dark Discoveries is available for purchase. It's the "war and apocalypse" issue. I was asked to write a story of "military horror" and so visit the Polish-Bolshevik war in "The Great Armored Train." There's also and interview with and an excerpt from the latest novel by Joe Hill.
July 10, 2016
Second thoughts from the Right Wing
Newt Gingrich on the police and African-Americans: "It is more dangerous to be black in America," he said. "It is more dangerous in that they are substantially more likely to end up in a situation where the police don't respect you and you could easily get killed. And sometimes for whites it difficult to appreciate how real that is and how it's an everyday danger."
Leon H. Wolf at Red State suggests something similar: Every time I post these stories, I get a flood of comments from people who look for even the smallest hook on which to hang an excuse for the cops. "Well, he was rude and confrontational to the cop." "Well, when the officer was trying to arrest him, he ran." "He was 'resisting arrest.'" (My personal favorite, which was used by several dozen people I talked to regarding Eric Garner, whose "resisting arrest" consisted entirely of turning his back to a cop and putting his hands in the air.)
So did Matt Lewis of The Daily Caller:And if there’s any good to come from this horrible trend, it may be that the scales are coming off the eyes of a lot of well meaning, if naive, white Americans. My hope is that this will change public opinion to the point that we can change public policy.
Note that these comments didn't come after the two high-profile police slayings of black—such things, as shocking as they still are, occur with depressing regularity and are part of The Spectacle—but after the Dallas ambush shooting and the slaying of several police officers.
I guess these right-wing whites are hoping not to get shot next.
Leon H. Wolf at Red State suggests something similar: Every time I post these stories, I get a flood of comments from people who look for even the smallest hook on which to hang an excuse for the cops. "Well, he was rude and confrontational to the cop." "Well, when the officer was trying to arrest him, he ran." "He was 'resisting arrest.'" (My personal favorite, which was used by several dozen people I talked to regarding Eric Garner, whose "resisting arrest" consisted entirely of turning his back to a cop and putting his hands in the air.)
So did Matt Lewis of The Daily Caller:And if there’s any good to come from this horrible trend, it may be that the scales are coming off the eyes of a lot of well meaning, if naive, white Americans. My hope is that this will change public opinion to the point that we can change public policy.
Note that these comments didn't come after the two high-profile police slayings of black—such things, as shocking as they still are, occur with depressing regularity and are part of The Spectacle—but after the Dallas ambush shooting and the slaying of several police officers.
I guess these right-wing whites are hoping not to get shot next.
July 8, 2016
Dallas
I certainly don't support the ambush shooting in Dallas last night, but...
The "but" is not a defense of the ambush shooting in Dallas last night...
but
But when people defend the Second Amendment as a check against government, this is generally the sort of thing they envision. Or the Bundy ranch stand-off. Or showing up on the courthouse steps, armed. Or bringing a rifle to a contentious town hall meeting in a Vermont town. The typical counter-argument has already been reduced to a meme: the government has planes and bombs and well-trained Marines and aircraft carriers, and what are you going to do with your rifles, eh, punk? Eh? It's not like various levels of government haven't bombed their own cities, that much is true.
Scratch a liberal, get a militarist. There will certainly be no stopping the militarization of the police now. The meme is already in place. The cops will get (more) armored personnel carriers, armed helicopters, etc.
But the answer to "What are you going to do with your rifles, eh, punk?" literally is "Coordinate, train, and then when we feel the time is ripe, strike." Whether the strike is truly in self-defense or is part of a larger political campaign—against police brutality, in favor of taking over a cabin in the woods, whatever—or is just someone gone bananas, is besides the point.
It's not like military training is hard to get. Just sign up and survive—even with all the interventions across the world, the overwhelming majority of US troops come home without significant physical injury. I suspect that the shooters last night were not trained snipers, but they were trained well enough to hide, cooperate, and triangulate. There are many levels of armed "resistance" against the government before all-out war in the streets.
Yesterday was a horrifying act, and certainly politically insipid*, but it is absolutely baked into the system. On this level, the ambush shooting wasn't the act of some anti-American radicals. It was likely some locals who, except on the questions of race and racism, probably had politics not all that different than the police officers they shot.
*This is not to say that all acts of armed politics are necessarily insipid. But a disconnected cell of militants going into business for themselves is simply individual terrorism.
The "but" is not a defense of the ambush shooting in Dallas last night...
but
But when people defend the Second Amendment as a check against government, this is generally the sort of thing they envision. Or the Bundy ranch stand-off. Or showing up on the courthouse steps, armed. Or bringing a rifle to a contentious town hall meeting in a Vermont town. The typical counter-argument has already been reduced to a meme: the government has planes and bombs and well-trained Marines and aircraft carriers, and what are you going to do with your rifles, eh, punk? Eh? It's not like various levels of government haven't bombed their own cities, that much is true.
Scratch a liberal, get a militarist. There will certainly be no stopping the militarization of the police now. The meme is already in place. The cops will get (more) armored personnel carriers, armed helicopters, etc.
But the answer to "What are you going to do with your rifles, eh, punk?" literally is "Coordinate, train, and then when we feel the time is ripe, strike." Whether the strike is truly in self-defense or is part of a larger political campaign—against police brutality, in favor of taking over a cabin in the woods, whatever—or is just someone gone bananas, is besides the point.
It's not like military training is hard to get. Just sign up and survive—even with all the interventions across the world, the overwhelming majority of US troops come home without significant physical injury. I suspect that the shooters last night were not trained snipers, but they were trained well enough to hide, cooperate, and triangulate. There are many levels of armed "resistance" against the government before all-out war in the streets.
Yesterday was a horrifying act, and certainly politically insipid*, but it is absolutely baked into the system. On this level, the ambush shooting wasn't the act of some anti-American radicals. It was likely some locals who, except on the questions of race and racism, probably had politics not all that different than the police officers they shot.
*This is not to say that all acts of armed politics are necessarily insipid. But a disconnected cell of militants going into business for themselves is simply individual terrorism.
July 1, 2016
Let's Get Creepy
The latest issue of Nightmare Magazine is available for purchase, and it includes my story "Der Kommissar's In Town." Ebook now, free to read in two weeks.
If you can't wait, let me suggest a story by Carrie Laben, who is making her return to short fiction after an absence of a year or more, in The Dark. Read, or listen to, "Postcards from Natalie."
If you can't wait, let me suggest a story by Carrie Laben, who is making her return to short fiction after an absence of a year or more, in The Dark. Read, or listen to, "Postcards from Natalie."
June 29, 2016
Birth of a Brexit Meme
"You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!"
— Nick Mamatas (@NMamatas) June 24, 2016
Photo by @jeremiahtolbert. pic.twitter.com/20KuMJdKod
That tweet was my most successful ever thanks to good timing—right when the UK was getting up in the morning and right when Cory Doctorow happened to be looking at Twitter—and of course the brilliant meme work of Jeremy Tolbert. The image soared right off the tweet and soon lost attribution, but was easy to keep track of, as Jeremy does in his follow-up blog post My Short Time as a Viral Hitmaker.
June 23, 2016
This morning, in the United Kingdom...
Elizabeth Saxe-Coburg's secretary is poring over ancient documents, wondering if there is any way she gets to vote 500,000 times and a day late.
June 17, 2016
Friday Quick Notes
From Socialist Worker:
As for Abdelhadi, a queer Muslim activist, she probably didn't feel better two days later when the cover of the New York Daily News featured a photo of a dashing Marine holding a machine gun in Iraq with the headline: "No civilian should own this gun."
That headline was probably intended as a liberal challenge to the conservative fanatics who care about no part of the Constitution so much as the "right to bear arms." But it also embodied a logic, embraced by conservatives as well, that has been promoted by every imperial power since Rome: Violence is meant to be used over there on them, not here on us.
A review of The Last Weekend, which you should totally buy. It reads, in part:
Mamatas has lots to say about the nature and struggles of being a writer, as well as alcoholism and depression. This all gets wrapped up in a dark sheen of cynical, black humor, occasional bouts of wicked violence, and an interesting detour through the history of the 49ers gold rush, SanFran cemeteries and burial rites. And here's a link to the audiobook, which is the actual subject of the review.
Year's Best Weird Fiction is reviewed in Locus:
The counterpoint to Machado’s poignant tale is Nick Mamatas’s ‘‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’’, a wonderfully snarky account of how a Massachusetts town in need of tourist commerce milks a concocted urban legend perhaps a little too aggressively.
As for Abdelhadi, a queer Muslim activist, she probably didn't feel better two days later when the cover of the New York Daily News featured a photo of a dashing Marine holding a machine gun in Iraq with the headline: "No civilian should own this gun."
That headline was probably intended as a liberal challenge to the conservative fanatics who care about no part of the Constitution so much as the "right to bear arms." But it also embodied a logic, embraced by conservatives as well, that has been promoted by every imperial power since Rome: Violence is meant to be used over there on them, not here on us.
A review of The Last Weekend, which you should totally buy. It reads, in part:
Mamatas has lots to say about the nature and struggles of being a writer, as well as alcoholism and depression. This all gets wrapped up in a dark sheen of cynical, black humor, occasional bouts of wicked violence, and an interesting detour through the history of the 49ers gold rush, SanFran cemeteries and burial rites. And here's a link to the audiobook, which is the actual subject of the review.
Year's Best Weird Fiction is reviewed in Locus:
The counterpoint to Machado’s poignant tale is Nick Mamatas’s ‘‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’’, a wonderfully snarky account of how a Massachusetts town in need of tourist commerce milks a concocted urban legend perhaps a little too aggressively.
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