Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 59

The League of S.T.E.A.M. Electrocutes Me–And I Survive!

You've probably seen this on SF Signal, but just in case…

The League of S.T.E.A.M. Electrocutes Me–And I Survive! originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 6, 2011.

Steampunk Bible News: GeekDad Loves It, Seattle Hosts It Tonight

GeekDad has reviewed The Steampunk Bible, saying it should be on every reader's nightstand: "The book shines as reference material, but can really be considered a collectible in itself."

As an added Monday pick-me-up, Gareth Branwyn of Make magazine, mentioned the book on facebook, writing, "It's really gorgeously produced and thoughtfully written. I think this is probably the best book that could be produced right now on the genre, a worthy encapsulation of what first-decade 21st century steampunk is/was."

And tonight, the University Bookstore in Seattle hosts a special event with contributors to the book…

Seattle – June 6, University Bookstore, 7pm – Signing and discussion with Cherie Priest (writer), Jay Lake (writer), and Libby Bulloff (photographer), major contributors to the Steampunk Bible. I particularly wish I could be at this event because the great and knowledgeable bookseller Duane Wilkins will be presiding, and because in addition to it being a great bookstore and the entertainment value of Cherie and Jay, I'd love to hear a photographer's perspective on the book. Libby contributed more images than anyone else. Great stuff.

To buy now while there's still money, just click on the image…

Steampunk Bible News: GeekDad Loves It, Seattle Hosts It Tonight originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 6, 2011.

The Journals of Doctor Mormeck, Entry #1

As the experiments continue across dimensions and across time, even I cannot escape the inevitable recognition that we are all animals, and in acquiring reason we paradoxically seem determined to continually undermine reason—destabilization as a coping mechanism because our brains really aren't ready for all of this yet. Systems we construct must therefore by definition fail. Their failure is a relief perversely. We willingly revert.

(What's not a relief or comforting is that no permutation of any humanoid sentient species yet discovered can be said to be any less self-destructive. Is a certain type of intelligence a kind of disease? Are opposable thumbs a harbinger of disaster?)

I was listening to the transmission from a luna moth in the Southern Hemisphere of Earth 2.7.5 yesterday and it's not as if this fact isn't understood in every-day life, for leaking through the banal conversation outside at dusk at a cafe or coffee house, caught up in our surveillance because of the key words "angels" and "other worlds," came this snippet rendered originally by a male voice, in Spanish: "If you notice how illogical, inconsistent, subjectively, just plan odd and off we all seem to act individually and collectively, how ideologies–which are usually a form of disease–infect us until we spout the most ridiculous generalities (whether those ideologies are on left or right), it sometimes seems Earth was created by gods or aliens to house billions of insane sentients."

I commandeered a passing fly to settle on this man's shoulder. He sat with a group of about ten people, middle class, clearly professionals of some sort. I listened in for a good five minutes, but the conversation turned away from the implications of what this man had said.

What I found unsettling is that the man, retreating to the bathroom to use a urinal, murmured "did you catch all of that?" at one point, and for a second I thought he somehow knew the fly camouflaged by his dark shirt was recording him…but, no, pulling out to diagnostic surveil I found he was himself "bugged" with a wire under his shirt, and clearly spying for someone's secret service. Who he was with, or why they should be of interest counted as merely regional politics—strategically unimportant. But it amused me to discover that he watched others as I watched him.

However, it also made me paranoid. Are we all watching each other? And if so, who is watching me?

So I shall, in the secret part of each night—or what functions as night here—begin to record, in the old-fashioned way, using pen and paper, how I came to be here and the results of our experiments. I shall use English, that most out-dated of languages, as a further impediment to interception. I will number but not date these entries. (Dates are a laughable proposition anyway, knowing what I know.)

It's possible that even though I am taking these precautions that I will be found out. I'm accepting of that possibility. The truth is, I am surrounded by people, and yet I have no confessor, no one with which I can share the inner-most thoughts that gather around me with a kind of flapping, glittery darkness. I trust no one, and they don't, I think, trust me.

It's not that kind of operation. I am not that kind of monster.

The Journals of Doctor Mormeck, Entry #1 originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 6, 2011.

The ODD? Anthology Has a Theme Song!

Mysterodd-short

Above you'll find a snippet from Danny Fontaine's awesome theme song for our ODD? anthology and the character featured on its cover, Myster Odd. Gregory Bossert is working on a video for the song, which will include Myster Odd, a creation of artist Jeremy Zerfoss. You can hear complete songs by Danny, along with his comrades the Horns of Fury here or here.

As for the release date for ODD?, we're contemplating a trade paperback edition along with the e-book. This trade paperback book would include all the same authors, but because of rights issues one of the stories might change. But the trade paperback requires a shift in the publication schedule, probably to September/October. We're going to release the full Cheeky Frawg schedule in the next fortnight or so, and will finalize ODD?'s pub date by then.

ODD? Table of Contents, edited by Ann & Jeff VanderMeer

"Is it odd or are you too normal?"

Amos Tutuola – "The Dead Babies"

Gustave Le Rouge – "The War of the Vampires" (new translation by Brian Evenson and David Beus)

Jeffrey Ford – "Weiroot"

Leopoldo Lugones – "The Bloat Toad" (new translation by Larry Nolen)

Mark Samuels – "Apt 205″

Michael Cisco – "Modern Cities Exist Only to Be Destroyed" (published only in a limited edition previously)

Nalo Hopkinson – "Slow Cold Chick"

Sumanth Prabhaker – "A Hard Truth About Waste Management"

Hiromi Goto – "Stinky Girl"

Eric Basso – "Logues"

Edward Morris – "Lotophagi"

Karin Tidbeck – "The Aunts" (new story; previously unpublished)

Jeffrey Thomas – "The Fork"

Rikki Ducornet – "The Volatilized Ceiling of Baron Munodi"

Leena Krohn – "The Night of the Normal Distribution Curve" (new story; previously unpublished, translation by Anna Volmari and J. Robert Tupasela)

Amanda le Bas de Plumetot – "Unmaking" (new story; previously unpublished)

Karl Hans Strobl – "The Head" (new translation by Gio Clairval)

Caitlin R. Kiernan – "A Child's Guide to the Hollow Hills"

Stacey Levine – "Sausage"

The ODD? Anthology Has a Theme Song! originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 5, 2011.

Alexander McQueen's Exhibit in NYC

Ann and I were fortunate enough to have time to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art recently. We splurged and bought the exhibit book, which is pretty amazing.

I can't really put into words what the exhibit was like, except to say it made me want to write. The creators of the exhibit did an amazing job in making the experience multi-dimensional. By which I mean that the textures and exhibit spaces in each section were perfectly chosen—opulently rich when needed and more minimal when that fit the mood of the clothes better. The music, from classical to material by Mekon, added even more, and the choice of head adornment and shoes, along with a kind of cabinet of curiosities of accessories…well, let's just say it was one of those feasts for the senses that leaves you drained and somewhat emotional, in the best possible way.

For the first time, I had the sense of fashion as actual narrative, along with the idea of micro-fictions hiding in the details of the clothes. I was most impressed by the black feather dress, which kept becoming more complex and more interesting the longer I stared at it: it contained multitudes. The dress meshing thatch and an approximation of surf was so tactile to look at that it brought back memories of beach combing in Fiji. The lines of certain clothing fascinated me—especially a skirt of wood that recalled the lines of one of Bosch's creations.

The associations the clothes called up—the painterly influence, for example—kept adding new layers and levels to what I saw, and those links brought a whole rush of images associated with grotesques, the romantics, and the decadents. Which brought me back to lines from various weird fictions. Quite a heady experience. Almost hallucinogenic at times. Can you get drunk on fashion? I didn't know you could. But I began, as mentioned, to get the urge to write, and the way in which the fashion created a different perspective on artists and writers with which I was already familiar means that somewhere in my subconscious McQueen's clothes are creating a synergy that will influence my fiction in future.

Although video and photos from the book can't begin to replicate the experience of seeing the dresses and other clothes in person, here are some images. I was particularly impressed by the way McQueen could create clothes that were over the top but still somehow didn't seem "costume-y". (Many thanks to Ann, without whom I wouldn't have gone—I had no idea who McQueen was before she dragged me to the exhibit.)

The cover is holographic, and protrays a skull that morphs…

…into his face (rather clumsily shown here—difficult to photograph).

The end papers are appropriately extravagant, evoking moth wings, animal print, and wood grain.

Alexander McQueen's Exhibit in NYC originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 4, 2011.

New York Times Book Review: Latest SF/F Review Column

My latest column for the NYTBR is online and in the print edition on Sunday, their summer reading issue.

This time I covered the following:

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes – "Beukes's energetic noir phantasmagoria, the winner of this year's Arthur C. Clarke Award, crackles with original ideas."

Mechanique by Genevieve Valentine- "Valentine's novel has the stylized quality of books by Angela Carter like The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, and it displays similar pyrotechnics."

Sleight of Hand by Peter S. Beagle- "Ever since his classic first novel, A Fine and Private Place, Beagle has displayed a talent not just for writing fantasy but for documenting the frailties and bittersweet qualities of human relationships."

Among Others by Jo Walton- "It's a brave act to write a novel that is in ­essence all aftermath, but Walton succeeds admirably. Her novel is a wonder and a joy."

I don't just review books I like for this column, but in this case I recommend all four titles. I'll be writing on the Amazon book blog about the column and these authors next week.

New York Times Book Review: Latest SF/F Review Column originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 3, 2011.

Evil Monkey Hates…And Hates…And Hates…

Evil Monkey:

I hate you.

Jeff:

I don't hate you. I love you.

Evil Monkey:

Hate me. Hate my stench. Hate my feces on the wall.

Jeff:

I hate the cat's throw-up more. But I'm curious. What else do you hate?

Evil Monkey:

I hate the bitter inner lining of walnut shells. I hate the smell of socks in the summer when the rain hits dead leaves. I hate people hating on Margaret Atwood. I hate when you complain about needing bifocals and being deaf in one ear. I hate V.S. Naipaul. I hate people who hate complex writing styles. I hate the New Emo Left. I hate idiots.

Jeff:

You don't seem to hate that bottle of vodka you're swigging. Isn't it a bit early?

Evil Monkey:

I'm on Estonian time. I hate people on Eastern Standard Time.

Jeff:

I hate people who ask me what Steampunk is. Why don't you just google the 1,800 entries of bloggers who've written posts titled either "What Is Steampunk?" or "Steampunk: This New Thing I Just Discovered and Will Now Reinvent the Wheel Defining."

Evil Monkey:

I hate Steampunk.

Jeff:

I hate Monkeypunk.

Evil Monkey:

I hate Vanderpunk.

Jeff:

I hate that you've been gone so long.

Evil Monkey:

I was busy in Hell. Negotiating some deals with the Devil.

Jeff:

What does the Devil hate?

Evil Monkey:

Oddly enough, the Devil loves everyone. Which is why I hate him. Or her.

Jeff:

I hate the internet, links to blog entries, facebook, twitter, and youtube.

Evil Monkey:

That's just love subverted. I hate self-righteousness and selfish people and readers who think every story has to be about them.

Jeff:

I hate non-readers, people on the cell phone in quiet places, and poodles. I hate (p)Rick Scott. No, that's not right. I loathe Rick Scott.

Evil Monkey:

I hate people who say "Yes, but." I hate those more awesome than me.

Jeff:

….

Evil Monkey:

But I love Fridays.

Jeff:

Yeah, me too. Can I have some vodka?

Evil Monkey:

No.

Jeff:

Are you going to be around more now?

Evil Monkey:

Now that I'm not hanging out with Drinky Crow so much…yeah, probably.

Jeff:

By the way, I always hated your stupid videos. They suck.

Evil Monkey Hates…And Hates…And Hates… originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 3, 2011.

Do You Remember Leonora Carrington?

Leonora Carrington passed away last week, one of the last great surrealist painters. She was also an important surrealist writer, whose influence extended to writers like Angela Carter and many others. I discovered because Carter included her in a fiction anthology, and it was fascinating to see the connection between those two writers—and between Carrington and others like Rikki Ducornet. Because Carter was an influence on me, Carrington became an influence as well. (Who is Rikki Ducornet? If you don't know, I can't help you–google it.)

You could, in fact, say that Carrington was an important link between surrealism and some types of modern fantasy—even if surrealism, like Decadent writing, remains less utilized today than it perhaps should be. You see glints and glimmers of that influence, but as with the contrasts drawn between the work of Mervyn Peake and J.R.R. Tolkien, surrealism represents, in some ways, the road less taken. (Others will argue that surrealism has been fully integrated into fantasy, to which I'd reply that may apply, but only to its arsenal, not to its heart or its politics.)

Carrington is an under-appreciated writer. In genre circles, it's in part because she wrote most of her fiction decades ago but also in part because she's not identifiably a genre writer. Yesterday, Cheryl Morgan wrote eloquently about the invisibility of female writers. Well, a related phenomenon relegates writers not associated with genre imprints or the genre subculture to being a lesser part of the discussion—unless, of course, the writer in question courts the subculture, makes it clear s/he is actually part of the subculture in some way. This is the main reason why Michael Chabon is acceptable to the subculture but not Cormac McCarthy or Margaret Atwood.

So we tend, at times, to separate and keep apart writers and fictions that share similarities and affiliations out of a kind of tribalism that swears fidelity to the idea of marketing categories over like-minded impulses. We make outcasts of writers who are, in fact, our siblings—and in doing so we can render invisible or marginalized what ought to be closer to the center of our thoughts. There's a whole essay in this subject, but I'll stop there for now.

Today, the Amazon book blog posted my short appreciation of Carrington, which is informed at least in part by my and my wife's reading of her fiction for our anthology The Weird. To give you some idea of chronological context, here is how Carrington fits into our table of contents:

Clark Ashton Smith, "Genius Loci," 1933

Hagiwara Sakutoro, "The Town of Cats," 1935

Hugh Walpole, "The Tarn," 1936

Bruno Schulz, "The Sanatorium at the Sign of the Hourglass," 1937

Robert Barbour Johnson, "Far Below," 1939

Leonora Carrington, "White Rabbits," 1942

Donald Wollheim, "Mimic," 1942

Fritz Leiber, "Smoke Ghost," 1943

Ray Bradbury, "The Crowd," 1943

William Sansom, "The Long Sheet," 1944

Olympe Bhely-Quenum, "A Child in the Bush of Ghosts," 1950

Jorge Luis Borges, "The Aleph," 1950

Shirley Jackson, "The Summer People," 1950

Margaret St. Clair, "The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles" 1951

As I wrote in the feature, "I was particularly struck by Carrington's willingness to let image dictate sense, and in doing so to get to an underlying truth rarely uncovered by surface logic. Such an approach requires confidence and a brilliant imagination. It also results in a kind of essential purity." Of course, the value of this will be lost to some, as we've largely metastasized into a plot-driven reading culture.

So my question to blog readers is pretty simple: Do you remember Leonora Carrington, and in particular her writing? Please feel free to share whatever strikes you as relevant or interesting. Thanks.

Do You Remember Leonora Carrington? originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 2, 2011.

Steampunk Bible Tour: Fountain Bookstore (Richmond, VA) and University Bookstore (Seattle)

Phase 1 of the Steampunk Bible book tour wraps up in the next week or so, with two awesome events. Phase 2 will consist of my coauthor S.J. Chambers' events in England and France. Phase 3 in the late summer will include DragonCon. Here's the info on the two final events of part 1.

Richmond, VA – June 2 (Thurs–tonight!), Fountain Bookstore, 6:30pm – Signing and discussion with coauthor S.J. Chambers. Fountain Bookstore is awesome, and I'm sure Chambers would love a great turn-out for her last event. She'll also be interviewed by 97.3 WRIR, Richmond Indie Radio, for a bit that'll air Friday, June 10.

Seattle – June 6, University Bookstore, 7pm – Signing and discussion with Cherie Priest (writer), Jay Lake (writer), and Libby Bulloff (photographer), major contributors to the Steampunk Bible. I particularly wish I could be at this event because the great and knowledgeable bookseller Duane Wilkins will be presiding, and because in addition to it being a great bookstore and the entertainment value of Cherie and Jay, I'd love to hear a photographer's perspective on the book. Libby contributed more images than anyone else. Great stuff.

To buy now while there's still money, just click on the image…

Steampunk Bible Tour: Fountain Bookstore (Richmond, VA) and University Bookstore (Seattle) originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 2, 2011.

The Weird Antho–Update

(Cover not final.)

Just a quick note that our 750,000-word antho The Weird: A Compendium of Strange & Dark Fictions (Atlantic/Corvus), which covers 100 years of weird stories, will indeed be released in October of this year. We will post the full TOC of over 120 stories (including a couple of short novels!) a couple of weeks before publication. Featuring an intro by Michael Moorcock and an afterword from China Mieville.

The Weird Antho–Update originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on June 1, 2011.