Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 72

Caplin Rous, RIP: How You Can Help

Yesterday I received the sad, terrible news that the capybara Caplin Rous passed away this week suddenly. Condolences to Caplin Rous's owner, Melanie Typaldos. Caplin Rous was beloved by a lot of people.

Back in 2009, I interviewed Typaldos about capybaras generally and Caplin Rous in particular. It was the most popular blog post I've ever run, and Boing Boing and others picked it up. I think their cuteness and their size make capybaras fascinating. And, by all accounts, Caplin Rous was quite a character.

Unfortunately, there were vet bills associated with Caplin Rous's last days, and Typaldos is asking that instead of cards or gifts in sympathy that those who want to remember Caplin Rous buy a Capycoppy plush toy like the one pictured below. The proceeds will go to offset the bills. I don't have full details, but apparently Caplin Rous was having seizures—there's more information here.

Rest in Peace, Caplin Rous. You will be missed.

Also check out this twitter feed for updated information.

Caplin Rous, RIP: How You Can Help originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on January 6, 2011.

Movies Seen Over the Holidays

In an effort to slow down and recharge, Ann and I saw a lot of movies in the theaters, on video, and on demand over the past few weeks, in addition to some TV shows. Here, in no particular order, are thumbnail reviews of a few of them. The last, Bunny and the Bull, you may not have heard of, but is a must-see.

Community—Watching this show about a group of misfits at a community college has been one of the great pleasures of our TV viewing. From Abed to Jeff to Shirley to the character played by Chevy Chase, there's lots of possibilities here for both humor and depth, and a commitment to a diverse cast and at the very least some surface examination of social, religious, and racial issues played against a surreal and absurd backdrop. A favorite episode involves a paintball fight. Another, riffing off of Goodfellas. Highly recommended.

IT Crowd, Season Four—We love the IT crowd, based around three lovable quirky geek losers in the basement of a large corporation. Season three was, in our opinion, the best. Now that we've seen Season four we can report that…Season three is still the best. The scripts for season four seemed to force situations too much, and substituted the simply unbelievable for the surreal or absurd. Lots of good set-pieces, but something's come unglued. It felt like late-era Seinfeld.

Modern Family—I know a lot of people like this show and are happy to have a positive portrayal of a gay couple raising a baby on network TV…but the show is at best uneven. Sequences in which the gay couple keep assuming an Asian-American doctor knows everything about everything Asian just make them look like fools and are wince-inducing. The realtor dad in one of the other families is incredibly creepy—to the point of stalker-creep—and the creators of the show don't seem to realize this. But it's mostly the sloppy way in which the families' jobs have been integrated into the show—almost not at all—and the kind of upper middle class suburban ease with which the characters move through the show that grates the most. These people don't have any real problems, and so the trivial is magnified to the level of drama. Exceptions to the expected include the Colombian son, who is quirky and interesting and non-cliche. But an incident involving an accident outside a cupcake shop just shows how sloppy this show is—for the sake of a joke, the family members inside apparently don't hear the car smash into the side of the shop. There's a lot of second-hand observations of reality here. Often predictable, coincidental, and uneven, with a few truly funny episodes shining through.

Below–I watched this quite awhile ago, but seeing it in our Netflix history, I thought I should recommend it. This is an excellent submarine/supernatural story, well above the norm, with great editing and peformances. It holds together throughout. Definitely rent it.

Terribly Happy—Set in small-town Denmark, this classic bit of bizarre neo-noir involves a poker game of fate and a bog and dead people and a sheriff recently arrived from Copenhagen where he did something terrible. Will he solve these new crimes? Will he get too involved with a local married woman? Why the hell is that kid pushing that squeaky pram all the time? This is the real deal–a truly original and good take on the genre.

True Grit—A great Coen brothers movie that gives us a sincere and believably brave teenage girl as a protagonist and an outstanding performance from Jeff Bridges as a US lawman. The cinematography is ravishing in its desolation, every set-piece is note-perfect, the dialogue is a delight, the violence is not sensationalized, and the ending is complex, bittersweet, and perfect. (In theaters now.)

Backyard—A searing and complex fictional view of the Juarez murders and disappearances of hundreds of women. Much better than a movie on the same topic starring Jennifer Lopez, Backyard mostly uses actors little-known in the US, including a female cop, and examines the murders in the context of Juarez as a whole, Mexico's relationship with the US re NAFTA, and much else. One of the most horrifying lines in the movie comes when the female cop tells a radio host that people care so little about the murders and they have remained unsolved for so long that basically anyone can murder a woman, mimic the crime scene details of what appears to be a serial killer, and dump her in the desert without fear of reprisal. That, by now, there are dozens of murderers. It's grim stuff, and the filmmakers don't hold back in their depictions of murder and brutality…but if they did, the film would feel sanitized and false.

The King's Speech—Within the limited context of the film's conceit, this film is note-perfect. It's not something I expect I'll remember in a week, but it is entertaining to watch Firth and Rush act with each other. (In theaters now.)

Black Swan—Once I realized what was going on, about 30 minutes in, this became a snooze-fest made more excruciating by the dynamic between Portman's character and the ballet's director, and by the passivity of Portman's character. I understand that this is the whole point of the movie, and acknowledge I might not be the ideal audience for it. Ann liked the movie more than I did, but she didn't love it, either. The directing and cinematography are interesting, but this is far from a classic. (In theaters now.)

Kill Shot—Based on an Elmore Leonard novel and starring Mickey Rourke, this is a reasonably good neo-noir, although with some predictable elements. The film's commitment to a couple's failing relationship helps lift it above average. The performances are very good.

The Horsemen—An occult thriller starring Dennis Quaid as a detective rapidly losing control of an investigation of bizarre murders. The first half of the movie is vivid, intense, and somewhat unpredictable, but the last third trends toward the cliche and loses its way.

The Horseman—This Aussie tale of a father's revenge for the murder of his daughter, with intense violence and sadism, is not for the faint of heart. The relentlessness is to be applauded, but the blocking on fight scenes is not always convincing, and the odds too stacked for us to believe he's going to overcome them…even when he does. I'd like to see more from this director, but the film fell a little short.

A Serious Man—Having just seen True Grit, we finally decided to see the Coen Brothers' previous film, about a Jewish college professor beset by bad luck. It was quite fascinating to watch A Serious Man after True Grit as they couldn't be more different in approach. True Grit has classic storylines and structure. A Serious Man is fairly slice-of-life, with the conceit of visits to various rabbis to provide form. It's uncomfortable in its humor and its seriousness, with one set piece involving letters carved into teeth worth the price of admission alone. By movie's end, we were torn between finding it a powerful piece of filmmaking and thinking it hadn't added up to much.

Arena—About intergalactic gladiators. I didn't get past the first 10 minutes. Horrible.

The Damned United—Bracing, exciting, and darkly hilarious soccer/football flick. Go rent it now.

The Red Riding Trilogy—This series based on the David Peace novels set in northern England forms a troika of perhaps the best neo-noir filmmaking of the past 20 years. Stunning and set in bleak places, about a series of murders and molestations. Quite simply classics right up there with The Wire, and I'm not going to say more here because I don't want to spoil your enjoyment. (They are dark, dark, dark, however.)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy—These mystery-thriller Swedish imports become progressively less comprehensible as they cut out a lot from the novels but also leave in things that only make sense if you've read the books. Ann and I both found ourselves subbing in information from memory to make sense of the narrative. Although the books are terribly translated, they are complex in terms of plot and character. The last film in particular, by jettisoning complexity, becomes fairly boring—and totally botches the timing/pacing on courtroom revelations. The acting is uniformly excellent, however.

Tenure—A laid-back tale of a professor (Luke Wilson) in competition for tenure has a lot going for it. It's genuinely likeable, as is Wilson's character, and unlike the formula for many movies of this type, he doesn't sleep with the student who tries to seduce him, keeping quite a firm boundary between them. Another professor who believes in bigfoot is a hoot, and although this isn't first-class material, it's comfortable.

Quintet—The. Worst. Science Fiction. Film. Ever. Made. Starring Paul Newman, directed by Robert Altman. I've mentioned this one before, but I want to warn people off again. This is dreadful.

The Wedding—Another of Robert Altman's ensemble shambles, but with slightly more focus and thus with more energetic pacing. From 1978. Very funny and often off-color.

Not Quite Hollywood—This documentary about Australian exploitation films, which led to the Mad Max trilogy, is fascinating and suitably raunchy, but waaaay too long. Recommended but with reservations. It's definitely thorough.

Salt—A well-above-average spy thriller starring Angelina Jolie. Jolie is a member of the CIA outed as a Russian spy who goes on the run to prove her innocence. There's at least one outrageous illogical event in the middle of this well-paced thriller, but all in all it's quick-footed, intelligent, and worth your time. Jolie does just fine in the lead role.

The American—This movie about a hitman on the run and stuck in a small Italian town only works because of the slow pacing that allows the atmosphere of setting and character to accumulate deliberately. The cinematography is excellent as well. George Clooney does his usual great job.

Carlos—About the infamous terrorist, but the On Demand version I saw I later found out was savagely cut down to 2.5 hours from about 5 hours. This makes a lot of sense, because parts of the film are just amazing—similar to the great Baader Meinhoff Complex—and other parts seemed cursory or jumpy. Whole sections of Carlos's life are given just a couple of minutes, and now I know why. I plan on tracking down the DVD version when I can.

Another Year—Stunning new Mike Leigh flick. Yes, it does indeed follow a middle-aged couple and their friends through the events of a single year. The desperation of one of those friends is the key to the whole movie, and by the end each nuance of each mundane scene is fraught with tension. It's an amazing accomplishment, to bring out so much moment-by-moment from such every-day events. First-rate. (In theaters now.)

Predators—Rarely has a film so obviously gone downhill not just in terms of the script but also the set design. We start out with real locations and lots of open spaces and end up on what looks like abandoned Star Trek TV series sets, in the gloom and dark. Far from creating claustrophobia, it had both Ann and me wondering if they blew all of their money on the first half of the movie. Adrian Brodey is competent as is the rest of the cast, but it's all so predictable. It was also horribly predictable that Lawrence Fishburne would not be on screen for that long. Nothing new here. Nothing exciting. A few oohs and aaahs early on for a crash-landed spaceship. Otherwise, who cares?

Little Children—A beautifully realized expose of a middle class neighborhood, complete with secrets and secret passions. The voice-over narration works nicely and the film has a kind of authority that resonates in the choreography. Kate Winslet is masterful, as is the rest of the cast. A kiss in a children's playground sets off a series of events that seem almost pre-ordained. What is the reality and what is the play-acting dream? The movie seems to say we all exist in certain orbits and roles, which we can get knocked out of. Some of eventually return to those roles and orbits and some of us are forever no longer the same.

The Secret in Their Eyes—Haunted by an unsolved murder and rape, a detective continues his inquiries over thirty years, with unexpected results. A fine Argentine film with an unexpected resolution, which also delves into the history of the country. Flashes of dark humor and almost-romance are interspersed with the seriousness. Highly recommended.

Tiny Furniture—Slice of life about a college student returning home to live with her verbally abusive mother and sister, and trying to make a life for herself. It's refreshingly small-scale, and also refreshing to see a movie that isn't full to bursting with people who look like they came out of cologne or perfume advertisements. It's gritty and funny and sad, and doesn't amount to much, but made me want to watch whatever the director does next.

The Town—I think it's clear from this piece on Booklifenow what I thought of this film. Ann felt the same way. Blech.

Wilby Wonderful—Starring the lead from the wonderful Canadian series Slings and Arrows, about a Shakespeare company, alongside Sandra Oh and Ellen Page, Wilby Wonderful uncovers small-town secrets and corruption in a comedy-drama context. It's fairly light until a possible murder, at which point there's a huge mood swing and some unbelievable character actions…before it gets on track again. There's a lot of the usual in here despite some fine performances.

Vicky Barcelona—We finally saw this intricate relationship flick set in Spain and directed by Woody Allen. It was tighter and more complex than we'd expected, with fine performances by all four leads: Rebecca Hall, Scarlet Johanssen, Javier Bardem, and Penelope Cruz. There was definitely a passion and quandry that justified the drama. Still, the ending didn't wow us. It fell just a tad short somehow.

Bunny and the Bull—By far the most imaginative movie on this entire list, from the creator of the Mighty Boosh. A stunning series of set pieces using both real locations and surreal sets and computer animation, it's basically a road-trip-gone-wrong movie that's mostly humorous but becomes gradually more serious and has elements of the bittersweet. The scene in the clip below made me fall off the couch laughing.

Movies Seen Over the Holidays originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on January 4, 2011.

Rain Taxi: Winter 2010 Issue–GOOD FOR YOU…and Entertaining

One of my favorite review magazines, Rain Taxi–covering all kinds of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, graphic novels, etc.–has a new issue out. You can order it and find the TOC here, but here's a teaser of their fiction reviews. They also have online-only content with every hardcopy release. Really worth seeking out.

Rain Taxi: Winter 2010 Issue–GOOD FOR YOU…and Entertaining originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on January 3, 2011.

I Don't Give a Crap About Genre (although I loves ya)

Dear Somebody:

Going into the new year, I've decided, more than ever, that as a reader I could give a crap about core genre and genre classifications. I find it more and more alien and odd that someone's taste in fiction could be determined by whether or not there's a dragon in it or magic or whether it's set in the future or not. I'm reading a novel called I Hotel right now, set in 1970s San Francisco, that has more interesting things to say about our present and future than any genre novel I've read in the past five years. Same could go for the epic novel 2666.

Further, there are many fiction traditions from other countries that honor or emphasize realism or surrealism over fabulism, and I'm not so much interested in seeking out world SF in such cases as in exploring what's on offer.

I think this is another way of saying that, if by the end of 2011, I'm an expert on the genre fiction published in this year…somebody shoot me. In the mix, yes, but not the majority of material read. Nothing against it, but I need to focus elsewhere for awhile.

Sincerely,

Your Curmudgeonly Grandpa

PS Stay the hell off the lawn!

I Don't Give a Crap About Genre (although I loves ya) originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on January 3, 2011.

Lovecraft and the Ravens / Bellysnatcher / The Situation

Lovecraft and the Ravens

There are a few projects I'm working on inbetween the major stuff. One of these is something I started off posting on facebook photo by photo as a way of keeping my hand in fiction while editing anthologies. As it evolved, it became "Lovecraft and the Ravens" and included Borges and others as characters. It also began to include my own very primitive artwork, with some of the "pages" actually written on my hand. The plan as I finish this is to retake the photos that need to be high-res and to continue to write "pages" on all kinds of surfaces. So any final book would have to be a series of photographs. Above you'll find an incomplete slideshow of the pages…

Bellysnatcher

Another project I'm getting back to is Bellysnatcher. I jokingly used the word with the artist Eric Orchard, and then we got to talking and it seemed like a cool idea. Eric then filled a notebook with his paintings and drawings while on the road, sent it to me, and I'm in the process of creating a narrative around it. Samples below.

He found the journal in a pile of junk. It wasn't food so he tossed it aside. But, eventually, he came back to it. "Bellysnatcher." A cover smudged and dusty. Once, in his other life, he'd read a lot. He'd written a little, too. Now he was a nomad, had a backpack and dirty clothes and wasn't sure what city he was in.

He took the book out at night, around the fire, with people watching. A risk, but he was a big man and had hands that made fists like clubs…Some of the pages disturbed him. At first he thought they frightened him, but that wasn't it. Inside, in their muteness the pages made him want to create a story around them. To make what seemed random have meaning.

The Situation

And, finally, despite some delays, Orchard is working on The Situation. I think it's just amazing. Here are some sample images from the work in progress—the lettering is placeholder.

Lovecraft and the Ravens / Bellysnatcher / The Situation originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on December 30, 2010.

Notes for Fiction in 2013-2014

Ambergris. Spoilers. Spoiling. You were warned.

***

Five years after Finch…

Stark lives on…inside his brother Bosun's head. In the wake of the chaos of the Lady in Blue's attack, Bosun's thugs have annexed the Spit and a large section of territory near it, bolstered by captured gray cap weapons.

The gray caps have retreated to the HFZ, launching periodic attacks. Their main enemies internally are Partials immune to their spores—driven out by the rebels and rejected by the gray caps. Their only chance is to reclaim the HFZ, or part of it.

Sintra has risen through the ranks and has a hand in the decision-making of the native tribes enclave in the religious quarter, which has spread beyond, to the edge of Bosun's territory.

The rest of the city is controlled by the Lady in Blue, whose transformed rebels exist in uneasy alliance with "pures"–those who did not come through the gate. Both factions are riven through with the ghost of Hoegbotton-Frankwrithe rivalries. The remnants of the Nimblytod and Dogghe tribes that control the religious quarter have been told to assimilate with the rebel forces for the common good. They're having none of it, but have held back waiting for the Lady in Blue to die and the rebels to implode.

Rumor has it that John Finch is blind now, victim of a wasting disease that has him confined to a wheelchair in a room somewhere in Rathven's ever-growing underground tunnels. And Rathven? Who knows. There are more rumors about her now than there once were about the Lady in Blue. But the Photographer has been sighted recently, back in town.

Out in the bay: the ruins of the two towers, reduced by fire following the rebel attack. And something still hidden there.

Out in the bay: a single boat, late at night. A man, Bliss, who is not a man. More doors opening. All over the city.

What is coming out of them?

Bliss: "It's a very long game, Sintra. Longer than you or anyone could possibly imagine…so why don't you put the gun down, hmm?"

Notes for Fiction in 2013-2014 originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on December 28, 2010.

The Awesome Rachel Swirsky: "The sun glows brighter"

Back in 2007, I interviewed Rachel Swirsky for a series I called Conversations with the Bookless.

This year Swirsky finally had a book out, and I interviewed her for the Omnivoracious book blog. I decided to ask basically the same questions I asked her in 2007 and juxtapose the answers. The result is, I think, really interesting. Go check it out and buy her book. She's one of the most talented story writers we have.

The Awesome Rachel Swirsky: "The sun glows brighter" originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on December 28, 2010.

2011: What Do You Want to See More or Less Of?

Me, I'd like to see more facts and less hyperbole. I'd like to see more specifics and fewer generalizations. I'd like less stupid and more smart. Oh, yeah, and cats in hats—more of those, please.

What about you?

2011: What Do You Want to See More or Less Of? originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on December 27, 2010.

VanderProjects: Toward 2011 and Beyond

Ann and I have a decent idea now of our joint projects coming out in 2011, along with my solo projects and collaborations. (Ann's also working hard on Weird Tales, and should have some important announcements about the magazine in January.) Not as many books as in 2009 or 2010, but these are all major undertakings and we're extremely proud of them.

MARCH

My nonfiction collection Monstrous Creatures (Guide Dog Books) will debut at FogCon in San Francisco. The book collects the last five years of the best of my nonfiction from the New York Times, Washington Post, and elsewhere. Essays, articles, reviews, opinion pieces, interviews with China Mieville and Margo Lanagan, etc. There will be a 50-copy limited edition with additional content, probably previously unpublished, featuring a different cover based around the art by Jeremy Zerfoss pictured below. (Main cover by Eric Orchard.)

MAY

The Steampunk Bible (Abrams Image; created with S.J. Chambers) is a 214-page coffee table book about steampunk in all of its various manifestations, with over 150 full-color images. There are other books on steampunk coming out next year, but they all focus only on the maker/art side of things (and we'll probably bring some of these to your attention on a SB website). This is the only comprehensive overview.

JUNE

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities (co-edited with Ann VanderMeer; HarperCollins/Voyager) is, quite simply, a showcase for some of the world's best imaginations in fiction and art. The conceit of having stories revolve around items in the Dr. Lambshead's cabinet worked more beautifully than we could have imagined to highlight a variety of traditional and avant garde approaches to fantasy. The full table of contents will be revealed in January, but includes everyone from Ted Chiang to Garth Nix, Holly Black to Helen Oyeyemi, Alan Moore to N.K. Jemisin, Minister Faust to Mike Mignola. An oversized hardcover.

OCTOBER

The Weird (co-edited with Ann; Atlantic/Corvus) is a definitive 750,000-word reprint anthology covering a century of weird fiction. Alfred Kubin, Bradbury, Murakami, Butler, Kafka, Kelly Link, Angela Carter, etc. The cover below is a rough mock-up of the final.

NOVEMBER 2011 – APRIL 2012

Ann and I are currently talking to ChiZine Publications about doing Leviathan 5: The Next Wave, with an open reading period starting in late 2011 and extending into the spring of 2012, for publication in spring of 2013. This anthology, the latest in the World Fantasy Award winning and PKD award finalist series, would focus on weird fiction and fantasy from newer writers. We would do something fairly unprecedented in the history of genre and have between 15 and 25 assistant editors in other countries so that many writers who do not write in English would be able to submit. Up to 30,000 words of the 100,000 words might be fiction newly translated for Leviathan 5. More on this as it develops.

VanderProjects: Toward 2011 and Beyond originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on December 23, 2010.

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities Cover

The almost-final Cabinet cover. Some effects, like possible raised surfaces, etc., not showing here, which will make the names in blue pop. Thanks to Diana Gill, HarperCollins, and the designer for a way-cool cover. Out in June. Over 70 images/art pieces—including an original Svankmajer print, four originals each by Mike Mignola and Greg Broadmore, and sumptuous section title pages by John Coulthart among a host of other cool things–almost too many to remember. Plan is for the full TOC of over 90 contributors to be revealed on io9 early next year.

The introduction to the antho is also a kind of short story, written by me with input from Ann and driven in part by the images included in the intro. Each subsection has introductory text that continues that particular story. The fiction inside ranges from the traditional to the somewhat experimental. The way it turned out, it's perhaps the finest showcase for imaginative fiction Ann and I have ever had the privilege to work on.

Available for pre-order already, along with the Steampunk Bible for an intensely cool two-fer.

Here's a sample of Coulthart's interior pages. John did a lot of work for this book.

And, finally, a teaser collage of images from the antho:

Finally, if you've appreciated what you've read on this blog this year—much of which has promoted other writers' work—consider showing your appreciation the same way you would with any good busker. If the link doesn't work, direct paypal is vanderworld at hotmail.com.

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities Cover originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on December 22, 2010.