Jeff VanderMeer's Blog, page 77

Triple Review: Matt Bell's Story Collection How They Were Found

How They Were Found by Matt Bell is the debut collection by a talented story writer whose work often straddles the gap between realism and fantasy or horror. Formally innovative, his fiction has appeared in Conjunctions and Best American Mystery Stories. The stories range from the tale of a nineteenth-century minister creating a mechanical messiah to the documenting of a strange and failing military outpost. In advance praise for the collection, Laird Hunt called it "fierce, unflinching, funny."

This is the second book selected for review by Larry Nolen, Paul Charles Smith, and myself. You can read the entries on this book by the other two here and here.

Some writers run hot and some run cold. A few by dint of personality and natural inclination manage to achieve both effects at a high level of achievement; I'd argue that Vladimir Nabokov is a good example of a writer who has both hot and cold attributes. By which I mean that he can evoke great pathos and drama, is unafraid to unleash great passion onto the page, but he can also be understated and restrained and indicate emotion through its absence—be in a sense removed from the text. Each approach has its pros and cons in terms of what types of stories you can tell, but in most writers this aspect of heat or chill is hardwired into their psyche, into their worldview. Variation from the core approach is possible, but there's always still a core of chill or warmth.

Matt Bell, at least on the evidence presented in How They Were Found falls somewhere on the cold end of the fiction spectrum: a writer whose work is always architecturally interesting, exhibiting at times a reliance on deconstruction or reconstruction of story elements. His fiction depends for its effects on absence and removal and leaving narrative gaps that suggest elements of story or character. There are some surface similarities with the fiction of writers like Brian Evenson, but Evenson's tone and approach seem more balanced between hot and cold by dint of his use of quietly subversive black humor and tendency toward documenting darkly absurd situations.

In some ways the formal experiment "An Index of How a Family Was Killed"—with entries from A to Z like "Camera, fear of, need for. To document the bodies, to show the size and location of wounds, to produce photographs to explain the entry and exit points of weapons"—exemplifies Bell's strengths and weaknesses as a writer at this point in his career. In its fidelity to the form of an index cataloguing the killing of a family, the story is in a way too faithful, too architecturally perfect. It needs, even demands, either the kinds of digression that would turn this family from a generic unit into a portrait of real, specific people and or the kinds of digressions that might disguise the functional aspect of the entries. It needs this even as the reader appreciates the strengths of what is on display: a fragmentation that in a sense mirrors the subject matter and a smattering of great specific detail. In one sense, there's a sense of a virtuoso writer skillfully creating story out of scraps. On the other, the sense of entering a cathedral that's empty.

A story like "The Receiving Tower" reminds me in tone of Stephen Graham Jones' amazing "Little Lambs," among others, but has its own starkness and strength. The mysteriousness of some of the events in the story, the sense of unspoken ritual, the broken ending, is compelling, and enough to satisfy the reader without the kind of traditional story arc or shape another writer might have given to the same material. It's also one of the stories where emotion leaks into the text through the first-person narrator, to good effect. Another of the strongest stories, "The Collectors," which previously appeared as a stand-alone chapbook, includes lists of objects in a way that has a cumulative effect in part because the story makes a strange family come to life through these descriptions.

By contrast, the ambitious "His Last Great Gift," with its cult of Electricizers, cannot quite shake some essential dryness, some sense of characters performing actions preordained by the writer. "The Cartographer's Girl"'s obsession with symbols tends to undercut the effect of the story—although we know that the symbols are meant to be integrated with the text, it is hard to shake the impression (the least charitable among available options, I know) that what might've been a good anchor during drafting has become integrated in a way that takes too much attention from the narrative itself. The rest of the stories alternate between success and almost-success in similar ways.

Curious things happen when you put together a story collection: strengths of narratives can become weaknesses through repetition, or, conversely, can shore up and accentuate those strengths to create a greater whole. There's a real tension in the decision-making process: what kind of a selection will enhance cohesion and focus while also avoiding sameness of approach. (This is all aside from the essential question every story writer needs to ask: When do I have enough worthy and usefully interlocking material to publish a first collection?)

In terms of approaches to structure, How They Were Found is endlessly adventurous and inventive. There is also an admirable aspect of holding firm to seriousness of intent. But the result also means there's a kind of tightness across the span of the book. Part of this tendency might be related to a lack of humor in Bell's fiction—and I don't mean slapstick guffaws, but a lack of the kind of absurdity you find in Kafka, which creates by its introduction and the point of view expressed, a kind of fluidity and a suggestion of greater depth. (I bring this up to not suggest that one writer be more like another writer, but as an example pointing toward something missing, the source of a lack I can't quite put my finger on.)

Bell's How They Were Found is a worthy grouping of stories, but I'm not sure they benefit by being in communication with one another in this particular way, and for this reason while I recommend picking up the book I also don't recommend reading it straight-through. What does seem clear is that Bell, here, at the start of his career, displays the kind of intelligence, self-awareness, and care with regard to his prose that suggests he may become a major talent.

Triple Review: Matt Bell's Story Collection How They Were Found originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on November 10, 2010.

Flotsam 'n' Jetsam: Wednesday Linkage

Just a few self-serving linkages for a Wednesday that you can ignore entirely if you like…

Ann will be the honored editorial guest at Fogcon in San Francisco next year. Ann will also be the editor guest of honor at Apollocon in Houston.

Somewhat chuffed that Australian national radio reviewed Finch favorably on The Book Show. Click on Show Transcript if you'd rather not listen to the audio.

Rose Fox on PW's Genreville blog gave The Third Bear an honorable mention, in addition to announcing PW's top choices for SF/F.

The Third Bear also made this great top 10 list I'm proud to be on.

John Coulthart talks to Coilhouse–great feature on an amazing artist and designer.

Steampunk Reloaded, on top of a starred review in Publishers Weekly, has received thoughtful, interesting reviews here, here, and here, in addition to nice previews here and here.

Booklifenow continues to have new content posted to it.

And as we get closer and closer to the holiday season, Ann and I hope you'll consider The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals, which includes an interview with Duff Goldman and was designed by John Coulthart. We've been just a little bemused by a couple of the Amazon reviews and a couple reviews in the wider world that seemed to want either a more academic approach or a more factual (?!) one. While we have no problem with anyone who doesn't enjoy the humor or the sense of play involved, we do think it's a bit ridiculous to want something fun about imaginary animals to be more…rigorous and academic. Sigh.

Anyway, check out the website, these great reviews at Forward, the Barnes & Noble Review, and this preview on Jewcy.com, along with this excerpt. The Jerusalem Post also did a nice piece, but it doesn't appear to be online.

Flotsam 'n' Jetsam: Wednesday Linkage originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on November 10, 2010.

Preserved: The McDermott / Gilman Ponylogues

Everything else on that thread downstream is heresy.

Preserved: The McDermott / Gilman Ponylogues originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on November 10, 2010.

Fill This Blog Up With Love, Haters!

gots from here

So I'm off on a little micro-journey to the FSU campus tomorrow and won't be hanging around these electronic parts. By the time I get back tomorrow night, I want to see at least 50 comments from people about what they love—and I don't want any of it to be about ponies. Things ya loved you saw or read or heard or whatever. Just things that brought you joy. But none of that Hallmark Greeting Card joy.

If there aren't at least 50 comments, I am going to unleash waves of blog hate like you haven't seen on the blogosphere since…erm, twenty minutes ago. If nuffin joyful happened the last two decades, go back another few years.

Remember, if you include a link, like a proper hot-link, my spaminator may perceive you as a blubbery e-meat-byproduct thread.

Fill This Blog Up With Love, Haters! originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on November 8, 2010.

Shared Worlds Teen SF/Fantasy Writing Camp Awarded $15,000 Amazon.com Grant

Here's some news definitely worth sharing: Amazon.com has awarded Shared Worlds, the teen SF/F writing camp, a $15,000 grant. This is a huge deal in terms of making sure we can offer scholarships to needy students. Special thanks to Matt Staggs, who has done a lot of freebie PR work for the camp.

More details below, in the full-on press release, which is also on the SW website…

November 8, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Tim Schmitz, Director of Wofford Summer Programs, SchmitzTJ at Wofford.Edu

Amazon.com Awards Grant to the Shared Worlds Teen Writing Camp

Shared Worlds, a non-profit science fiction/fantasy teen writing camp hosted by Wofford College (Spartanburg, South Carolina), has been awarded an Amazon.com grant of $15,000. The Amazon.com grant will help support the 2011 camp in the areas of guest writer invites, awarding scholarships for disadvantaged students, and general operating expenses. Shared Worlds 2011 will be held the last two weeks of July, marking the camp's fourth year of operation.

Founded in 2008 by director Jeremy L. C. Jones, Shared Worlds is a unique summer camp for teens (rising eighth through twelfth graders) from across the country that uses an innovative approach to writing fiction and realizing full creative potential, all in a safe and structured environment. During the first week, the students build SF or Fantasy worlds in groups, aided by Wofford faculty who provide useful information in areas like government, biology, and cartography. In the second week, the students fine-tune their worlds and write stories set within those worlds, receiving professional feedback from award-winning authors. Participants in this "teen think tank" also learn problem-solving and team-building skills useful for any career.

The Amazon.com grant represents the largest donation of any kind to Shared Worlds in its three-year history. Guest instructors for the grant year of 2011 will include World Fantasy Award winner Jeff VanderMeer, Hugo Award winning editor Ann VanderMeer, Philip K. Dick award finalist Minister Faust, World Fantasy Award winner Ekaterina Sedia, Macmillan Writer's Prize winner Nnedi Okorafor, and trend-setting game designer Will Hindmarch. Approximately 50 students will attend next year's camp.

"We're utterly thrilled and humbled by the grant. Amazon.com's support is so important for the continued stability and growth of Shared Worlds," said assistant director Jeff VanderMeer. "I've taught writing workshops all over the world for the past twenty years and I can honestly say that Shared Worlds is unique, and a very important space in which teens can develop their creativity and nurture their imaginations while also getting the necessary structure and institutional support."

Program director Jones agreed: "Amazon.com's support, along with that of our other important sponsors, represents a commitment to the arts and tomorrow's writers that can't be understated."

Shared Worlds visiting writers have also included NYT bestseller Holly Black, NYT bestseller Tobias Buckell, Nebula Award winner Michael Bishop, and critically acclaimed YA authors Kathe Koja and Marly Youmans. Writers such as Ursula K. Le Guin, China Mieville, and Michael Moorcock have contributed to various subsidiary efforts for the camp. Extensive media coverage for Shared Worlds has appeared in the Guardian, the Washington Post book blog, and many others.

"Shared Worlds takes a truly innovative approach to developing our next generation of great writers," said Jon Fine, director of Author and Publisher Relations for Amazon.com. "We look forward to the terrific new works the Program's graduates are bound to create in the future."

Tim Schmitz, Director of Wofford Summer Programs, noted that "Wofford College is delighted to host Shared Worlds, and I am very pleased that Amazon.com sees promise in what the program is attempting to achieve. As an educator at the college level, it is increasingly clear to me that, in a small way, Shared Worlds provides a valuable supplement to high-school education by creating a great space for teen creativity."

Shared Worlds is one of a diverse range of not-for-profit author and publisher groups receiving support from Amazon.com for programs dedicated to developing new voices and new books, including the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, Lambda Literary Foundation, Clarion Foundation, Poets & Writers, The Loft, Copper Canyon Press, The Moth, Seattle Arts & Lectures, Richard Hugo House, WriteGirl, Milkweed Editions, ACT Young Playwrights Program, 826 Seattle, Voice of Witness, Open Letter, Archipelago Books, Pen American Center, Words Without Borders, the Association of Writers & Writing Programs. Girls Write Now, Asian American Writers Workshop, New York Writers Coalition, and the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers. All of these organizations share Amazon.com's obsession with fostering the creation, discussion, and publication of new authors and new work.

Shared Worlds Teen SF/Fantasy Writing Camp Awarded $15,000 Amazon.com Grant originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on November 8, 2010.

Largehearted Boy: Big Heart, Lots of Year's Best Lists

If you weren't aware of it yet, check out Largehearted Boy's compilation of year's best lists for books. Omnivoracious/Amazon also has the run-down of their comics choices, and note Shipbreaker on the teen list.

P.S. One more episode like last night's and Ann and I are walking away from the Walking Dead. Too many stoopids.

Largehearted Boy: Big Heart, Lots of Year's Best Lists originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on November 8, 2010.

Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities Overload

Brain is full of Lambshead. Here's a teaser collage. This thing is going to be just stunning visually. Also in the cabinet (not pictured), a Svankmajer. Just saying that makes our hearts glad.

Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities Overload originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on November 7, 2010.

Dear Ignacio Sanz…Calling Ignacio Sanz

You have a micro submission in the Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities but haven't responded to our pings. Please proceed to the courtesy phone nearest you that has email and email us at your earliest convenience….like, tonight. Thank you.

Dear Ignacio Sanz…Calling Ignacio Sanz originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on November 7, 2010.

Expelling All My Internal Organs: Links and Such

(The awesome Taylor F. Lockwood, fungi expert extraordinaire, from the e-card he sent over the holidays that I don't think I ever responded to, alas. Check out his latest photos of bioluminescent mushrooms–I think from his latest trip to Brazil.)

I often joke that one of my writer defense mechanisms, if cornered at a con party (being shy) or about to be mugged (being prudent), is to expel all of my internal organs like a sea cucumber and flee in the resulting confusion and disgust.

Relatedly, I haven't expelled the contents of my "Links to Blog About" folder in quite awhile–like, months, so here goes. Unlike the scenario below, it should in fact be an enjoyable experience. If you pick through it, as I work back through Time, I'm sure you'll find something of interest.

>>>Topical! Current! Important! Drawing—eReaders for Carl Brandon Society. One dollar tickets. You buy them, the Carl Brandon Society pulls five at random as winners of eReaders loaded with stories and poems by writers including N. K. Jemisin, Nisi Shawl, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Terence Taylor, Ted Chiang, Shweta Narayan, Chesya Burke, Moondancer Drake, Saladin Ahmed, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz and more. The proceeds from the drawing benefit the Butler Scholarship, a fund that sends two emerging writers of color to the Clarion writers workshops annually. (Ann and I can tell you personally how valuable those scholarships are, having taught at Clarion San Diego this past year.)

>>>Glory for Toni Jerrman, editor of Finnish magazine Tähtivaeltaja (among our favorites, even though we can't read it—the layout is kinetic, beautiful, perfectly positioned between punk and genre), who has won the Rakkaudesta kirjaan Prize, which comes with a cash prize of 5,000 euros. We've known Toni for awhile now, and not only is he a class act, but he's a nice guy and a great talent. The judges of the prize agree: "[Toni] has selflessly and in a long-standing manner worked to promote science fiction, fantasy and horror literature for more than 25 years. Because of his determination and enthusiasm, these literary genres, which have not always enjoyed uncritical admiration and have traditionally only been accepted by marginal groups, are now well-known among the reading public. As the editor-in-chief of Tähtivaeltaja magazine, newspaper critic, radio journalist and lecturer, Jerrman has worked to present the history of the genre and promoted the books of high-quality writers that have previously been unknown in Finland." Congrats, Toni! (Note: earlier this year, Hal Duncan's Vellum won the Tähtivaeltaja-award for the best SF book published in Finland.)

>>>Karen Rider guest blogged over at Booklifenow as a working parent who is also a writer. She has been using my strategy guide Booklife to help prioritize and in other ways to maximize her time and effort. Check out Booklifenow for recent features, too, on the Altered Fluid writing group and a whole lot more, most of the content generated by that work horse Jeremy L. C. Jones (thanks, Jeremy.)

>>>From Bar to Bar has been publishing some of the more creative author interviews you're likely to find anywhere. Check it out—and note that next up are Ekaterina Sedia, Charles, and moi. (I'm bringing the Mord, so watch out—it will indeed get dangerous…)

>>>Despite this trailer worrying me a little bit, the new Predators movie, just out on video, has not even the tiniest bit of influence from my Predator novel in it. Indeed, Predators is a pretty banal and mediocre flick that neither Ann nor I recommend. Lawrence Fishburne was the best part of it, but he's not in it for long. And was it just us or did the setting seem to get cheaper and cheaper looking as the film went along? Anyway, blah. Not worth your time.

>>>Fascinating interview here , including awesome book cover graphics, with Franz Rottensteiner, who has written and edited many books in the fields of science fiction and fantasy, especially about European fiction.

Jha links to all kinds of current stuff, including tons of (gasp) Steampunk posts.

>>>Dustin Monk emailed me a very considerate personal micro-submission for Lambshead, based on my story Errata: "Two Pearl-Handled Revolvers – 5-chamber handguns; single action; polished; no sign of rusting. The guns were discovered next to the decaying corpse of a penguin with apparent gunshot wound to the head in a rundown condo near Lake Baikal, Siberia, by a travel journalist friend of Dr. Lambshead. The travel journalist included a note with the guns; it reads, 'both revolvers have been fired twice…awful smell in the freezer…can't look…several copies and errata of magazine Argosy…scribbled notes by disappeared midlist writer Jeff Vandermeer in a black book…final page, written in all caps 'WHERE IS MY EPIPHANY, JAMES OWEN?' The travel journalist ended his note with a post-script, as follows: 'Ed says there's a lot of vodka in this condo, Thack. I may never leave.' …should read…'So much vodka in this condo, Thack, and a shaman named Ed who wants to show me the Book. I may never leave.'"

>>>The mighty Yoshio Kobayashi wrote to tell me that my story "Fixing Hanover" will be in a special Steampunk edition of Hayakawa's SF Magazine. Good. My anti-Steampunk story keeps anti-colonizing.

>>>Sir Tessa sent me these awesome photos from Argentina, some of which may be deployed for…stuff…projects…things. Stop pushing me! You'll just have to wait and see.

>>>Simon Sellars (back in February of this year!) sent me links to interviews with the crazed, debauched monsters that run the delightfully perverse Savoy Press: Michael Butterworth and David Britton (divided into two parts, like a common magic trick).

>>>Ann Kjellberg (also back in February!) sent me this email, along with the link to her new journal: "I've worked at the New York Review since the 80s, and before that at Farrar, Straus & Giroux and the journal of the Swedish Academy, Artes. I am also the literary executor of the poet Joseph Brodsky and have published two editions of his work in translation. I felt the need and the opportunity for a serious and not medicinal literary journal. I hope you'll have a look and want to order a copy and perhaps consider signing up for the various connective ways of being involved. The first issue includes new work by Seamus Heaney, Padgett Powell, Lydia Davis, Les Murray, Paul Muldoon, Tim Parks, Derek Walcott, Glyn Maxwell, Durs Grünbein, Robin Robertson, Mary Jo Salter, Robert Wrigley, Karl Kirchwey, and William Wadsworth, as well as several people you probably have not heard of. I would welcome your attention and I hope you will like it."

>>>J.K. Stephens (back in January!) sent me a photo of his compleat VanderCollection (whoa!):

>>>Jim Hall, yes we'll be on Cultpop TV, just as soon as we finish these deadlines; email soonish.

>>>Matt Staggs (also back in January!) informed me that when I posted three youtube videos in one blog entry, synched to comment on one another, I was ahead of my time, youtube having finally caught up.

(Su Lynn Cheah—thanks for the thanks for the holiday card [December 2009!] and sorry I never got back to you!)

>>>This guy emailed to say he suspected I might be the next Michael Swanwick. I never responded. Sorry.

>>>Mother Jones believes fungi can cure small pox. Unfortunately, it leaves you with Large Pox, because fungi are perverse that way. Oh, yeah, and S.J. Chambers sent me a photo of stuff in her front yard:

>>>Finally, there's a Portuguese version of the Lambshead fake disease guide, with additional contributions from Portuguese writers, including these diseases emailed me by Luis Rodrigues, a great friend and translator. Here are the translated titles:

* Fulminant alomorphia, aka Metamorphosis (lots of references to Ovid and Kafka, naturally)

* Meme cancer

* Cerberitis, aka Kerberitoa Exigua

* Circumambulation

* Lovecraft's Disease, aka Fish Plague, aka Piscis Pestis

* Egophobia

* Newborn silico-lacteous enteropathy, aka Rubbery Milk Syndrome, aka Valentino's Disease

* Agnostic Spondylosis of the Geographic Membrane, aka Travelling Sneeze Flu

* Felix Influenza, aka Happiness Flu

* Lexical Hypersensitivity, aka Lexiconis Sensus Acerrimus

* Hippopotamus perperam animadvertu (the delusion of being always in the presence of hippos)

* Insideout, aka Organismus inversionem

* Legisreia (dictatorship as a disease)

* Omnianthropocogniscite (narcissistic paranoia, the desire to be known by all)

* Y Pandemic

* ABS (Absolute Blame Syndrome, the delusion that you're to blame for everything that happens)

* Slan's Syndrome, aka Convivial speculophilia syndrome (this one's Rodrigues's—it's the science fiction fandom as a disease)

* Superman Syndrome, aka Superius Superio

>>>Luis also sent me photos of this book that I never posted…and that's it. I think I've expelled all of my internal organs. Keep the links and emails coming, now that I'm caught up…

Expelling All My Internal Organs: Links and Such originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on November 7, 2010.

Amazon UK Best-Of SF/F List: What's Center Genre?

Amazon UK just posted their best-of SF/F list for the year, as reported by SF Signal. For comparison purposes here's the US list, with commentary on 1-5 and 6-10. For the US list, I put together a list of recomendations, and then the final list is compiled after consultation with Amazon editors and with consideration of recommendations coming back from them—same as, for example, their comics best-of list, which is compiled by their comics expert and used to include some of my recommendations when I was reading and featuring graphic novels for Amazon's book blog.

I'm fairly sure that just as the US list can only include books published in the US in 2010, the UK list probably can only be books published in the UK in 2010. This means both lists will have some books that couldn't be considered by the folks putting together the other list. There are two books on their list I haven't read but which I believe have not yet been published in the US. (Just as a reader, though, my immediate reaction would be: What?! No Charles Yu [Atlantic]? No Zoo City by Beukes? [Angry Robot], etc.)

Anyway, there's been some discussion at io9, both positive and negative, about the US list. All of it makes me wonder again about the center of genre, and the center of the genre book culture, and the role of the blogosphere in all of that. Because the two lists—trying to look at them as an impartial observer—largely look like they come from two different worlds. (Another aspect of that is: when I see a book title or author I don't recognize on a year's best list, my immediate reaction isn't usually "WTF", but instead, "Excellent! A chance to find some new, shiny thing that I might love.")

And also: this is why it's important to have so many different year's best lists, coming from different perspectives.

Amazon UK Best-Of SF/F List: What's Center Genre? originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on November 6, 2010.