Corey Redekop's Blog, page 53

Monkey droppings - short people ain't got no reason to terrorize us

In today's exciting episode, a master lets down his audience.



Pygmy
by Chuck Palahniuk

Agent 67 has a slight problem. The terrorist operative, dubbed ‘Pygmy’ by his ignorant classmates, has infiltrated an American high school as a foreign exchange student from an anonymous totalitarian country. He and his fellow operatives plan to unleash “Operation Havoc” on an unsuspecting populace, but the perils of America’s consumerist society present unexpected challenges.

Chuck Palahniuk also has a problem. T

Monkey Droppings - mythical monsters get the celluloid treatment

Just a quick little bite together, but more tomorrow.

Through the grapevine that is the Internet I have stumbled across the following news:

They are actually going to attempt a movie version of Steven Sherrill's brilliantly absurd The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break.

Now, I won't comment on the fact that the director is best known for Kung Fu Panda, mostly because I have not seen it. And I am happy for Mr. Sherrill, as this means more people will take to his wonderful work.

But the novel is one of

Bill C-61 - the basics

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not exactly political by nature. And I do try not get up on my high horse, although I'm hardly successful.

But Bill C-61, the Canadian government's legislation concerning copyright in the digital age, is a joke, a monstrosity that turns its back on the last twenty years of digital advancement in favour of out-dated ideas and the interests of a few multi-nationals who fear loss of revenue.

It's a complicated issue, to be sure, but this short documentary (narrated

Monkey Droppings - Overqualifed by Joey Comeau

In today's exciting episode of the barely-coherent ramblings of a primate with delusions of being human (or at least, a critic), we present:





Overqualified
by Joey Comeau

Dear RAND,

I am writing to apply for a job with the RAND Corporation. The first time I heard of the RAND Corporation was on The X-Files, the conspiracy-theory-heavy television show I was obsessed with in high school. I watched every episode. That was the beginning of my paranoia, my belief that there are huge corporations behind eve

Finally, I can defeat Kirk in battle.

I always wanted to be a Romulan. I dig the big-shouldered look.

However, the Vulcans do have their charms.

And who didn't have a thing for Uhura? No one, that's who. [image error]

Monkey Droppings - Trauma by Patrick McGrath

On today's menu: loss and desire, with a side of psychoanalysis.





Trauma
by Patrick McGrath

I stood on the sidewalk and stared at it, and it stared back at me, sagging, unsafe, condemned, and the blocked windows were like dead eyes, blank and opaque but pregnant, somehow, with secrets, like a trauma built of wood.

There are two things you can almost always expect when you crack open a Patrick McGrath:
you are going to discover an intricate, highly literate examination of the darker impulses of humanki

Monkey Droppings - Coventry by Helen Humphreys

Two reviews in two days? I'm on some kind of a roll here. I think that flu bug I've been fighting is tickling my cortex into action. Not action of a necessarily productive sort, but action nonetheless! Good job, typewriter-banging monkey!

Better not jinx it by talking about it, so without further ado:



Coventry
by Helen Humphreys

"For all her efforts Harriet can't really remember Owen very well. His memory has been worn thin from use, like a patch of clot rubbed too vigorously and too often. She has

Monkey Droppings - Brock Clarke's An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England

I'm going to put a few quick book reviews up in the next few days, to make up for an appalling break on my part. They'll be quick, and hardly insightful, but I do hope you'll read the books anyway, and forgive my lackadasical nature.

Also, I'm starting a new ratings system. I'm sick of As, Bs, Cs, etc. You'll find the new handy-dandy rating at the bottom of each review.

And now, to work! If twenty minutes of ill-conceived ramblings can be considered work. It can? Score!

An Arsonist's Guide to Writ

Derek Weiler, 1968-2009

It is with great sadness that I learned today of the death of Derek Weiler.
Derek was the editor of Quill and Quire, Canada's book industry magazine. I only met him a few times at trade events, but he always struck me a very friendly, approachable man who greatly enjoyed both his job and the people his work brought him into contact with.
Apparently he had been sick for some time. He was a hell of a nice man, and has been taken far too soon. He will be sorely missed.
More news of his passing can be

People don't learn...

From Chapter 22 of the zen-like ode to incompetence that is James Patterson's online 'virus kidnap crap-o-rama' Airborne:

‘Don’t even think about trying that again, b*tch,’ he hissed in her ear.

‘Someone get the girl!’ Jones ordered from the floor through clenched teeth. ‘Somebody get that machete!’

‘F*ck!’ The biker restraining Lesley threw her behind him roughly and joined the circle closing in on Amanda.

Seriously? Still with the *s? What if I can't crack the code? Batch? Botch? Fick? I don't unde