David Dubrow's Blog, page 47
July 15, 2015
GNoH Review: Eden Underground
At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed Alessandro Manzetti's poetry collection Eden Underground:
"His poetry runs the gamut from surreal meditations on the nature of Heaven to straight horror, with stops to a nightmare Eden in between."
This is the first poetry analysis I've done in about twenty years. Does it pass muster? More importantly, does the book pass muster? Click to find out!
"His poetry runs the gamut from surreal meditations on the nature of Heaven to straight horror, with stops to a nightmare Eden in between."
This is the first poetry analysis I've done in about twenty years. Does it pass muster? More importantly, does the book pass muster? Click to find out!
July 13, 2015
July 4 DC Metro Stabbing: Four Things to Consider
This is an absolutely horrific story from start to finish. The only way it could be worse is if more people had been murdered.
If we're going to be grown-ups, we need to confront stories like this, analyze them, and draw reasonable conclusions. As always, it's horrible when things like this happen, but it's worse if we don't learn anything from it.
When you're done reading the article, read this Redditor's account of what happened, and then read this analysis of the behavior of the bystanders.
There are a number of issues that need to be unpacked before we can slot this into its proper context.
He's Got a Knife: The weapon Spires used was a "small, black folding knife." Knives are very difficult weapons to deal with in a self-defense context. It doesn't take a lot of muscle to power a knife: one touch and you've been cut. Knife wounds are particularly horrific. When I worked in the self-defense industry, just about every person I knew who taught personal defense said that they'd rather go up against a person with a gun than a knife any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Guns miss. They jam. They run out of ammo. Knives don't have those problems. If you've ever seen surveillance footage of knife attacks, you'll learn how fast a knife can do life-threatening damage to an opponent. Even if you don't bleed to death when cut, the aftermath of a knife attack can be permanent: a colostomy, nerve damage, disfigurement. Across the board, it's all bad. Batman Fantasies?: Once you've read a story like this there's a temptation to think, "Well, if I was there, I would've done something. I would've tackled the guy." Good. You need to think this way. Visualization is immensely helpful to success. If you take the opposite view, "Oh, if I was there, I would've cowered like the rest," or the ever-popular wishy-washy, "Well, I don't know what I would've done in that situation," then you're setting your default position to coward. You're virtually guaranteeing victimhood. Don't do that. General James Mattis of the USMC famously said, "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." When you're out in public, that's a far better thing to internalize than, "What I don't wish is that I had somehow tried to attack the assailant. I am a little bit larger than he was, but I would not have won."I've Got a Family: A common explanation used to excuse not getting involved is, "I've got a family." Kevin Joseph Sutherland had family who loved him. I've got a family. So why should I put myself at risk, potentially make my wife a widow and my child fatherless on behalf of someone I've never even met? Because to not do so when circumstances call upon you is far, far worse. One vital part of living in a society worth maintaining is doing the moral thing despite the cost, especially when lives are at stake. Spires has already forfeited his right to be a member of polite society; he's a blight on civilization itself. The price of DC metro trains and internet and Game of Thrones On Demand and the right to free speech and Pizza Hut Limited Edition Hot Dog Bites Pizza is sometimes paid in blood, and if you've decided that your blood is too precious to be spilled above all others, then you're not pulling your weight. Pediatric brain surgeon? Millionaire philanthropist? Schoolteacher? It doesn't matter. Answer the call or get out. How can you look at yourself in the mirror afterward if you don't? Civilization occasionally demands us to act in an uncivilized manner to protect itself. You don't get to opt out of the tough stuff because you've got a family.What Second Amendment?: Part of what contributed to the mass cowardice in this situation was that nobody on that train was armed. When you're unarmed, you're putting yourself at the mercy of vermin like Spires. Places that deliberately disarm their citizens like Washington D.C. have an absolute responsibility to protect their citizens. The DC Metro police utterly failed in this case, and Sutherland's death is as much on their hands as it is the sheep who watched him die. It's fascinating to read the comments on the Reddit thread and see just how many people have normalized victimhood. The comments congratulating the eyewitness on his consoling the dying man are disgusting when you consider that Sutherland need not have died at all. Had the other riders on the train accepted their responsibilities as American citizens, the outcome may have been different.
Yes, knives are unbelievably scary. What's scarier is being stabbed to death by a drug-addled monster in full view of able-bodied but passive citizens who will only step forward when the monster has fled. Don't hold my fucking hand. Grow a backbone, carry a weapon, and fight alongside me.
If we're going to be grown-ups, we need to confront stories like this, analyze them, and draw reasonable conclusions. As always, it's horrible when things like this happen, but it's worse if we don't learn anything from it.
When you're done reading the article, read this Redditor's account of what happened, and then read this analysis of the behavior of the bystanders.
There are a number of issues that need to be unpacked before we can slot this into its proper context.
He's Got a Knife: The weapon Spires used was a "small, black folding knife." Knives are very difficult weapons to deal with in a self-defense context. It doesn't take a lot of muscle to power a knife: one touch and you've been cut. Knife wounds are particularly horrific. When I worked in the self-defense industry, just about every person I knew who taught personal defense said that they'd rather go up against a person with a gun than a knife any day of the week and twice on Sundays. Guns miss. They jam. They run out of ammo. Knives don't have those problems. If you've ever seen surveillance footage of knife attacks, you'll learn how fast a knife can do life-threatening damage to an opponent. Even if you don't bleed to death when cut, the aftermath of a knife attack can be permanent: a colostomy, nerve damage, disfigurement. Across the board, it's all bad. Batman Fantasies?: Once you've read a story like this there's a temptation to think, "Well, if I was there, I would've done something. I would've tackled the guy." Good. You need to think this way. Visualization is immensely helpful to success. If you take the opposite view, "Oh, if I was there, I would've cowered like the rest," or the ever-popular wishy-washy, "Well, I don't know what I would've done in that situation," then you're setting your default position to coward. You're virtually guaranteeing victimhood. Don't do that. General James Mattis of the USMC famously said, "Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet." When you're out in public, that's a far better thing to internalize than, "What I don't wish is that I had somehow tried to attack the assailant. I am a little bit larger than he was, but I would not have won."I've Got a Family: A common explanation used to excuse not getting involved is, "I've got a family." Kevin Joseph Sutherland had family who loved him. I've got a family. So why should I put myself at risk, potentially make my wife a widow and my child fatherless on behalf of someone I've never even met? Because to not do so when circumstances call upon you is far, far worse. One vital part of living in a society worth maintaining is doing the moral thing despite the cost, especially when lives are at stake. Spires has already forfeited his right to be a member of polite society; he's a blight on civilization itself. The price of DC metro trains and internet and Game of Thrones On Demand and the right to free speech and Pizza Hut Limited Edition Hot Dog Bites Pizza is sometimes paid in blood, and if you've decided that your blood is too precious to be spilled above all others, then you're not pulling your weight. Pediatric brain surgeon? Millionaire philanthropist? Schoolteacher? It doesn't matter. Answer the call or get out. How can you look at yourself in the mirror afterward if you don't? Civilization occasionally demands us to act in an uncivilized manner to protect itself. You don't get to opt out of the tough stuff because you've got a family.What Second Amendment?: Part of what contributed to the mass cowardice in this situation was that nobody on that train was armed. When you're unarmed, you're putting yourself at the mercy of vermin like Spires. Places that deliberately disarm their citizens like Washington D.C. have an absolute responsibility to protect their citizens. The DC Metro police utterly failed in this case, and Sutherland's death is as much on their hands as it is the sheep who watched him die. It's fascinating to read the comments on the Reddit thread and see just how many people have normalized victimhood. The comments congratulating the eyewitness on his consoling the dying man are disgusting when you consider that Sutherland need not have died at all. Had the other riders on the train accepted their responsibilities as American citizens, the outcome may have been different.Yes, knives are unbelievably scary. What's scarier is being stabbed to death by a drug-addled monster in full view of able-bodied but passive citizens who will only step forward when the monster has fled. Don't hold my fucking hand. Grow a backbone, carry a weapon, and fight alongside me.
July 10, 2015
Friday Links: Ginger Wildheart, Quachil Uttaus, and Sedona Vortexes
It's Friday, so let's hit the links:
If you do nothing else this week, check out the lobby card from Cat-Women of the Moon that Zombos' Closet unearthed.Quachil Uttaus was the subject of a recent piece at Sean Eaton's always-brilliant R'lyeh Tribune: "In this context, The Treader of the Dust is both eerie and sad, ably capturing the author’s state of mind at this point in his life. More a nightmarish prose poem than a story, it seems to personify—in the entity called Quachil Uttaus—the relentless and inescapable approach of aging, deterioration and death."Ben Daniels of Terrorphoria fame went outside the site to tell us about two of his favorite horror films: "When someone asks me to name my favorite horror film, Texas Chainsaw Massacre always tops the list. Director Tobe Hooper’s magnum opus, TCM helped to define the genre and move it into new, frightening places. Based loosely on the true life crimes of serial killer Ed Gein, it recounts the story of five unlucky youngsters travelling to visit a gravesite in rural Texas who encounter a psychotic family. Everything about this movie is unnerving and designed to shock and challenge its audience. The majority of events take place in broad daylight, which is far more frightening than classic “bump in the night” horror because it removes the illusion of daytime being a safe place."
At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, Kit Power and Jim interviewed musician Ginger Wildheart: "A great movie makes me rejoice that the genre is still alive, much like rock music. A lot of heavy music these days sounds like CGI horror to me. Shit, it IS CGI with everything tuned and tightened by Pro Tools. If I hear honest, slightly out of tune but righteous-as-fuck rock music it makes me feel like a kid again, when bands used to play with a true love and artistry for the style. Horror is no different. I feel like the future is in the hands of experts when I see great new directors refusing to dilute quality for a new, younger, more mainstream audience."Taliesin Meets the Vampires reviewed the film
Story of My Death
: "The first part of the film concentrates on Casanova as he rattles around a mansion, amusing himself with his servant Pompeu (Lluís Serrat). With a delivery that might be said to be lackadaisical, Altaió’s performance is good but he is never asked to engage or challenge the audience. Casanova amuses himself with bodily functions – finding bowel movements especially amusing. We, as the audience, are almost duped into a trance like stupor that causes us to less engage and more become wrapped in the unfolding production."Nev Murray spent the week on a Christina Bergling kick, starting with an interview at his Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "Story ideas always just hit me. Either remembering some dream or just a wayward thought. Then the narrative will just start pouring over my mind, and I better just hope I have a writing implement nearby. I usually sleep with a notebook nearby when I’m sleeping. Many scenes have been scribbled in the dark, and if I’m lucky, I can decode them in the morning. Then I try to sit down and put out at least a thousand words on it a night, after the kids are in bed."
Ghost Hunting Theories
brought us weird things in the Arizona mountains: "Sedona Vortexes: This magical red-rocked land has 4 vortexes or supposed energy areas where leylines converge and the earth creates healing energy. I admit to visiting them and they absolutely do have something to them. As well, many believe that there suspicious underground bases in Sedona. The Airport Mountain has a vortex where it is said that earth energies converge and create an amazing and healing power."
John Kenneth Muir
was all Rocketeer, all the time this week: "Why do fans prefer modern superheroes over ones operating in the past? Perhaps it is because the superhero template is -- broadly -- similar to the Western format, only with some technological upgrades. Substitute a cool car like the Batmobile for Silver, and a man in a cape for a cowboy in a ten gallon hat, and one can detect how alike the genres truly are. In both brands of stories, singular men (or sometimes women) tackle corruption and evil, and then, largely, go on their way…until needed again."Here, I pointed you to a review I wrote of Drew Foote's
Angels to Ashes
, and wrote about pooping during the Zombie Apocalypse.Illustration by Gustaf Bjorksten for Stormbringer's
Sorcerers of Pan Tang
supplement.
If you do nothing else this week, check out the lobby card from Cat-Women of the Moon that Zombos' Closet unearthed.Quachil Uttaus was the subject of a recent piece at Sean Eaton's always-brilliant R'lyeh Tribune: "In this context, The Treader of the Dust is both eerie and sad, ably capturing the author’s state of mind at this point in his life. More a nightmarish prose poem than a story, it seems to personify—in the entity called Quachil Uttaus—the relentless and inescapable approach of aging, deterioration and death."Ben Daniels of Terrorphoria fame went outside the site to tell us about two of his favorite horror films: "When someone asks me to name my favorite horror film, Texas Chainsaw Massacre always tops the list. Director Tobe Hooper’s magnum opus, TCM helped to define the genre and move it into new, frightening places. Based loosely on the true life crimes of serial killer Ed Gein, it recounts the story of five unlucky youngsters travelling to visit a gravesite in rural Texas who encounter a psychotic family. Everything about this movie is unnerving and designed to shock and challenge its audience. The majority of events take place in broad daylight, which is far more frightening than classic “bump in the night” horror because it removes the illusion of daytime being a safe place."
At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, Kit Power and Jim interviewed musician Ginger Wildheart: "A great movie makes me rejoice that the genre is still alive, much like rock music. A lot of heavy music these days sounds like CGI horror to me. Shit, it IS CGI with everything tuned and tightened by Pro Tools. If I hear honest, slightly out of tune but righteous-as-fuck rock music it makes me feel like a kid again, when bands used to play with a true love and artistry for the style. Horror is no different. I feel like the future is in the hands of experts when I see great new directors refusing to dilute quality for a new, younger, more mainstream audience."Taliesin Meets the Vampires reviewed the film
Story of My Death
: "The first part of the film concentrates on Casanova as he rattles around a mansion, amusing himself with his servant Pompeu (Lluís Serrat). With a delivery that might be said to be lackadaisical, Altaió’s performance is good but he is never asked to engage or challenge the audience. Casanova amuses himself with bodily functions – finding bowel movements especially amusing. We, as the audience, are almost duped into a trance like stupor that causes us to less engage and more become wrapped in the unfolding production."Nev Murray spent the week on a Christina Bergling kick, starting with an interview at his Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "Story ideas always just hit me. Either remembering some dream or just a wayward thought. Then the narrative will just start pouring over my mind, and I better just hope I have a writing implement nearby. I usually sleep with a notebook nearby when I’m sleeping. Many scenes have been scribbled in the dark, and if I’m lucky, I can decode them in the morning. Then I try to sit down and put out at least a thousand words on it a night, after the kids are in bed."
Ghost Hunting Theories
brought us weird things in the Arizona mountains: "Sedona Vortexes: This magical red-rocked land has 4 vortexes or supposed energy areas where leylines converge and the earth creates healing energy. I admit to visiting them and they absolutely do have something to them. As well, many believe that there suspicious underground bases in Sedona. The Airport Mountain has a vortex where it is said that earth energies converge and create an amazing and healing power."
John Kenneth Muir
was all Rocketeer, all the time this week: "Why do fans prefer modern superheroes over ones operating in the past? Perhaps it is because the superhero template is -- broadly -- similar to the Western format, only with some technological upgrades. Substitute a cool car like the Batmobile for Silver, and a man in a cape for a cowboy in a ten gallon hat, and one can detect how alike the genres truly are. In both brands of stories, singular men (or sometimes women) tackle corruption and evil, and then, largely, go on their way…until needed again."Here, I pointed you to a review I wrote of Drew Foote's
Angels to Ashes
, and wrote about pooping during the Zombie Apocalypse.Illustration by Gustaf Bjorksten for Stormbringer's
Sorcerers of Pan Tang
supplement.
July 8, 2015
Pooping During the Zombie Apocalypse
This is a rewrite of an earlier piece I wrote to support my book
The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse
. For more information on Zombie Redoubts, read this piece. For the full skinny on Zombie Redoubts, I urge you to pick up The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse. It might just save your life.
When You’ve Got to Go
It’s not something we typically talk about in polite company, but everybody poops. And pees. For most of us it’s not a big deal: just go to the bathroom and do your thing. We don’t have to think about it. During the Zombie Apocalypse, disposal of human waste presents some problems.
It is not known if zombies have a sense of smell. It’s most likely that the zombies you’ll be dealing with will track you via sight and sound. That is, if they see or hear you, they’ll go after you. Zombies aren’t capable of examining your scat to determine where you’ve been or where you’re going, the way human hunters can with animals. Despite this, it’s not a good idea to just do your number twos wherever you happen to be: it’s unsanitary and attracts disease-carrying vermin of the living (not undead) sort.
Your Zombie Redoubt should include some way to eliminate or safely store your waste without the requirement of indoor plumbing. The two best options are a chemical toilet or a bucket toilet.
Better Pooping Through Chemistry: A chemical toilet is a standalone reservoir containing chemicals that react with human waste, deodorizing it. The drawback to a chemical toilet is that you will have to replace the chemicals in it once you empty it out, otherwise it just becomes a bucket toilet.Don’t Kick the Bucket: A bucket toilet is just that: a large container with a toilet seat on it. Some of the more expensive models have water reservoirs for “flushing” the excreta into a waste reservoir, self-sealing lids, soft seats, and heavy-duty bucket liners.
The biggest problem with an indoor survival toilet is disposing of the contents once the reservoir is full. The last thing you want to do is dodge hungry zombies outside while running with a large, heavy bag of your own waste. Before zombies rise up to destroy civilization, identify places near your Zombie Redoubt that might be suitable for waste disposal: a nearby trash dumpster, a port-a-potty at a nearby construction site, a pre-dug latrine in the back yard.
If you’re on the road, always make sure you have an E-tool (entrenching tool/shovel) with you so you can bury your solid waste.
Toilet paper is pretty important, as anyone who is without it and needs it will tell you. The problem is that it’s fairly bulky. Use as little as you can get away with and still remain clean. MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) tend to have a constipating effect, which in the short term can be beneficial to your toilet paper bottom line. But if you’re traveling, you may not be so lucky in the food department, and what you find on the road may not agree with you. In that case, if you’re out of paper, you’re obviously just going to have to use what’s available: leaves, socks, moss, etc. Just make sure that the leaves you’re using don’t belong to a poison ivy plant. It’s very difficult to keep a two-handed grip on your pistol and face down a group of zombies when your nether regions are on fire.
Always carry a bottle of hand sanitizer and use it after going to the bathroom to prevent cholera, typhus, and other illnesses spread by human waste.
Survival preparedness isn’t just about a bug-out bag full of flashlights, Hydra-Shok rounds, and cans of pork ‘n’ beans: you have to think about the less-fun stuff, too. Poop smarter, not harder.
Illustration by Carlos Machuca for The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse .
When You’ve Got to Go
It’s not something we typically talk about in polite company, but everybody poops. And pees. For most of us it’s not a big deal: just go to the bathroom and do your thing. We don’t have to think about it. During the Zombie Apocalypse, disposal of human waste presents some problems.
It is not known if zombies have a sense of smell. It’s most likely that the zombies you’ll be dealing with will track you via sight and sound. That is, if they see or hear you, they’ll go after you. Zombies aren’t capable of examining your scat to determine where you’ve been or where you’re going, the way human hunters can with animals. Despite this, it’s not a good idea to just do your number twos wherever you happen to be: it’s unsanitary and attracts disease-carrying vermin of the living (not undead) sort.
Your Zombie Redoubt should include some way to eliminate or safely store your waste without the requirement of indoor plumbing. The two best options are a chemical toilet or a bucket toilet.
Better Pooping Through Chemistry: A chemical toilet is a standalone reservoir containing chemicals that react with human waste, deodorizing it. The drawback to a chemical toilet is that you will have to replace the chemicals in it once you empty it out, otherwise it just becomes a bucket toilet.Don’t Kick the Bucket: A bucket toilet is just that: a large container with a toilet seat on it. Some of the more expensive models have water reservoirs for “flushing” the excreta into a waste reservoir, self-sealing lids, soft seats, and heavy-duty bucket liners.
The biggest problem with an indoor survival toilet is disposing of the contents once the reservoir is full. The last thing you want to do is dodge hungry zombies outside while running with a large, heavy bag of your own waste. Before zombies rise up to destroy civilization, identify places near your Zombie Redoubt that might be suitable for waste disposal: a nearby trash dumpster, a port-a-potty at a nearby construction site, a pre-dug latrine in the back yard.
If you’re on the road, always make sure you have an E-tool (entrenching tool/shovel) with you so you can bury your solid waste.
Toilet paper is pretty important, as anyone who is without it and needs it will tell you. The problem is that it’s fairly bulky. Use as little as you can get away with and still remain clean. MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) tend to have a constipating effect, which in the short term can be beneficial to your toilet paper bottom line. But if you’re traveling, you may not be so lucky in the food department, and what you find on the road may not agree with you. In that case, if you’re out of paper, you’re obviously just going to have to use what’s available: leaves, socks, moss, etc. Just make sure that the leaves you’re using don’t belong to a poison ivy plant. It’s very difficult to keep a two-handed grip on your pistol and face down a group of zombies when your nether regions are on fire.
Always carry a bottle of hand sanitizer and use it after going to the bathroom to prevent cholera, typhus, and other illnesses spread by human waste.
Survival preparedness isn’t just about a bug-out bag full of flashlights, Hydra-Shok rounds, and cans of pork ‘n’ beans: you have to think about the less-fun stuff, too. Poop smarter, not harder.
Illustration by Carlos Machuca for The Ultimate Guide to Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse .
July 6, 2015
GNoH Review: Angels to Ashes
At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed Drew Foote's novel Angels to Ashes:
"When things happen in Angels to Ashes, they happen at full volume. For example, a lance doesn’t move quickly: it moves at blistering speed. Every single event has universe-shaking implications and consequences, which tended to blur after a while."
Is this an Apocalyptic tale worthy of the genre? Click to find out!
"When things happen in Angels to Ashes, they happen at full volume. For example, a lance doesn’t move quickly: it moves at blistering speed. Every single event has universe-shaking implications and consequences, which tended to blur after a while."
Is this an Apocalyptic tale worthy of the genre? Click to find out!
July 3, 2015
Friday Links: Dieter Laser, Gun Girls, and Rotten Bodies
As we ease into the weekend, ready to celebrate America's independence from King George's tyranny, let's pause a moment to look back on what's happened in the world of the strange and the horrific:
Ghost Hunting Theories took us to some of the scariest places on Earth, including Suicide Forest, Chernobyl, and Doll Island.Nev Murray reviewed R otten Bodies: A Zombie Short Story Collection by Steven Jenkins at Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "I’ve never read Steven Jenkins before. I thought this would be a good way to introduce myself to his writing. I wasn’t wrong. This is a collection made up of six short stories all about zombies. A genre I haven’t really been keen on over the years but I am slowly getting to like it even more."Anything Horror brought us some very exciting news.
Sean Eaton asked the pressing question of what happens when the Host is the Ghost at his invaluably incisive R'lyeh Tribune: "Lovecraft was also a noted teetotaler, and the story contains a veiled admonition about the consequences of drinking: the narrator falls asleep after drinking a bottle of wine with his lunch, and his ordeal begins not long after he wakes up. But aside from these influences, the work does seem to be primarily Eddy’s in style and content. The Ghost-Eater and several other stories by Eddy constitute some of Lovecraft’s earliest revision work. (Muriel Eddy frequently assisted Lovecraft with the typing of his manuscripts.)"Zombos' Closet of Horror opened up and threw out a must-see pressbook of 1957's Gun Girls.At Ginger Nuts of Horror, Alex Davis interviewed actor Dieter Laser: "I got an e-mail from the producer Ilona Six with the request for a meeting with writer/director Mr. Tom Six in the lobby of the Berlin Hilton. The only further notice was that the subject would be of a role as a “scientist”. So I took my British double-breasted Glen Check summer suit out of the closet to resemble as close as possible a kind of a “scientist” and went under a cloudless sky to the Berlin Hilton expecting to meet a lot of my esteemed German colleagues waiting in the lobby for auditioning. The lobby was strangely empty - no other actors waiting. Only a beautiful couple in the sunny backlight through the huge windows: Tom and Ilona! Brother and sister as I learned. Tom had seen me in the German movie “Fuehrer Ex” and wanted to offer me the leading part in his film “The Human Centipede”."John Kenneth Muir reviewed Chappie, a film I very much enjoyed: "Despite the film’s violence and dystopian imagery, there’s a strong element of hope underlining the often-violent
Chappie
. Too many science fiction films these days mindlessly accept the status quo, or cynically imagine that nothing will ever change, except for the worse. By contrast, Blomkamp’s
Chappie
reminds us that our everyday actions -- as parents and people -- can alter the shape of destiny, and make the world a better place for future generations."Here, I pointed you to a review I wrote of Clive Barker's
The Scarlet Gospels
and wrote about the politicization of the 2015 Hugo Awards.Illustration by Frank Brunner for Chaosium's Stormbringer 4th Edition Rulebook.
Ghost Hunting Theories took us to some of the scariest places on Earth, including Suicide Forest, Chernobyl, and Doll Island.Nev Murray reviewed R otten Bodies: A Zombie Short Story Collection by Steven Jenkins at Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "I’ve never read Steven Jenkins before. I thought this would be a good way to introduce myself to his writing. I wasn’t wrong. This is a collection made up of six short stories all about zombies. A genre I haven’t really been keen on over the years but I am slowly getting to like it even more."Anything Horror brought us some very exciting news.
Sean Eaton asked the pressing question of what happens when the Host is the Ghost at his invaluably incisive R'lyeh Tribune: "Lovecraft was also a noted teetotaler, and the story contains a veiled admonition about the consequences of drinking: the narrator falls asleep after drinking a bottle of wine with his lunch, and his ordeal begins not long after he wakes up. But aside from these influences, the work does seem to be primarily Eddy’s in style and content. The Ghost-Eater and several other stories by Eddy constitute some of Lovecraft’s earliest revision work. (Muriel Eddy frequently assisted Lovecraft with the typing of his manuscripts.)"Zombos' Closet of Horror opened up and threw out a must-see pressbook of 1957's Gun Girls.At Ginger Nuts of Horror, Alex Davis interviewed actor Dieter Laser: "I got an e-mail from the producer Ilona Six with the request for a meeting with writer/director Mr. Tom Six in the lobby of the Berlin Hilton. The only further notice was that the subject would be of a role as a “scientist”. So I took my British double-breasted Glen Check summer suit out of the closet to resemble as close as possible a kind of a “scientist” and went under a cloudless sky to the Berlin Hilton expecting to meet a lot of my esteemed German colleagues waiting in the lobby for auditioning. The lobby was strangely empty - no other actors waiting. Only a beautiful couple in the sunny backlight through the huge windows: Tom and Ilona! Brother and sister as I learned. Tom had seen me in the German movie “Fuehrer Ex” and wanted to offer me the leading part in his film “The Human Centipede”."John Kenneth Muir reviewed Chappie, a film I very much enjoyed: "Despite the film’s violence and dystopian imagery, there’s a strong element of hope underlining the often-violent
Chappie
. Too many science fiction films these days mindlessly accept the status quo, or cynically imagine that nothing will ever change, except for the worse. By contrast, Blomkamp’s
Chappie
reminds us that our everyday actions -- as parents and people -- can alter the shape of destiny, and make the world a better place for future generations."Here, I pointed you to a review I wrote of Clive Barker's
The Scarlet Gospels
and wrote about the politicization of the 2015 Hugo Awards.Illustration by Frank Brunner for Chaosium's Stormbringer 4th Edition Rulebook.
July 1, 2015
Hugos, Puppies, and Politics
Other than journalists, nobody likes what’s been going on with the Hugo Awards. Even though my fiction lies mostly within the realm of horror, I’m a fan of science fiction, and like many of you, I just want to read good genre books and not deal with the political angst behind them. It’s extremely likely that what’s happened to science fiction is going to start happening to horror (if it hasn’t already), and I don’t want to end up as the last line in a Niemöller quote. So I will address this.
This is going to get political. If it offends you, ask yourself why, and then feel free to discuss it with me.
Let’s Set the TableThere is not one element of modern life that has not been politicized in some way or other. Politics have infected everything from education to science to the environment to professional sports to individual entertainment choices. That’s inarguable. Who’s responsible for it can be debated elsewhere, but I defy you to find me one human endeavor that hasn’t been touched by politics.
What the American Left has done is deny that their politics are politics at all; that is, they’ve attempted to normalize their point of view as a non-political viewpoint. Leftism is, therefore, the natural state of things. This explains why so many Leftists self-identify as independents, moderates or even apolitical despite espousing left-wing ideas, supporting left-wing causes, and voting for left-wing political candidates. They’re not being political, they’re just doing the right thing. Leftists have redefined politics as what otherpeople do, not them.
This, of course, excludes those individuals and organizations that specifically identify as progressive, liberal, or left-wing.
The American Right, vastly outnumbered in the entertainment, education, and journalistic industries, tends to conceal itself among the general public a little more than Leftists. Outside of political environments, conservatives aren’t as explicit about their beliefs, in part because the right-wing point of view hasn’t been as successfully normalized in popular culture. Right-wingers aren’t cool. They’re sticks-in-the-mud who resist change, especially social change. Who wants to be known as a fuddy-duddy? A conservative might identify himself as an independent, but he’ll rarely call himself a moderate. He is sensitive to the politicization of modern culture becausehe resists social change. He has his political viewpoints and feels about them as strongly as the Leftist, but outside of places where conservatives gather, he tends to keep his cards closer to the vest.
Until now.
Politics in the HugosEven the most casual observer will see that, over the last decade or so, the selection process of the Hugo Awards has fallen victim to the same politicization that so much else in our culture is subject to. Hugo award nominees have been selected, in large part, on the basis of diversity of author, not the quality of the stories, or even if those stories meet the genre classification of science fiction (see: If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love ).
When discussing diversity, almost nobody means diversity of opinion, outlook, or imagination. They mean diversity of race, skin color, gender, social status, or sexual orientation, all of which are surface qualities that inform the intellect, but don’t defineit. They’re categories useful to those who try to appeal to specific identity groups on the basis of their external differences. If the Hugo Awards are supposed to celebrate the best stories, then the author’s melanin content, plumbing, and what he/she does with his/her plumbing don’t matter. What matters is quality. What matters is diversity of story, not race.
By elevating these surface aspects of diversity, the Hugos have been politicized to deliberately excludeauthors based on their skin color, gender, and political viewpoint. White men need not apply, especially conservative white men. Or conservatives of any color and gender. Scalzi and his allies have altered the Hugo Awards to focus on message fiction written by people who fit their definition of diversity, not quality science fiction. As Leftists, they don’t (or can’t) acknowledge that they’re politicizing the Hugos; to them, they’re simply doing what’s right and good and proper (and keeping the riff-raff out).
What’s amazing is that merely pointing out that the Hugos have been politicized leaves one open to attacks of politicization, as though the accusation is enough to condemn the accuser rather than the accused. So if I point out that Book A was nominated for a Hugo because it espouses a particular viewpoint, not because it’s a good story, I’m the one politicizing the process. Combine this with how progressives cannot or will not acknowledge that their point of view is political, and you have a very comprehensive, if utterly transparent defense: it’s the Puppies’ fault that the Hugos are a political football because they accused the Leftists of politicizing the Hugos, which is impossible because Leftists don’t practice politics. Also known as, “I know you are, but what am I?” Hence, the Puppies’ efforts to nominate stories based on their criteria are, de facto, illegitimate. It’s perfectly fine to nominate only Leftist message fiction written by Leftists, but it’s gaming the system to nominate science fiction stories written by conservatives.
It may be that you like message fiction and think that science fiction needs a broader diversity of authors to maintain the genre’s relevance in the 21st century. In which case it’s only natural that you would decry the Puppies’ efforts. Just know that you’re also engaging in politics. You’ve decided to redefine the Hugo Awards to celebrate a political viewpoint rather than promote quality fiction.
The system’s already been corrupted, already been gamed, already been politicized. It’s just that now, the other side has decided to fight back. If this is a problem for you, be honest with yourself about why: it may be because your politics are being challenged, not that the process has become politicized.
This is going to get political. If it offends you, ask yourself why, and then feel free to discuss it with me. Let’s Set the TableThere is not one element of modern life that has not been politicized in some way or other. Politics have infected everything from education to science to the environment to professional sports to individual entertainment choices. That’s inarguable. Who’s responsible for it can be debated elsewhere, but I defy you to find me one human endeavor that hasn’t been touched by politics.
What the American Left has done is deny that their politics are politics at all; that is, they’ve attempted to normalize their point of view as a non-political viewpoint. Leftism is, therefore, the natural state of things. This explains why so many Leftists self-identify as independents, moderates or even apolitical despite espousing left-wing ideas, supporting left-wing causes, and voting for left-wing political candidates. They’re not being political, they’re just doing the right thing. Leftists have redefined politics as what otherpeople do, not them.
This, of course, excludes those individuals and organizations that specifically identify as progressive, liberal, or left-wing.
The American Right, vastly outnumbered in the entertainment, education, and journalistic industries, tends to conceal itself among the general public a little more than Leftists. Outside of political environments, conservatives aren’t as explicit about their beliefs, in part because the right-wing point of view hasn’t been as successfully normalized in popular culture. Right-wingers aren’t cool. They’re sticks-in-the-mud who resist change, especially social change. Who wants to be known as a fuddy-duddy? A conservative might identify himself as an independent, but he’ll rarely call himself a moderate. He is sensitive to the politicization of modern culture becausehe resists social change. He has his political viewpoints and feels about them as strongly as the Leftist, but outside of places where conservatives gather, he tends to keep his cards closer to the vest.
Until now.
Politics in the HugosEven the most casual observer will see that, over the last decade or so, the selection process of the Hugo Awards has fallen victim to the same politicization that so much else in our culture is subject to. Hugo award nominees have been selected, in large part, on the basis of diversity of author, not the quality of the stories, or even if those stories meet the genre classification of science fiction (see: If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love ).
When discussing diversity, almost nobody means diversity of opinion, outlook, or imagination. They mean diversity of race, skin color, gender, social status, or sexual orientation, all of which are surface qualities that inform the intellect, but don’t defineit. They’re categories useful to those who try to appeal to specific identity groups on the basis of their external differences. If the Hugo Awards are supposed to celebrate the best stories, then the author’s melanin content, plumbing, and what he/she does with his/her plumbing don’t matter. What matters is quality. What matters is diversity of story, not race.
By elevating these surface aspects of diversity, the Hugos have been politicized to deliberately excludeauthors based on their skin color, gender, and political viewpoint. White men need not apply, especially conservative white men. Or conservatives of any color and gender. Scalzi and his allies have altered the Hugo Awards to focus on message fiction written by people who fit their definition of diversity, not quality science fiction. As Leftists, they don’t (or can’t) acknowledge that they’re politicizing the Hugos; to them, they’re simply doing what’s right and good and proper (and keeping the riff-raff out).
What’s amazing is that merely pointing out that the Hugos have been politicized leaves one open to attacks of politicization, as though the accusation is enough to condemn the accuser rather than the accused. So if I point out that Book A was nominated for a Hugo because it espouses a particular viewpoint, not because it’s a good story, I’m the one politicizing the process. Combine this with how progressives cannot or will not acknowledge that their point of view is political, and you have a very comprehensive, if utterly transparent defense: it’s the Puppies’ fault that the Hugos are a political football because they accused the Leftists of politicizing the Hugos, which is impossible because Leftists don’t practice politics. Also known as, “I know you are, but what am I?” Hence, the Puppies’ efforts to nominate stories based on their criteria are, de facto, illegitimate. It’s perfectly fine to nominate only Leftist message fiction written by Leftists, but it’s gaming the system to nominate science fiction stories written by conservatives.
It may be that you like message fiction and think that science fiction needs a broader diversity of authors to maintain the genre’s relevance in the 21st century. In which case it’s only natural that you would decry the Puppies’ efforts. Just know that you’re also engaging in politics. You’ve decided to redefine the Hugo Awards to celebrate a political viewpoint rather than promote quality fiction.
The system’s already been corrupted, already been gamed, already been politicized. It’s just that now, the other side has decided to fight back. If this is a problem for you, be honest with yourself about why: it may be because your politics are being challenged, not that the process has become politicized.
June 29, 2015
GNoH Review: The Scarlet Gospels
Few events in horror literature have more impact than a new novel from Clive Barker, and his latest effort,
The Scarlet Gospels
, is no exception. Pinhead the Cenobite vs. hard-drinking occult detective Harry D'amour in a conflict with stakes that reach from Hell itself to the future of magic on Earth: what's not to like?
This is a review for those who have already read the book, or don't mind significant spoilers. Get to Ginger Nuts of Horror and start reading!
This is a review for those who have already read the book, or don't mind significant spoilers. Get to Ginger Nuts of Horror and start reading!
June 26, 2015
Friday Links: Terrors of Dracula, Ghostwatch, and Battle Royale
It's the start of summer, and there ain't no cure for the summertime blues like catching up on what's been going on in the world of the bizarre and horrific this week:
Sean Eaton did me the honor of riffing on a recent post of mine at his unforgettably invaluable R'lyeh Tribune: "As a speech language pathologist by profession, my university training included the study of early childhood language acquisition. This is a fascinating process inseparable from the growth of the young child’s cognitive understanding of the world. Certain key “cognitions” appear to underlie the ability to understand and use words: that objects continue to exist even when no longer present to the senses, that sounds and gestures can stand for objects and actions, and—around age 3 or 4—that communication need not be about actual events, but can in fact be pretend, or put to other more entertaining uses besides the merely informative, which can become tiresome after a while."John Kenneth Muir set his eyes on Battle Royale, analyzing it as only he is capable: "The film depicts a few-days-in-the-future Japanese society in which children are out-of-control and violent, but where, ultimately, the adults are responsible for the worsening situation because of the laws they have imposed. In the fictional Japan of the film, specifically, a BR (Battle Royale) law (or Millennium Education Reform Act) has been enacted. It states that troublesome students can be removed from their school rooms and remanded to a remote island, where they will kill each other in a contest over a three day span."
At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, George Daniel Lea dove into the Retro Zone and brought up a 1990's television show from the UK: "Consisting of on-site investigations, interviews, on-going commentary from the family affected, parapsychologists, skeptics, all presented in the familiar format of a “crime-watch” style documentary, Ghostwatch traumatised the nation with its brilliantly subtle, almost subliminal scares, by upsetting the audience's expectations and desires; their very relationship to the media in question. Not only did it present its content as factual and live, it also directly involved them in the narrative by urging them to phone in with their own accounts of the supernatural, and later as part of an unwitting mass séance created by their viewing of the show via the television."At Zombos' Closet of Horror, we got a rare look at Terrors of Dracula Vol. 2 Issue 3 from August of 1980. It's racy, raunchy, and remarkable. Put your peepers on it.The Film Connoisseur reviewed The Babadook: "I think the root of the films effectiveness comes from the fact that it plays with our fears of being a parent, of thinking our kids are weird somehow because of their particular child like behavior. Ever seen your kid grinding their teeth at night? Scary, but only because we don’t see ourselves doing it when we sleep. Children’s fear of imaginary monsters makes us think our kids are schizophrenic, truth is all kids are scared of imaginary things." (Also look at my review of The Babadook here.)William Meikle gave us a look at his past, present, and future at Nev Murray's Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "It's one of my biggest regrets that I didn't start writing until I was in my mid-thirties. Since then it's felt like I've continually been trying to catch up to where I want to be with it, and now that I'm fifty seven I can feel the pressure build as time gets ever shorter and age starts to wither both my attention span and my eyesight."Visiting Ghost Hunting Theories, we were treated to reports of spiritual visitors to the dying: "When my father had a heart attack in 1979, he was proclaimed dead by the paramedics for four minutes. During that time, he witnessed his dead parents, aunts, uncles, cousins from Norway he hadn't seen since he was a child. He was relaxed, happy, and smiling as they took him to the hospital. He truly visited them and every fiber of his being showed it. Days later he did die, and I have no doubt at all he went to his relatives, but before he did, he visited me at the time of his death. That kind of visitation is called 'after-death visitation.'"Here, I brought you from truth to fiction to truth, and pointed you to some novella reviews I wrote for Ginger Nuts of Horror.Illustration by Frank Brunner for Chaosium's Stormbringer 4th Edition Rulebook.
Sean Eaton did me the honor of riffing on a recent post of mine at his unforgettably invaluable R'lyeh Tribune: "As a speech language pathologist by profession, my university training included the study of early childhood language acquisition. This is a fascinating process inseparable from the growth of the young child’s cognitive understanding of the world. Certain key “cognitions” appear to underlie the ability to understand and use words: that objects continue to exist even when no longer present to the senses, that sounds and gestures can stand for objects and actions, and—around age 3 or 4—that communication need not be about actual events, but can in fact be pretend, or put to other more entertaining uses besides the merely informative, which can become tiresome after a while."John Kenneth Muir set his eyes on Battle Royale, analyzing it as only he is capable: "The film depicts a few-days-in-the-future Japanese society in which children are out-of-control and violent, but where, ultimately, the adults are responsible for the worsening situation because of the laws they have imposed. In the fictional Japan of the film, specifically, a BR (Battle Royale) law (or Millennium Education Reform Act) has been enacted. It states that troublesome students can be removed from their school rooms and remanded to a remote island, where they will kill each other in a contest over a three day span."
At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, George Daniel Lea dove into the Retro Zone and brought up a 1990's television show from the UK: "Consisting of on-site investigations, interviews, on-going commentary from the family affected, parapsychologists, skeptics, all presented in the familiar format of a “crime-watch” style documentary, Ghostwatch traumatised the nation with its brilliantly subtle, almost subliminal scares, by upsetting the audience's expectations and desires; their very relationship to the media in question. Not only did it present its content as factual and live, it also directly involved them in the narrative by urging them to phone in with their own accounts of the supernatural, and later as part of an unwitting mass séance created by their viewing of the show via the television."At Zombos' Closet of Horror, we got a rare look at Terrors of Dracula Vol. 2 Issue 3 from August of 1980. It's racy, raunchy, and remarkable. Put your peepers on it.The Film Connoisseur reviewed The Babadook: "I think the root of the films effectiveness comes from the fact that it plays with our fears of being a parent, of thinking our kids are weird somehow because of their particular child like behavior. Ever seen your kid grinding their teeth at night? Scary, but only because we don’t see ourselves doing it when we sleep. Children’s fear of imaginary monsters makes us think our kids are schizophrenic, truth is all kids are scared of imaginary things." (Also look at my review of The Babadook here.)William Meikle gave us a look at his past, present, and future at Nev Murray's Confessions of a Reviewer!!: "It's one of my biggest regrets that I didn't start writing until I was in my mid-thirties. Since then it's felt like I've continually been trying to catch up to where I want to be with it, and now that I'm fifty seven I can feel the pressure build as time gets ever shorter and age starts to wither both my attention span and my eyesight."Visiting Ghost Hunting Theories, we were treated to reports of spiritual visitors to the dying: "When my father had a heart attack in 1979, he was proclaimed dead by the paramedics for four minutes. During that time, he witnessed his dead parents, aunts, uncles, cousins from Norway he hadn't seen since he was a child. He was relaxed, happy, and smiling as they took him to the hospital. He truly visited them and every fiber of his being showed it. Days later he did die, and I have no doubt at all he went to his relatives, but before he did, he visited me at the time of his death. That kind of visitation is called 'after-death visitation.'"Here, I brought you from truth to fiction to truth, and pointed you to some novella reviews I wrote for Ginger Nuts of Horror.Illustration by Frank Brunner for Chaosium's Stormbringer 4th Edition Rulebook.
June 24, 2015
GNoH Reviews: Legacy and Carus & Mitch
At Jim Mcleod's Ginger Nuts of Horror, I reviewed two novellas/long short stories.
The first was Legacy, by JG Faherty:
"It tries very, very hard to be Lovecraftian, using all the relevant phrases and names, but it does so at the expense of plot and characterization."
The second was Carus & Mitch, by Tim Major:
"It’s got some interesting characters, a bizarre and unfortunate family dynamic, a terribly grim setting, and a series of mysteries that remain unsolved."
Short books, but are they worth your limited reading time? Click to find out!
The first was Legacy, by JG Faherty:
"It tries very, very hard to be Lovecraftian, using all the relevant phrases and names, but it does so at the expense of plot and characterization."
The second was Carus & Mitch, by Tim Major:
"It’s got some interesting characters, a bizarre and unfortunate family dynamic, a terribly grim setting, and a series of mysteries that remain unsolved."
Short books, but are they worth your limited reading time? Click to find out!
