A Song Of Ice and Fire Observation

George RR Martin writes battle scenes (at least in my limited experience) the way I generally prefer writers to tackle sex scenes.

Unless something particularly plotworthy happens, I don't need to see it, I just need to know it happened.

The Knock Off Syndrome

I noticed a strange, though not entirely unexpected trend the past few years.

It seems that every time a new Twilight movie was released, the drug stores and supermarkets near me would suddenly be flooded with vampire romance novels with artwork that was similar to the Twilight novels. It was an astonishing amount of books written around that subject.

And the number of books I've seen over the past decade about child/student wizards blows my mind. Of course, a lot of them were books written specifically to cash in on the Harry Potter trend.

I thought it was also sort of cute that below the Stieg Larsson trilogy about the girl with the dragon tattoo at my local supermarket, there was a parody novel entitled The Dragon With the Girl Tattoo.

So what I am wondering is, with the success of the Game of Thrones on HBO, are we now going to see a flood of new dynastic fantasy series making their way to the bookstores, drug stores and various other outlets in the coming months and years? Or do publishers believe that despite the fact that novels from that series have topped the New York Times Best Sellers list, that random people might not buy similar titles as impulse purchases.

But I do have a feeling there is going to be a massive amount of books with similar titles coming out in the next two years. I guess time will tell if I am right or not.

Review: The English Is Coming: How One Language Is Sweeping The World

The English Is Coming: How One Language Is Sweeping The World examines the rise of the English language as a true global cultural phenomenon, one which has not only become the international language of business, aviation, diplomacy and science, but also one that has absorbed so many words from other languages to make it a language connected to every region of the globe.

The path that the author, Leslie Dunton-Downer, has taken to explore the subject is to pick 30 words and recount their origins, and in doing so, reveal how English has become the language it is today, one which adapts to changing conditions and assimilates new terms within a short span.

It is an intriguing journey, learning how elements from disparate groups and time periods have come together to build the language that has become the first truly global lingua franca. But the stories presented by Dunton-Downer aren't dry and scholarly, rather they demonstrate the vibrancy of the English language through intriguing anecdotes and examples. In many ways, it reminds me of James Burke's Connections and The Day The Universe Changed on a smaller scale, in that by using these specific words, it paints a much broader picture of how English became the language it is today and the historical events that encompassed them, like how the word "bikini" is linked not just to swimwear but the atomic bomb as well, or how the word "blog" is intrinsically linked to a decision Tim Berners-Lee made early in the development of the World Wide Web (or as he had originally referred to it, the Information Mesh).

This approach, of telling the stories of a selected group of words, also means that Dunton-Downer is revealing the narrative history of English in a different way than, say, Bill Bryson in The Mother Tongue, who told the story of the language in a more linear manner. In fact, the two books would seemingly complement each other well. There are some longer passages to introduce each set of words which fills in some of the gaps, and it helps establish a fuller picture of the history surrounding English.

The final chapters are devoted to how the English language could develop over the coming decades as non-native speakers from China, the Middle East, and other areas of the world start altering the language around the world with their own spin on things. It is an interesting thought experiment, but as even Dunton-Downer seemed to concede, the next major shift that the English language may take is likely to be one we can't foresee based on the current global conditions. A new technological breakthrough or the rise of a new regional power may alter the language in ways we cannot imagine.

All in all, The English Is Coming was a fascinating look at the development of the language which is slowly uniting the world, and I highly recommend it for readers who love reading history or about language. It is also the kind of book that will enrich an avid reader's enjoyment of literature in general.


Article first published on Blogcritics.

Sunday Video: Samuel L. Jackson Reads Go The F*ck to Sleep

Well, it is a match made in pop culture heaven. A tongue in cheek (though coated in truth) and profane book about getting an active child to sleep meets a man who is known for his brand of swearing.

For some strange reason, I want to hear Jeff Bridges read this too.

Fun Short Story Alert

You should totally check out Influx Capacitor by Eric J. Juneau, especially if you like time travel stories.

Passing Thought

Does anyone else wish that Amazon took Paypal?

I understand why they don't mind you, but I still wish they did.

Recommendation Fail

First of all, I'm trying to figure out where the intersection between PS2 era wrestling games and mopey melodramatic vampire romance is.

And how did I end up standing in it last night at Amazon?

Because nothing in my buying history there, recent or otherwise, should ever bring up a Twilight movie.

Based on my purchase history, Amazon should be trying to sell me the following items:

Books on Soccer
Books on Football
PS2 Role Playing and Fighting Games
Books by Terry Pratchett I Don't Own
Graphic Novels in the vein of Scott Pilgrim.

But really... a Twilight movie? *facepalm*

Publishing Company Wants To Release Huck Finn Without Racial Epithet

A publisher is planning on releasing a version of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn without the word "nigger". While I am really not a fan of that word, its use in that particular work is important and used as part of a larger historical context, and as such I disagree with this change on a very deep level.

However, since the work is in public domain, there is nothing I can really do about it. I mean, if the Kindle versions of public domain books can have words changed to mark them as those versions then I suppose in theory they can do this.

But this kind of political correctness bothers me on a lot of levels, not the least of which is it messes with history and plays into efforts to revise the past into something it wasn't. The past was in many ways a brutish, nasty time where people did bad things to each other. I am not idealizing the present by the way. We as a collective still do some brutal things to each other on an institutional level. But somehow trying to put a little bit of a glossy veneer on social norms of the past isn't helping anyone.

Because in trying to distance Huck Finn from that word and that world, the editor who is making that decision is also in many ways trying to eliminate the conversation that goes along with that word. And it is a conversation which Mark Twain wanted people to have.

And while I don't know the entire thought processes of Mark Twain, I think it is safe to assume that he certainly wouldn't want the above changes to be applied to his work.

I Can't Believe This Actually Exists

South Park, you've doomed us all (even though this was published before that episode).

Tags: cameron pierce, south park

My Enemies List: Addendum One

When I originally put together my enemies list, I also said that I would be adding entries to it as I went along and thought of new people and groups that have raised my ire. I will admit that when I do an addendum, the entries are going to be longer... so you have a heads up about that.

Collectors: Now, I am not talking about people who merely buy lots of related things because they enjoy having them. No, I am talking about the people who collect things as some warped form of investment. And because they consider their hobby one which has financial motivations, they set an artificially high price for whatever they own. I am sure a lot of you out there have been in a situation where you wanted to watch, read or play something and the only people who have that item want an unrealistic amount of money for it... a price that is so far out of whack from either its original value or the value such an item would dictate on the open market. Now there are some that would argue that the laws of supply and demand dictate those prices, but that is not true. What has happened is there are some people who have set a high price, and someone made a choice to buy it at that price, and others seeing that it can be sold for that get all nutty and set their prices that high too. And when you see prices that high, when you are trying to buy the item in auction, well, even if you pay more than it was worth otherwise, you still aren't paying that premium price that everyone seems to want. I'll give you an example from my own life. I bought a copy of Ico for the PS2 at a Blockbuster late last year for 10 dollars because I wanted to play it. But after I bought it, I tried and did not like Shadow of the Colossus, which was made by the same team, so I listed it at a game trading website. Someone offered me a sealed game and 50 dollars for said item (the sealed game, if you went by Amazon.com's marketplace was worth 77 dollars... but if you bought it at the manufacturer that same day, it was 30). I then decided to look up Ico (which sold 250K units in the United States/Canada, so it isn't even super rare) at the Amazon marketplace, and there are people who are trying to get over 100 dollars for it. And one person in particular wants 194 dollars for it. I will say that again. One hundred and ninety four dollars. It makes me question the sanity of the world really. Though I am guilty by association because someone offered me a deal which was insane, and I took it, so I am complicit with this, but honestly, I think someone would have to be pretty low to demand 194 dollars for something which at best should be 50... at best.

The Entertainment News Media: Yes I have problems with most of the news outlets, but there are things that I need to say another day about them. So, I thought it would be better to start with something which is near and dear to my heart. Do you remember when you would turn on Entertainment Tonight and they would be talking about an upcoming movie, television show or musician about to go on world tour? I do. Oh, the 1980's, how I hate your fashions and hairdos, but I did appreciate what you were bringing to the party in terms of coverage. And I realize that a lot of the things I want from the entertainment news media are now online, but there was something almost heartwarming about tuning into a show just to see some exclusive scenes from a hotly anticipated film. Now, what are we left with? A lot of celebrity gossip about breakups, drug abuse and weight gain and loss. Or we get TMZ which is basically a half-hour of people with a camera harassing celebrities on the street, at the airport and in front of clubs with various snide comments from the team in the office. These two versions of entertainment reporting almost work as a microcosm of the news media in general, but that would be letting the latter off the hook too easily. There used to be a time when there was an unwritten rule that the private lives of celebrities were pretty much off limits for the legitimate entertainment press. I sort of wish we would go back to that standard, because my needs as a pop culture junkie are really not being served by what passes as coverage these days.

There is more to come... there will always be more to come.

Tags: ico, collectors, tmz, entertainment tonight, entertainment media, celebrity, gossip, harassment, shadow of the colossus, blockbuster, first edition, rarity, free market, ebay, amazon, investment mentality, baseball cards, video games, sony, movies, books, enemies list

How my 2008 Resolutions panned out

I pledge to post 250 entries this year, or roughly 5 times a week.

I came up slightly short of that goal... I got 248 posts this year, which isn't bad considering some of the circumstances.


I plan to bring back Culture Kills Comics.

They were back, and then gone again, and maybe they will return once again.


I want to get something once again published in the legitimate press.

I got some clips for my file, but nothing major. It is my foot in the door again though.


I want to create a piece of electronic music. I made an attempt a few years ago, but I think I can do better now.

Nope. Didn't even get to this one. On some level, I forgot I put it on my list, so that may be part of the reason I didn't take another crack at it.

I want to play/own the following games:
Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan Wars
Resident Evil 4
Destroy All Humans
Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories
Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories
God of War 2
Freedom Fighters
Psychonauts
Time Splitters
Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition
Beyond Good and Evil
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Darkwatch
Gun Griffon Blaze

I own them all now and so many more. I played to completion Darkwatch, SW: Battlefront II, Beyond Good and Evil, GTA: LCS, Resident Evil 4 and Ace Combat Zero.


I want to see the following movies:
No Country for Old Men
Chinatown
The Sting
Once Upon a Time in America
Harold and Maude
El Topo
The Seven Samurai
Akira

I watched No Country for Old Men, Chinatown, Once Upon a Time in America and tried to watch Akira, but didn't make it through.


I want to read these books:
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
Hey Nostradamus! by Douglas Coupland
Blood's a Rover by James Ellroy
The Plot to Save Socrates by Paul Levinson

I read other titles from both Coupland and Palahniuk this year, Blood's a Rover didn't come out this year and I couldn't find Paul Levinson's book at the bookstore.


I want to run at least 3 interviews.

Nothing. Nada. Zip. Didn't ask, didn't receive. And I had the opportunity to try to get some interesting interview requests (like I could have tried to get Val Emmerich, the musician who also plays the guy that lives across the hall from Betty Suarez on Ugly Betty)


So all in all, I think I did decently on my resolutions. And as a kicker, I ended up losing 30 pounds this year, which I didn't really set out to do.

And tomorrow, I will have my resolutions for 2009 up.

Tags: ace combat, james ellroy, new year's resolutions, choke, hey nostradamus, chinatown, no country for old men, once upon a time, america, the west, akira, el topo, gun griffon, darkwatch, time splitters, psychonauts, beyond good and evil, resident evil, ugly betty, culture kills comics

The 100 Most Manly Books?

I was tooling around Stumbleupon last night, and I came across a great list from the site The Art of Manliness, and I was so moved by this particular one, I thought it was worth sharing.

Entitled 100 Must-Read Books: The Essential Man's Library, the editors/writers for the site, to quote their own words, "have narrowed down the top 100 books that have shaped the lives of individual men while also helping define broader cultural ideas of what it means to be a man.". Is it a perfect list? No, but those involved seemed to realize that there would be some contention about their choices, and it sort of makes me respect their selections a little bit more.

Indeed, I do like a lot of the selections which come from not only fiction, but biography, history, epic poetry, religious texts and collections. And the Teddy Roosevelt and John Steinbeck content is high too, as there are 4 books about the former president on the list and I believe 3 works by the Nobel Prize winning novelist.

There's Homer, Hemingway, Orwell, Machiavelli, Kerouac, Kafka, Vonnegut, Shakespeare... basically all the big guns you would expect from a list of recommended books. There's Tarzan, King Solomon's Mines, The Island of Dr. Moreau, and a lot of other pulpy goodness, along with works like Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, Plato's The Republic, and even Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. It is a very eclectic list to say the least.

And while I don't agree with every selection (as both Catcher in the Rye and a Separate Peace are on the list), I do think most of the choices are pretty solid. And the fact that James Joyce's Ulysses made the list, well, I certainly can't complain about that. But what makes this interesting for me is the spirited discussion that has developed in the comment section, which for the most part, has been very civil despite the disagreements, not only with some of the choices (and there have been some excellent alternate selections), but there are also some minor religious and political differences being expressed, which is usually the sparks that start off a conflagration in forum/blogland. Personally, I think having so many people talk about books passionately online in one place actually bodes well for reading in general. After all, having a heated exchange about the merits of individual books denotes an intellectual and emotional attachment to such literature, and for those pundits that talk about the death of reading, such devotion to a favorite book or author does go a long way to dispelling the rumors that adult functional literacy is about to rapidly disappear in the next few years.

Tags: ulysses, james joyce, shakespeare, island of dr. moreau, art of manliness, kafka, catcher in the rye, separate peace, adam smith, wealth of nations, kerouac, vonnegut, orwell, homer, hemingway, tarzan, theodore roosevelt, zen, art of motorcycle maintenance

20 Questions: A Meme

Since it is an easy, breezy Friday Afternoon, I thought it was time for me to make up a new meme.

Basically the premise is that you ask and answer 5 questions each about literature, movies, television and video games. You can use some or all of my questions, and you can make up you own if the fancy suits you.

And like nearly every meme here at Culture Kills, you are under no obligation to do this, as there is no tagging slot with this one.

So here we go!

Literature:

Best books you read in school: Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

Books you hated in school: Catcher in the Rye and A Separate Peace

Book you keep meaning to read but haven't gotten around to: I have a copy of Don Delilio's Underworld sitting on my table... it has been with me for almost a decade.

Favorite Author: Terry Pratchett, with James Ellroy a close second.

Place from a book you'd like to inhabit: The Dublin of Joyce's memory in Ulysses

Gaming:

Most satisfying plot-related death: Officer Tenpenny: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - That dude had to die, he just had to.

Most satisfying ending: North America's Final Fantasy II - That thing wrapped up almost every storyline in the entire game.

Most Disappointing ending: Final Fantasy VII: What was that?!? It was a ripoff, that's what it was.

Favorite lead character: Has to be Cortez from the TimeSplitters games... bet you all thought I was going say Solid Snake or someone from the GTA games, didn't you.

Game you wish you could play but can't: (because you don't have the console or your computer won't run it) - One of the three great First Person shooters from the Xbox 360 (Bioshock, Gears of War or Halo 3).

Television:

Favorite show all time: WKRP in Cincinnati - I loves me some Les Nessman and Bailey Quarters.

Favorite Theme Song: The Equalizer, Mastermind (Approaching Menace), and CHiPs.

Have you ever bought a series on DVD that you didn't watch on TV first: Well, I bought 30 Rock because I couldn't watch it on Thursdays. I guess that counts.

If you had to stop watching a particular show, which would be your first choice: As I said last night, it would likely be CSI

Should NYPD Blue-style swearing and partial nudity be back on the air: Hell Yeah!

Film:

Best Shootout: The Hospital Scene in Hard Boiled.

Best Car Chase: The Chase in Nice in Ronin.

Best Fight Sequence: The final fight in Kung Fu Hustle.

Character actor you love to hate: This was a close one, but I think the late J.T. Walsh wins out over William Atherton.

Someone who should be in every movie released this year: Samuel L. Jackson. Come on. You knew I was going to say it.

Tags: samuel l. jackson, j.t. walsh, william atherton, ronin, hard boiled, kung fu hustle, wkrp in cincinnati, timesplitters, san andreas, grand theft auto, fifth business, meme, underworld, csi, nypd blue, mastermind, equalizer, bioshock, halo, final fantasy, ulysses, james ellroy, terry pratchett

Remembering James Joyce's Ulysses

Now if I had been a more forward-thinking, I would have written this piece back on June 16th, which is also known as Bloomsday to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the book's release but seeing that this is Banned Books Week, I thought that this would also be an appropriate time to discuss James Joyce's Ulysses.

The reason that this week is fitting for remembering this book is because it was banned for over a decade in both the United States(until 1933) and Britain(until 1936) and yet, despite this(or rather because of it), the Modern Library voted it the best novel of the 20th Century.

Yes, the book is a little lascivious, as it features masturbation, defecation, child birth, sexual fantasy and various other themes which at the time, organizations like the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice found detrimental to society. In fact, the Society's founder, Anthony Comstock was the namesake of the law that was used to prosecute those who attempted to publish or import the book into the United States. I am almost afraid to contemplate the day and age when there are Bozell or Jack Thompson laws on the books, however unlikely that may be.

Ulysses largely follows the story of 2 Dubliners over the course on June 16th, 1904 during the 18 waking hours of the main characters over the course of 18 chapters. Both Stephen Dedalus, a young schoolteacher and writer who also happened to be the main character of Joyce's earlier book, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and Leopold Bloom, a half-Jewish advertising canvasser are the characters which make up the bulk of the narrative, though there are others who take center stage at points throughout the book. Each chapter is analogous to a particular chapter or incident from Homer's The Odyssey and is written in a unique style. Yet despite these stylistic devices, the narrative itself is highly compelling.

Now, the book has a reputation for being difficult, and I am not going to lie to you, there are some chapters which are tough sledding, like the Oxen of the Sun episode, which is written in 9 different historical English styles and Circe which is in essence a full-length hallucinatory play. But there are chapters which I absolutely adore, like Nausicäa(the chapter that caused the original furor), Aeolus (takes place in a newsroom, so random headlines break up the narrative) and Ithaca (the tale is told through a series of questions and very specific answers), and the most famous chapter of the entire book is the long internal soliloquy by Molly Bloom in the final chapter, Penelope, which perhaps received its most notable attention in the movie Back to School. As both a student of history and a pop cultural aficionado, I also respect the level of gritty detail and fleeting references to things which were ephemeral to make the city of Dublin a character itself, and these references are especially stunning given the fact that Joyce hadn't lived in Ireland for 18 years by the time the book was ready for publication.

As both a masterpiece of modernist literature and a trail blazer and a rather decisive blow to early 20th century censorship, James Joyce's Ulysses did much to create the artistically free world we have today. It was a fight I am glad was won for freedom of speech.

Tags: james joyce, ulysses, portrait of the artist as a young man, dublin, leopold bloom, molly bloom, stephen dedalus, back to school, nausicaa, aeolus, ithaca, circe, oxen of the sun, banned books week, bloomsday, anthony comstock, bozell, jack thompson, censorship

The Celebrity Novelist I Never Saw Coming

There are a lot of actors, singers and other performing artists that write novels. I've accepted that, and sometimes they don't do a bad job.

But sometimes, you just hear that someone has a novel coming out and it chills you to the very core. I had such an experience this afternoon.

I found out that Courtney Thorne-Smith has a novel called Outside In coming out in September.



Courtney Thorne-Smith?!?!? The woman who plays Jim Belushi's wife on According to Jim? Allison Parker from Melrose Place and the woman who thought playing the romantic lead in a movie starring Carrot Top was a good idea... wrote a novel?

I don't personally have anything against her mind you, as she seems like a genuinely pleasant woman to be around. I am just very surprised to be hearing this news.

Tell me if this story sounds familiar to anyone: Kate, a youngish actress with a cheating husband and a controlling mother finds herself feeling isolated and alone in the big Hollywood machine, but finds kinship and an emotional anchor in the guise of her personal make-up artist and they develop a deep and meaningful friendship.

Now for all I know it could be the most stunning fictionalized tell-all of the corrupt, media saturated excesses of Hollywood ever penned, but I doubt it.
Why do I doubt it? Because Gawker has snatched a few passages from the book and plunked them down for all to see. Read, enjoy and be forewarned.

And of course, it isn't about her at all... it is just some strange coincidence that both her and her protagonist have names that start with a c/k sound and hyphenated last names with a less common-more common surname pattern. Right.

Then again, maybe I shouldn't be knocking her work. After all, she has a novel being published and I don't. Of course, that hasn't stopped me in the past, now has it?

Tags: courtney thorne-smith, gawker, outside in, september, alison parker, melrose place, according to jim, jim belushi, novel, hollywood, celebrity, carrot top, chairman of the board, derivative work

Books that will never be made into movies

I was casting my mind back to some of the books I've read in the past and I was surprised about how many of them had been turned into movies. But there were a few titles which really stood out as unviable as cinematic projects, and I don't see them ever being made into feature films.

The short list:


Book: Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

Thumbnail Sketch of what it is about: Generally speaking, the main narrative darts all around the development and implementation of the V2 rocket during the Second World War but that is just the tip of the iceberg for a book that one member of the Pulitzer committee of 1974 could even get through.

Reasons why it will never be made: First of all, Joel Schumacher bought the rights to make this movie, but part of me thinks he hasn't really read it... because wow, the story is almost all digression, so pulling a cohesive story out of it all... I don't think he has the skills, and I think through the development process this will become more and more apparent. And I have a feeling that if Mr. Schumacher was pitching this story to execs at most of the major studios they'd reject him. (Full Disclosure: I read Gravity's Rainbow a few years ago, and I didn't really dig it, so I may have a bias).

--

Series: The Gap Series by Stephen R. Donaldson from the early 1990's

Thumbnail Sketch of what it is about: Inspired by the Ring Cycle by Wagner, this is a dark space opera on the grandest of scales. Mankind has colonized vast portions of the galaxy through the actions monopolistic mining corporation who also controls the police in deep space and uses the threat of genetic assimilation from an alien race called the Amnion to maintain its hold on power. But an incident at a deep space mining post involving a young female officer, and two opposing space pirates may change everything.

Reasons why it will never be made: The novella that sets the whole series up, The Real Story, is simply brutal in a way that is really not commercially viable, as the female protagonist is raped repeatedly by another major character, both of whom are important to the overall storyline. At the same time, the events in this book becomes central to everything that is to come later on. But because it isn't implicitly part of the Wagnerian saga, but merely a preamble to the events to come, it could be skipped and have some of its material integrated into the larger story arc later. But given the fact that after that novella, the other 4 novels average about 600 pages a piece and are technically far more demanding, the likelihood that a studio would be willing to outlay so much money on a series that frankly didn't have a large following seems really unlikely.

--

Book: The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

Thumbnail Sketch of what it is about: Two Anglo-Indian actors miraculously survive a bombing on a flight from India to England, and because of this experience, they each believe themselves to be an archangel and the devil respectively.

Reasons why it will never be made: Do I really need to explain this one? *cough*fatwa*cough*



I bet some of you out there have read some decent books that you think will never made into movies either, for better or worse, and I'm fascinated in what your thoughts on this subject are.

Tags: gap series, real story, stephen donaldson, satanic verses, gravity's rainbow, fatwa, thomas pynchon, salman rushdie, joel schumacher, digression, postmodern literature, wagner, ring cycle

BBC remakes the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game

Back in 1984, at the height of the popularity of interactive fiction games, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was released, and with the vagaries of computer operating systems rendering nearly every platform that you could play it on obsolete, it seemed that this gem of early home computing and additional venue for the genius of Douglas Adams to shine through would be assigned the the great scrapheap like so many other things.

And the the BBC decided to remake the game in Flash so everyone can play it now.



So enjoy the new graphically enhanced version of the game and have a happy weekend y'all.

Tags: douglas adams, infocom, bbc, hitchhiker's, guide to the galaxy, interactive fiction, flash, graphical interface, game, text

Towel Day 2007

It is Towel Day 2007, and I couldn't let the day go by without describing the sadness Douglas Adams' passing still brings to my heart... it depresses me more than Marvin the Paranoid Android reciting Vogon Poetry.



That's all I really have to say about that.

Tags: douglas adams, towel day, marvin, paranoid android, towelie, mostly harmless, vogon poetry

"My last words? Life is no way to treat an animal, not even a mouse"

"I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I’m dead."

I've bookended this post with two quotes from the Kurt Vonnegut collection God Bless you Dr. Kevorkian, as they seemed strangely relevant, as did the title of this post, which came from I Love You, Madame Librarian.

How do you eulogize a man that was one of the most influential writers of the late 20th century, a literary giant whose ideas changed more than one generation for the better?

I remember reading Harrison Bergeron when I was in high school, and quite a few of his other novels throughout college, and I was especially drawn to The Sirens of Titan, and it makes sense as I was to later learn that it was one of the novels that was influential on Douglas Adams. His work exposed me to a greater depth and range of satirical writing that I may never have known, and for that, I will be eternally grateful.

His hometown, Indianapolis had decreed that 2007 was the Year of Vonnegut, and Kurt Vonnegut was scheduled to give the 2007 McFadden Memorial Lecture on April 28th, and receive the first annual Kurt Vonnegut award that same day. It is odd timing, no matter how you look at it.

Eulogies from my fellow bloggers: Indexed and Electronic Cerebrectomy

"Ta ta and adios. Or, as Saint Peter said to me with a sly wink, when I told him I was on my last-round trip to Paradise: “See you later, Alligator.”

Tags: kurt vonnegut, eulogy, sirens of titan, 84, death, god bless you, mr. rosewater, dr. kevorkian, indianapolis, year of the vonnegut, harrison bergeron, saint peter, remembering

Two Strikes and you are out?

Well, now it seems that a second author has come forward and accused Kaavya Viswanathan of lifting work from her. With all the furor and media attention surrounding her book, maybe it was inevitable that another writer would find passages that bore a striking similarity to their own work. Unfortunately, the author in question is Sophie Kinsella, which means that this story isn't going to go away any time soon. Granted, I am perpetuating it as well, which means I bear some guilt in not letting it go gently into that good night, but Dylan Thomas wouldn't want it to go so quietly.

It has gotten to the point where Random House, who published both Kinsella's and McCafferty's work will not comment on the matter further, because after all, the damage is done, and there is no use kicking your competition while they are down.

I thought Viswanathan could get passed this, I really did, but this second accusation is going to put a huge dent in any recovery to her burgeoning career. And I bet that on some level, the executives at Little, Brown are a little upset that she didn't borrow from any of their midlist authors and get some additional press for those titles.

In the end, this whole situation is likely going to end very badly, and perhaps serve as a cautionary tale for other young writers. Then again, this sort of thing has happened before and will probably happen again. I just hope it isn't this year.