Which is worse between these two covers?

When I saw the first cover from May 1985, I thought "No way they could be more stupid and sexist in a single cover art image."  Then I saw the August 1985 issue.  I was wrong.  Very wrong.  Let's see what we have here:  a blue naked woman with a bow-like object covering her most private parts standing on a very fat bearded man with moobs.  As if that weren't bad enough, look at where the other woman is in this picture.

Sigh...with covers like this, no wonder American SF has often been relegated to the nerd bins of history.  Comments?

A hypothetical situation and a question

Let's say an American film maker, an Egyptian poet, a German philosopher, a Mande jeli, a Chinese monk, and a Bolivian singer were to gather in a room to collaborate on a story.  What story form do you think they would use and what might be some of the elements of that story?

Titles that are on my e-book readers awaiting to be read in full

For those rare few that care to know what I have on Kindle for iPad and iBooks to read, here's the list of titles unread or partially read that I've purchased:

John Langan, House of Windows

Kelly Barnhill, The Mostly True Story of Jack

Benjamin Percy, Refresh, Refresh:  Stories

David Bellos, Is That a Fish in Your Ear?:  Translation and the Meaning of Everything

Ellen Willis, et al., Out of the Vinyl Deep: Ellen Willis on Rock Music

Aimee Bender, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake

Laura Kasischke, Space, in Chains

Geoff Dyer, Otherwise Known as the Human Condition:  Selected Essays and Reviews

Alberto Moravia, Boredom

Yasunari Kawabata, The Old Capital

Elfriede Jelinek, The Piano Teacher

Imre Kertesz, Fatelessness

Maureen McHugh, After the Apocalypse

Ivan Bunin, The Gentleman from San Francisco and Other Stories

Sigrid Undset, Jenny

Wladyslaw Reymont, Komediantka

Henryk Sienkiewicz, With Fire and Sword

Paul Heyse, Das Mädchen von Treppi

Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Der Pilger Kamanita

José Echegaray, O Locura o Santidad

Giosuè Carducci, Odi Barbare

Selma Lagerlöf, Jerusalem

Selma Lagerlöf, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils

Carlo Ginzburg, Threads and Traces:  True False Fictive

José Maria Eça de Queirós, A Relíquia

José Maria Eça de Queirós, Contos
 
Luiz Vaz de Camões, Os Lusiadas

Torquato Tasso, Gerusalemme conquistata


iBooks

Jonathan Lethem, The Ecstacy of Influence

Dubravka Ugrešić, Karaoke Culture

Aracelis Girmay, Kingdom Animalia

Teju Cole, Open City

Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger's Child

Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot

Grazia Deledda, Canne al vento

Isak Dinesan, Seven Gothic Tales

Isak Dinesan, Out of Africa

Jacinto Benavente, Los intereses creados

Vera Nazarian, Lords of Rainbow

Henrik Pontoppidan, The Apothecary's Daughters


Plenty of good reading ahead for me in addition to several print editions.  Which ones have you read/want to read and what did you think of them/want to know more about?

A look at the aborted Best American Fantasy 4 shortlist and where these authors are today (Part I)

It was around 18 months ago that the decision was made to put the Best American Fantasy series on hiatus.  I was the new series editor at the time and I had just compiled a list of 66 print (and a couple of online) works (Alan Swirsky I believe handled all but a handful of the online submissions)  that I thought were worthy of the guest editor Minister Faust's consideration for the final list of 20-25 titles.  Glancing over that list, I found that there were several emerging voices to go with the more established writers and I thought that it might be a good idea to make a post listing these authors and recent publications, in case a few want to check out their works.  Order is based on the listing I did in August 2010, which was by order of story read:

1.  Leah Bobet.  Her debut novel, Above, comes out on April 1, 2012.  I see she has a blurb from Emma Donoghue, whose Room I thought was an excellent novel.  Pre-ordered this.

2.  Kelly Barnhill.  She has released a few children's/YA novels (the latest being 2011's Mostly True Story of Jack, which was an Amazon Best of Month for August 2011).  Just purchased the e-book edition, as I am kicking myself for overlooking this when it was released.

3.  Peter Beagle.  Beagle has written several classic novels and short stories.  His latest collection, Sleight of Hand (2011), is a must-read for those who either haven't read his recent output or want to discover a new author.

4.  John Langan.  Langan has twice been nominated for the International Horror Guild Award for short fiction.  I thought his debut collection Mr. Gaunt & Other Uneasy Encounters was excellent.  Just purchased his 2010 debut novel, House of Windows, as an e-book.

5.  Ander Monson.  Monson is an established essayist, poet, and occasional fiction writer.  His latest work, the July 2010 poetry collection, The Available World, looks promising (but I'm a poetry lover at heart).

6.  Antonia Clark.  No readily-found collections or books.

7.  Robert Mayette.  He has appeared in a few magazines, but no collections or books.

8.  Rachel Swirsky.  Swirsky has been nominated for the World Fantasy, Hugo, and Nebula awards in the past two years, winning the 2010 Nebula Award for "The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers Beneath the Queen's Window."  Her stories appear regularly on Tor.com and they have appeared in several anthologies.  Her debut collection, Through the Drowsy Dark, was released by Aqueduct Press in 2010, which I recommend as a starting place before reading her excellent new pieces.

9.  N.K. Jemisin.  Jemisin's works, both short fiction and her novels alike, have been nominated for the major SF/F awards over the past two years.  Her upcoming novel, The Killing Moon, comes out in May 2012.

10.  Eric Schaller.  Schaller is both an illustrator and a writer.  His stories have appeared in several magazines, but I didn't find any collections or novels that had been released.

11.  Christian Moody.  Moody appeared in Best American Fantasy 2 and in other anthologies, but no separate collection was found during a search.

12.  Julee Newberger.  No collections or novels were found.

13.  Matt Bell.  Bell has helped edit at Dzanc Books, appeared in Best American Fantasy 2, and his 2010 collection, How They Were Found, was reviewed here back in late 2010.

14.  Deborah Schwartz.  No information was found as to any collections or novels.

15.  Fred McGavran.  See the comments to this post for what he has had published.  Looks interesting.

16.  Benjamin Percy.  Percy released both a novel and his second collection, Refresh, Refresh, in late 2010. 

17.  Aimee Bender.  Bender has written several collections of fiction and her latest novel, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, was released in 2010.

18.  Brian Beglin.  No information found in regards to collections or novels.

19.  Saladin Ahmed.  Ahmed has been a finalist for the Campbell and Nebula Awards and his debut novel, The Throne of the Crescent Moon (which I'm currently reading and will be reviewing shortly) comes out in a week in the US and I think later in the UK.

20.  Catherynne M. Valente.  Valente has had several award-winning and nominated short fiction and novels released in the past couple of years.  Her latest novel, The Folded World (November 2011), I would highly recommend to those who are even remotely familiar with the Prester John myth.

21.  Michael Blumlein.  Blumstein was nominated in years past for the World Fantasy Award and the Bram Stoker award, but he hasn't had any new collections or novels released since 2005.

22.  Eugene Mirabelli.  Mirabelli has been nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and Nebula Award for his fiction and according to his website, he has a new novel, Rento, the Painter, coming out later in 2012.

23.  Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig.  Ya-Chu Cowhig released a drama, Lidless, in late 2010.

24.  Jenny Boully.  Boully's latest novel, not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them, was released in June 2011.  Just ordered a copy (not on Amazon)

25.  Joe Celizic.  Celizic has appeared in several anthologies, but no separate collections or novels.

26.  Christopher Boucher.  Boucher's debut novel, How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, was released in August 2011.  Tempting to add that to the other purchases I've made.

27.  Deirdra McAfee.  McAfree has had several other stories published, but no separate collection or novel.

28.  Amit Majmudar.  Majmudar has released at least one poetry collection and a debut novel, Partitions (June 2011), the latter of which I read and enjoyed last year.

29.  Will Kaufman.  Could not find any definitive news on any collections or novels he may have had released since 2010.

30.  Joan Connor.  Connor's most recent collection, How to Stop Loving Someone, won the 2010 Leapfrog Fiction Contest and was published in book form in September 2011.

31.  L. Annette Binder.  Binder's debut collection, Rise, comes out later this year.  She is a previous Pushcart Prize winner.


Since this is taking longer than I had expected, I'll do the second half in 2-3 days.  So far, it's been pleasant to discover all of the accolades and awards several of these writers have enjoyed.  Hopefully, this will inspire some of you to investigate their works further and perhaps purchase/read a few.

Interesting article on racism and sexism found in Tolkien's works

Generally I don't say much about the racist, sexist, and classist attitudes found in much of J.R.R. Tolkien's fictions, as I would think by now that it should be apparent to 21st century readers, but Requires Only That You Hate (one of my new favorites to read because her takes on social/cultural issues in genre fiction and video gaming often makes me reassess my own views) has written a piece on those odious elements in Tolkien's work that is well worth reading.  In particular, her comments on Tolkien's analogy of his dwarves having "Semitic" qualities to their language and their wanderings is very well-argued.

Although I don't mind people leaving comments here, I think it'd be best to leave comments at her blog.

Which is the more significant book?

As the title says, which is the more significant work?  Why did you choose that work?

A couple of Friday morning links

Black Gate article on authors fading due to age.

Beyond the possible attempt to bait fans of George R.R. Martin, I found this article to be very flawed.  One could argue that in the case of authors who write primarily multi-volume epic fantasies is that after a stage, it is increasingly difficult to balance creativity (after all, the main exposition occurs early in such tales) and continuity.  And when one goes outside that narrow field, the premise becomes even more ridiculous.  After all, I'm typing this with a copy of Umberto Eco's Confessions of a Young Novelist, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, and several of Jorge Luis Borges' collections on shelves around me.

Worst part about articles such as this is that they show the provincialism that seems to infect so many bloggers who want to sound as though they are making a profound point.  Rather than even entertaining the possibility that it might be fossilized narratives and nearly-as-ancient "fan" expectations, simple, flawed arguments such as this piece are written.


Requires Only That You Hate takes on Pat's Fantasy Hotlist

Nothing really to say but those quotes really are damning, aren't they?