The Matter of France, or perhaps that of Britain or Rome?

Here is a copy/paste of a query I just posted on a SF forum, as I am going to begin reading/re-reading later this month (as I said I would back a few months ago) some of the earliest extant literature on Roland, one of Charlemagne's twelve Paladins:

I'm about to resume work on a series of read/re-reads (and eventually, reviews) of some of the more famous early medieval to Renaissance-era stories that comprise the Matter of France (cycle of chansons, gestes, epic poems, and prose that deal with Charlemagne and his 12 Paladins). I thought I'd ask people here not just for the English, Spanish, French, and Italian translations/originals of those those tales, but if they are aware of modern-day fantasy tales that might be viewed as direct descendants of the Matter of France tales.

So, what books might be considered as heirs to that story cycle? Or could it be argued that Anglo-American fantasy lit in particular is more dependent upon the Matter of Britain (Arthur and his knights) or the Matter of Rome (ancient Greco-Roman mythology) or even the Scandinavian sagas, which were not part of the Matters 500 years ago?

So, any suggestions? Or any questions why I'm writing this at 2 AM before a long workday when I'm still sick?

Reading over the years: Childhood through middle adolescence

This is inspired by a comment in the link provided. To the best of my knowledge, I have reproduced by the year first read several books that I consider to be important to me. Since I've read thousands of books, needless to say there won't be many of those listed here. This list ranges across all forms of literature and includes school reads and books that I really was too immature to read at the time that I did. But perhaps such a list will be of interest to those who might like a trip back into their own personal Way-Back Machine, minus Peabody, of course.

Five:

*Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are
*Charles Schulz, Happiness is a Warm Puppy

Six:

*Crockett Johnson, Harold and the Purple Crayon

Eight:

*Robert Lewis Stevenson, Treasure Island

Nine:

*C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia
*"Victor Appleton," Tom Swift novels

Ten:

*Alan Bullock, Hitler

Twelve:

*J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Thirteen:

*J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings; The Silmarillion
Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
George Orwell, Animal Farm
Johann Wyss, The Swiss Family Robinson
George Eliot, Silas Marner

Fourteen:

William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
*Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles

Fifteen:

Edgar Allan Poe, "Fall of the House of Usher," "The Raven"
Nevil Shute, On the Beach
William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

Sixteen:

Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon
Herman Melville, Moby Dick (note: I didn't finish this book then and hated it because of the horrid way it was instructed; I read it in full at 23 at a history professor's urging and loved it)

Seventeen:

Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Hamlet
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

The asterisks mark the books that I chose to read on my own; the others were books introduced to me at school. Looking back, it is interesting to see how many non-genre (i.e. sold in the "Literature" section of a bookstore) books that some today would claim as having SF elements (Swift, Shakespeare, Shute, Keyes, Orwell) that I was introduced to via school reading lists. Mind you, this list is very incomplete and I might be editing it multiple times in the next few days as I pore through my shelves and stacks of books. Will likely make a list for my university years later. Sadly, couldn't remember the names of those historical biographies that I used to check out from the local library when I was 8-13 years old, as those books influenced my decision to earn two history degrees.

Reviewing plans for the next couple of weeks

Since I'm under the weather again and haven't even picked up a book for most of the past two days, it'll probably be this weekend at the earliest before I get around to reviewing the books voted on recently in the reader polls. Also, it might be a week or so before I run another one of those book selection polls, just because I'm drained (I've lost nearly 10 lbs. since Friday night) and the final exam schedule at my school is less than two weeks away (needless to say, me missing right now is not the best of timing). On the good news front, my fever broke this evening and I managed to sleep three hours of uninterrupted sleep, the first in five days. Waiting for my meds to kick in so I can sleep again, so I thought I'd write this little post.

But since most of you (I presume) come here for what I have to say and not for stories of my personal health, here's a question to consider: In regards to reading and/or learning, what areas would you like to improve upon the most?

For myself, it would be my ability to understand and to relate to others. This desire has driven me to learn a second language (Spanish), to begin work on several others (the other Romance languages and Serbian), and to try to read stories where people such as myself (Caucasian males) are not the center of attention. Learned much over the past few years, but still have a lot to go. So if any of you have ever wondered where I come across certain books that just don't seem to be readily available, just know that it's through long hours of searching and questioning others.

But again, what about you? What would you like to do to improve yourself?

April 27-May 2 Reads

Feeling rather ill still (sinus infections just never seem to go away with me, but I dare not take any more antibiotics after the last round almost left me with colitis), so this will be shorter than usual. Twelve books, many of them re-reads of old favorites.

151 Enki Bilal and Pierre Christin, The Hunting Party (re-read) - Graphic novel that tells the story of a clandestine meeting of Communist Party officials from all across Eastern Europe in 1983. Good, but more of interest to those who are history fans.

152 J.G. Ballard, Vermilion Sands - Brilliant collection of interconnected stories. Will have to re-read before I can think about writing a coherent review.

153 Suzane Adam, Laundry - Bought this off of a review I read. After reading it, I wholeheartedly agree with the comments, as this is a raw, onion-layered read that progressively sucks the reader into a psychological morass, with an ending that is short, sharp, and fitting with the narrative. Highly recommended.

154 Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit (re-read) - Childhood favorite. Still a favorite of mine as I approach middle age.

155 Arthur Rimbaud, A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat (re-read) - Rimbaud's imagery and the way it was expressed are stunning. Still get more out of it every time I read this bilingual collection.

156 Lord Dunsany, Time and the Gods - Slender short fiction collection that focuses on mimicking aspects of various world myths. Dunsany's storytelling and prose are shown nicely here. Good read, will re-read sooner rather than later.

157 Thomas Ligotti, The Nightmare Factory: Volume 1 (re-read) - This graphic novel adaptation of four of Ligotti's stories accentuates Ligotti's building of atmosphere.

158 Thomas Ligotti, The Nightmare Factory: Volume 2 (re-read) - See what I said above.

159 Ray Bradbury, The Homecoming (re-read) - Illustrated edition (Dave McKeen did the illustrations, which were excellent) of a favorite tale of mine.

160 Boban Knežević, Black Blossom (re-read) - Epic fantasy tale influenced by Serbian folklore. Chapters appear out of order in an attempt to create an effect similar to that of Julio Cortázar's Rayuela/Hopscotch. Not as good as Cortázar's work, but not bad at all.

161 Francisco Casavella, Lo que sé de los vampiros - Good historical novel of the 18th century that spans most of the time from the 1760s to the eve of Napoleon's rise to power. Title is in reference to a comment of Voltaire's.

162 Michael Moorcock, The Best of Michael Moorcock - 400 page collection of his work (well, minus most of the iconic Elric, Corum, and Jerry Cornelius stories). A few stories that didn't work as well as others, but on the whole a collection well worth owning and reading.

Another interesting SF list

Again, copying this list from M. John Harrison's post on "some interesting science fiction", with bold for books/stories I've read and italics for the ones I own but haven't yet read:

Frankenstein, 1818, Mary Shelley

The Time Machine, 1895, HG Wells

The War of the Worlds, 1898, HG Wells

The Purple Cloud , 1901, MP Shiel

The House on the Borderland, 1908, W Hope Hodgson

Metropolis, 1927, Fritz Lang

Last & First Men, 1930, Olaf Stapledon

At the Mountains of Madness, 1936, HP Lovecraft

Out of the Silent Planet, 1938, CS Lewis

The Golden Amazon, 1944, John Russel Fearn

1984, 1949, George Orwell

The Paradox Men, 1953, Charles L Harness

Shambleau & Others, 1953, CL Moore

Dan Dare: Operation Saturn, 1953/4, Frank Hampson

Them!, 1954, dir Douglas

The Man with Absolute Motion, 1955, Silas Water

Tiger Tiger, 1955, Alfred Bester

V, 1956, Thomas Pynchon

The Incredible Shrinking Man, 1957, dir Arnold

Quatermass 2, 1957, Nigel Kneale

Journey Into Space, 1953/8, Charles Chilton

The Sirens of Titan, 1959, Kurt Vonnegut

Rogue Moon, 1960, Algis Budrys

The Voices of Time, 1962, JG Ballard

The Alley God, 1962, Philip Jose Farmer

A for Andromeda, 1962, Fred Hoyle & John Elliot

The Secret of Sinharat, 1964, Leigh Brackett

The Terminal Beach, 1964, JG Ballard

The Anything Box, 1965, Zenna Henderson

Alphaville, 1965, dir Goddard

Babel 17, 1966, Samuel R Delany

Mr Da V & Other Stories, 1967, Kit Reed

Report on Probability A, 1968, Brian W Aldiss

The Final Programme, 1968, Michael Moorcock

The Atrocity Exhibition, 1969, JG Ballard

Roadside Picnic, 1971, A&B Strugatsky

Vermillion Sands, 1971, JG Ballard

334, 1972, Thomas M Disch

Ten Thousand Light Years from Home, 1973, James Tiptree Jr

The Clangers, 1969/74, Oliver Postgate

The Grain Kings, 1976, Keith Roberts

Altered States, 1978, Paddy Chayevsky

Timescape, 1980, Gregory Benford

Repo Man, 1984, dir Cox

Neuromancer, 1984, William Gibson

Schismatrix, 1985, Bruce Sterling

The Unconquered Country, 1986, Geoff Ryman

Escape Plans, 1986, Gwyneth Jones

A Spaceship Built of Stone, 1987, Lisa Tuttle

Tank Girl, 1988, Martin & Hewlett

Flatliners, 1990, dir Schumacher

War Fever, 1990, JG Ballard

Sarah Canary, 1991, Karen Joy Fowler

Feersum Endjinn, 1994, Iain M Banks

Fairyland, 1996, Paul J McCauley

Event Horizon, 1997, dir Anderson

What’s He Building in There ?, 1999, Tom Waits

Under the Skin, 2000, Michel Faber

Synners, 2001, by Pat Cadigan

Natural History, 2003, Justina Robson

Samorost, 2003, Jakub Dvorsky

Dare, 2005, Gorillaz

The Weight of Numbers, 2006, Simon Ings


Not surprising how few of these I've read and/or own. Guess I have more to learn, no? And before any question why X was included and Y excluded, be sure to read Harrison's explanations, as it explains his rationale quite well.

Genderfail and me, Part II

Still been thinking a bit about last Wednesday's Genderfail discussion here. The discussion was pretty good and civil, but I wanted to see what would happen if I were to posit the same questions and positions on an epic fantasy board. So last night, I copy/pasted my post over on the Westeros board, a George R.R. Martin fansite. The discussion so far has been quite a bit different in tenor and tone than it was here.

Perhaps it might be that some took my comments on selection bias as being "too sweeping of generalizations." Others, perhaps, might have been annoyed at the thought of there being any questioning going on of "their" preferences. Still others might be curious, but not saying too much. Way too little information to say one way or the other what the general reaction/s will be over there. Interesting that respondents there were at least 4:1 male-to-female, while my original post was 10:6 male-to-female (I'm excluding myself from both samples, since I initiated the discussion). I wonder if that small, non-random sample is indicative of the types of audiences found at a blog like this and an epic fantasy forum like Westeros.

However, that is just me being curious again; it'd be almost impossible to collect reliable information. But it does raise the question of whether or not online social outlets (from forums to blogs to Facebook to Twitter to all parts in-between) might shape general reactions. I'm curious as to which would be more likely to attract female participation and which would be more likely to be dominated by males. I suspect any study that could be done would be quite revealing.

April 27-May 1 Book Porn

Fourteen books for this past week, with 11 purchases and 3 review copies. As is usual, some have been read, some are in the process of being read, still others will be read shortly, and a few might never be read at all.

Top: Andrzej Sapkowski, Blood of Elves (US edition of a book that I've already reviewed); Stan Nicholls, Orcs: Bad Blood (sequel to the omnibus that features a quite hideous orc face on the cover. This one too has it. Haven't read the first, so no clue when/if I will read this one); Michael Moorcock, The Best of Michael Moorcock (just-released collection of his other stories, the ones that (mostly) don't involve the iconic Elric and Jerry Cornelius characters. However, halfway in, this is a damn good collection, especially for those who might not be familiar with Moorcock's other fictional creations); Brian Ruckley, Fall of Thanes (third and final volume in an epic fantasy trilogy; need to read the second volume first before attempting to read this. Will likely do so sometime in the next few months, if not sooner); Marc Bojanowski, The Dog Fighter (bought this after M. John Harrison recommended it to me. Will be reading it either this weekend or next).


Top: Suzane Adam, Laundry (bought this off of a review I read. After reading it, I wholeheartedly agree with the comments, as this is a raw, onion-layered read that progressively sucks the reader into a psychological morass, with an ending that is short, sharp, and fitting with the narrative. Highly recommended); Ysabel Wilce, Flora's Dare (won the Andre Nortion Award for Best YA Novel); Wilce, Flora Segunda (first volume in Flora's adventures. Bought both so I could see what grabbed the attention of the Nebula jury. Will read both by the end of the month); Chris Adrian, The Children's Hospital (been hearing great things about this novel for over two years now, so I'll probably read this in the next few weeks).


Top: Michael Moorcock, The Vengeance of Rome; Moorcock, Jerusalem Commands (final two volumes in the Pyat Quartet, which has been excellent reading for me so far. Planning on reading both this weekend); Ursula Le Guin, Powers; Voices; Gifts (three volumes, beginning with Gifts and concluding with the Nebula-winning Powers, that comprise her YA trilogy, The Annals of the Western Shore. Finished Gifts last night and while it didn't have the same power as her Earthsea stories, there is certainly promise here. I will finish reading the trilogy in the next week or so).