A Shameless Plug Before I Hit The Road

The latest issue of what I consider to be one of the best literary journals/anthologies, Conjunctions: 53:  Not Even Past:  Hybrid Histories, arrived in the mail this morning.  I've been looking forward to this issue for six months now.  Bradford Morrow, who's edited this journal since its inception almost 30 years ago, tends to have some really good themed stories and this one is promising.  Very promising.  So promising for me that they put translations of stories/poems by Thomas Bernhard and Roberto Bolaño in here.  Oh, and that Bolaño is from an upcoming book, Antwerp.  Read it already, very good, if not at the height of his abilities to invoke an emotional response from the reader.  Can't wait until it's released in the near future in both Spanish and English translation.

The other stories hold promise.  Some of the authors have a history of their own with "speculative fiction."  Others are more firmly grounded in "mimetic fiction."  This journal doesn't tend to shy away from mixing the two together.  Curious to see if this issue will be as good as the more heavily-speculative 52:  Betwixt the Between.  That one will get more feature time in my year-end recaps.  Haven't decided if I ought to place it in the Anthology category or if I should create a new Magazine category for these two issues, Weird Tales, and Electric Velocipede.  Regardless, if this issue can live up to the last issue's goodness, I will have more than gotten my money's worth for it.

Now to get ready to go.  It's the Vols' Homecoming game against Memphis.  Starts at 6 PM CST and I live 3.5 hours away from Knoxville and have to buy scalped tickets.  So I'm outta here until Sunday.  Ciao!

Amazon releases its Best of 2009 in SF and Fantasy

Here's the link:

1.  Catherynne M. Valente, Palimpsest (this novel left me with conflicted feelings.  The prose was strong, the setting unique, and yet there was something about the story that left me cold.  Sent this to another and she felt the same way.  Perhaps I'll buy another copy and re-read it to see what it was that bothered me about this story, but not right away)

2.  Caitlín R. Kiernan, The Red Tree (loved this book; already reviewed)

3.  David Anthony Durham, The Other Lands (enjoyed this one quite a bit as well)

4.  Peter Straub (ed.), American Fantastic Tales boxed set (this is a must-read anthology of dark fantasy/horror of the past two hundred years.  Library of America published this and their collections are a delight to hold)

5.  Cherie Priest, Boneshaker (haven't read, but will order shortly, since her earlier novels have been quite good)

6.  Michal Ajvaz, The Other City (just placed an order for this, as it sounds like just the sort of thing that I'd enjoy reading)

7.  Adam Roberts, Yellow Blue Tibia (might order this in the next few weeks)

8. Jonathan Strahan (ed.), Eclipse Three:  New Science Fiction and Fantasy (very good anthology of original stories.  Highly recommended)

9.  Delia Sherman (ed.), Interfictions 2:  An Anthology of Interstitial Fiction (I've had this on pre-order for months; expect to receive it in a couple of weeks)

10. Jesse Bullington, The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart (the best debut novel I've read this year.  Thought so highly of it that I've bought two copies of it in addition to the ARC I received, just so I can give copies to two close friends as early Christmas gifts)

Those were my reactions to this list.  What are yours?

Evil incarnate or just a necessary evil?

I'll let you be the judge of that...

Lautréamont, Maldoror

Reader, perhaps it is hatred you wish me to invoke at the outset of this work!  What makes you think that you will not sniff - drenched in numberless pleasures, for as long as you wish, with your proud nostrils, wide and thin, as you turn over on your belly like a shark, in the beautiful black air, as if you understood the importance of this act and the equal importance of your legitimate appetite, slowly and majestically - its red emanations.  I assure you, they will delight the two shapeless holes of your hideous muzzle, if you endeavour beforehand to inhale, in three thousand consecutive breaths, the accursed conscience of the Eternal One!  Your nostrils, which will dilate immeasurably in unspeakable contentment, in motionless ecstasy, will ask nothing better of space, for they will be full of fragrance as if of perfumes and incense; for they will be glutted with complete happiness, like the angels who dwell in the peace and magnificence of pleasant Heaven. (p. 30)

Note:  This originally was intended to be part of a private correspondence, so there will be a slightly different slant here, not to mention that it's much shorter than what I typically write these days.


I am glad that I was made aware of this proto-surrealist work by Isidore Ducasse/Lautréamont.  Written in the late 1860s, it is in turns shocking, repulsive, and grotesquely fascinating.  It is the literary equivalent of the prurient adult who rubbernecks to see the horrendous automobile crash.  It is a novel for those who want to hate the misanthropic narrator, while they end up finding themselves horrified by the reactions that the novel inspires in them.  There is such an element of decadence in this story that it anticipates the Decadents themselves by a generation.  No wonder Maldoror has influenced Dali, Ernst, and Verlaine.

The eponymous narrator reminds me of a more world-weary Melmoth the Wanderer.   He's done all things, fucked all things, and ennui washes all over him.  He is the spirit of Rebellion against order and morality (interestingly enough, Lautréamont, using his real name of Ducasse, writes a complete rebuttal that is attached as an appendix of sorts to the English-language translation, called Poems).  There is no "plot" to speak of in this quasi-poem told in six books.  Maldoror glories in his perversions in such a way that the reader perhaps might find him/herself unwittingly cheering him on.  It is a very unsettling book, one that (at least in English translation) uses the elevated language of the Romantics to create a character who shifts with the tides of time, one who the authorities are hunting down but who will never be caught, a sort of a darker and yet more romanticized version of Milton's Satan.


It is certain to haunt my dreams.  I suspect it'll continue to provide inspiration for dozens of illustrators and artists who want to touch upon that dark quality that makes this work unsettling 140 years after its publication.

A few late-night thoughts: The All Souls' Day Edition

Spent some of Saturday and most of yesterday in bed, coughing and vomiting a few times.  It's either a bad sinus infection developing, or I have a mild case of food poisoning (no fever, so I doubt it was the flu).  Ribs hurt like a mutha, though.  Not good.

Been reading the Library of America anthologies of Philip K. Dick's work.  Conflicted feelings so far.  Sometimes, he creates something wonderful to consider, then a few pages later the writing is very craptastic.

Also been reading some of William Faulkner's earliest works.  Interesting to see how his style developed in the 1920s.  Didn't like the first few stories in that Library of America edition, but The Sound and the Fury is all sorts of awesome for me.

Glanced over a few forums this weekend, amazed by how little I cared.  While Westeros still has some interesting content, sad to see just how quickly the wotmania replacement, Read and Find Out, has shrunk in participation.  Of course, I could deign to participate, but I don't feel like posting much anywhere these days, plus I don't care to post mirrors of posts here, lest a few benighted souls think that I'm out to "steal" their audience.  I am beginning to think that this blog and a few related ventures should be all I do for a while, since I'm struggling as it is to find ways to avoid working on my day job 24/7.

Speaking of "related ventures," I keep having problems thinking of how to start this one essay.  Of course, I do have a better topic header now and once I feel better (tomorrow?), I hope to get it wrapped up quickly.

I hate this time of year.  The leaves falling and the typically dreary early November Tennessee weather seem to aid any depressive spells I have.  Bad enough that I had to struggle through one from late July through the middle of October, don't need the weather and my sinus problems to add to it.

More thoughts later.  I feel sleepy enough to try sleeping again.  Fitting that this is posted on All Souls' Day, I suppose, since I feel half-dead at the moment.

2009 World Fantasy Award winners announced

Taken from Science Fiction Awards Watch:

• Lifetime Achievement: Ellen Asher & Jane Yolen
• Best Novel (tie): The Shadow Year, Jeffrey Ford (Morrow) & Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin; Knopf)
• Best Novella: “If Angels Fight”, Richard Bowes (F&SF 2/08)
• Best Short Story: “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss”, Kij Johnson (Asimov’s 7/08)
• Best Anthology: Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy, Ekaterina Sedia, ed. (Senses Five Press)
• Best Collection: The Drowned Life, Jeffrey Ford (HarperPerennial)
• Best Artist: Shaun Tan
• Special Award – Professional: Kelly Link & Gavin J. Grant (for Small Beer Press and Big Mouth House)
• Special Award – Non-Professional: Michael Walsh (for Howard Waldrop collections from Old Earth Books)

The judges for 2009 were: Jenny Blackford, Peter Heck, Ellen Klages, Chris Roberson & Delia Sherman.


Very deserving winners.  I thought it'd be between Ford and Lanagan and it's nice that both of them get the honor, as they had written some of the best fiction that I read in 2008.  Same goes for Ford for the collection and Shaun Tan for Best Artist.  In the anthology category, any of the works nominated would have been a good choice, but congrats to Kathy Sedia for Paper Cities winning!

Interesting how the winners in the Best Novel category didn't correspond with the poll I ran huh?

Kage Baker, The House of the Stag	6 (5%)
Jeffrey Ford, The Shadow Year	8 (7%)
Neil Gaiman, The Graveyard Book	31 (29%)
Daryl Gregory, Pandemonium	4 (3%)
Margo Lanagan, Tender Morsels	7 (6%)
Don't care about any of them, to be honest	48 (46%)

So I've been interviewed, for the second time

This time, it was Harry Markov from Temple Library Reviews who decided for some odd reason that I would make for a good interview subject.  Click on the link above and go decide for yourself if I have had an interesting life.  Or just go because you might like Harry's site.  Or maybe just go because you'd love to know more about rabid squirrels and foxlings?