The I, Vampire pitch reads an awful lot like Blade recast with a 19th-century Brit.
@ilovejuice: Anonymous compliments are still a pleasure! Thanks for your kind words. (And the good news is that the readings are usually taped and put online...)
@Pope John Peeps II: Oh, I don't know that I'd go so far as to AGREE with the philosophical (specifically, ethical) argument Heinlein makes in Starship Troopers, but it's definitely there. (And, now that I think of it, even MORE explicitly there in David Gerrold's "War Against the Chtorr" novels, which are filled with sections that are direct homages to Heinlein's didacticism.)
It's true we're both making assumptions about where Docx was taking that argument -- part of the problem, I think, is that the article itself is sort of a half-finished (maybe 3/4-finished, if we're generous) thought. And, yeah, the fact that most arguments that start where he starts trend towards a sweeping dismissal of genre probably influenced my take.
Very interesting point about linking character progression/development to writing within constraints (of genre). I'm thinking, though, that there ARE constraints to most literary fiction, at least anything written in a recognizably "realistic" mode--realistic in both the physical and the psychological sense. The fenceposts are likely out further, and placed much more ambiguously, but they do establish some kind of boundaries on what we can and can't expect to happen.
(With Chandler, of course, we know he's working from a very precise template, because he spelled it out for us in "The Simple Art of Murder," which now that I think of it is as much a philosophical argument as it is a piece of literary criticism. That's why you don't see much character development in Marlowe -- Marlowe doesn't really NEED a life beyond his function of attempting to repair a broken world...)
It's true we're both making assumptions about where Docx was taking that argument -- part of the problem, I think, is that the article itself is sort of a half-finished (maybe 3/4-finished, if we're generous) thought. And, yeah, the fact that most arguments that start where he starts trend towards a sweeping dismissal of genre probably influenced my take.
Very interesting point about linking character progression/development to writing within constraints (of genre). I'm thinking, though, that there ARE constraints to most literary fiction, at least anything written in a recognizably "realistic" mode--realistic in both the physical and the psychological sense. The fenceposts are likely out further, and placed much more ambiguously, but they do establish some kind of boundaries on what we can and can't expect to happen.
(With Chandler, of course, we know he's working from a very precise template, because he spelled it out for us in "The Simple Art of Murder," which now that I think of it is as much a philosophical argument as it is a piece of literary criticism. That's why you don't see much character development in Marlowe -- Marlowe doesn't really NEED a life beyond his function of attempting to repair a broken world...)
@Pope John Peeps II: "'Giant Space Bugs' are a convention, but does that mean people can use it to 'grapple with philosophical questions'?"
If you don't think that The War of the Worlds, Starship Troopers, and Old Man's War (to name just three) have philosophical dimensions (whether you agree with their arguments or not), I don't know how the conversation proceeds from that point.
I used the word "inherently" quite deliberately, in that any assignations of "quality" in a text tell us less about the nature of that text than they do about the value system of the evaluator. The history of taste is not the history of a universal ideal which is understood more or less correctly at a given point in time.
And I thought I was pretty clear in my post about where I was teasing out the IMPLICATIONS of Docx's argument. And when one explicitly distinguishes between genre and literary fiction, then says that "even good genre… is by definition a constrained form of writing," it is not terribly unreasonable to assume that one is implying that "literary" fiction is unconstrained. What you're suggesting is just another variant of the "[Literary Novel] can't be considered science fiction because it's GOOD" rationale.
If you don't think that The War of the Worlds, Starship Troopers, and Old Man's War (to name just three) have philosophical dimensions (whether you agree with their arguments or not), I don't know how the conversation proceeds from that point.
I used the word "inherently" quite deliberately, in that any assignations of "quality" in a text tell us less about the nature of that text than they do about the value system of the evaluator. The history of taste is not the history of a universal ideal which is understood more or less correctly at a given point in time.
And I thought I was pretty clear in my post about where I was teasing out the IMPLICATIONS of Docx's argument. And when one explicitly distinguishes between genre and literary fiction, then says that "even good genre… is by definition a constrained form of writing," it is not terribly unreasonable to assume that one is implying that "literary" fiction is unconstrained. What you're suggesting is just another variant of the "[Literary Novel] can't be considered science fiction because it's GOOD" rationale.
"Using the term ['consent'] in regards to sex inherently ties a sexual choice to ethical and legal ones..."
Seriously, you're suggesting that there are choices related to our engagement with other human beings that are NOT inherently ethical choices? That isn't just bad feminism, it's bad philosophy. And it only gets worse from there.
Seriously, you're suggesting that there are choices related to our engagement with other human beings that are NOT inherently ethical choices? That isn't just bad feminism, it's bad philosophy. And it only gets worse from there.
A long, long time ago, I had an idea for a Dazzler movie that basically boiled down to using Siouxsie and the Banshee's "Dazzle" for the trailer, but it was a GOOD idea, dammit.
Other than that, if you're going to start digging up obscure Marvel characters, I want, in order of preference, a Dakota North movie, followed by a Dominic Fortune movie.
Apart from not being the real Human Target, the show's okay, but they REALLY have to stop using their stockpile of "majestic" music during the fight scenes. Ridiculously distracting.
Oh, yeah. If one of the Comic-Cons doesn't bring this thing over by the end of 2011, there's gonna be a reckoning.
Maybe they changed it so that when the Dr. Strange movie gets made, people won't be all, "Jeez, how many partially disabled doctors turned superhero ARE there in the Marvel Universe, anyway?"
@Garrison Dean: Hell, it's got Cassavetes and... OMG, that's Joseph Cotten!
It's like Gunsmoke, with tunics! The first four minutes, anyway.
@Anekanta - Space Hippy!: Then they released it AGAIN, this time as a novel called Little Brother, and that ROCKED. #wargames2
I so want RESOLUTE to outsell the live-action DVD, because it is that much better a movie. It's like Global Frequency, but with the Joes.
@TheDarkWayne: Dots, Crackle -- it all takes us to the same place: the outskirts of Awesometown. #batmanthebraveandthebold
I'm not entirely convinced that "Wolverine with a massive dose of Elvis" is the right personality for OMAC, but I'm willing to let that slide because of all the Kirby Dots onscreen. #batmanthebraveandthebold
@Garrison Dean: R.O.A.C.H.: Oh, yeah, "Quicksand." I knew there was a more acoustic song I was thinking of than "TVC 15," but "The Bewlay Brothers" didn't feel right.
@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: As I said in a different arena, these lyrics are somewhere between Engrish and the actual lyrics to TVC 15.
@Zyg: My guess is, "when the Twilight era ends in a couple years," those kids will move on to Charlaine Harris and/or Laurell K. Hamilton, who are already occupying a good chunk of the bestseller spots Holman's tracking.
But, yes, urban fantasy is already in danger of being strip-mined as quickly and as brutally as "chick lit" was earlier this decade... In fact, part of the huge shift towards supernatural romance was that publishers needed something new after they'd oversaturated the market with non-supernatural chick lit.
@Lassus: I concur -- if it never actually opened, we can't invoke the magical phrase "Not Since Carrie."
