Literature

posts about #literature more →
Exploring the Literary Implications of Dr. Manhattan's Glowing Blue Junk
What Happens If SF Actually Wins The "Literary Respectability" Wars?
Your Favorite SF Author Is Making The World A Safer Place
Discover Science Fiction's Answer To Portnoy's Complaint
Michael Chabon, Matt Fraction, and the Nerd Cultural Insurgency (NCI)
In Which I Predict the Future of Your Precious "Books," You Pansies
Jules Verne's Vision of The Future Meets With Devastating Rejection
25 Years of The Best Short Stories in Science Fiction Has Come To This
Tina Brown, Secret Godmother of Science Fiction
Why "Reality Fatigue" Has Made Science Fiction More Interesting Than Literature

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templepriest
10/12/09

In reply to Exploring the Literary Implications of Dr. Manhattan's Glowing Blue Junk
What Alan Moore really needs is a good scrubbing.
If we could clean him up, who knows what he would be capable of creating !??!
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Ben Zvan
10/12/09

In reply to Exploring the Literary Implications of Dr. Manhattan's Glowing Blue Junk
How about "How much Moore do we need?"
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LeopoldNestor
10/12/09

In reply to Exploring the Literary Implications of Dr. Manhattan's Glowing Blue Junk
Conspicuously missing from the topic list is "Moore: Why does he act like such a tool?"
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Arryma
10/12/09

@LeopoldNestor: Well, I don't know the guy personally but in my experience comments that make an industry outsider sound like an asshole are ten times more likely to be published than comments that lend credibility to his position.
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Illogic
10/12/09

@Arryma: Might have something to do with the natural formation of groups, and the suspicion that tends to be directed towards the ones outside of it.
Considering that he also likes to challenge the comic book medium, I'd say that hostility would be expected.
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Smeagol92055
10/12/09

@LeopoldNestor: You'd be a bit grumpy, too, if every one of your works to be adapted to the screen were complete abominations of what you wrote.
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Aidan_
10/12/09

@Smeagol92055: I wouldn't say every one (I personally preferred Watchmen as a film over it as a comic, in terms of story. There, I said it), but yes, he has been screwed over on multiple occasions by the Big Two and the Hollywood establishment.

Slight crazy aside, he actually seems like a very nice and personable guy. Just very dedicated to his sense of ethics, which is something I admire.
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Dirk Anger
10/12/09

@Smeagol92055: not ALL of them are abominations, and he acts the same with LXG than he does with V. V is arguably a bad adaptation, and I agree with him that it's not loyal to the spirit of the book, but that doesn't make it a bad movie, and hardly puts it on LXG level.
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Pope John Peeps II
10/12/09

@Aidan_: Having ideals is one thing, but ethics is also how you treat and relate to other human beings. If you believe in your work and hate to see it altered, that's one thing, and it can be a mature and strong conviction. But if you treat other people like shit, it means that you yourself are insecure, immature and have never fully developed into an adult. Still being a child, you have to lash out at the world to bolster your own sense of security.

I'm not trying to put it in a way that's offensive, but it seems to me that's the divide between people who "admire" Moore and people who think he acts like a tool. I think he acts like a tool.
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GreyHammer
10/12/09

@LeopoldNestor: he has antisocial personality disorder. many writers are like that eccentric people who prefer characters they create to actual people. he is someone who wants complete control and he doesnt have it with other people. so when his characters are taken from him he gets angry over another loss of said control. etc.
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Edited by GreyHammer at 10/12/09 9:42 AM GreyHammer was starred GreyHammer was unstarred

OW-Holmes:Bringer of Fear
10/12/09

@LeopoldNestor: Snake god wills it so.
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0kami
10/12/09

@Dirk Anger: I LOVED V for Vendetta, but LGX was a travesty.
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icelight
10/12/09

@GreyHammer: Antisocial personality disorder doesn't actually make you an angry, antisocial recluse. It tends to be the diagnosis given to utterly amoral serial killers, the kind who laugh about torturing their victims for fun and then hit on their interrogators in the same sentence. I don't think anyone has accused Moore of going quite that far.

Me, I'm just waiting until 50 years from now, when academics at the same conference will all start claiming he was gay, or actually 5 different writers.
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Dirk Anger
10/15/09

@0kami: Exactly. While I found V very entertaining, I have to admit that the political message was changed, what would give AM grounds to be rightfully pissed #alanmoore
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braak
10/06/09

In reply to What Happens If SF Actually Wins The "Literary Respectability" Wars?
Hahah. I like James Enge, he's a good cat. I think he's got a new book out right now, too.
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Pope John Peeps II
10/06/09

@braak: Gee is it likely that an author making a vaguely grandiose and somewhat boneheaded statement designed to provoke a really tiresome "scandal" would have a book out now?

Let me check the magic 8 ball. Oh, "most probably".
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Cory Gross
10/06/09

In reply to What Happens If SF Actually Wins The "Literary Respectability" Wars?
Of course, the rise of Rock n' Roll has nothing to do with the ossification of Jazz... or Big Band... or Classical in general...
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phoghat
10/06/09

@Cory Gross:
Of course not! Peoples tastes never change.
Hey you kids, turn down that noise!
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WirtNobchop
08/05/09

In reply to 25 Years of The Best Short Stories in Science Fiction Has Come To This
The photograph here of "Greg Egan" is not me (the SF writer mentioned in the article), it is a professor of electrical engineering who happens to share my name.
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Jack_Burton
05/23/09

In reply to Your Favorite SF Author Is Making The World A Safer Place
Strategic Defense Initiative, anyone?
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ticktockman
05/23/09

In reply to Your Favorite SF Author Is Making The World A Safer Place
Hey, it worked Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle in Footfall. You have to love a science fiction novel where Science fiction writers save the world.
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Grey_Area
05/23/09

@ticktockman: Both of them are actually on SIGMA.
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hughie522
04/21/09

In reply to Discover Science Fiction's Answer To Portnoy's Complaint
I do hate that, "the perfect science fiction novel for people who don't like science fiction" line.

It's everywhere these days. I don't hear about, "the perfect romance novel for people who don't like romance" or "the perfect historical fiction novel for people who don't like historical fiction."

No, it's just sci-fi which is a taboo: too insular, too strange, too 'not normal'.

Well good. It's better that way, right?
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
04/21/09

@hughie522: I have heard the the version about romances. But it's nowhere near as common.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
04/21/09

In reply to Discover Science Fiction's Answer To Portnoy's Complaint
"Dying Inside" is better than Portnoy, Updike, et al.

It's not BORING. Silverberg is a better writer IMO.

I picked it up at a grocery store in the 70's and it was mind-boggling. The "literary" stuff is a snooze.

His SF and his fantasy are both excellent.
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Sproing
04/21/09

@Evil Tortie's Mom: Portnoy never bored me. Even the slowest parts had some good gymnastic masturbation scenes.
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cletar
04/21/09

In reply to Discover Science Fiction's Answer To Portnoy's Complaint
Short answer? Updike is better, that's why.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
04/21/09

@cletar: Updike is considered better by the northeastern literary establishment. He's not better.
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NotArthurPDragon
04/21/09

In reply to Discover Science Fiction's Answer To Portnoy's Complaint
"And what killed the "quixotic literary experiment" of the New Wave: the popularity of Star Wars."

That is such a crock of shit. Just goes to show you, you can be a talented artist but still be a whining moron. Tell you what, Bob, Go stand next to Steve Perry and Loverboy who blame Kurt Cobain for the end of their popularity.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
04/21/09

@NotArthurPDragon: Yeah, how old are you? You might be right about the music (I don't care for any of that), but he's right about Star Wars. It changed both the movie biz and the written SF biz very dramatically.
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Pope John Peeps II
04/21/09

In reply to Discover Science Fiction's Answer To Portnoy's Complaint
Yet, falling inconveniently between genres -- too fantastic for literary critics, too literary for sci-fi reviewers

This is fantastic bullshit on both sides. The kind of idiot statement thrown off by someone who just can't find anything real to say and wants to start some sort of controversy. It's always a safe bet to appeal to the old platitude of the hateful book reviewer and academic destroying the appeal of the artist.

Book reviews don't mean SHIT. The only person who cares enough about a book review to read it is the person who would READ THE BOOK ANYWAYS. The basic fact with art is that art will always reach the exact level which it "deserves", because that is a pretty meaningless measurement in the world of art. How can you judge the idea of a "deserving" work? Well, based on how much it touched people and where it ended up in the grand perspective of history... So from that point of view, it ended up exactly where it deserved to end up.

"Reviewers" don't make a difference to anyone. If a book is going to end up somewhere it's going to end up somewhere. Wherever that is is where it should be.
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crashedpc - Haifisch
04/21/09

@Pope John Peeps II: That explains why I have stacks and stacks of novels that have absolutely no review blurbs anywhere on the front or back covers... and they end up being the most awesomest of them all.
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Pope John Peeps II
04/21/09

@crashedpc: Oddly enough most blurbs are written by other authors as favours.
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crashedpc - Haifisch
04/21/09

@Pope John Peeps II: "... Awe inspiring... it... reading... magic... cool... (I am) impressive!"
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corpore-metal
04/21/09

In reply to Discover Science Fiction's Answer To Portnoy's Complaint
Zoooooom! That's the sound of intricate literary discourse flying way over poor CM's head.
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crashedpc - Haifisch
04/21/09

@corpore-metal: "BLEH BLEH BLEH?"

"BLEH! BLEH BLEH BLEH!"

"...bleh..."

me want boobies
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Rasselas
03/02/09

In reply to Michael Chabon, Matt Fraction, and the Nerd Cultural Insurgency (NCI)
Chabon's wife would make a good adversary for Daredevil or Iron Man.
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