Go bashing

There's a hilarious thread on Absolute Write about the age-old problem with discerning between literary fiction and genre fiction. You have the usual verbal bashing where presumptuous and trash define the radicals of both camps, and of course there are the usual attempts to verbalise definitions.

Why not simply accept that literary fiction is a language-centric fiction genre, where the words are more important than the story? At least if you browse the shelves -- when story becomes as important as words then the books tend to get slotted in among general fiction anyway.

PC or not PC

I read an interesting article in Aftonbladet about political correctness in children's literature. As usual my source is in Swedish, so a minor explanation may be in order. Basically the article concerns older works, and how time has made them politically incorrect seen from a Swedish point of view. Mostly it is the ethnocentric angle that is touched upon, be they ethnic minorities in Sweden or simply people from anywhere else.

The author points out that the world will hardly go up in flames merely because your children read a story older than a few decades including terminology and views reflecting the time when it was written, but she also advices parents to use those very books to base a conversation about uncomfortable topics around.

Another giant passes away

Arthur C Clarke has died at age 90. See New York Times for a longer article.

Death of a legend

Below copied from the USENET News group I frequent as part of my gaming interest. The importance of the role playing games cannot be overestimated for the fantasy literary genre.



Ernest Gary Gygax ( July 27, 1938 - March 4, 2008)
is best known as the author of the well known fantasy role-playing
game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), co-created with Dave Arneson and co-
published with Don Kaye in 1974 under the company Tactical Studies
Rules. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of the role-
playing game

He was diagnosed with an inoperable abdominal aortic aneurysm.
Gygax died on March 4th, 2008.

He passed away at 1am in his bed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gygax


While not technically about V:TES, the world of gaming and game
conventions owe a tremendous amount to him. I've had a ton of fun and
made a lot of friends playing D&D, and by extension all of the other
games I've played and the other people I've met as a result. Many,
many thanks, Mr. Gygax.


- Ben Peal

Potter mania is over -- almost

I found this little gem in DN.

Apparently Rowling is about to publish another Potter book, if publish is the right word. Seven copies total, all handwritten and all but one gifts to people involved with the other books. The seventh copy is to be auctioned for charity purposes.

Title: The Tales of Beedle The Bard.

Terry Pratchett

Seems to have come down with some bad luck according to Daily Mail and Paul Kidby.

Thanks to a fellow member at Forward Motion for finding the information.

All in all Pratchett seems to take it more like a Twoflower than a Rincewind.

On science fiction and fantasy

I found this article which ties in nicely with my reflections on Swedish fantasy earlier.

Interesting to see how the author makes the claim that while fantasy is well received it is considered children's literature. I see a shadow of Rowling lurking in the corridors.

A classic read

What can you say?

Here it is.

Everything you didn't know that you needed to know to be in the know.

An interesting read

This post is basically just a link to what I found to be an interesting read.

As Abraham states, the definitions are his, and so we are all free to disagree with him. However, as he also points out, in order to have a conversation about a topic it is important to agree upon the content of definitions, even if we don't agree with it, so as to enable us to talk about the same thing.

It is, after all, quite simple. I define the basic short distance as a metre, but you disagree because you feel more comfortable with a foot. As long as we both stick to using one definition, no matter how much we disagree with it, we can have a sensible conversation about distance travelled by horse in a given type of terrain. If we do not, well then at least one of us is three times removed from a viable reality.

Spekulative fiction in Sweden

In an article Johan A points out some aspects of the problematic life speculative fiction has to endure in Sweden.

In as much as new titles in these genres are covered by our media at all they tend to be regarded as children's books, or possibly YA. Considering the enormous popularity of the Harry Potter books this tendency has by now become cemented here. Adult fantasy is like those white spots on old maps where be dragons.

Add that the so called literary elite in Sweden has decided that speculative fiction is not proper literature at all, but rather a sub-standard substitute for proper literature. Pulp fiction of the original meaning. They prefer not to be reminded of sub-standard authors like George Orwell, H G Wells, Aldous Huxley, William Golding and Doris Lessing, which should go a long way towards exemplifying the enormous difference with which the genre is looked upon by English and Swedish eyes. Ironically enough the Nobel Prize is a Swedish prize.

However, one problem with the article is that the author tries to prove that adult fantasy in Sweden is on the verge of dying because Swedish publishers are vary of placing their money in that field. Nothing could be further from the truth. With over 80% of the population labeled as knowing English, speculative fiction lives a healthy life here. Speculative fiction written in Swedish, or even translated into Swedish, well that is another matter.

Another downer

What is it with returning to old acquaintances? Brave New World. Another classic, another downer, and this time in a favorite genre of mine.

The core is still as fantastically dystopian as I recall, but now I see how dated the novel is. The total absence of POV-discipline doesn't help neither. Head-hopping galore.

Diminishing pleasure

I returned to Jane Eyre after a quarter of a century. Sad to say the novel didn't age well in my mind.

Of course I am aware that the work is over a century and a half old, and I know that I need to take the peculiarities of that time in stride. Still, arcane social ideals and ethnocentrism typical of the age apart, the style of the novel was what turned me away. Repeated breaking of the fourth wall and undisciplined use of tense apparently have become something I really dislike, and this is a pity as I recall liking the novel very much when I read it first.

In a sense I guess my personal development as a reader mirrors the development of authors as a group these last 150 years.

A Swedish event

One of the few literary events in Sweden that claims world status has just made the news. This year's Nobel Prize winner is Doris Lessing.

In case anyone managed to miss

The author known as Robert Jordan is dead.

I guess I'm the last of latecomers to flag this event.

ME, or it finally makes sense

I'm studying, among other things, a little bit of how English has changed as a language over the centuries.

Finally the atrocious spelling starts to make sense. Middle English, when current spelling was phonetic spelling. Sure, that's a simplification, but still.

Of course the spelling is still as atrocious, but at least I'm starting to understand why.

Why a shovel is better than a bulldozer

When you have the need to get rid of a little dirt, use a shovel and not a bulldozer.

Other wise the result can be appalling as SFWA found out. Now it should be noted that, for example, Jerry Pournelle believes that bulldozers are indeed viable replacements for shovels. The problem with that stance is that you attract far too visible problems, just as John Scalzi noted. Needless to say this sorry affair has made the blogosphere, which is bad enough, but also into Slashdot, which is just about as bad as it can possibly be for genre SF/F.

That is why, when your hands ache from using the shovel, you should still abstain from powering that bulldozer up.

Shakespearean sonnets

Just read one. Peculiar one.

She looks like a goat, walks like a goat, bleats like a goat and smells like a goat, and still I love her.

Now, which sonnet is it?

On the market of short stories

Another blogger, author and (I believe) editor has an article and a suggestion. Heeding it might just be a good thing for us aspiring writers, and published writers for that matter as well.

Neat Potter sales

US sales at 8.3 million copies the first 24 hours according to this article in DN. I also read in an old fashioned paper newspaper that British sales were almost 3 million copies sold during the first 24 hours. Back here in Sweden the book has sold out.

More Potter madness

Reading an article in DN I saw how the Potter fever has struck Sweden as well.

The book will e released at 1 am, which corresponds to midnight UK time, and there are book stores which will be open at that time.

Several stores plan to lose money on their initial sales of the last book in the series. Prices have been cut to below half of the recommended one.

All this for a YA book in a foreign language. That says something about how widely spread basic mastery of English is in Sweden.