Star Wars Set to AC/DC’s Thunderstruck on YouTube

November 13, 2011

My cousin Ian Cox turned me onto this Star Wars cut set to AC/DC’s song “Thunderstruck.” The editor did a very good job transforming the film into a music video with carefully timed transitions and editing techniques.


Call for Submissions Emanations II: Second Sight

November 11, 2011

Carter Kaplan posted the call for the next Emanations collection subtitled “Second Sight.” You can read it below or on the official website here.

Carter put together a successful first collection that can be found on Amazon here. He and his contributors do very good work, and I am very glad that I can be a member of the Board of Editorial Advisors.

Read on, and send in your work:

Call for Submissions Emanations II

International Authors and the editors of Emanations are happy to announce a Call for Submissions:

Emanations: Second Sight

Emanations is an anthology series featuring fiction, poetry, essays, manifestos and reviews. The emphasis is on alternative narrative structures, new epistemologies, peculiar settings, esoteric themes, sharp breaks from reality, ecstatic revelations, and vivid and abundant hallucinations.

The editors are interested in recognizable genres—science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, local color, romance, realism, surrealism, postmodernism–but the idea is to make something new, and along these lines the illusion of something new can be just as important. If a story or poem makes someone say, “Yes, but what is it?” then it’s right for Emanations. Essays should be exuberant, daring, and free of pedantry. Length is a consideration in making publication decisions, but in keeping with the spirit of the project contributors should consider length to be “open.”

Our editorial vision is evolving. Contributors should see themselves as actively shaping the “vision” of Emanations.

Send files with brief cover note to Carter Kaplan:

IAsubmissions@hotmail.com

Deadline: April 2, 2012

Emanations is a not-for-profit literary project and contributors cannot be compensated at
this time. All proceeds from the sale of Emanations will support the efforts of International Authors to publish new voices from around the world.

Please post questions, suggestions and ideas. The project is a collaborative effort, and as we share ideas the “vision” transforms, evolves, and grows. When we write stories and poems we hope to bring to bear the entire battery of modern and postmodern literary devices. More simply: we like good, strong writing. Our essays are incisive, precise, keen, challenging, and driven by the writer’s desire to advance an intelligent audience’s understanding of important subjects.

The Fine Print:

1) Submit files as follows: double space, Microsoft Word, Times New Roman 12 pt. The book will be formatted by the editors before publication.

2) No simultaneous submissions (contributors should get fairly quick feedback anyway, especially if their submission meets our needs). Material that is obviously pulled from a file and has nothing to do with the goals of the anthology won’t get any feedback beyond the initial acknowledgement.

3) Word count/line count? See details above. We’re flexible, but contributors should be sensible when considering what they send in. A novella? Well, maybe, and so on…. Rules of thumb: a) Stories: very short to 20-30 pages. b) Poems: send in 5-10 pages. c) Essays: 5-10-30 pages.

4) Published as hard copy only—Emanations will be available on Amazon. Participants who make a substantial contribution of material, editorial work, or art will get a copy. It can take some time to get copies to contributors outside of North America. In the case of our first anthology, for example, it took forty-five days to get a copy to a contributor in to Nepal.

5) In the past, International Authors has made it possible for contributors to purchases copies “at cost” using coupon codes, and so on. International Authors is a consortium, and as such every contributor is a “member” or our community, and contributors are encouraged to help promote the anthology by sending review copies to newspapers, journals and relevant Web sites.

6) Copyright “reverts” to contributors upon publication. That is, after a piece appears in Emanations, the contributor can seek to publish their piece elsewhere. Contributors should understand that Emanations will remain for sale on Amazon indefinitely.

Published By International Authors

Board of Editorial Advisors

Ruud Antonius, Netherlands/Spain
Steve Aylett, UK
Michael Beard, US
Michael Butterworth, UK
Jason W. Ellis, US
Cedric Cester, Spain
Mike Chivers, UK
Mack Hassler, US
Horace Jeffery
Hodges, South Korea
Sushma Joshi, Nepal
Carter Kaplan, US
Devashish Makhija, India
Vitasta Raina, India
Elkie Riches, UK
Dario Rivarossa, Italy
Kai Robb, US
Stephen Sylvester, US


Science Fiction Symposium at Georgia Tech, November 17, 2011, Open to Public

November 4, 2011

Georgia Tech’s School of Literature, Communication, and Culture is an important place for the study of science fiction. It began with Bud Foote’s science fiction classes and the donation of his extensive science fiction and fantasy collection, and then it was further developed by Lisa Yaszek through her research, teaching, and organizing events. LCC also includes Kathleen Ann Goonan, the award winning science fiction writer, as a visiting professor.

Later this month, LCC is hosting a one-day science fiction symposium that is open to the public (except for the lunch, which is only for symposium participants). If you are in the Atlanta area, I would highly recommend this opportunity to learn about the strong presence of science fiction research at Georgia Tech and to meet some renowned science fiction authors. I have included the overview and schedule below:

Science
 Fiction 
Symposium
 Hosted 
by 
LCC
 Thursday,
 November 
17,
 2011

On Thursday, November 17, the School of Literature, Communication and Culture will host a day-long symposium spotlighting science fiction as a signature intersection of science, technology, and humanistic studies at Georgia Tech. The symposium will feature a series of scholarly panels involving faculty members from various disciplines, showcasing their involvement in science fiction study across various media, as a cultural phenomenon, and as it relates to issues of scientific and technical development. The symposium will also feature a presentation on the Science Fiction Collection at Georgia Tech (recently cited by Science Fiction Studies as one of the twenty most important such collections in the world), a report on student activities in the Science Fiction Research Lab at Tech, and readings by award-winning and critically-acclaimed 
science 
fiction
authors
 Kathleen 
Ann
 Goonan,
 Eugie
 Foster,
 J.M.
 McDermott
, and
 Chesya
 Burke.
 All
 presentations
 will 
be 
in 
Skiles
 rm.
 002. 
The
 Georgia 
Tech
 and
 Atlanta 
communities 
are 
invited 
to 
attend.*

9:30
am‐10:45
am:

 Science 
Fiction 
and
 Society
Jackie 
Royster 
(IAC/LCC), 
Tom 
Morely 
(MATH), 
Aaron 
Santesso 
(LCC,
 moderator), 
Richard 
Barke
(PubP), 
Kristie 
Champlan
 Gurley
(PubP)

10:45
am‐11:00
am:
Coffee
Break

11:00
am‐12:00
pm: 

Science
 Fiction
 Collection
 Presentation 
and
 Student 
Demos
Ryan
 Speer 
(LIB),
 Joshua
 Cuneo
 (LCC),
 Keith
 Johnson (LCC),
 Adam
 LeDoux
 (LCC),
 Paul 
Zaitsev
(LCC),
Lisa
Yaszek
 (LCC,
moderator)

12:00
pm‐1:30
pm:

 Catered 
Lunch
 for 
Symposium
 Participants 
with 
Author 
Reading
Kathy 
Goonan,
This
 Shared 
Dream
 (LCC)

1:30
pm‐2:45
pm:

 Speculative 
Fiction 
in
 Literary
 and
 Cultural 
History
Peter
 Brecke 
(INTA), 
Carol 
Senf 
(LCC,
moderator),
 Nihad
 Farooq
(LCC), 
Narin
 Hassan 
(LCC)

2:45 pm‐3:00 pm: Coffee Break

3:00 pm‐ 4:15 pm: Science Fiction Across Media
Michael Nitsche (LCC), Jay Telotte (LCC, moderator), Lisa Yaszek
(LCC), Nettrice Gaskins (LCC), Hank Whitson (LCC)

4:30 pm‐6:00 pm: Science Fiction in Atlanta: Author Reading and Book Signing
Kathy Goonan (LCC, moderator), J.M. McDermott, Eugie Foster, Chesya
Burke

*Except lunch, which will take place in Skiles 343 and is only for symposium participants.


Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s Paul, a Love Letter to Science Fiction Fandom and a Commentary on American Culture

November 2, 2011

Tonight, I finally got to see Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s Paul, a science fiction-road trip-comedy film that was released in theaters earlier this year. It is about two English science fiction fans, one is a semi-pro writer and the other an artist, who trek to America to visit the southwestern UFO sites like Roswell and Area 51 following San Diego ComicCon. Along the way, they meet a pleasant alien fellow named Paul, who enlists them on his mission to return home. There are jokes a-plenty for those in the know, and you know who you are. For those not in the know, Paul is a sort of science fiction, road tripmovie, and I suppose it isn’t a coincidence that Rogen provides the voice for Paul.

The film also provides a lot of commentary on American culture–especially the dichotomy between science and religion, liberalism and conservatism. It isn’t too transparent that Ruth, who we first encounter as blind in one eye and wearing a t-shirt of Jesus shooting Charles Darwin in the head–representing her hyper-religiosity, has her eyes opened by Paul, who uses his evolved power of healing to give her sight in both eyes. However, her shift in world view concomitant with Paul’s healing touch swings her into the diametrically opposed position of a kind of hyper-liberalism that involves lots of inventive cursing.

Another thought occurs to me: It is interesting that science fiction fandom films like Fanboys and Paul are road trip movies, too. Space opera is also a kind of road trip movie. What other science fiction films are also road trips? I will have to think about this more tomorrow.


Catching Up on Superhero Movies with Thor

October 29, 2011

I was impressed with Kenneth Branagh’s Thor. I finally had a chance to see it, because Y won a free Redbox code from the McDonald’s Monopoly promotion. I have been so busy lately that I have fallen out of touch with much of recent movie and television going-ons. Thor, however, was a treat tonight, because I made some time to watch it with Y and it was a pretty good story by J. Michael Straczynski and Mark Protosvich. I believe that the film is a step in the direction for superhero filmmaking. There is certainly spectacle, but that spectacle is tastefully rendered and presented to the audience through good cinematography (for the most part). Despite the compression of Thor’s path to wisdom, it was done in a way that connected with the audience in a stronger way than, say, Hal Jordan’s (Ryan Reynolds) terrible training montage in the Green Lantern. Also, I liked the tiny bit of explanation of the Einstein-Rosen Bridge or wormhole, but Natalie Portman’s “science” didn’t make the story itself as science fictional as it could have been. What about all of the other Asgardian technology? How does that work? Perhaps the movie was largely meant to be magical. At least they mentioned Arthur C. Clarke, but they should have given him his due with a full quote.


The Social Network and Science Fiction

October 28, 2011

Y and I finally saw The Social Network (2010) for the first time thanks to a recent free rental from Family Video. I thought it was a very fine movie about the troubles of creating a big company that monetizes identity and “privacy” (with big quotes).

I am interested in the way that the film corresponds with the cyberpunk theme of being wired-in and its relationship to real autism (regardless if the real Mark Zuckerberg has autism or not).

Also, I got a good laugh at the Winklevoss posthuman joke: “I’m 6-5, 220 pounds, and there are two of me.”


A Search for Episodic TV That Deals With the Fantastic, Found

October 25, 2011

This morning, Y was asking me about watching a TV show late at night a long time ago about a couple who discover that their radio can tune into the conversations of their apartment building neighbors. I had never seen it, but we brainstormed Google searches for television series that deal with the fantastic.

I thought of The Outer Limits, The Twlight Zone, and Amazing Stories. However, I was far off the mark thinking of show creators Leslie Stevens, Rod Serling, and Steven Spielberg. There were also shows like Night Gallery and Tales from the Crypt (an old favorite of mine when I was younger that I occasionally watched when the local cable company offered HBO free during promotions).

Thinking about it now, all of these examples rely to a certain extent on horror as the glue that binds the series together. There are episodes that lack this generic quality, but the theme of horror seems to pervade each episode in one way or another–as a major narrative force or as a flash-grab at the audience’s attention.

Eventually, Y found out that “The Enormous Radio” was an episode from George Romero’s Tales from the Darkside.


Prophets of Science Fiction on Science Channel, Nov 9, 10:00pm

October 22, 2011

The Science Channel debuts a new series hosted by Ridley Scott called Prophets of Science Fiction on November 9 at 10:00pm. It looks like some of the featured SF writers and filmmakers include Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, H.G. Wells, and George Lucas. See the trailer below for more info:


MIT Science Fiction Society’s Open-Shelf Collection of SF

October 21, 2011

If I get a chance, I would love to browse the MIT Science Fiction Society’s (MITSFS) open-shelf collection of science fiction. There are a number of items that I have had trouble tracking down for my research that I believe could be in their collection. It sounds astounding!

On the fourth floor of the MIT Student Center, roughly 60,000 books and thousands of magazines crowd the narrow, overstuffed shelves of the MIT Science Fiction Society Library. Mobiles and paper bananas dangle from the ceiling, an infamous multivolume erotic SF series has been chained in place to prevent its awfulness from infecting nearby books, and newly donated boxes make it hard to navigate without tripping–or stopping to check out an intriguing title. Established in the early 1960s, the library now houses more than 90 percent of all science fiction ever printed in English, making it the worlds largest open-shelf collection of the genre. Fans and scholars alike make pilgrimages to W20-473 to lay reverent eyes on rare finds.

via An Astounding Collection – Technology Review.


Joan Slonczewski, Science Fiction Author and Critic, Launches Blog

October 20, 2011

Joan Slonczewski, the Kenyon College microbiologist and award winning science fiction author of A Door into Ocean, recently launched her own blog: Ultraphyte. I believe that it is worth adding to your reading list.


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