Tuesday, January 28, 2014
sf/f/h books 2014

I always pay attention to new science fiction and fantasy (and to a lesser extent, horror) releases each year. The "speculative fiction" genre umbrella is the literary place I call home. This year, I'm going to attempt to not only keep up with the news but actually READ as many new titles as I can. I've had a good start in January, keeping up with most of the short fiction periodicals, but I haven't started any 2014 novels yet. I'm currently in the middle of Gunn's Transcendental (from last year) and Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (from longer ago). Once I finish those two, I'm planning on dedicating most of my non-Libripox non-Simak reading to 2014 titles. Of course, I'll be happy if Ben agrees to a few 2014 sf titles for future Libripox picks.

Here's a list of what I'd like to read:

Short Fiction

I'd like to keep up with (in the order that I prefer them): The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Subterranean Magazine, Clarkesworld, Asimov's, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Lightspeed, and Analog. I'm not too impressed by the fiction in Strange Horizons and I haven't yet tried Apex. But all those I've just listed are the major mags. I'll have a post soon about a few of my favorite stories so far.

There are also several upcoming anthologies that look promising:

Multiverse: Exploring Poul Anderson's Worlds edited by Greg Bear and Gardner Dozois
The Book of Silverberg edited by William Schafer and Gardner Dozois
Lovecraft's Monsters edited by Ellen Datlow
Reach for Infinity edited by Jonathan Strahan
Strahan's next "Fearsome" antho
Rogues edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

(I'm also looking forward to the new KJ Parker collection, the next NESFA Anderson reprints, and whatever Centipede Lafferty titles we get, but none of those qualify as new 2014 releases.)

Novels

Hang Wire by Adam Christopher (out today!)
Wolves by Simon Ings
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (and the two that follow it)
Afterparty by Daryl Gregory
Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea by Adam Roberts
Bete by Adam Roberts
My Real Children by Jo Walton
Lock In by John Scalzi (I dislike Scalzi, but everyone reads him so I guess I have to)
The Severed Streets by Paul Cornell (maybe)
Descent by Ken MacLeod
The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Pilgrims by Will Elliott
Beautiful Blood by Lucius Shepard (maybe this is releasing this year?)
War Dogs by Greg Bear (also not much info about this one)

(I'm most excited about Subterranean Press's limited edition of Drawing of the Dark, one of Tim Powers' best novels, but that also doesn't count as a new release)

And a few other books that I'm keeping an eye on. And probably a whole lot that I haven't even heard of yet. I don't know if I'll actually get around to reading many of these, but I'm going to try! I'm hoping to start Hang Wire soon and then Annihilation. Not sure what I'll read after that.
Posted by trawlerman at 1:37 PM (0) comments
2013 Music - Part One

I listened to a lot of contemporary music in 2013. Most of this was due to me discovering Spotify. I used Spotify Premium free off and on for four months and I liked it enough to pay for the service for two more months. I'm a bit sad that I'm letting the service expire tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be back.

I'm convinced that the best music of the year was not recorded. It was performed in someone's living room or backyard. It was sung by toddlers and grandmas. You probably heard it in your house. I know I heard it in mine.

Maybe even some of the best of the year was sung by frog-throated men like me, off-key celebrations of Mad Maudlin, moonshine, and mercy. Every time I open my own mouth to croak out a song, it means more than all the commercial music rolling down the spotify stream. I learned of Pete Seeger's death today. That's one lesson that I learned from him, that the only way you own music is by singing it yourself.

Even so, I do love me some pop music. Indie music. Folk. Country. Punk. Prog. Hiphop. Whatnot. I'm a pop culture creature.

This Spotify playlist is not a list of my favorite songs of the year. It's not what I think the best songs of the year are. It's a rough sketch, a representative sample, of what my year in music was like. The first two songs aren't from 2013 (and the last track isn't even close), but the rest of the songs were all released in 2013. I could qualify this list a thousand ways, mentioning that some of the artists on the list aren't even acts that I like and that others are folks that I've listened to over and over again and don't think I can exhaust my appreciation for. But I won't tell you which are which. I could grumble about Bandcamp artists that I couldn't add to a Spotify playlist. I could tell you that I listened to certain albums dozens of times but now can't hardly stand to listen to them. And on and on. Whatever. I like this playlist. It sounds like 2013 to me. I hope you like it, too.

Posted by trawlerman at 11:42 AM (0) comments
Thursday, January 16, 2014
SF Academy

As he guessed, I am happy to know that Jeff will be taking a Science Fiction class.

Here's the reading list for his class:

H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds
Yevgeny Zamyatin, We
Isaac Asimov, I Robot
Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed
Greg Bear, Blood Music
Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars
William Gibson, Neuromancer
Vernor Vinge, Rainbow's End
Paulo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl
China Mieville, The City and The City
Philip K. Dick, Dr. Bloodmoney
Charles Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
Ben Bova, Mars

Of that list, I've fully read two titles. So much for my sf cred. It just went down the automated waste receptacle. Oh well. That won't stop me from commenting on the above titles.

The two I've read are War of the Worlds and Red Mars. You've probably heard Welles' radio adaption of War. If not, stop reading this now and give it a listen. I don't remember much of the book itself besides thinking as a child that Welles was telling an incredible story in the most boring way possible. I don't know if that is fair or not. I should re-read it as an adult.

I read Red Mars when it first came out in paperback, either late 1993 or mid-1994, I guess. 20 years ago! It was the first really "hard" science fiction book that I ever read ("hard sf" being sf that stresses detailed scientific realism). The science in it is serious and it convinced me that terraforming Mars would be completely crazy and also completely possible. I liked it enough to read Green Mars the following year. I never did read Blue Mars.

We has always interested me. I couldn't find a copy back in the dark ages when I had to rely on finding copies of books in physical stores.

I've read a handful of Asimov's robot stories but I haven't read any of his collections. I'm pretty sure that I, Robot is just a collection of some of the Astounding stories, right?

Growing up, I knew Le Guin as the Earthsea author. At the time, I didn't realize that she was a critical darling and mostly known for The Dispossessed and Left Hand of Darkness. I've never really liked any of the short fiction I've read by her and never tried any of the novels.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of Bear's Blood Music. I recently read Bear's original novelette that the novel was expanded from. I thought that it worked incredibly well at that length. It's definitely science fiction but its impact is the impact of horror. I can't imagine how Bear expands it out to novel length without sacrificing its succinct gut punch.

Gibson's Neuromancer is the one on the list that I'm most ashamed to have never read. I grew up in the midst of the cyberpunk "movement" but I was only dimly aware that it was going on. My experience of the genre was largely one of discovering older writers like Heinlein and Sturgeon and Silverberg while my contemporary reading often skewed more toward the (epic) fantastic.

Vinge is a writer I only know by reputation. I'm pretty sure that his work was relatively early in jumping on the singularity bandwagon.

I like Bacigalupi. I've only read a couple of his stories as they were published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (or maybe Asimov's) throughout the Aughts (I think they're all collected in Pump Six now). His stories are dark and depressing and truly relevant. He's one of the few writers I'm aware of who has thought through some of our insane contemporary agri-biz practices and tried to show how much worse things could get if we continue down the same road. Paul di Fillippo just wrote a funny/loving parody of Bacigalupi in the most recent F&SF.... http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2014/pdf1401.htm

I've heard nothing but good things about China Mieville. And I haven't read any of his books.

Dr. Bloodmoney is a strange Dick choice. I haven't read it, though, so I don't know. Maybe it fits in well with the rest of the choices. I remember seeing it mentioned somewhere else recently, too. Maybe it's lesser Dick that is finally getting its moment. I'll definitely check it out, maybe this year.

I avoided the Yu when it came out because it looked too cute.

I've read some of Bova's Analog columns in a collection a while back but I haven't read any of his fiction. I think that Mars is his most recent, right?

Overall, it looks like a decent list of books. I'd want to take this class!

That said, I do wonder what the stated goals of the class are. The above titles are a decent representative sample of novels treating various major issues (alien invasion, artificial intelligence, ecology, microbiology gone awry, massive terraforming, etc). This isn't a survey course because most of these titles are from the last 30 years. I don't know if the above titles will be supplemented with any short fiction. I sure hope so. Science fiction is at its best in short form. Science fiction, more than almost any other genre or area of literature, has kept alive the novella and the novellette as vibrant and necessary forms of lit.

I might try coming up with my own alternative "master's level" sf course. It would be highly idiosyncratic and not at all better than the above list.

I do hope, Jeff, that you'll get me a copy of the syllabus. Besides short fiction, I'm curious to see if there will be any assigned non-fiction readings. And I'm curious about what sort of papers will be required.

Somewhat related, I've been seriously considering buying a "supporting membership" to next year's WorldCon. It's a silly thing, but I've wanted to vote for the Hugos since I was 10 or so. I've already started off this year by reading about ten stories from places like The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tor.com, and Subterranean (and I'll get to Strange Horizons and Asimov's soon and maybe even Analog though it may be a lost cause). I'm going to try to keep up with 2014 fiction and cast my small vote next year. I'm pretty sure that my little vote will mean next to nothing. Still, I plan on enjoying keeping records and making a ballot. Maybe this enthusiasm won't last. Maybe it's all just mad rambling and crazy thinking brought on by the nearness of a new year. I like to think that this will be the year that I wreck the Hugo.
Posted by trawlerman at 3:21 PM (0) comments
Friday, January 10, 2014
Hear the Word

(I wrote this last week and forgot to post it. I'm planning on responding to Brandon soon but not today)

One of my yearly reading goals is to read the entire Bible through from cover to cover. That's in addition to studying certain books (of the Bible) more in-depth. This is something I enjoy doing. And it is without a doubt the most important and rewarding reading I do all year.

Last year, I failed to read the entire Bible, but I spent a lot of time in certain books.

The year before, I read through almost twice.

Years before that were dark ages of trying and failing. With some success. More failures.

This year, I've decided that my goal is to read through the Bible four times (!) before the year is over.

Read should be "read."

Because, really, a lot of that "reading" will be listening.

Audio technology is great in this regard, especially considering that the Bible was written to be read aloud (in community) and HEARD. “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

In the past, I've listened to Alexander Scourby (just picture him as a noir villain while listening) read the KJV.

Yesterday, I was thrilled to find a FREE audio version of the ESV available for download. So far, the reader is excellent. And, of course, the translation is excellent, my favorite modern translation. At the site, you need to sign up for an e-mail newsletter to get the download but the email newsletter is easy to cancel after you've signed up.

It's available as both mp3 and m4b.

Free ESV Hear the Word Audio Bible
Posted by trawlerman at 4:06 AM (0) comments
Thursday, January 09, 2014
Enough WoWS

Copying and pasting...

"As to the WOLF conversation coming to a close (because you basically said “I don’t care how you respond to everything I wrote because you will be wrong”),"

If I did, then I apologize. I'm trying to balance wanting to respond and not wanting to lose another day's thought to WoWS.

"I think the film, as well as countless others, is forcing you to compromise something within your conscience. I wouldn’t be a good friend if I tried to twist your arm in order to change your mind."

That's just it, though. Consciences aren't sacred. They can be badly malformed. Someone's "conscience" can tell him that holding live dogs over a roast pit is fine entertainment. That man's conscience is wrong. 

So if you think I'm wrong in anything, you should try to change me. I admit that that is my goal in all of these posts. I want to understand where you're coming from but I'm also convinced that you're wrong this time. I want you to change. Though of course I'll still respect you if you remain stubbornly wrong. :)

"You used my wife in an example straight from the film to bait me in a sensationalist attempt to prove a point."

Guilty. Sorry. :(

"Then you say that I can’t argue that actors know what they are doing and have come to a certain conclusion about the very nature of their profession, one that happens to be at odds with your religious views. Your point is that in this version of pretending that they have somehow crossed over into reality. I’m not necessarily disagreeing. However, I don’t buy your use of that lady-of-the-night term, at least not in my own set of values."

You are okay with all forms of extramarital consensual sexual acts between adults. Aren't you also okay with all forms of prostitution? It is, after all, a consensual sex act between adults.

I understand that I'm being deliberately provocative in applying the term to actors/actresses but I don't think that I'm technically incorrect given standard definitions of that term.

"you never even bothered responding to my version of the same bait and switch. I’m sure you have some excuse to get out of that one."

Are you referring to the cattle prod? If so, I'm planning a response. I actually share a lot of your concerns about treatment of animals. If I appear insensitive, just slap me around a little and I'll apologize. I didn't address it immediately because I realized that the whole animal thing is a bit of a rabbit trail that I regret bringing up.

"We are both guilty, though I daresay that we each enjoy arguing more. This is fine. This is fun. Let’s argue about something else real soon."

Guilty.

"Where I think the discussion ultimately ends is that I don’t wish for you to change your mind about these things. It’s your conviction and I respect that."

As I said above, if you really believe something, you should want to change my mind. I hope you're not upset that I'm trying to change your mind. If you are upset about it, just wait, I'll try to change that about you. ;)

"I was going to talk about the scriptures and all of its “edifying” stories but I’ll spare you."

I am all for slaughtering Amalekites.

Related, and for what it's worth, I think that my own use of crass language to make a point is biblically justified. Ezekiel does not hesitate to describe how Israel acts like a whore longing after the emissions of giant donkey genitalia. Yes, edifying. Because I think that what I mean by edifying isn't the "precious moments" image that you might think I mean. 

But, yeah, if the Bible were adapted as a film, it'd be NC-17. The thing is that we weren't given a film. We were given a most dangerous book of books. There is a difference between describing something in a certain way and physically acting it out in another way.

When the Bible gives us something like the incestual rape of drunken Lot by his two daughters, we're not subjected to a play-by-play. Sin is there in all of its reality. It is not covered up. But it's all in the HOW of the telling, which is exactly where Scorsese slips.

I want my personal story to be constantly shaped and re-shaped by the story (stories) of the Bible. Its story is my life.

Posted by trawlerman at 7:10 AM (0) comments
Standard Definition of Prostitute

a person, typically a woman, who engages in sexual activity for payment.

By agreeing that you'd be upset if your wife engaged in WoWS behavior, you have conceded my point that the "simulated" activity on display in WoWS is real sexual activity. I don't care if you try to get out of this by declaring a different standard of behavior for actors. That's a cheat. Thus, objectively, according to the standard definition of prostitute, I think that it's entirely fair for me to refer to the actresses in the film as prostitutes, women who have engaged in sexual activity for payment.

I might respond more later. I'm probably done. I'm already exhausted by all of this conversation. I don't like that WoWS forces me to be crass in order to interact with its own crassness. You're right that my example was not at all classy, it was obscene. But how else does one interact with the obscenity of WoWS if one does not translate its obscenity into familiar terms to make its blatant moral failures more real to someone such as yourself who loves the film? By loving WoWS, you are loving the thrill of each display of perversity. Or what? You are loving being "uncomfortable" by such diplays?

One thing I'd like to respond to is the "double standard." Everything I've said about WoWS applies to other films. The thing is that other films have this content to such a lesser extent that it's easier (not necessarily correct) to forgive or overlook this content while looking at the whole and saying what is good about the whole. In WoWS, this behavior (almost) constitutes the whole and becomes overbearing, something that, for better or worse, must be reckoned with in the forefront of all conversation about the film.
Posted by trawlerman at 3:37 AM (0) comments
Wednesday, January 08, 2014
Last WOWs

(all apologies to Brandon's lovely wife, who does not deserve any of the imagery or associations that I subject her to in this post)

Alright, Brando, here's one last swing. I'll let you have the last word after this.

Re-reading my own post, I realize that my tone at the beginning is very combative before I mellow into a conciliatory tone. While we both enjoy ourselves some armchair pugilism, it bloodies up our faces so we can't see properly as often as it gives us that rush that makes everything seem so obvious... All I have to do is punch him in the face... Now!

As you know from our texts, I've clarified the point with you that I am not done with Film Club. I'm just done with my old blog. This is a symbolic move as much as anything else, signifying a desire to de-center movies in my total conversation on these here interwebs.

But you know I can't refuse a fight. So, let's circle around WoWS. Right now, I don't even think we're focusing specifically on WoWS anymore but on broader issues.

So, on with it...

First, dog torture and fornication.

I readily agree that they aren't the SAME thing. But I don't think that they are entirely dissimilar. But, yeah, I'm guilty of trying to bait you with one of the things that I know gets you worked up. Sorry about that.

Would you agree that there are worse things than (or at least as bad as) physical pain, even if you may not agree with me as to what those things are?

My point was only that both are sins on the part of the humans involved. I don't care about consent. Maybe the prostitutes (I mean "actresses") that Scorsese hired enjoyed every minute of it. Leo had a blast. Jonah doesn't regret a moment of it all. So what? It's okay because nobody got physically hurt? Is non-consensual physical pain the only thing that we can object to? Everything else is fair game? What about an extended scene of a realistic-looking simulated child rape with a lifelike doll and a real live naked adult male actor pretending to enjoy himself in the act? I'm pretty sure you'd object to that, but, based on what you've written so far, on what basis would you object to it? Everything is consensual and no one is physically hurt. What is your criteria for rejecting this? Because you are personally uncomfortable with it? But you like to see tits bouncing so what's the harm in WoWS?

Sorry to get graphic but I feel like I have to.

My objection is to the action of the actors and not having anything to do with my comfortability with watching or not watching anything, which is a separate issue. I'm also not speaking generally about nudity here which I also think is a separate (though certainly related) issue.

Simulation of a sex act is still a sex act. A real one.

I've got a proposal for a film I'm working on which will star my crazy friend Geoffrey Hovard. I was wondering if you could talk to Tara about acting in the film for me. She'd only be in it for about 45 seconds and we wouldn't even need to see her face. All she'd need to do is get completely naked and bend over to expose her backside so that Geoffrey could put a straw in her anus (it won't hurt) and pretend to snort out cocaine. But it's just pretend cocaine and she's just pretend naked, wink, wink, with his pretend hand on her pretend body but he doesn't mean anything by it. It's all for art. We want to challenge people. Hopefully the viewer will be shocked into awareness of this very real issue in our country and re-examine everything about their lives. And, oh yeah, since we don't see her face in that shot, we could probably get away with using her again during an airplane orgy scene! We'd pay her a little extra for that.

Anyhow, I'm glad you're cool with all of that.

Oh, wait. You're not? Even though she said yes? She's only doing it for the paycheck. Why are you getting upset? Oh, you want me to find someone else's wife, someone else's daughter, someone else's sister, someone else's mother, and have them take her consensual place. Ah, I see. You would try to put limits on the artistic activity of your wife.

Or maybe you wouldn't. I don't know. 

I'm saying that these activities are wrong. The women involved are wrong. The men involved are wrong. Scorsese, the ringleader, is ultimately most accountable.

Scorsese even made me tired of the word "fuck," a word I've defended in the past despite all of its abuses. I don't want to hear it again for a long time. So, if Scorsese's goal was to get people to act better, I guess he's succeeded in me. But, for every me there's a few others who just found new strings of profanity to delight in at their next keg bash.

We're both wrestlers. And we're even wrestling on the same team most of the time. These posts are vicious sparring sessions back at the gym. Even if we always have different techniques and different perspectives, there's no doubt that we're engaged in the same struggle on the same side.

Specifically regarding WoWS, I don't even know that we're that far apart. I'm willing to concede that it is one of the most spectacular demonstrations of film mastery that was offered this year, given to us by a master at the top of his game. But, you know what? That's not enough. Goebbels was also really damned good at his job. And Birth of a Nation is a masterpiece of its time and I'm finally ready to throw it away alongside WoWS. The problem isn't that the films are bad. The problem is that the films are too good.

Somewhat related, I just listened to a recent episode of Cinephiliacs and heard Keith Uhlich mocking stupid Wall Street brokers. Uhlich thinks that the Wall Street crowd that saw the film was too stupid to know that they were being satirized and that all of their hoots of approval just goes to show how stupid they are. Uhlich does not at all entertain the idea that maybe he's the one who has got it wrong. Maybe those brokers understand precisely that Scorsese is having some fun at their expense and they love every minute of it because it's damned fun, dammit, they know that every bit of it is true, that nothing can touch them and they can do whatever they please unless they slip up. And no wolfling anywhere thinks he's going to be that guy that slips up. It's always the other guy. That's part of the risk and part of the thrill of the game. 

Whatever his intentions, Scorsese has given Wall Street its own Scarface. Wolflings everywhere, rejoice!

(Again, sorry for bringing your missus into all this. My imagination failed me and I couldn't think of a better illustration for my point. Also, I confess that I giggled coming up with the name Geoffrey Hovard. Sorry. Still, I feel dirty imagining any real person in a WoWS scene, even for the sake of argument, which again illustrates my point that we distance these actors and don't let the very real documentary aspect of any film fully settle on us.)
Posted by trawlerman at 2:55 PM (0) comments
Fuzzy Flow

It was a good time saying goodbye to Ben by getting in a few games. It was over games that we met. I know I speak for myself and I think I can speak for Ben in saying that good games played with good friends provide great joy. There's something about getting lost in play and the mental agility that must accompany it that satisfies me in a way that nothing else does in the same way.

We played Ice Flow twice and Stratego once. 

Stratego was a childhood favorite that I've only recently dusted off and re-evaluated as an adult. It holds up really well. And since I never get to play Hammer of the Scots (I need to wait about a dozen years for Zeke!), Stratego does provide a nice fix in its simplified "fog of war" mechanic. For me, Stratego remains the best mass market game of the 20th century. It truly is a "classic."

The Stratego match could have gone either way, but a few missteps by Ben in the mid-game meant that the last third of the game was a simple mopping up job.

Ice Flow is a game that I've almost gotten rid of since I haven't played it in such a long time (unfortunately describes most of my collection). Now, I'm convinced it's a keeper. It's one of those deceptively simple games with a lot of (mostly tactical) depth to it, a great theme, and great components.

The rules are just fiddly enough that we messed things up a few times, but I think that we both had a good handle on the game after two plays. I won the first match and Ben won the second. The tiebreaker is to occur in Canandaigua after we've both perfected our polar bear faces.


Posted by trawlerman at 4:37 AM (0) comments
Tuesday, January 07, 2014
More WoWS

This was supposed to be a quick response to Brandon while waiting for Ben to arrive at my place for some gaming. He hasn't shown up yet so this turned into a looooonger response.

“I think certain films call for certain approaches and limiting an artist, though sometimes exhilarating and oddly freeing (again back to that damn Hayes Code), is a mistake.”

This is ridiculous. There are ALWAYS limits on an artist. You would agree that it would not be okay for Scorsese to torture a dog with hot pokers for 20 minutes, to the point of death, and include this in his film. Why? Because this is a sin. Because it involves real physical harm. In the same way, I’m convinced that sexual immorality, as a physical act, causes harm. That is the same reason why I object to flagrant bumping and grinding on film. You, on the other hand, have accepted and embraced the triumph of the pornographic. Bully for you! What I want to point out is that I am not for limits and you are against limits. We are both for limits, imposed on the artist from within and without. Where we differ is in what those limits are and what they should be.

“I’m not as much interested in standing on top of Mount Sinai, with every emotional/moral/spiritual reaction preset to reinforce my own morality. I like to be wrestle with my responses from time to time.”

I like to be "challenged" as well and you know this. That is why I love films like Force of Evil or Blast of Silence or No Country for Old Men or There Will Be Blood or Love in the Afternoon or Faces. I even think Japon or Seventh Continent, two films that I don’t love, belong here, maybe even more so, because they are films that I wrestled with and rejected (and see “repugnant” comments below; they are both repugnant). You’re guilty here of the same crap that Jeff was doing. You claim that you like to wrestle. Those who object to specific content are OBVIOUSLY just content to sit back and have their own prejudices reinforced and not wrestle. How about you go wrestle with some animal cruelty videos for the next year since that’s the only thing that apparently gets you riled up? Then come back to me and talk about wrestling. Where does this end? No one is a "wrestler" unless they've watched Human Centipede 2 and found some good in it? At some point, one has to decide that "wrestling" with certain things is a complete waste of time.

“I cannot deny (again, shame) that I took pleasure in the immorality, much of this is because the director is so damn talented.”

Right. This is exactly why I think the film is dangerous. Yes, dangerous. I’m not even afraid to say it. Film is more dangerous than AK-47s or whatever.

“I disagree wholeheartedly that the approach renders it celebratory, but we simply won’t agree on this.”

I think that when a filmmaker is having this much fun with material and making it fun to watch, then it’s fair to call it celebratory. I’m willing to change my terminology but not my basic point.

“The biggest divergence is that you seem to think that Jordan needs to repent in order for the film to work. I think that’s precisely why it works.”

This is just wrong and demonstrates that you’ve missed my point. I love stories with unrepentant protagonists. Macbeth, The Stranger, There Will Be Blood, In the Company of Men. I’m not worried that Scorsese presents Belfort as unrepentant. It’s HOW he presents him as unrepentant (and HOW he presents the rest of his story) that concerns me.

“You weren’t a fan of SPRING BREAKERS, but you bent over backwards trying to reconcile the content because you have championed the director since I’ve known you.”

And now you show that you misunderstood my Spring Breakers review as well. I respect the craft behind Spring Breakers. I respect the craft behind Wolf of Wall Street. My post about Spring Breakers was my trying to wrestle with the content (something that you apparently don’t think I do), not to endorse it in any way. I can see rays of light in the trash. So what? Spring Breakers and Wolf of Wall Street are both vile films. I reject Spring Breakers. I’m not sure why you question this now. I thought I had made myself pretty clear both in the car and in my post. But, perhaps I wasn’t. Forgive me.

As for my “respectably repugnant” list, I stand guilty as charged. Forgive me. WoWS was just the clear and easy target that made me wake up and realize that I’d spent way too much time rustling around in the trash last year looking for gems. I looked back on all of those films (yes, mostly represented by that list) and I have begun to despair about film culture and culture more generally. I looked for the rays of light in those films. They are there. That stupid list was my way of acknowledging that there were moments worth praising in films that I could not make peace with. I tried to frame that list with caution, that I was uneasy with the perversity on display throughout the year’s best films.  “I can't help but feel that 2012 has been a sad and lost year in film.” I was trying to make the best of the worst. I was making a sort of anti-Top10 list because I couldn’t find any films to place on a Top 10 list for 2012, which is something that is still bothering me. I’m sorry that it was misunderstood and you thought that I was endorsing those films.

When one finds gems in a trash heap, one can praise the gems. That doesn’t mean that the one praising the gems doesn’t understand that he found them in a trash heap or that he recommends trash. This man would much rather be rooting around in gem heaps. The sad state of affairs is that there aren’t all that many gem heaps at the moment and there is a whole lot of trash.

There is also plenty worthy of praise present in WoWS. WoWS would clearly make it on a “respectably repugnant” list. But, I’m sick of the darkness.  My conclusion regarding WoWS could be applied to all of those other films: “To the degree that it is enjoyable, it is execrable.” I am not denying that it is well made. I am not denying that it is enjoyable. I am saying that the problem is precisely that it is so well made and enjoyable.

So, if I have been inconsistent in the past, forgive me. I’ve sought clarity and I’ve failed. I am guilty of pride as you say. Sometimes, I think that I’m the greatest movie reviewer in the world and see all sorts of things in films that no one else can see. That is why I MUST go see WoWS, so that my Very Important Definitive Take on the film can be known. But of course that’s all a stupid lie.

I am tired of spending so much time looking around in filth when there are all sorts of goldmines (Scripture foremost, but also the “Western Canon”, sf books I’ve missed, re-watching films I love, re-reading books that I know will both CHALLENGE ME and EDIFY) that I have neglected to my detriment. I’m afraid that you scoff at my quest for edification. So be it. The best works of art DO instruct and build up the best in us as they tear down the worst in us.

WoWS on the other hand is rather shallow. Re-watching it is not going to make me a better person and I will not learn anything new about the human condition or our present financial or sexual crises du jour. In wrestling lingo, at the end of the day, this film is a lightweight.

I’m not afraid of films like WoWS. If someone I know is really dying for a critique of any film, I’ll go ahead and plunge in the muck and watch whatever. This is why Jeff’s “too much” is silly (though I realize that that wasn’t directed at me primarily). I’m pretty sure that I could beat Jeff in a filth-watching endurance test and still come out relatively clean on the other side. But I don’t want to. I’m tired. I guess I’d change my mind if someone wanted to pay me a good salary to work for some crappy content review site and count curse words and prosthetic penises. Otherwise, I’m tired of it all.

WoWS was the “final straw” that made me realize that my heart isn't in this Film Club business anymore. Jeff was right. The Wolf ate my blog.

I still love CR5FC. I still love films and film culture. I’m just tired. There haven't been enough "gems" to sustain and nourish me as I chase.

And that’s why I ended Chasing Pictures. I really am done chasing pictures for now.

I co-opted this old blog because I figure that I’ve still got things that I’ll want to blog about. Some of the time, maybe even a lot of the time, it’ll be film-related. And I like the blog title. It feels appropriate.

Perhaps any or all of the above is not clear. Perhaps I have written too many contradictory things over too long a period of time and the above is just gobbledygook. I hope not. I offer all of this mess in love.

Now concerning [“challenging” cinema]: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.


Peace.
Posted by trawlerman at 12:14 PM (1) comments
WoWS

I bought a new journal. From now on, I'll probably write things out longhand, "vomiting" ideas onto a page. Usually this would mean that I'd clean these rough drafts up and polish them for presenting to others. But I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to type up what I've got. You'll all have to be happy with my rambling rough notes. Hopefully, this will keep me writing. It's silly for me to worry about appearing professional anyhow, when I know that there's only a handful of people reading this. I'm not trying to write a monograph. I'm only trying to be part of a conversation.

And all apologies to Mr. Scorsese. I am not on good enough terms with you to keep referring to you as "Marty" yet I keep doing it.


Vile.

It's hard to determine what Scorsese is trying to achieve with TWoWS. It is definitely a comedy. But I deny that it works as satire.

WoWS is best described as a romp.

It is playful and it is celebratory. It winks a lot. What could be played as horrific gets played as slapstick (the Lemmon's --> Popeye sequence).

Unfortunately, the material is depraved and disgusting. Jordan Belfort, the Wolf, should not be celebrated. So, why, Scorsese, why?

I think that Marty is attracted to alternative societies/families that provide shelter and a reason for living apart from the rule of law at times when the rule of law has failed or hasn't adequately protected people in the sense that it hasn't given them a realm in which to flourish. Belfort operates outside of the law because the arbitrary financial laws that do exist serve those already in power.

Belfort's sin isn't that he manipulated stocks or tricked people out of their money. His sin is idolatry. He serves Mammon. He is a High Priest in the Courts of Mammon.

This brings along with it cultic rituals involving ritual sex and prolonged altered states of consciousness. And this, I think, is Marty's weakness. Not content to suggest something, like his best Code-era forebears, Scorsese hires all of the prostitutes he can find (women paid to get naked and simulate sex acts) and puts them on display for an audience to hoot and holler at.

The craft is superb and there is plenty in the film to chew on, but who is the audience loving and re-watching this beast? Frat boy business majors playing it on loop behind the beer pong table.

The wife-punching scene IS too little too late. Belfort is not after his child. He's after his pride. Luckily, we know he can buy a new wife if he puts enough work into it. Belfort's bootstrap ingenuity is praised to the end. His empire crumbles because of outside forces, never because he screwed up. It's always someone else's fault. It will always be someone else's fault.

Also worth noting is that Belfort not only serves a false god, he is a false god.  As the Prophet of Mammon, he speaks and wealth is created. Belfort creates a miniature world unto himself using nothing but his voice.

In the beginning was the Wolf, and the Wolf was with Mammon, and the Wolf was Mammon.

Belfort, even after his multiple "Falls", remains the man who shapes reality with his words, continuing to sucker people out of their money. This time it was me, shelling out the dough at the Temple of Cinema, that dread House of Worship that caters to the narrative whims of anyone willing to submit themselves to darkness in the hopes of catching a flickering light. This time, I only had to sacrifice my conscience at the door to spend three hours at the feet of a Wolf.

Why did I go see WoWS? Brandon had already warned me that it was "worse than Spring Breakers". He also said that he loved it. I wanted to love what Brandon loved. And if I couldn't, then I wanted to hate what Brandon loved. I wanted to be the one to tear apart WoWS, to point out its flaws, to show why and how it failed.

But I see now that I was wrong-headed. I'm not sure that there is anything that I can write that will change the exultant thrill you get at the way Marty tells this story.

At the end, I don't know what to write, except: Shame on you. Shame on me. Shame on Martin Scorsese and the entire cast and crew. WoWS, for all of its technical brilliance, belongs in the trash. To the degree that it is enjoyable, it is execrable.

All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here's my response to Jeff's review:

Jeff: “I can completely understand someone not liking it for the simple admission that it was just too much for them.  As entertaining and downright incendiary as it can be, it really isn't easy to watch or digest with any level of comfort or gratification.”

This puts you in the place of someone who can handle “too much”. You are the superman. Those who disagree with you are weak.

Jeff: “But anyone who thinks this cretinous lifestyle displayed by these thug stockbrokers is glorified is either dead inside or frankly not paying a modicum of attention.”

Those who disagree with you, even when they bring evidence from the film, are either “dead inside” or “not paying a modicum of attention.”

Jeff: “Black comedy is rarely understood initially by the masses”

Those who disagree with you are “the masses,” never mind that WoWS is doing very well at the box office.

Jeff: “I'm pretty befuddled as to how anyone with any intelligence could think WOLF glorifies its characters' behavior.”

Those who disagree with you have no intelligence.


I’ll stop there. There’s obviously nothing that I can write about WoWS that won’t be coming from a place of timidity, stupidity, or ignorance.
Posted by trawlerman at 4:23 AM (0) comments
Monday, January 06, 2014
Wild Shoggoth

Some quickly jotted down thoughts after finishing Madness...

At the Mountains of Madness works surprisingly well as SF rather than horror or fantasy or weird tale, though it is all of those things.

The focus is heavily on the science (as Lovecraft understood it, of course) and on reason and on the limits of the same when our faculties are challenged and our certainties are undermined.

After reading At the Mountains of Madness, I'm not sure whether Lovecraft has any room for the "supernatural" at all. Lovecraft's project seems to be a naturalizing of "myth" by plugging it into an evolutionary/materialist framework (another kind of "myth").

The way that Lovecraft does this is to introduce "natural" creatures that are more strange and frightening than we are accustomed to, hopefully shocking us into an openness to "cosmic fear". There is something more strange and wonderful and downright scary to the fabric of the world. I'm not sure yet what to make of the narrator's claim that he is writing to prevent others from experiencing the horror of the Antarctic. Is it such that in Lovecraft's horrid world, it is better to remain ignorant than to embrace truth?

I'd rather be eaten by a wild shoggoth.
Posted by trawlerman at 11:30 PM (0) comments
Saturday, January 04, 2014
A YEAR OF LIBRIPOX AND OTHER PLEASURES: WHAT I READ IN 2013

2013 saw the continuation of the joke of a book club that is Ben and I. 2013 also saw the creation of the Simak book club that is Fred and I. Maybe I'll create another club in 2014 that attracts one other active member.

This was the second year that I kept decent reading records.

Top 5 Fiction Books Read This Year:

1. Treasure Island
2. The Hobbit
3. Burning Bright: Stories
4. The Busconductor Hines
5. The Year's Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection

Top 5 Nonfiction Books Read This Year:

1. Life Together
2. What is Biblical Theology?
3. Slow Reading in a Hurried Age
4. Outland
5. Shaming the Devil

Stats:

70 books...

# read as eBooks: 3

# "read" as audiobooks: 4

# "graphic novels": 27

Favorite (new to me) Fiction Book Read: The Busconductor Hines by James Kelman

Favorite (previously read) Fiction Book Read: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Favorite Fiction Book published in 2013: Carmen by Prosper Merimee (new translation by MHB)

Favorite (new to me) Non-Fiction Book Read: What is Biblical Theology by James M. Hamilton, Jr.

Favorite (previously read) Non-Fiction Book Read: n/a

Favorite Non-Fiction Book published in 2013: Slow Reading in a Hurried Age by David Mikics

Favorite Graphic Novel Read: One Piece, Vol 1

Favorite Graphic Novel published in 2013: The Unwritten: The Wound

Complete list of titles read in 2013 (excluding children's books) is as follows:
("+" before title indicates "re-read")

December 2013

*Galaxy Nov 1950* H.L. Gold
*Slow Reading in a Hurried Age* David Mikics
*The Shining* Stephen King
*Carmen* Prosper Merimee
*What Is Biblical Theology?: A Guide to the Bible's Story, Symbolism, and Patterns* James M Hamilton Jr
*The Year's Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection* Gardner R. Dozois
*I Am Legend* Richard Matheson

November 2013

*The Color Master: Stories* Aimee Bender
*Ring Around the Sun* Clifford D. Simak
+*The Amazing Spider-Man: Soul of the Hunter* J.M. DeMatteis, others

October 2013

+*Time & Again* Clifford D. Simak
*Lost Everything* Brian Francis Slattery (abandoned)
*One Piece, Vol 1: Romance Dawn* Eiichiro Oda
+*Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt* J.M. DeMatteis
*Galaxy Oct 1950* H.L. Gold
*Shining Glory: Theological Reflections on Terence Malick's Tree of Life* Peter J. Leithart
*Tonoharu: Part Two* Lars Martinson
*Clarkesworld 84* Neil Clarke
+*American Gods* Neil Gaiman

September 2013

*After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall* Nancy Kress
*London Falling* Paul Cornell
*Prophet Vol 1: Remission* Brandon S. Graham
*Empire* Clifford D. Simak

August 2013

*A Land More Kind Than Home* Wiley Cash
*Cosmic Engineers* Clifford D. Simak
*Outland* Roger Ballen
*Great Railroad Paintings* Robert H. Goldsborough
*Bookshelf* Alex Johnson

July 2013

*Runner's World Complete Guide to Running* Matt Gilbert
*Wolfsmund, Vol 1* Mitsuhisa Kuji
*Batman, Vol 1: The Court of Owls* Scott Snyder
*Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance* Os Guinness
*Life Together* Dietrich Bonhoeffer
*Maigret and the Enigmatic Lett* Georges Simenon
*Shaming the Devil: Essays in Truthtelling* Alan Jacobs
*Mr. Darwin's Gardener* Kristina Carlson

June 2013

*The Midwich Cuckoos* John Wyndham
*The Kragen* Jack Vance
*Dagon* Fred Chappell

May 2013

+*Treasure Island* Robert Louis Stevenson
*Monster, Vol. 8: My Nameless Hero* Naoki Urasawa
*Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Icelandic Stories*
*To a God Unknown* John Steinbeck

April 2013

*Saga, Vol. 1* Brian K. Vaughan
*Monster, Vol. 7: Richard* Naoki Urasawa
*Susceptible* Genevieve Castree
*Monster, Vol. 6: The Secret Woods* Naoki Urasawa
*The Unwritten, Vol. 7: The Wound* Mike Carey
*The Unwritten, Vol. 6: Tommy Taylor and the War of Words* Mike Carey
+*The Hobbit* J.R.R. Tolkien
*Mudman, Vol. 1* Paul Grist
*Monster, Vol. 5: After the Carnival* Naoki Urasawa
*Monster, Vol. 4: Ayse's Friend* Naoki Urasawa
*Monster, Vol. 3: 511 Kinderheim* Naoki Urasawa
*Monster, Vol. 2: Surprise Party * Naoki Urasawa
*Monster, Vol. 1: Herr Dr. Tenma* Naoki Urasawa
*Christ the Tiger* Thomas Howard
*The Busconductor Hines* James Kelman

March 2013

*The Resurrection* John Gardner
*Naruto, Vol. 1: The Tests of the Ninja* Masashi Kishimoto
*Zeuglodon: The True Adventures of Kathleen Perkins, Cryptozoologist* James P. Blaylock
*Sweet Tooth, Vol. 3: Animal Armies* Jeff Lemire
*Sweet Tooth, Vol. 2: In Captivity* Jeff Lemire
+*The Books of Magic, Vol. 1: Bindings* John Ney Reiber
*Scenes from an Impending Marriage* Adrian Tomine
*City of Glass* Paul Auster
+*The Books of Magic* Neil Gaiman

February 2013

*Infinite Jest* David Foster Wallace (abandoned)
*Burning Bright: Stories* Ron Rash

January 2013

*Captain America: The 1940s Newspaper Strip* Karl Kesel

--------------------------

Finally, I like Ben's idea of tracking favorite articles and blog posts. I am no good at all at tracking such things. I hope to do a better job in 2014 of keeping track of online reading.
Posted by trawlerman at 4:19 PM (0) comments
Thursday, January 02, 2014
Year of the Love-Beast.
Posted by trawlerman at 1:03 PM (1) comments