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less blood more fear please
With the advent of 30 Days of Night on the big screen I thought it would be a good idea to read the original graphic novel, which was written by Steve Niles and drawn by Ben Templesmith. The problem when approaching the vampire myth is how to do something new with it. The focus needs to come down to an original execution of a story about the blood-sucking monsters. As someone who has read and watched a great deal of vampire canon there are few permutations that I consider genuinely fresh. It can be done, but in many ways the story cannot just be about vampires. There must be an…
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among shrines and temples
I’ve uploaded the best pictures from my trip to Japan to Flickr. I don’t have many photos from my time in Yokohama, but there are loads from our trip to the outstanding Fushimi Inari shrine in Kyoto. It’s the oldest Shinto shrine in Kyoto, and Martin and I didn’t know what we were getting into when we followed the rows of torii up the wooded mountain. It was a hot, sunny afternoon, and for once the humidity was bearable. The long winding ascent up crooked steps brought us to plateaus of shrines, vending machines, and shops that lulled us into the belief that we’d reached the top – until a…
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Yokohama Future
Today is my first full day back in Ireland after my travels. So far I’m coping well with the shock of living in the past. This is only partly a joke, because there were moments during my stint in Japan where it felt like I was living in the future. In this post I’ll concentrate on my experiences at Worldcon in Yokohama. Warning: it’s a long entry. Martin and I arrived the day before the start of the convention, and resisted the tidal-pull of sleep, which was stronger due to the hot, muggy weather. Instead we navigated the subway system (not difficult), arrived at the Minato Mirai area, and from…
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dream narratives
Yesterday evening I watched Inland Empire, David Lynch’s latest masterpiece of the weird, with a friend. It was a film I wanted to see with a companion, because it struck me that we’d have plenty to discuss afterwards. That was not the case, because I stumbled out of the theatre, my head stuffed with images of disquiet, shell-shocked and inspired. There wasn’t much to say, because the film resists dissection, especially immediately after you’ve seen it. It requires time to ponder. While watching the film I was struck at how Lynch has mastered “dream narratives”. He has captured the haphazard stories of the unconscious and put them on the big…
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the road
I’d been hearing a lot about Cormac McCarthy‘s novel, The Road, before it won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for best novel. I purchased it recently, and during a long train journey read the book in one sitting. I would describe this novel as literary horror, with an emphasis on horror. The post-apocalyptic world that McCarthy describes, in which a man and his son scrabble to live in a burned, used-up world, is bleak, desolate, hopeless. It is a story about the fact that humans endure despite the odds, even though there is no good reason why they should strive to do so. The biological mechanism, even in the worst of…
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listening to a hero
I’m sure I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I’m a huge fan of Tom Waits. I suspect my love of his music stems from his consummate skill at storytelling. I love all kinds of music, but the songs that really get me, grip me by the heart and squeeze, are the ones where the words and the melody create a pocket moment in time, a space you enter when you listen to the song. As much as I adore a great deal of his back catalogue, his second album (for 1974 was the age of wheels of plastic vinyl) Heart of Saturday Night is especially dear to me. It…
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reading Sontag
Susan Sontag was a remarkable woman. I’ve long admired her writing, be it prose or her critical work. So, I was interested when I noticed that The Guardian published recently an essay of hers from just before her death in 2004. Writers will find it an illuminating read. It is stuffed full of practical advice, as well as being an incisive discourse on the nature of narrative with some thoughts about its evolution. I’m at a loss as to what to quote, although this early paragraph is excellent: I’m often asked if there is something I think writers ought to do, and recently in an interview I heard myself say:…
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Shanghaied by unexpected beauty
Last night I made a literary discovery on YouTube. It was reminiscent of walking quickly, collar-raised, through a boisterous neighbourhood, skimming the fascinating but tawdry windows, and hearing, clarion-bright, the sound of an accomplished musician above the din of car honks and conversations. The voice I heard was that of Billy Collins, an American writer who was Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. I admit freely that Collins (despite his Irish last name) has never pinged on my radar before. Poetry–an art form I regard highly–is not one to which I allot much time. Which is a shame. Collins has a wonderful poet’s voice, mellow and…
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generic thinking
As I’ve noted before, I have difficulties reading and writing fantasy fiction for a variety of reasons. Yet, there are a couple of stories brewing in my head that insist on the genre. So be it. In a quest for inspiration on how to write good fantasy I turned to the master: Fritz Leiber. Luckily, I was able to snag the two volumes of collected Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tales, so I’m currently embroiled in adventures across the dangerous smog-drenched streets of Lankhmar. Leiber, along with his peer, Robert E. Howard, trailblazed the modern notion of heroic fantasy. These chaps were churning out tales of adventurers abroad in strange…
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pondering Lynch
I’m researching for a story at the moment. I’m not writing it yet, which means I feel like I’m slacking. This one has a premise that I want to work out before I begin. It’s not always the tack I take with short stories, but it seems right for this one. This weekend I’m off to P-Con in Dublin, which should be fun. It’s an opportunity to catch up with old friends, and talk shop over drinks. I might even take in a movie. I’m keen to see David Lynch’s new film, Inland Empire, and I’ll have the opportunity to do so while I’m in Dublin. I’m not sure if…
