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the love mix
CDs devoted to Love Songs tend to make me want to barf when I read the track list, but today I wondered what I would like on a CD if I was thinking romantic thoughts. So, I bring you 23 Songs on a Theme of Love in No Particular Order Love me or Leave Me: Nina Simone I will Follow you Into the Dark: Death Cab for Cutie Little Wing: Jimi Hendrix The Man with the Child in His Eyes: Kate Bush There is a Light that Never Goes Out: The Smiths There Ain’t No Cure for Love: Leonard Cohen Someone: Divine Comedy Close to You: The Cure La Femme…
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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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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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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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"I hope her bones are firm. "
During the past week I watched all three of the Lord of the Rings movies. I still like them. It makes Jackson’s recent offering, King Kong, look rather shallow in comparison. There is no excuse for the unforgivably-long pre-Skull Island sequence, which is supposed to establish characters and motives, but only tires us. King Kong is a B-movie. It’s a beauty-and-the-beast story, where a big ape falls in love with an incompatible mate. It’s equal parts action and melodrama. Or at least, it should be. The CGI Kong is the true hero of Jackon’s movie, and once he’s on-camera, ripping apart dinosaurs or bonding with Ann Darrow, then the movie…
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why I think writing good fantasy is a difficult task
It’s been a long time since I’ve picked up any fantasy novel without a modicum of suspicion. Actually, let me be specific: I’m referring to what could be termed “high” fantasy in particular. This is because the genre seems particularly influenced by the formulaic. It’s a kind of inertia: the prose is tugged towards the verbose, the plots towards hackneyed yarns, and the characters inevitably wander into the graveyard of the stereotypes. Watch out youngster, the zombie of “youth who is unaware of his special lineage” is shambling towards you! Jeepers girlie, you were nearly impaled by the shade of the “sword-wielding bimbo who is also a magician, and smart”.…
