Comments on: What It Is We Do When We Pay Forward the Rhetoric of Fantasy and…the Collapse of Quantum Vampires

By: Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 01:52:38 +0000

Farah:

You don’t really listen, not in a way I’d consider hearing, so it’s not really that useful to do so.

By: Farah

Farah — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:41:57 +0000

Next time, try saying “um, no, not at all”. All criticism is and should be an act of discussion. I may still write the same thing, but I would always quote and acknowledge your opinion.

By: Larry

Larry — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:35:15 +0000

Although I can’t quite recall what Borges had to say in regards to SF, I do know that he considered some of his stories to be fantasies, since he included one of them in his Book of Fantasy that he published first in the 1940s. If you haven’t had a chance yet to read it, I highly recommend it, as it has some of the most memorable short stories I’ve ever read in an anthology.

By: Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:34:39 +0000

Thanks, Paul–and for the clarification. I wouldn’t really consider Millhauser, Hoban, or Borges to be “SF”, but I didn’t get a chance to read the whole thing as indicated. Still, I appreciate the corrective.

By: Elf M. Sternberg

Elf M. Sternberg — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:13:57 +0000

I googled for ‘Teratoculture’ and got exactly one hit, Jeff: Yours.

By: Paul Kincaid

Paul Kincaid — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:23:53 +0000

Jeff, thanks for passing the book to Larry, I was really grateful for the review.

But when you say: “although the Kincaid appears to be better suited, in general, to a title of What It Is We Do When We Read British SF” – well, there is a fair bit on British sf because a) it’s an area I specialise in, and b) it tends to be underrepresented in critical works on sf. But I don’t think essays on Steve Erickson, George Turner, Steven Millhouser, Joe Haldeman, Russell Hoban, Jorge Luis Borges, and no less than four pieces on Gene Wolfe can really be considered ignoring the rest of the world …

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:35:14 +0000

Perhaps after dinner and some chores, if this 90º muggy heat doesn’t drain me first!

By: Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:14:36 +0000

Look forward to it!

Janie–Yes, all this kerfuffle! For nuthin! Literally!

I’m not afraid to die. I just want it to be quick–like being hit by a truck. Nothing lingering. I figure I’ll live on in at least one book a hundred years from now, in a footnote on page 565: “123 – Not Jeff VanderMeer, who was a squid enthusiast.”

By: Larry

Larry — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:05:14 +0000

New book to add to the queue now, it seems…

As for the Kincaid and Mendlesohn books, I purposely left out discussing “grounding a work” in the two reviews, because it is something I want to cover separately. It’s my own particular bias speaking, I know, but I think cultural groundings have to be done in order for there to be a more complete image done. Neither Kincaid nor Mendlesohn wanted to do this, therefore I tried to examine their books through their own sets. But I do think such a grounding might have helped in the case of Mendlesohn’s brief mentions of Faulkner and (now that I think of it) yourself, Jeff. Hopefully, I’ll have my thoughts written out in full by midweek, if not tonight.

By: Janie Harrison

Janie Harrison — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:03:00 +0000

And just think, all this, because we are afraid to die, or cannot imagine a world without us. ;>