(Jango and me, checking out the links.)

A few links for a Wednesday–some really interesting stuff, I think. I’m pretty happy with how the Lennon review turned out, too.

My review of Castle by J. Robert Lennon
“Intense psychological profiles dominate the literature of unease, sometimes known as “neo-gothic” and typified by such modern masters as Brian Evenson. In these tales, the suggestion of something not quite right about the narrator or the protagonist is followed by the dread that we will learn unsettling information not only about the character but about ourselves. In Castle, an often brilliant new novel by J. Robert Lennon, this classic paradigm is updated for a new century and a new context. Castle continues Lennon’s fascination with offbeat and alienated characters, explored in a different voice and meter in his prior novel, the black comedy Mailman.”

Summation of Reviews of The Manual of Detection
I have to agree with the reviews that talk about a kind of thinness to the book, which is to say I think it would’ve made a great short story or novella, but that in this, Berry’s first published attempt in the long form, the characters cannot carry the reader’s attention for very long. Berry seems more interested in the idea of detectives and detection than in his people. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, but stretching that to novel length doesn’t work. He’s an immensely talented writer, though, and I’ll always be looking forward to his next piece of fiction.

Blogger Really Needs a Cut Feature [worst title ever for a really good post on race/ethnicity]
“Australia thinks it is white. The fact that I am clearly Not White, regardless of how Not Particularly Asian my behaviour/ language/ personality/ values may be, is some sort of brand, and people keep trying to squeeze me into categories I don’t fit into. I’m sorry, but I’m not Malaysian. I’m sorry, but I’m not Chinese. I’m Australian, and I’m sorry for that too. I stopped eating with chopsticks at work because it was more hassle than it was worth, the attention made me embarrassed of my lunch. Now people are asking what accent I have. Within Melbourne, when speaking to other Melbournians, I should have no accent whatsoever.”

Short Notes on Various Books
Mr. Cheney holds forth on some very interesting books, from Tropical Fish to S.T. Joshi’s latest.

Social Media Demands User Customization for Best Results [yes, but when would we get writing done, hmmm? here's Matt's collected twitter wisdom for a day, btw]
“Nearly every form of social media that I use has some sort of filtering system that I can engage to customize the amount and type of input information I receive from other users. Heck, even my phone can do that: block certain calls, transfer others to voicemail, etc. I myself further filter the content I receive there by encouraging most people to use text messaging to contact me rather than simply calling, which is probably my least favorite form of communication.”

Confronting the Murmur in Brian Evenson’s Last Days
Matt Bell is one of my favorite new writers, and here he does a masterful job of analyzing elements of Evenson’s latest novel. I liked Last Days a lot, but am still unsure the extremes of the last chapters work (something Matt Cheney echoes in his link above)–it’s something to think about. The only other problem I had was I didn’t believe in the way the police behaved in the second half of the novel. Otherwise, it’s a rather remarkable accomplishment.

On Reviewing by Angela Slatter [and, relatedly in my view, vampires]
“I scurried to the OED to assure myself that ‘reviewer’ does not come from any French or Latin word remotely connected with the sphincter or lower intestine. Whilst reassured on that count, I did discover that the words ‘critic’ and ‘reviewer’ are used interchangeably. This is a shame, because I like to think of the reviewer as the younger cousin of the critic, someone who hasn’t completely lost their love for humanity; the reviewer is a guide, the critic is the mother you can never please. Then again, Nabokov compared reviewers to ‘people who move their lips when reading’. On the upside, Milan Kundera said ‘Let us consider the critic, therefore, as a discoverer of discoveries’. Thus, with my cognitive dissonance in tatters, I took my first review copy and walked to a quiet, sunny corner, armed only with a fluoro pen and a mild sense of trepidation.”

Publishing, Series, Fantasy, an Announcement of a Personal Nature, and a Big Helping of WTF
A brave acknowledgment from Sarah Monette that she’s lost her publisher is followed by a long discussion of the particulars. Regardless of whether the series should’ve been marketed as a series, the basic mistake by the publisher is this: Monette’s books should never have been put out in mass market paperback. They’re just too strange–in the best possible way; I love her work–for that audience. It appears she did just fine in hardcover and if they’d put her books out in trade paper and left it at that, with commensurate advances, she would probably be just fine right now. I get a sense that the publisher got greedy or simply didn’t understand the nature of the work they were publishing. (Alternate history scenario: Monette at Bantam with Juliet Ulman, published solely in trade paperback, and thriving as solid midlist writer sales-wise.) None of this is any comfort to Monette if she reads it, I know, but I hope she knows we love her and I hope she knows she’ll be back. Publishing’s an eccentric, often stupid and heartbreaking industry–it can torque you all out of shape in the service of a goal that you later see never made any sense anyway–but it’s also a place where second chances take on strangely beautiful and unexpected forms.

Matt Staggs’ Mind Lampreys and Night Octopi [I think the latter actually exists--true cephalopods are stranger than fiction]
“Travel in the astral is extremely dangerous for these dreamers, for without the protective equipment and hard-earned experience of well-traveled psychonauts they are prone to attack by any manner of astral predator and parasite. In most cases, the ill effects of these attacks are limited to waking with a feeling of fatigue or, rarer still, persistent migraines and chronic nervousness. However, in extremely rare cases, attacks by astral beasts can result in death: a likely explanation in those cases where otherwise healthy men or women die in their sleep.”

Free fiction from Federations
I don’t even care if this anthology is any good–I’m just so admiring of John Joseph Adams’ roll-out of this book that it hardly matters at the moment. (Oh, but I will be a cruel judge later, when the book’s out, don’t you worry.)

My interview with David Moody at Amazon [thanks to Matt S for his help]
“Everything began to change after I received the initial enquiry about the availability of the film rights. At first I thought it was a wind-up but, after doing a little investigation, I realized the interest was genuine and I suddenly found myself talking to some pretty powerful people. One of the most bizarre moments of the process was when I found myself on the phone to Mark Johnson (producer of the Narnia films). He was on the set of Prince Caspian in New Zealand–I was trying to cook the dinner, put the kids to bed and stop the dog barking!”

The National’s website
I’ve been a huge fan of this amazing band ever since their first CD, but the first time I bought The Boxer I had a negative reaction for some reason and I sold it back to Vinyl Fever. On a whim, I re-bought it Monday…and have been playing it over and over again ever since. It’s darkly beautiful, devastating, and somehow…gorgeous.

A few examples of lyrics from The Boxer, along with a video.

You get mistaken for strangers by your own friends
when you pass them at night under the silvery, silvery citibank lights
arm in arm in arm and eyes and eyes glazing under
oh you wouldn’t want an angel watching over
surprise, surprise they wouldn’t wannna watch
another uninnocent, elegant fall into the unmagnificent lives of adults

***

Turn the light out say goodnight
no thinking for a little while
lets not try to figure out everything at once
It’s hard to keep track of you falling through the sky
we’re half-awake in a fake empire
we’re half-awake in a fake empire

***

We expected something, something better than before. We expected something more
You were always waiting but I never had to hold you by the edges like I do now
You were always waiting but I never had to hold you by the edges like I do now
Walk away now and you’re gonna start a war

Whatever went away I’ll get it over again. I’ll get money, I’ll get funny again
Walk away now and you’re gonna start a war

And, finally, congrats to Jonathan Wood!