"...help can't even help us."

[greygirlbeast]

Yesterday, I managed to write 1,068 words on "Galápagos." They were grueling pages. When it was done, Spooky and I read back over it all, all of it thus far, and then I sent it off to a few readers, all of whom liked it a lot, despite my expectations. I think the worst part is that it really wants to be a novella, or at least a novelette, and I just cannot allow it to go on that long. Oh, and it's a given that it will be disliked by the sf readers and reviewers who dislike my sf because it's a bit dystopian, and has extraterrestrial life, and isn't obsessed with the Singularity, and possesses a sort of gee-whiz element, and can be read without an engineering or a computer science degree and few dozen tech manuals on hand.

Okay, yeah. I'm ranting. I'm half fucking delirious. Bad insomnia last night. I was up until about 4:30 a.m., so, thank you, Insomnia, for those six hours sleep. I finally took an extra Ambien and worked on Shaharrazad's mining skills while I waited for it to knock me out. I needed thorium, and northing but thorium, and went from Shattrath to Orgrimmar to Ferales to Silithus to Un'Goro Crater. To bed.

---

Last night somehow turned into a sort of impromptu horror-movie festival. Mostly, I was too tired to read (or even play WoW). Isn't it odd that after spending six hours writing, I feel guilty for not spending the evening reading? I find it odd. Anyway, here are three very quick reviews:

Masters of Horror: Imprint (2007), directed by Takashi Miike. First off, I'd loathed everything I'd previously seen from this series of short films. But I was very impressed with Miike's short "Box." I was not as impressed with Imprint, which lacked much of the atmosphere and subtlety of "Box." For all I know, Imprint is truer to his usual style than was "Box," but if so, that's a shame. Some nice visuals, and sort of a neat story, but it was all overwhelmed by the gore and some stiff acting. There are many (maybe most) horror films where less gore would be more, and this is one of them. There were hints of the Carteresque fairy-tale quality that makes "Box" work, but the whole falls flat.

Splinter (2008), directed by Toby Wilkins. We went into this one expecting very little. But the line in the description about a "splinter virus" intrigued, and we decided to give it a shot. And were glad we did. This is one of those gems, like The Descent (2005), Feast (also 2005), and Slither (2006) that sets out to be nothing much more than a great creature feature and succeeds admirably. Surprisingly believable acting, superb (and truly chilling) creatures fx, and just enough levity to punctuate the horror without reducing it to camp. It harked back to Carpenter's The Thing (1982), that brand of biological horror, and I strongly recommend it. Also, very oddly quotable. Here's a trailer:

Piranha (1995), directed by Scott P. Levy. We should have stopped at Splinter, we really should have. But we didn't, and after watching this piece of crap, I'm left with two questions. First, why would anyone bother to remake Joe Dante's Piranha (1978), almost scene for scene, and not bother to at least make it as interesting as the original (which isn't saying an awful lot, admittedly). Secondly, why wasn't the remake a musical? It could have been brilliant. Oh, the cast included Soleil Moon Frye (aka "Punky Brewster"), and at least we got to see her devoured (along with a lot of other annoying people) by stock footage from the Dante film. Really, really bad.

And since I seem to have a theme going here, I'll leave you with the trailer to Jennifer Lynch's forthcoming Hisss, which has me excited in more ways than one:

Hisss - Trailer
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Comments

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

'First, why would anyone bother to remake Joe Dante's Piranha (1978), almost scene for scene, and not bother to at least make it as interesting as the original (which isn't saying an awful lot, admittedly).'

Piranha without Paul Bartel is no Piranha at all.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Piranha without Paul Bartel is no Piranha at all.

Well, duh.

[jtglover.livejournal.com]

Oh, and it's a given that it will be disliked by the sf readers and reviewers who dislike my sf because it's a bit dystopian, and has extraterrestrial life, and isn't obsessed with the Singularity, and possesses a sort of gee-whiz element, and can be read without an engineering or a computer science degree and few dozen tech manuals on hand.

Has anyone actually said anything to this effect since that review of Dry Salvages that you've occasionally referenced here? I know you've that you don't read your reviews anymore, but those reviews I've read of A is for Alien have been pretty favorable, and those stories tend to the grim.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Has anyone actually said anything to this effect since that review of Dry Salvages that you've occasionally referenced here?

Honestly, I don't know. Not right off the top of my head. But I think that one review had such an effect that I'm still trying to recover from it (and I admit this is nigh unto inexplicable).

[jtglover.livejournal.com]

Just a guess, but perhaps it has something to do with your having been trained as a scientist, and the extent to which your fiction and worldview spring from science. It would seem to me that criticisms of your science fiction would be far more prone to wound than criticisms about other things that are close or important to you, but which were not as formative. I'm guessing you'd give a heartily raised middle finger to someone who had a complaint about vampires (broadly speaking) in your fiction, as opposed to your reaction to complaints about your science fiction.

The steps from science and a scientific worldview to science fiction seem to be getting longer and longer as time passes. Obviously hard science fiction is being written, but it doesn't get as much attention. Given more people come to science fiction from Star Wars than 1984 (or even Alien), it's maybe not a surprise that they aren't prepared to cope with what science actually is, and the possibility that we don't live in a world that's getting better.

Even dystopian science fiction, if clearly demarcated as such, isn't prone to get as much criticism, I think. After all, if one can point at a story and say "it's just like 1984!" it's pretty easy to put it in a corner. When it's dark, grim, and not part of any obviously allegorical or too-stylized future, though--that's more prone to slip past a reader's defenses. Certainly A is for Alien did so for me.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Just a guess, but perhaps it has something to do with your having been trained as a scientist, and the extent to which your fiction and worldview spring from science. It would seem to me that criticisms of your science fiction would be far more prone to wound than criticisms about other things that are close or important to you, but which were not as formative. I'm guessing you'd give a heartily raised middle finger to someone who had a complaint about vampires (broadly speaking) in your fiction, as opposed to your reaction to complaints about your science fiction.

This may be the case, I'm just not sure. The criticism that was leveled was that The Dry Salvages was too "off the shelf," too much like Alien and Blade Runner, and TV sf, too space opera, "what happens when horror writers try to write sf," not inventive enough, etc. And, truthfully, I was just trying to write a creepy, sort of Lovecraftian story about space exploration. I had no great ambitions for the story. But the charges stung, particularly the charge that I was unable to transcend my sources of inspiration. And yeah, I took great care with the science and mathematics involved, a point that wasn't even discussed.

The steps from science and a scientific worldview to science fiction seem to be getting longer and longer as time passes. Obviously hard science fiction is being written, but it doesn't get as much attention.

Unless you're Gary Wolfe...

When it's dark, grim, and not part of any obviously allegorical or too-stylized future, though--that's more prone to slip past a reader's defenses.

I should hope so. And I'm definitely not trying to do anything allegorical.

Gods, I genuinely loathe the fact that this one review threw me so badly that I still haven't recovered, all these years later. I know that certainly was not Gary's intent.

[fornikate.livejournal.com]

Imprint just......dragged. The end was great though.

[scarletboi.livejournal.com]

I saw Terminator: Salvation last night.

It was actually quite good. I liked the character of Marcus Wright more than I did John Conner, but then, it was really more his movie.

The ending was slightly smarmy, but I think it worked, overall.

[gargirl.livejournal.com]

Oooooo... something about that hiss trailer appeals to me. It has some small part of that amazing quality Pan's Labyrinth nailed so perfectly. I am going to have to see that.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Oooooo... something about that hiss trailer appeals to me.

I'm not sure there's any part of of it that doesn't appeal to me...

[sovay]

You may already have seen it, but there is an awesome new fossil.

I remember seeing an episode of Punky Brewster in elementary school. I don't think it made any sense to me at all.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

You may already have seen it, but there is an awesome new fossil.

Gorgeous.

I remember seeing an episode of Punky Brewster in elementary school. I don't think it made any sense to me at all.

This is because you are not an idiot.

[wishlish.livejournal.com]

I once worked at a company where many of the employees were obsessed with The Singularity. Worst job ever- I was an IT guy, but I was to spend two hours a week STAPLING.