Books
9.3.15 “The keeping real of shit matters to some people, but it does not matter to me. “
How one author’s essay changed my outlook, and made it possible to open my arms to the un-cool things I loved.
Read MoreHere’s how the story doesn’t end: TV adaptations that make it up as they go along
TV’s rapacious interest in book adaptations has been expanding lately. Today, novels are seen as springboards and not holy writ, and TV shows are happily going way off the reservation.
Read MoreArisia 2015: My schedule, and how I’ll defy both time and space while there
Coming to Arisia 2015? Here’s where you’ll find me, hoping to be in two places at once….
Read MoreWhen fantasy writers turn on TV, what turns fantasy writers on? (Hint: Breaking Bad)
On my way to the World Fantasy Convention in Crystal City, Virginia last weekend, I had a chat with an editor, who sighed with dismay that she’d initially packed only four or five books to bring with her for the long weekend. She wondered if that was enough. I began to wonder if I just…
Read MoreHBO’s “The Leftovers” is way off the reservation, and Tom Perrotta let it happen
“Eh, the book was better.” Said anyone who ever read a book before watching a movie or TV adaptation of said book. “The Leftovers,” the HBO series starring Justin Theroux and Liv Tyler, met “The Leftovers,” the literary novel with genre pretensions by Tom Perrotta at the end of June and … the streak remains…
Read MoreA twist in the tale: Why too many ‘Twilight Zone’ endings can ruin the surprise
One summer, I spent my days lounging around the pool, reading “The Twilight Zone.” Not watching. For one thing, “The Twilight Zone” reruns were on way late at night. I wasn’t quite a teenager, VCRs were in other peoples’ homes, and the Internet was still a good decade or so away. So I’d only seen…
Read MoreNot seeing the forest for the trees: ‘Into the Woods’ and other ways Hollywood gaffes in retelling classic fairy tales
“Into the Woods” fans, brace yourself: The Disney adaptation of the award-winning, long-running, grown-up thinking fairy tale musical by Stephen Sondheim – one of the stage’s pre-eminent writers – is getting neutered. As the New Yorker reported recently, during a master class in New York City Sondheim told the audience of high school drama teachers that…
Read MoreHappy 80th to Harlan Ellison, who has a knock-knock joke for you
Harlan Ellison, that irascible love-him or hate-him genius of speculative fiction, lawsuits and storytelling, turns 80 today. While covering the South by Southwest Festival in 2008, I got a chance to talk with him in person (there's a video I'll turn up one of these days), and before that, on the phone. Here's just the…
Read MoreServing up lamb in a rare, delightfully nasty way
One of these days I'll write a longer post about the joys of discovering the fiction Roald Dahl wrote for adults, rather than children (most of us only know him by his "Matilda" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" books). It's twisty, detailed, tightly-written and often delightfully nasty. But for now, I'll send you to…
Read MoreDune, the dessert planet
I have fallen off the posting wagon, not for lack of things to say, but time to say them in. So in honor of my recent "Dune" posting, I'll just leave you with this. "Dune," in gummi worms. It is, as one wag in the comments notes, a dessert planet. Be back anon.
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