Ancient Logic

Last week, my wife and I visited Paris and Barcelona in one of those 'only-every-few-years' types of vacations. Neither of us had been to either city before and had a blast. The experiences in each of the cities were so different, I thought I would split my record of the visit into two (or three...) parts, starting with Paris. I have not exactly been pining to visit the City of Light my entire life. I knew that I would get there eventually but somehow it just never occupied as much of my imagination as say China, Japan, Australia, or any of the other places I've visited. I blame French class. However, once we set our sights on Paris, I start digging around, dusting off my wretched French, and generally growing very excited about the city and its possibilities. In particular, "Paris to the Moon," by Adam Gopnik, painted for me a compelling picture of modern Paris, an at-times overwhelming metropolis riddled with an almost anachronistic humanism and comp...

I've never really cared about Luc Besson as a director. Not that I hate his work exactly, I just can't summon enough energy to care about it one way or another.  "Fifth Element" is the movie I remember the most distinctly, but as a friend reminded me last night as we waited for his latest film "Lucy" to start he's cranked an unbelievable number of movies in recent years - either as a director, writer, or producer. And I liked Fifth Element, even though the plot didn't always (or really, usually) make sense. Besson is just that kind of film-maker, knowing how to film a screen with enough mayhem, special effects, and sheer gonzo style that you might be able to forgive him. So, I wasn't exactly eager to watch this movie. The trailers looked interesting in a sort of second-tier action film sort of way, but that tag-line intoned by Morgan Freeman bugged the hell out of me. "Most humans only use 10% of their brains..." Really? How many...

Finishing a collection from Thomas Ligotti is a strange experience. Firstly, one isn't entirely certain what you have just read. Ligotti is known as a horror writer and an influence of Nic Pizzolatto, creator of True Detective. From those two facts you might imagine that Ligotti takes a bleak look at humanity and its role within the universe. In that respect you would be correct. You might also imagine that Ligotti's stories revolve around monsters, serial killers, and other standard motifs of pulp fiction. Here, you might be surprised. Ligotti's "Noctuary" begins with a very astute essay on the nature of 'weird fiction,' tracing its power to the observation that the victims of horror fiction tend to meet a 'tailored fate,' a coffin specifically measured and prepared for them. The succeeding stories each sketch a situation where a protagonist meets some 'weird fate.' At times this fate might be horrific, in that it inspires within ...

My story "Drop-ins" was published this week in the "Yesterday You Said Tomorrow" anthology released by Burnt Offerings Press. I'll include links to buying a copy if you are interested below but let me just say a quick word about this story. "Drop-ins" was originally conceived as the third chapter in a much larger work on time-travel. I got into my head the idea of non-paradoxical time-travel, the question of how could you have time-travel that didn't cause some kind of logic busting paradox. With Drop-ins that idea coalesced around the notion of time displacement. Basically, we are already time-travelers. Every day we travel exactly one day into the future. What if you could put the conscious mind to sleep for a period of time, say a year, or ten, or thirty and then wake it up inside your own body. While your primary self was asleep, your life would be carried by a "stand-in" personality, basically a dimmer, slightly less-than-versi...

This past week has seen the appearance of my second short story, "Children of Frogs," which is still visible at www.dailysciencefiction.com if you search the archives. I got a lot of feedback on the story, most of it positive and learned a great deal from the experience. While it might be a while until my next story appears, this was a happy moment. Also nice was getting my first payment on a story. I know it's a small thing, but having in my hands the share of profit of what I've written was a ridiculously good feeling. Then followed by a little tinge of 'gee, I thought it would be for more, and then, but I didn't have this amount before today and now I do.' It was a confusing three seconds. Now, I think I'll frame it and move on.

Being alive in 2013 has meant embracing the worst case scenario. To be honest, on the grand scale, this year didn't have a lot to recommend it. Politically this country seems to have slipped a gear. Yeah, I know that this isn't the first time the government's been shut down or certainly the first time when our two ridiculous political parties couldn't agree on anything. But for a year beginning with such minimal hopes, seeing them crushed again and again and again was dispiriting. In the process of writing these few year-end posts I looked back over my posts this year, especially the ones post-Newtown. Boy did I get that wrong. I figured worst-case scenario there would be some token expansion of the back-ground checks and a renewal of the assault weapon ban. And then it was just the background checks and then it was the NRA dancing in the streets. What an absolute failure. I get a weird twinge of jealousy whenever I see reports of the Chinese space program sending ...

I had a kind of mission this year to read at least five books written in 2013. I nearly made it. I'm embarrassed to say I haven't had a chance to pick up the wonderful conclusion of Chris Holm's Collector series, "The Big Reap," which is why is not included below in my five favorites of this year. But, seriously, don't wait on my opinion, pick up the book if you haven't already and read it. Chris is a great story-teller with one hell of an awesome concept in the Big Reap. Science fiction and fantasy. That's what occupied most of my reading time. And when I say science fiction what I really mean is Kim Stanley Robinson. Green and Blue Mars, 2312, and this year's Shaman, and I've barely scratched the surface on this guy's writing. I can't praise him enough for his ideas and character development and simple inspiring spirit. In a year I rewatched most of Star Trek, this was the fitting literary counter-part. Robinson portrays imperfec...