A totally ridiculous Star Trek: The Backcompatibalized Original Original Series vid that makes me happy and stuff:
Popular Science magazine recruited a bunch of SF authors and artists to play futurist! Features John Picacio, Scott Lynch, Nancy Kress, David Palumbo, Ian Tregillis, Dave Seeley, Karl Schroeder, Daniel Dociu, Kim Stanley Robinson, Elizabeth Bear (that’s me!), Stephan Martiniere, Kathleen Ann Goonan, James S. A. Corey, and Vandana Singh.
I got up this morning and went for an 11 mile run. It was supposed to be 13, but the sun caught me and I ran out of Gatorade. Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor–and I decided two more miles was not worth puking.
Now I am drinking Vietnamese coffee and sitting on the sofa, like somebody who has used up all her virtupitude for the day.
My stepcat was just in the corner suspiciously sniffing an old signing poster of Scott’s that’s been there for a month. Only now does it become a potentially threatening object. Cats. Or maybe he’s just now figured out what Dad does for a living?
In other Scott-related news, this.
In writer-related news, non-Scott-related, the UK/Australian publication of John Joseph Adams’ Wastelands anthology has occurred!
And Publishers Weekly has given Book of Iron an absolutely bang-up review. (linky) (text follows)
Book of Iron
Elizabeth Bear. Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $20 (128p) ISBN 978-1-59606-474-4
Friends are the family we choose, a maxim that lies at the heart of this short but sharp novella, which ties in to Bear’s Eternal Sky novel series. Bijou the Artificer (first met in 2010’s Bone and Jewel Creatures, here young and eager for adventure) joins the immortal Maledysaunte on a quest to the abandoned city of Ancient Erem to stop Dr. Liebelos, a precisian (wizard of orderliness), from summoning the Iron Book. With them go a crew of allies with mixed motives, including Kaulas the Necromancer, who is Bijou’s lover and rival, and the wizard Salamander, Maledysaunte’s companion and daughter to Dr. Liebelos. Under skies whose moons and suns vary in number, they must confront the threats of legendary beasts and betrayal. Bear injects the fizz of the Roaring ’20s (including travel by roadster, automatic pistols , aeroplanes, and silent movies) into a thoughtful exploration of dealing with loss. Agent: Jennifer Jackson, Donald Maass Agency. (Oct.)
Reviewed on: 06/17/2013
Release date: 09/01/2013
Scott Lynch and I went out to Minnehaha Falls today to participate in Tim Cooper’s War For The Oaks photography project. It had rained tremendously earlier, the skies charcoal grey and the light dim as twilight. Then the sun came out, and everything was drenched in just-washed evening light.
This is my (poor quality smartphone camera) photo of Scott being photographed by Tim while reading WFTO.
I really liked Man of Steel.
Mostly.
The non-spoilery version of the “mostly” involves fight scenes that went on 33% too long and two or three moments of Clark Would Never Do That and a certain amount of Plot Stupid.
The spoilery version follows.
I loved, lovedlovedlovedlovedloved the following things:
1) Zod had an actual motive, and it makes sense, and he’s tragic and nuanced.
2) Women. Doing things. Being people. Making choices. Martha fucking Kent, along with May Reilly Parker, is the great argument for the centrality of foster-mother figures as the moral arbiters of superhero universes. (Get me drunk and started on Clark vs. Peter sometimes, andhow they fill similar roles.)
3) Earth is full of chicks and brown people, almost like we live here or something*.
4) The superhuman fights look amazing. Kryptonian type people move faster than the eye can follow. Then they pause. Sometimes you track them by the explosions.
5) Henry Cavill is beautiful, and he perfectly channels Clark’s serenity when the story lets him.
I had issues with some other stuff, though.
Yeah, the point of Clark is that he’s everyman, only with superpowers. He’s invincible, invulnerable, invisible. He comes and goes like the wind. The conflict of Superman arises from his ethical choices.
So why are we shown adolescent Clark making solid ethical choices, but adult Clark fails that for… a sight gag? I admit, it’s a really nice sight gag, but that’s not Superman.
Also not Superman:
*kissing your girlfriend while millions of Metropolians are burning to death or being crushed in collapsing buildings
*not attempting to move the Kryptonian fistfight to outer space, but instead blowing up gas stations and IHOPs as collateral damage
*only giving a shit about the people about to die in front of you (or Lois or Martha) and not the faceless hundreds of thousands dying as Metropolis and Nameless Indian Sea Island are taken apart by alien tech.
The body count in this movie makes Kid Miracle[Marvel]man look like an amateur, but it’s weirdly elided. We see civilians mowed down like chaff… but there’s no emotional resonance to it until the very end. I found this to be a major mistake, and I think Clark’s eventual choice would have had more resonance as an act of war if that had been thought through and addressed.
Superman cares when people die. Even strangers. This is what makes him Superman, and a moral ideal.
Clark can hear everybody on the planet screaming as they die. It’s the essential tragedy–the interesting conflict–of Superman**. He can save a hell of a lot of people. But he cannot save everyone.
Also, Jonathan Kent only dies because Clark is too stupid to live. You let your dad go after the dog? You n00b. (Also, under an overpass is a bad place to be in a tornado. Suction. Sorry. Lie flat in a field.)
*paraphrased from Scott Lynch
**Other interesting thing: Superman is a mask Clark Kent wears. Bruce Wayne is a mask the Batman wears. Discuss.
In completely random news, this Guardian article on the problems of writing Lovecraftiana in the modern era quotes from a number of working SFF writers, including my own 2009 essay on the same topic.
In celebration of the fact that I’ve cleared my decks until mid-August (Well, I have one more editing pass on “Green and Dying,” which I hope to finish today, before it goes off to immortality) and that I now have a little time to let my brain grow back before plunging into the untitled story I owe in August, the Shadow Unit series finale “Something’s Gotta Eat T. rexes,” and Karen Memory, which are, collectively, my work for the rest of the year.
Even with all the travel, it’s going to feel like a vacation compared to the first five months of 2013. I’ve written just a little under 180,000 words since January 1, which is the equivalent of two shortish novels. No wonder I’m stupid with tired.
But I can start thinking about my cons for the next few months, and I even have schedules for the first three. (I have four cons in four weekends in three different cities… in the wrong order… and then I have a two week break, and I’m off to Houston for Space City Con. Then back to Texas for Worldcon. Wheeee!)
So without further ado, some appearances:
4th Street (Minneapolis, MN, June 21-23, 2013)
Saturday 2:00 - 3:00 PM
The Heroine’s Journey, Revisited
What sorts of differences tend to crop up between heroic narratives based on the protagonist’s gender? What sorts of consequences, in terms of tropes invoked and shifts in reader responses, tend to follow when we gender-swap characters, or put women into traditionally “male” roles (e.g. Nyx in Kameron Hurley’s Bel Dame Apocrypha) and vice-versa?
Elizabeth Bear (M), Dana Baird, Pamela Dean, Fade Manley, Lynne Thomas
Sunday 9:30 - 10:30 AM
Syncretism, Real and Fantastic
Lots of modern fantasies contain elements from different cultures’ myths and religions interacting with each other. What are some real-world examples of syncretism, and what kinds of challenges crop up with this kind of world-building? How can we sensitively depict worlds in which multiple belief systems coexist or intermingle, especially when one or both can be shown to be literally true?
Stella Evans (M), Alec Austin, Elizabeth Bear, Ginger Weil, Skyler White
***
4th Street is a tiny little single-track con which strives for a relaxed atmosphere and a single curated ongoing conversation, rather than a more traditional situation where panelists talk and audiences listen. We’re making continuing attempts to be inclusive, receptive to a variety of voices, and welcoming to newcomers.
My dear Mr. Lynch will also be in attendance.
***
I will also be at the American Library Association conference in Chicago the very next weekend, and here’s what I’ll be doing there:
American Library Association conference (Chicago, IL, June 28-30)
Saturday, 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
LITA Panel: Science Fiction: The Factual and the Counterfactual
McCormick Place Convention Center S105 a-c
Science fiction and fantasy both build on known true knowledge and stories based on crazy ideas we know aren’t true. Why are both of these kinds of stories both part of science fiction and fantasy. How do these two strains work together and/or pull apart?
with Elizabeth Bear, Cory Doctorow, Brandon Sanderson, David Brin, John Scalzi, Timothy Zahn
(Panel will be followed by a signing)
(This is a Library Journal editor’s choice event)
Sunday: 3:30 – 4:15 p.m.
Speech/Q&A of sorts
Pop Top Stage: McCormick Place Convention Center
Located at the end of aisle 2600
Sunday: 4:15 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Booth Signing: Tor Booth #2203
If 4th Street is tiny and intimate, CONvergence is the opposite. It is vast, sprawling, noisy, and eclectic.
I will be there the following weekend, back in Minneapolis! Because! I will be accompanying Scott Lynch on this junket as well.)
***
CONvergence: (Minneapolis, MN, July 4-7)
(my schedule) (Scott’s schedule)
Thursday, July 4
5:00pm: 100 Science Fiction Books To Read Before You Die
Sofitel Dijon
What are the essentials? Where do you begin? What past classics and modern works belong on the list? Panelists: Michael Levy, Elizabeth Bear, Paul Weimer, Patrick Tomlinson, James Enge
Friday, July 5
9:30am: Science Fiction as a Hopeful Future vs. a Cautionary Tale
Atrium 6
Science can save the world or destroy it! What does our vision of how science will shape the future say about ourselves and what does it say about science? Panelists: Elizabeth Bear, Sean M. Murphy, Emma Bull, J Boone Dryden, Monica Valentinelli
11:00am: Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Started Writing
Atrium 4
A panel of experienced writers will share the secrets of the profession they wish they knew when they first started writing. Come learn tricks of the trade that your publisher will never tell you! Panelists: Abra Staffin-Wiebe, Elizabeth Bear, James Moran, C. Robert Cargill, Scott Lynch
3:30pm: SF Squeecast Live!
Atrium 6
Come listen to Guests of Honor, former Guests of Honor, and SPECIAL GUEST record an episode of the Hugo-winning, Hugo-nominated SF Squeecast podcast live. Panelists: Lynne Thomas, Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell
5:00pm: Sherlock Holmes: Hotter Than Ever
Bloomington
Although his first adventure was published over 125 years ago, Sherlock Holmes is more popular than ever. What is it about this most English of detectives that keeps us coming back for more? We’ll discuss the books, recent movies, and BOTH shows. Panelists: Mary Loving, Elizabeth Bear, Rae Lundquist, Naomi Kritzer, Jo Thomsen
7:00pm: Reading – Scott Lynch/Elizabeth Bear
Sofitel Lyon
Does what it says on the box.
Saturday, July 6
3:30pm: One on One with Melinda Snodgrass
Atrium 3
In which I get to interview the awesome GoH, Melinda Snodgrass: novelist, scriptwriter, and mistress of snark.
7:00pm: Arthurian Legend in Popular Culture
Atrium 6
From blockbuster movies to pop music, comic books to video games, the BBC to Saturday morning cartoons, the Knights of the Table Round seem to be everywhere. Panelists: Phillip Andrew Bennett Low, Elizabeth Bear, Tim Lieder, Renate Fiora, James Enge
The weekend after that, Scott and I will be at Readercon. No panel schedule from them yet.
Well, Star Trek: Into Darkness was a hot mess.
Only a very few spoilers, but: Physics does not work that way, story does not work that way, and fan service really doesn’t work that way. Tribbles could have so easily been used effectively, as an actual plot element, and real fan service, instead of as an essentially pointless deus ex machina. (Why was Klingon Detroit not full of tribbles?)
So many missed opportunities, unearned moments that could have been emotional or telling, and Too Stupid To Live. And I’m sorry, but the entire subversive point of The Uberman Exists And He’s A Brown Dude is kind of lost when you cast Benedict Cumberbatch, lovely though his voice is.
He can act. I wish they hadn’t directed him into Shatnerhood.
I wish they’d just actually used the whole plot of Diane Carey’s Dreadnought!, rather than selected aspects of it grafted onto such stupidness that don’t make sense.
Oh, and space is bigger than Michigan, and Qo’noS is only 90 seconds away from Earth at Warp 10. Also, if you’re having an enormous battle inside the orbit of the Moon, you can count on Starfleet to not even fucking notice, and nevermind what God needs with a starship, who the hell designs one without decompression doors?
On the other hand, the regular cast is fucking amazing. I could watch Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Anton Yeltsin, and Zachary Quinto play their elder counterparts all day. (John Cho. Karl Urban. ***Sigh.***) Chris Pine is a fine actor, and I adored him in Unstoppable, but the characterization of Kirk is so uneven that he’s got nothing to work with.
I just want a movie that doesn’t make me want to punch the scenarist in a soft and vascular place. Is that too much to ask?
It always amazes me how getting a couple of big, mentally taxing projects (like, say, a major novelette commission and the Very Important Third Book Of A Trilogy) squared away opens out the horizons. There are suddenly more hours in the day, and more energy to get stuff done in those hours.
Creative work is really emotionally taxing. The more ambitious it is, the more taxing. I’ve been struggling, the past couple of months, to get the basics done–dishes washed, bills paid, exercise exercised. Now that the book and one of May’s two novelettes are done, suddenly my head is full of room.
Case in point: after yesterday’s marathon work session, I’m achy and exhausted and this morning’s run was kinda brutal (and truncated by two families of geese, who I was unwilling to disturb in order to run along the trail they were hanging out on) but I still got All The Procrastinated Errands Done this morning, and more will happen this afternoon.
And I’ve reread what I have on the month’s other novelette, which is actually probably going to be a short novella, and I like it! It’s good!
I just have to figure out the twist and the rest of the caper, and I’m good to go.
Excelsior!
Ding dong, the draft is dead.
That’s “The Heart’s Filthy Lesson,” handed in at exactly the contracted length (10K: The manuscript is 10K manuscript (40 pages in manuscript format) ~9.3K MS Word.)
This old features writer still has enough column-inch damage that it feels awfully good to dial it after running 25% long on that damned book last month. *g*
Now there’s just one more June 1 deadline I should really try to hit. And, oh yeah, a cross-country flight, two ten hour drives, and a convention guest gig in the middle.
Where’s my fucking Wonder Woman icon?
Oh yeah, I’ll be at Up In The Aether in Detroit this weekend with my beloved Mr. Lynch! Come out and play!
***
travel and appearances 2013:
Up in the Aether: Detroit, MI, May 23-27 2013
4th Street Fantasy: Minneapolis, MN, June 21-24, 2013
American Library Association (guest speaker): Chicago IL, June 28-30 2013
ConVergence: Minneapolis, MN July 4-8, 2013
Readercon: Burlington, MA, July 11-14, 2013
Space City Con: Houston, TX August 2-4, 2013 (Literary Guest of Honor)
Lone Star Con (San Antonio Worldcon): San Antonio, TX, August 29-September 1 2013
Context: Columbus, OH, September 27-29 2013 (GoH)
Signing (and Scott Lynch’s The Republic of Thieves book launch!) : Pandemonium, Central Square, Cambridge MA, October 8th 2013
NYC ComiCon: NY NY, October 11th 2013 (only)
Viable Paradise: Oak Bluffs MA, October 12-16 2013
World Fantasy Convention: Brighton England UK, October 31-November 3, 2013
2013:
OWW EC: April 15, 2013
Popular Science flash: April 22, 2013
Steles of the Sky final: May 1, 2013
“The Heart’s Filthy Lesson”: July 1, 2013
“Dark Leader”: April 2013
“Green and Dying”: June 1, 2013
Hieroglyph story: August 10, 2013
“Something’s Gotta Eat T. rexes“: October 2013
An Apprentice to Elves: ?
2014:
Karen Memory: January 6, 2014
travel and appearances:
RavenCon: North Chesterfield, Virginia, April 25-27th, 2014 (Guest of Honor)
ConVergence: Minneapolis, MN, July 3-7, 2014
Finncon: Jyväskylä, Finland, July 11-13, 2014 (Guest of Honor)
Worldcon: London, England, August 14-17, 2014
No fixed deadline:
Smile (unless its name is actually Salt Water)
Unsuitable Metal
Gotham Jazz
Untitled Gangland Urban Fantasy That Keeps Bugging Me
“Gallowglas”
“Untitled Space Opera Thingy” aka “Periastron”
“Posthumous Jonson”
“Steel”
“On Safari in R’lyeh and Carcosa with Gun and Camera”
“This Chance Planet”
“Flush”
“Coronado”
“Patience and Fortitude”
“A Time to Reap”
I am so very stuck on how this character outsmarts a nemesis. I’d go write the other story, but I’m stuck on how those characters outsmart their nemesis.
Basically, I have made the critical error of trying to write stories about people being smart, which means I have to be smart.
*sigh*
