New Media
Great Author Put-Downs
Read this wonderful article at The Examiner on the fifty best author vs author put-downs of all time.
Some of my favourites are Mark Twain on Austen: “Every time I read ‘Pride and Prejudice,’ I want to dig her up and hit her over the skull with her own shin-bone”. I can’t believe that Pepys thought this of one of my favourite Shakespearean plays (other favourites include The Tempest): “…we saw ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life”. Having just finished reading Milton again, I have some sympathy with Johnson: “‘Paradise Lost’ is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is.” The final bitch tome goes to one of the most out spoken writers of the twentieth century, yes it’s Norman Mailer in 1998 on Tom Wolfe’s A Man in Full: “The book has gas and runs out of gas, fills up again, goes dry. It is a 742-page work that reads as if it is fifteen hundred pages long….At certain points, reading the work can even be said to resemble the act of making love to a three-hundred pound woman. Once she gets on top, it’s over. Fall in love, or be asphyxiated. So you read and you grab and you even find delight in some of these mounds of material. Yet all the while you resist — how you resist! — letting three hundred pounds take you over.”
Now, that is a review to have printed in your obituary or to don your boxing gloves for.
The top 20 essential science fiction TV shows
The top 20 essential science fiction TV shows
Some good shows here, amazed that Cowboy Bebop is on there but wonder where Aeon Flux is? The much underrated Farscape is there to, who’d a thought a show first filmed in a metal shed in the outback would become such a big commodity? Also, there is a link to the Muppets – the ultimate SF creatures.
The rather poor SG1 is there, started out good but quickly descended into a rather bad soap. SG Universe seemed no better not even Robert Carlyle couldn’t save that but maybe a couple of thousand zombies could have.
The Tick is just pure lunacy but is it SF? BSG makes it up there but not the original. BSG was a good series, very dark and did respond to the Iraq war – just look at the subtext of Cylons vs Man.
DS9 is there, the most underrated of all the Star Trek franchises and probably the best written, doesn’t have the touchy feely crap that the New Generation did or oops there goes my shirt again of the original. Though I do love the original series and laughed at the Galaxy Quest send up of anyone who wore the red shirt. DS9 for me was darker and as soon as acts of terrorism became part of the plot you knew we were going somewhere dark.
Babylon 5 is there, great, great series and even Neil Gaiman wrote it! Another dark SF series that played out a long storyline. Unlike Lost, they answered questions and showed that Bruce Boxleitner could act. Anyone remember Scarecrow and Mrs King?
The X Files is another dud, I watched them all, it soon became writers in search of a plot (sound familiar? See Lost). The truth is still out there and no one gives a stuff.
Doctor Who is quickly becoming a patronising kids programme. Even though I still watch it – says more about me.
What is stunning is there is no Red Dwarf – still SF even if it is a comedy. There is no Quantum Leap and there are a myriad of other shows I can think of that didn’t make the list. The Last Train (ITV’s failed attempt at SF now being repeated to some extent in the plot of The Deep on BBC 1 – another good show), UFO (Gerry Anderson’s only real people programme), Captain Scarlett, The Invaders, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the original BSG.
No list is definitive but I do worry that a few of these on the list are just derivatives of one another.
Amplified authors in the UnLibrary | FutureBook
Amplified authors in the UnLibrary. The debate on e-publishing continues.
The poem that will feature on …
The poem that will feature on BBC R4 POETRY PLEASE in Oct is from Best of Manchester Poets http://t.co/ek0m1nh
Great news, one of my poems wi…
Great news, one of my poems will be broadcast on BBC R4′s POETRY PLEASE in October, will let you know the date. Tune in. Thanks to BoMP.
Bret Easton Ellis: Bateman Was Me
Nearly two decades after American Psycho was published, Bret Easton Ellis has come clean on who Patrick Bateman was - the homicidal, Genesis loving cannibal. You can view the interview at James Brown’s latest offering Sabotage Times. I liked James, like his magazines, like his role as an editor and writer, and I was glad to see that James did the interview, which can be viewed here. Take time out to see into the mind of writer who is beginning to like his characters, and by the sounds of it, is becoming them, or has always been them. Contentious? Dangerous? You make your mind up at Sabotage Times.
Vocal Victory
A new ning site has appeared, Vocal Victory – where poets have fun! You can find it at: http://vocalvictory.ning.com/
Andrew Oldham on You Tube
Andrew recently recorded some video poetry with Ian Parks, Milner Place and Gaia Holmes in a Huddersfield pub. These have been posted up on You Tube but you can view Andrew reading the poem ‘The Trench’ here. Leave your comments here or double click on the video to take you through to You Tube and leave any comments there. The direct Your Tube link is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ePtcOz567g
Authors Blog Award 2010
I have been nominated for the Authors Blog Award and would be grateful if you could take time out and vote for me at:
http://www.completelynovel.com/competitions/author-blog-awards-2010
You can win one of hundreds of book they are giving away.
Click on CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE and enter my name and website in the boxes:
Andrew Oldham
http://www.andrewoldham.co.uk
Thanks for the support and those that have already nominated me! A vote for me is a vote for strangeness.
The View From Here: How Competition Kills Craft
Andrew is this month’s Guest Writer at The View From Here. In his article, How Competition Kills Craft, he looks at the trend of publishers who seek to be in competition with each other. Publishers who copy ideas, author styles, and produce carbon copies of more famous books. You can view the article here and buy the December issue of The View From Here to see the article in print.
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- The poem that will feature on BBC R4 POETRY PLEASE in Oct is from Best of Manchester Poets http://t.co/ek0m1nh 2 weeks ago
- Great news, one of my poems will be broadcast on BBC R4's POETRY PLEASE in October, will let you know the. Tune in. Thanks to BoMP. 2 weeks ago
- has just received the proofs for his first collection GHOSTS OF A LOW MOON from Lapwing, Belfast. Due for release in 2010. Whooooooo! 3 weeks ago
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