the Richard Larson blog

The allure of horror fiction:

Pet Sematary had, indeed, scarred me for life.

[Matt Cheney: "Blasted Horrors"]

Online media has feelings, too...

It's time to reinvent the Pulitzers.

Of course Ballard's ideas are also present in his novels and short stories, and arguably at their most potent there. He was drawn to science fiction as the preeminent literature of ideas of our time, the only form of fiction that could take the measure of the 20th century. At his most full-on, Ballard transformed SF into a kind of theory-fiction, his short stories and novels functioning in a manner similar to Marshall McLuhan's "probes," the latter's term for speculative aphorisms as opposed to fully developed theories backed up by research and empirical data.

Thank you, Madison Brookshire

I have (perhaps loudly) declared Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York, to be the best film of last year, and this, apparently, is controversial (but, Nick Schager!). Even more controversial, however, have been the many scathing reviews of the film by a number of prominent critics, perhaps most notably Rex Reed of The New York Observer who, somewhat famously, did not even finish watching the film. Madison Brookshire, in a sort of review of reviews of the film (published in Bright Lights Film Journal), takes Reed to task for his offhanded dismissal, and also lets us know that "the best review of the film belongs to Christopher Orr and appears in The New Republic. Other writers might note the fact that, before committing his thoughts to paper, Orr actually watched the whole film — twice." Yay.

What should novels be about?

"Is the point of writing fiction in 2009 to represent, as accurately as possible, the way the world really works? And is there a meaningful distinction to be made between works of fiction that are overtly about actual places during actual moments in history (like Joseph O’Neill’s post-9/11 New York novel Netherland), and novels whose emphasis is elsewhere (like Rivka Galchen’s Atmospheric Disturbances, in which setting is incidental)?"

"Pittsburgh" by Meghan Austin

With the announcement of the list of notable stories for the Million Writers Award, I was reminded of how much I enjoyed "Pittsburgh," by Meghan Austin, published last year in Failbetter. An excerpt:

This girlfriend was too hungover to imagine us as anyone interesting. She saw us as the most pathetic and annoying couple on Queer as Folk besides the lesbians. I was the professor and she was Michael the comic book store owner. I think I was actually Brian Kinney the hot ad executive and she was Brian’s boyfriend, Sunshine, the short, young artist who was learning about life while giving amazing blowjobs. But she’d only seen through the second season, and was the kind of person to whom the future was hazy and impossible to imagine, like Pittsburgh.

Other amazing stories which made the list and were both published at Strange Horizons:

"We Love Deena," by Alice Sola Kim

"The Magician's House," by Meghan McCarron

Elsewhere:

Abigail Nussbaum reviews this year's Hugo-nominated short stories.

Paris Sketches!

Longlist for the Million Writers Award.

12 Steps to Better Book Publishing.

I will be seeing The House of the Devil at TriBeca, even if the producers think it's "slow."

"Notes on Conceptual Fiction" by Ted Gioia ... "Is it possible that the idea of 'realism' as a guiding principle for fiction is itself unrealistic?"

J.G. Ballard (1930-2009)

J.G. Ballard was incredibly important to me as a reader, as he was basically my bridge to genre fiction of the type that I now read primarily; intelligent, forward-thinking, experimental, bold, risky. He will indeed be missed. Luckily he left behind an incredible body of work which will undoubtedly be read for many years to come.

[USA Today]

Shirley Jackson Awards

Finally: a ballot for a genre award that challenges expectations, gallantly inclusive rather than safe and redundant. I am particularly ecstatic to see Steven Millhauser's Dangerous Laughter recognized, and also Etgar Keret; I just saw $9.99, a film based on Keret's stories, and I was completely blown away.

Train spotting

On my morning subway ride today, the guy next to me, probably in his mid-30s, impeccably dressed and carrying a very expensive briefcase, who exited at Herald Square on his way perhaps (not unlikely) to some high-powered office job, was reading Twilight... on his Kindle.

I'm hoping that he was just doing research before buying the book for his daughter, or something, because seriously. I wanted to hand him my copy of Kevin Wilson's debut story collection that I was reading and just say "please, please read something else."

The hipster teenager sitting on the other side of me was reading the Bible, though, so I guess I should make some adjustments to my expectations. Or just stop being surprised by these things.