Books
The classic (and heartbreaking) short story Flowers for Algernon has been posted for free online in blog form. If you didn't have the pleasure of reading it in your high school English class, it's about a mentally handicapped young man who undergoes a procedure to dramatically enhance his intelligence.
You can read the story from the beginning here, though I imagine reading it in blog-style reverse chronological order would certainly be interesting.
Simon & Schuster has produced an online animated series called N., based upon a short story by Stephen King that appears in his new anthology Just After Sunset. The series is actually more like a combination of an audio book and a graphic novel, consisting mainly of static images with narration underneath. It looks pretty good so far, even though each episode is quite short.
The story involves a psychiatrist with a patient who claims that his OCD is actually a defense mechanism to keep supernatural beings from invading our universe.
A TV adaptation of Perry Moore's gay teen superhero book Hero appears to be go for launch. Stan Lee himself is backing the project, and two networks have made offers to produce the series, described as a sort of amalgam of Lost and Heroes.
This could be a truly groundbreaking show if it ends up happening, but I think they'll probably name it something other than Hero, unless they want people to confuse it with Heroes.
Is America's First Gay Superhero Coming to TV? [Vulture]
Sony Pictures is producing a film based upon R.L. Stine's young adult horror book series Goosebumps. Do kids today even know who R.L. Stine is? I'm pretty out of touch with our current youth culture. Are Tamagotchis still cool?
At least that theme song is still awesome.
Sony Gets RL Stine's "Goosebumps" [Variety]
[via: Dark Horizons]
Author Christopher Poole has written a pretty interesting-sounding book about a gay hitman who, among various other things, battles jaguars. Also, aliens and vampires?
Renaissance Killer is out now, and I think I may definitely have to read it at some point.
For the next couple weeks, Del Rey Books is offering a free downloadable copy of Betrayal, the first book in the Star Wars: Legacy of the Force series, which takes place after the original movie trilogy.
No big whoop for me, but I figure the Star Wars fanatics out there might be interested. And hey, it's free.
Free Download of First Book in Star Wars: Legacy of the Force Series [StarWars.com]
[via: UGO]
Take a look, it's in a book.
By "it" I am of course referring to tentacles, butterflies, and explosions.
At least, that's what you'll find in this intriguing photo series, aptly titled "The Power of Books."
In the wake of Tangogate, another children's book with gay themes and anthropomorphic animals has been released to moderate controversy. What's notable about Uncle Bobby's Wedding, however, is that the characters' homosexuality are not at the forefront of the plot.
The story is about a young guinea pig anxious about losing the attention of her favorite uncle after his upcoming wedding. The fact that Uncle Bobby is marrying a male guinea pig is almost a mild afterthought. Homosexuality is portrayed as not only acceptable but unexceptional, so much so that it simply fades into the story's backdrop.
The book has been positively reviewed so far, though I imagine already banned in more conservative communities. Still, it's nice to see what may be the beginnings of a culture where being gay is just plain no big deal.
Fur Better or Worse: Gay Guinea Pigs Wed in New Children's Book [AfterElton]
World War II Luftwaffe veteran Horst Rippert has just discovered, more than half a century after the fact, that he was personally responsible for the death of his favorite writer, French pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
According to the Mail on Sunday, a biographer of Saint-Exupery discovered the terrible link between the novelist, who published The Little Prince and seven other books, and the now 88-year-old former flying ace. Said Ruppert:
If I had known it was Saint-Exupery, I would never have shot him down. I loved his books. I knew he was a French pilot, but he was probably my favourite author at the time. ...I am shocked and sorry. Who knows what other books he would have gone on to write?
Who knows, indeed? Beyond
The Little Prince, Exupery's work is barely known outside the French-speaking world. Perhaps he had another masterpiece in him, another book that would please and enlighten us the same way his most famous book has done.
It's an ugly story, and a bitter irony. And, you know, I'm starting to think that whole Third Reich thing was just a rotten idea. But I'm tempted to some ugly, ugly cynicism here. Like, anybody who shoots down 28 people, as Ruppert managed to do, is bound to be killing somebody's hero--might as well be his own...?
Ugh. Sorry.
War is a lousy business, y'all. Everybody knock it off.
How a German wartime flying ace discovered he shot down his hero [Mail on Sunday]
[via: Gawker]
Although Sir Arthur C. Clarke never publicly acknowledged being gay, he was widely believed to be. His typical answer to reporters who would ask him if he was gay was, "No, merely mildly cheerful." I choose to believe that we can and should count this giant in the realm of science fiction as one of our own. Gay men of his generation learned to never disclose details of their private lives. Although Clarke may not have been as open as his contemporary Quentin Crisp, the impact of his writings on human life has been profound. Not only has his science fiction inspired generations of authors, screen writers, directors, and game developers, but it can also be argued that through his scientific papers detailing a system of geosynchronous communication satellites, he launched the space race and enabled a technology that eventually brought us into the information age.
Okay, this guy has a freakin' awesome idea. Terry Pratchett, diagnosed with a case of early-onset Alzheimer's, has donated £500,000 (about a million bucks) to help support research against the disease. So why don't his fans do the same? There's gotta be 500K Pratchett fans out there with two bucks between their sofa cushions.
Click here to show your support in the form of a £1 donation (or, obviously, more!) to the Alzheimer's Research Trust. There's a even comment field at the donation site where you can say you're doing your part to match the contribution made by a favorite writer. Go, go, do it!
Alzheimer's Research Trust
Matching Funds [Ceci N'est Pas Une Blog]
[via: BoingBoing]
I have to say I am totally charmed, starting with the headline, by io9's roundup of lesbian sci-fi novels, Greet Your New Lesbian Overlords! "Lesbian sci-fi" in this context meaning not sci-fi by or for or about lesbians, but specifically sci-fi about imaginary lesbian societies in which everybody is a lesbian, a.k.a. the perfect world. Can you imagine?? It would be a veritable utopia of sensible shoes. Novels that get a nod:
- Ammonite by Nicola Griffith
- Houston, Houston, Do You Read? by James Tiptree Jr.
- Walk To The End of the World and Motherlines by Suzy McKee Charnas
- The Marq'ssan Cycle by L. Timmel Duchamp
- The Door into Ocean by Joan Slonczewski
- The Wanderground by Sally Gearhart
- Virgin Planet by Poul Anderson
- Solution Three by Naomi Mitchison, and
- Shore Of Women by Pamela Sargent
It's really worth reading the whole story just for the canny, snarky synopses of each novel by io9's Charlie Jane Anders and Liz Henry of
Feminist SF.
(Bonus: a link to a slightly more comprehensive list of Gay- or Female-Run Worlds.)
I'm all for it. Because, seriously, men? Who needs 'em.
Greet Your New Lesbian Overlords! [io9]
And girls who like girls who like stuff!
Clip of the Week
It was 1980 and disco was dead, but not in the UK!
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