Vegging Out vs. Geeking Out. Romance as the MSG of film. The bifurcated careers of Lucy lawless, Sigourney Weaver, and Hugo Weaving. Characters making smart decisions vs. stupid decisions. Neal Stephenson discusses Sci-Fi/Speculative Fiction as a literary genre at Gresham College. (Warning: requires Flash 9)
posted on Jul 13, 2008 - View this thread

Into the Night Films through the ages. "What’s an into-the-night movie? It’s essentially about one anxious character (or group of characters) embarking on an illicit adventure and emerging transformed. Most often, the stories take place at night, but not always. Sometimes they happen over a whole summer, in the blazing light of day. Sometimes they’re comedies, and sometimes mysteries. But what they have in common is an acknowledgment that somewhere, lurking in the shadows of polite society, there are people getting ridiculously freaky." With much...
posted on Jan 4, 2008 - View this thread

"Something woke her in the night." Genre fiction is rising from the dead to terrorize serious literature! In response to Michael Chabon’s (previously) new book, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Ruth Franklin wrote a review in Slate beginning with the line “Michael Chabon has spent considerable energy trying to drag the decaying corpse of genre fiction out of the shallow grave where writers of serious literature abandoned it.” Well, that didn’t go over too well with Ursula K. Le Guin, who bent her considerable imagination and skill to the task of envisioning the zombie corpse of genre fiction and wrote an entertaining response, which was then given a suitable cover. The whole thing is also available as a pdf linked to from Le Guin’s website. via
posted on Jul 20, 2007 - View this thread

Samuel R. Delany has become known for his Silent Interviews, where he responds to questions in writing. But many other interviews are available online: The Onion AV Club; Nerve; Science Fiction Studies; SF Site; K. Leslie Steiner [Delany's pseudonym]; Science Fiction Weekly. Some are not-so-silent: Blackbird; Smithsonian. He also writes fiction. [More Inside]
posted on Jun 15, 2006 - View this thread

Revolution Radio is a concept that died in Minneapolis years ago. It never had a chance to take off before being assimilated by the RadioBorg -- the idea that you play good songs, regardless of whether or not they fit under some canned "format." The Suburbs. The Beatles. G-Love and Special Sauce. X. Tori Amos. Adam and the Ants. Loretta Lynn. Trip Shakespeare.Their playlist definitely leans more toward the "alternative" side of the dial than anything else, but now, thanks to Minnesota Public Radio's brand-new station, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the musical variety. Submit a request online. Not fortunate enough to live in Minnesota? You can still listen along to commercial-free radio a couple of different formats. Viva la revolution!
posted on Jan 28, 2005 - View this thread