Twitter Tidbit for one and all from Jim Butcher.

The Dresden Files book 12, Changes, is now finished!

FINISHED! BWAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAAAAAAAH!

4:48 AM Jan 4th from TweetDeck

Quilldragon

R.A. Salvatore recently made a new book deal with Wizards of the Coast for six new books, all of them about his favourite character Drizzt Do’Urden, the renegade Dark Elf who has spawned countless dual-wielding Dark Elf Rangers in D&D sessions across the world. This is news that both made me happy to read yet another book about Drizzt, but also made me groan a bit because it’s yet another book about Drizzt.

Salvatore has written 20 (!) books about Drizzt, which is surprising because if any author would try to write a fantasy series of 20 books he would be stoned to death by his readers. If you even try to write only half of that you would have a series that eventually start to decline in quality* until you just try to keep things rolling for the planned end.

What makes the never-ending books about Drizzt work is that they are not part of a single series, instead consisting of six different series of 3-4 books. You have The Dark Elf Trilogy (3), The Icewind Dale Trilogy (3), Legacy of the Drow (4), Paths of Darkness (4), The Hunter’s Blade Trilogy (3), and Transitions (3). I have read them all, and I can guarantee that the books actually gets better.

Drizzt was never even intended as a main character. He was created as a sidekick for the Icewind Dale Trilogy, and afterwards got a series all on his own where his past is told. The very same thing happened to Artemis and Jarlaxle, who went from being enemies of Drizzt to their own series, The Sellswords (also very good by the way, I would probably want to read more about them than Drizzt). It seems like something that would happen to a TV series, where a side character steals all the show and get a spin-off.

So maybe Jordan shouldn’t have planned The Wheel of Time to be gigantic, but instead set the aim low and build on it from there? Losing a bit of that epic’ness but hopefully gaining focus and quality.

Maybe we could even have ignored Perrin.

* Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind.**

** What? I’m just sayin’…

Quilldragon

This story was written by Jane Austen

This part is called, Chapter 39

Read by Sibella Denton

Download the show

Classic Literature Podcast

This Friday Jessica, of Read React Review, gave a paper on “The Undead in Bioethics and Vampire Fiction” to “an annual conference put on by the largest bioethics organization in the US.” In her paper Jessica suggested that popular fiction is “fertile ground” for bioethicists. Indeed, popular fiction about vampires may be

the one place in our culture where people are reading and talking and thinking about death. About what it takes to be dead. About how we figure out who is dead. About whether there are nearly dead states that are enough like true death to count. About organ and tissue donation. Etc. [...] I used the image of Bella’s dream about being an old lover to an eternally 17 year old Edward to suggest that questions about what happily ever after means in the context of immortal love might be one way that women think about death.

I was delighted to learn that her paper was received extremely favourably:

The response from the audience was really terrific, and also from the editors of two journals in this subfield of bioethics, who approached me afterwards. I was especially gratified that one of them told me he agrees completely that we need to be working on popular fiction across the genres. A medical anthropologist asked me be an outside reader for one of her PhD students who is writing on vampire folklore and medicine, and a med school professor told me he now plans to begin his unit on death by discussing vampires. I couldn’t be more pleased with that response.

Jessica’s post about her paper can be found at her blog.

Teach Me Tonight

This story was written by Jane Austen

This part is called, Chapter 40

Read by Sibella Denton

Download the show

Classic Literature Podcast

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is out tomorrow, and may be my favorite comic book film adaptation of all time.

Also on store shelves tomorrow is Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XIX (Limited Edition), which includes 4 DVDs, a Gypsy figurine, as well as several posters and special features.

The Golden Girls: 25th Anniversary Complete Collection box set is packaged in a replica of the Estelle Getty character’s purse. Other television releases include Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series, the 1998 BBC production of The Chronicles of Narnia, the first season of the BBC’s Sherlock, and the animated The Boondocks: The Complete Third Season and Metalocalypse: Season Three.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Radiant Child is a documentary that profiles the legendary graffiti artist.

New on Blu-ray are A Christmas Carol (with George C. Scott), the original Ocean’s 11, and Tremors.

What new releases are you picking up or adding to your Netflix queue this week?

This week’s interesting DVD releases:

also at Largehearted Boy:

previous weekly music & DVD release lists
Soundtracked (directors and composers discuss their film’s soundtrack)

Largehearted Boy

The Hedgehog Song

                  When reading Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad the good and evil characters were flipped on their heads and then spun around in circles until they have no idea what role they were supposed to fill. One of the major points Pratchett is trying to point out is the fact that you shouldn’t try and make a square peg fit in a round hole, but instead you should find the hole that fits the square peg best.

                The heroines of the novel are the Nanny, Granny, and Magrat, who are a group of witches, each with very distinct personalities with different views on how to approach traditional roles. Nanny’s view on the matter is the most moderate of the three wherein she recognizes the merit in keeping the tradition, but is progressive in her own way such as choosing to wear red boots. Nanny is the one who moderates the arguments that occur between Magrat and Granny. Magrat who is very progressive in doesn’t understand why witches have the traditions that they do, this can be seen her choosing to wear pants instead of the normal black skirts. Then there is Granny who preaches about the proper way of acting and holding strong to traditions such as wearing three vests and never wearing red. Towards the end of the novel Magrat and Granny give in somewhat showing that there is validity to both perspectives.

                 These witches have to deal with various story plots getting in their way when they are on their way to make sure Ella does not marry the prince. This is completely different from what people have come to expect when referring to fairy tales. By having the complete opposite occur causes the reader to stop and re-evaluate everything that is going on. This is exactly what Pratchett wants, he wants his readers to understand that everything cannot always fall into those cookie cutter molds and that deviation isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However forcing someone/something to be something they aren’t has proved to have mostly harmful effects. The prime example for this being the wolf that was stuck between man and beast because Lilith wanted to make the story fit where there was no story to be found.

                The novel is not a promotion for the stereotypical happy ending, but a message saying that people should be able to pursue what they believe to be right and be able to achieve what they consider to be a relatively happy ending. As can be seen with the three main witches there is no “right” way to live out one’s own story.

Fairy Tales and Fantasy Literature

Controversial chief of sci-fi magazine
suspended
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-01 21:26
CHENGDU – The president and chief editor of China’s
biggest-selling science fiction journal, Science Fiction World
(SFW), was suspended Thursday, 10 days after editors published an
open letter claiming he was incompetent and demanding his
removal.
Li Chang, 53, was suspended pending an investigation into his
activities, said Li Dayong, an official of the Communist Party of
China branch at the monthly magazine’s publisher, the Sichuan
Association for Science and Technology (SAST).

Li Dayong announced the decision at a
morning meeting of the magazine’s senior editors at its offices in
Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, Thursday.
Li Chang said at the meeting that he
would cooperate with the investigation, said an editor who declined
to be identified.
Li Chang hung up when a Xinhua reporter
called him for an interview and later calls to his phone went
unanswered.
Sci-fi writers and fans said online that
they would monitor developments.
“It is a step forward. We are waiting
for a final result, “said Wu Yan, a leading science fiction writer
and critic.
“The SFW has a leading position in
Chinese science fiction. We hope that it can continue to be the
base of Chinese sci-fi, under the leadership of a professional
chief editor, “Wu said.
Li Chang was appointed SFW’s president
and chief editor by the SAST, an organization of scientists and
technicians under the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Communist
Party of China.
The editors published an open letter on
douban.com on March 21, describing Li Chang as “unprofessional” and
his instructions as “arbitrary and impracticable.”
The letter was signed “All the editors
of Science Fiction World “and was published under the ID,” Rise to
Fight. “
It said Li had “whimsical new ideas -
ordering his Chinese literature editors to write novels themselves
instead of writers, foreign language editors to translate novels
themselves instead of specialist translators, and art editors to
draw pictures themselves instead of artists, which shows he has no
idea how to run a magazine. “
SFW had a circulation of 150,000 copies
a month when Li took over at the beginning of 2009, but the latest
figures showed the figure has fallen to 130,000, said a senior
editor of the magazine.
The editors had submitted reports to
higher administrative departments, requesting Li’s removal and the
appointment of a leader qualified to save the magazine.
Big-name sci-fi writers and ordinary
fans are backing the editors. Commentators have called Li’s
presidency an abuse of power in the publication sector, and say the
letter reflects the will of the editors to run a normal magazine in
a favorable environment where their rights and thoughts are
respected.
Science Fiction World was established in
1979 to accompany a government campaign to promote science and
technology during the reform and opening up drive initiated by Deng
Xiaoping.
The magazine hosted the Annual
Conference of the World Science Fiction Association in 1991 and two
international sci-fi conferences in 1997 and 2007.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-04/01/content_9677847.htm

Science fiction Literature,Science fiction stories,living in a mystic world.

New @ New Criterion:

There is something either terribly wrong or terribly right with America when the political spectacle of the hour is Samantha Stephens in a chastity belt.

Christine O’Donnell, the much satirized Republican nominee for Delaware’s senate race, has abjured masturbation as a sin, lying as morally wrong under any circumstances (“So say the SS turned up at your flat in Amsterdam and Anne Frank were hiding upstairs…”), only then to have it disclosed that she once admitted to “dabbling into [sic] witchcraft” as a youth. Actually, what she literally said on Politically Incorrect in 1999 was that she “dabbled into witchcraft but… didn’t join a coven,” a distinction with a marked difference, I think you’ll agree, if High Holy Day paganism is to have anything to recommend of itself.

Jessica Grose at Slate’s womanly blog XX Factor makes a good point about how scandalizing O’Donnell, a television-savvy born-again, has become much easier now that all human behavior and misbehavior is thoroughly mediated:

I can foresee a media universe in which old, dumb Facebook posts and unearthed tweets become a consistent source of fodder for journalists. O’Donnell is 41, so her earlier transgressions were on an older media, television. However, the incredibly quick dissemination of O’Donnell’s ridiculous comments is all thanks to blogs and online video. Budding candidates a decade or two younger have lived their entire adult lives with these media.

There will be presidential sex tapes, in other words.

And a concomitant of this frightening prospect is that as our every thought and brain-fart and slip of the tongue or other piece of anatomy is recorded for posterity, so too will our standards for acceptable conduct decline. Whole generations reared on the discourse of text messaging and Facebook status updates will come to submit to an ever-lowering threshold for public officials who can’t speak in coherent sentences, follow a train of thought or engage in honest debate about anything. If Lindsay Lohan misses her re-sentencing for drug abuse it’ll be because she’s forming an exploratory committee.

In fact, the O’Donnell case is more revealing for what hasn’t been disclosed on YouTube but for what has been blithely tolerated without seeming to threaten her political fortunes in the slightest. Her former campaign manager, Kristin Murray, resigned from this Tea Party-concocted protest candidacy because, “I found out [O’Donnell] was living on campaign donations – using them for rent and personal expenses, while leaving her workers unpaid and piling up thousands in debt. She wasn’t concerned about conservative causes. O’Donnell just wanted to make a buck." Four years ago, in a previous senate run, O’Donnell also invented a diploma for herself from Fairleigh Dickinson University, a document that even her campaign now admits she was only just awarded in late August 2010 under cryptic circumstances.

A woman who uses the company card to buy her clothes and pay her rent, stiffs the help and invents academic credentials is thus to be welcomed as a vibrant young upstart wishing to return the country to the principles of the Founding Fathers. I see. This doesn’t so much beg the original question of how the gluttony of information and the famine of knowledge has vitiated our culture as answer it with a resounding, “Whatevs.”

Snarksmith: new york. gossip. art. politics. pop culture. literature. etc.

Orange Juice’s Coals to Newcastle is a 6-CD & 1-DVD box set that collects the seminal Scottish band’s entire discography as well as their BBC sessions.

The Tallest Man on Earth’s Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird EP is the highlight of a relatively slim list of new releases. I can also definitely recommend The Concretes’ WYWH, Maserati’s Pyramid of the Sun, and Phil Wilson’s God Bless Jim Kennedy.

Frances England’s Mind Of My Own is filled with smart children’s music that adults will enjoy as well.

Reissues include a remastered edition of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ Damn The Torpedoes, and the greatest hits package An Introduction to Syd Barrett (which includes both Barret’s solo work and his Pink Floyd songs) feature five remastered tracks.

What new releases are you picking up this week? What can you recommend? Have I left anything noteworthy off the list?

This week’s interesting CD releases:

30 Seconds to Mars: This Is War (Deluxe Edition)
Alter Bridge: AB III
Animal Prufrock: Congratulations: Thank You + I’m Sorry
Bad Books: Bad Books
The Big Pink: Tapes
Black Crowes: Amorica (reissue) [vinyl]
Cee Lo Green: Lady Killer
The Concretes: WYWH
Conjure One: Exilarch
Cradle Of Filth: Darkly Darkly Venus Aversa
Dave Matthews Band: Live In New York City
Dio: At Donington UK: Live 1983 & 1987
Electric Wizard: Black Masses
Fern Knight: Castings
Frances England: Mind Of My Own
Freezepop: Imaginary Friends
Giant Sand: Blurry Blue Mountain [vinyl]
Giant Sand: Storm (reissue) [vinyl]
The Greenhornes: ****
Gregory and the Hawk: Leche
Hellogoodbye: Would It Kill You?
Helloween: 7 Sinners
John Cale: Live at Rockpalast [vinyl]
Justine & The Victorian Punks: Beautiful Dreamer / Still You [vinyl]
Kid Cudi: Man On The Moon 2: The Legend of Mr. Rager
Kris Delmhorst: Five Stories
Last Year’s Men: Sunny Down Snuff
Lesbian: Stratospheria Cubensis
Maserati: Pyramid of the Sun
Mecca Normal: Malachi [vinyl]
Nightlands: Forget the Mantra
Nitzer Ebb: Industrial Complex
Orange Juice: Coals to Newcastle (6-CD & DVD box set)
The Orb and Youth: Impossible Oddities (3-CD box set)
Parting Gifts: Strychnine Dandelions
Phil Wilson: God Bless Jim Kennedy
Place of Skulls: As a Dog Returns
Queensryche: Empire (20th Anniversary Edition) (remastered with bonus CD)
Saroos: See Me Not
Shigeto: Full Circle
Shipping News: One Less Heartless To Fear
Soft Circle: Shore Obsessed
Sufjan Stevens: The Age of Adz (2-LP) [vinyl]
Supersilent: Supersilent 10
Supersilent: Supersilent 11
Syd Barrett: An Introduction to Syd Barrett (remastered)
The Orb and Youth: Impossible Oddities
The Persuasions: Knockin on Bob’s Door
Sarah Jarosz: My Muse [vinyl]
Shonen Knife: Free Time (English Version)
The Tallest Man on Earth: Sometimes the Blues is Just a Passing Bird
Tobacco: LA UTI EP [mp3]
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Damn The Torpedoes (remastered)
Tyvek: Nothing Fits
Underoath: Disambiguation
Various Artists: Coal Miner’s Daughter: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn
Various Artists: It’s Beginning To Sound A Lot Like Christmas
Various Artists: Piano Tribute to Kings of Leon
Violens: Amoral
Voivoid: Negatron / Phovos (reissue) [vinyl]
Weekend: Sports
White Mountains: Wilderness [mp3]
Woody Guthrie: Bob Dylan’s Woody Guthrie Selection
Woolfy: The Looking Glass [vinyl]
Wyatt/Atzmon/Stephen: For the Ghosts

also at Largehearted Boy:

weekly CD & DVD release lists
Try It Before You Buy It (music from this week’s CD releases)

Largehearted Boy