Linkage

Following up on conversation with the geekstalt at the ton (tun?) last night: This is the Jonathan Lethem essay in question.

In 1973 Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow was awarded the Nebula, the highest honor available in the field once known as "science fiction" - a term now mostly forgotten.

Sorry, just dreaming. In our world Bruce is dead, while Bob Hope lurches on. And though Gravity's Rainbow really was nominated for the 1973 Nebula, it was passed over for Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous With Rama, which commentator Carter Scholz rightly deemed "less a novel than a schematic diagram in prose." Pynchon's nomination now stands as a hidden tombstone marking the death of the hope that science fiction was about to merge with the mainstream.

I've also recently stumbled across s1ngularity, a collaborative genre criticism/review-blog thing. The contributers are not afraid of being, um, equally direct:

In simplest terms, there are apparently two sorts of criticism. One sort is the 'review', which is usually used to entice people to read a particular book (or not read, as it may be), and which is meant to be read before reading the book. On the other hand is the 'critical review', which is usually a deeper examination of the book, and which is meant to be read after reading the book, in order to enhance one's enjoyment of the text.

Personally, I think the first sort of 'review' is just a cop-out excuse, written by people that have no developed critical skills but who want to share their personal thoughts on something... no matter what that something is.

Oof. Anyway, I've LJ'ed it as s1ngularity for those who may be interested, although it doesn't seem to have updated itself yet.

Oh, and following on from the LJ movies thread over at snowking's place, casting details and a teaser trailer for Almost fanboys have been released. It all amuses me far too much.

Lester Bangs (Tim Minear): "Of course I'm home. I'm always home. I'm uncool."