July: a few links

Tim Maughan has an extensive and very thoughtful interview over on Guide2Bristol, incisive in several directions simultaneously.

(It's also one of those proper interviews, you know? Martin Amis on proper interviews: "It was with dread/detachment/high hopes that I approached X's townhouse/office/potting shed. The door opened. He is fatter/smaller/taller/balder than I expected. Pityingly/perfunctorily/politely he offered me instant coffee/a cigarette/dinner. Everyone told me how modest/craven/suave/vain/charming I would find him, so I was naturally unsurprised/taken aback by his obvious charm/vanity, etc., etc." (intro to Visiting Mrs Nabokov (1993)).

Also: note from Tim on recent doings.

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"If the traditional fanzine scene is struggling to find new readers and new writers then I would argue that it falls to traditional fanzine editors to seek out new audiences and find a way of relating to a wider cross-section of fandom. If traditional fanzines are no longer relevant to the modern fan then I think the job of the Hugo Awards should be to recognise the things that are relevant." Jonathan McCulmont on the Hugo fan awards.

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"In this metaphor, stories I want to like are the sandwich.

The beach is our culture.

The sand is white patriarchy. And man, does it get into everything."

Foz Meadows reviews Vaughan & Staples' Saga: Vol 1.

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Ian Sales, flourishing a 2x2 matrix, has a crack at the fantasy / SF distinction. "An epistemological model of (speculative) fiction."

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"Greenfield has proved that she actually did have a novel in her. Unfortunately it’s a very bad novel."

Adam Roberts reviews Susan Greenfield's 2121: A Tale from the Next Century.

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Short review by Lara Buckerton of John Baxter's JG Ballard biography.

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Been reading Crumey, Pfitz, Xueqin, Dream of the Red Chamber, Pratchett, Making Money & Cervantes, DQ pt II. Saw Fantastic Four, Running out of Time, Beautiful Creatures, The Golden Compass, GI Joe: Retaliation, A Better Tomorrow, The Host, Inception, White House Down & lots of flood safety videos on the metro. The only way is lǎowài.