Kudos time! Australian writer Ian McHugh, the friend I visited in Canberra last year (photos here), not only won 1st Prize for the third quarter of 2008 in the WOTF (Writers of the Future) Contest, and word has it he also won the Gold Prize last night, thereby making, as Wikipedia notes, more money for his short story than most writers make for a first novel sale. Congratulations, Ian! That’s some powerful ass-kicking. Competitor (and fellow Clarion Westie — I would probably have met her if I’d been at WorldCon, as many Westies were about the place) Erin Cashier graciously …
Tag: SF
Reading The Host in Context, Part 1
Well, here I go. This is my attempt to provide a reading of the 2006 blockbuster Korean film The Host in context — that is , not only a Korean cultural and historical context, but also in the context of Korean Gwoesu (“Giant Monster”) movies, and those films which influenced the development of the genre in South Korea. Disclaimer — all images not cited to an photographer at copyright their respective owners. They are used in this post for educational/critical purposes, and thus their use falls under fair use. Thank goodness, because this essay would be hard to read without …
“the tops […] are comprised of two pieces, with a very dark grey (almost black) undershirt and the over shirt of the appropriate color, with a slight v-neck”
Remember when Thomas Disch wrote (in The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of) that in SF, about the singular importance of fashion in SFnal (and other pop entertainment) media? About the “pajamas” of Trek as singularly important to viewers, communicative of a kind of harmonious conformity that is especially resonant to those discovering Trek at an early age? I find it interesting that “spoilers” could even exist for clothing in a film, but look at this: Star Trek Movie Uniform Spoilers. And what you might not know is: I used to watch Original Series Trek as a kid in Lac …
2008 SF&F Festival (Seoul)?
Oh my… Well, I missed Denvention (this year’s WorldCon), but there is this, at least, to give a look-see: The 2008 SF&F Festival is going on in Seoul. It’s a two-day event with a bunch of movie screenings, along with some lectures (or maybe more like panel discussions?) I’m sure will be mostly incomprehensible. But it’s W1,000 — about a buck — to join in on the fun, it’ll be a chance to see a few films I’ve not seen, it’ll feature Korean SF geeks in their native environment, and it’s only a couple of days long… so what the …
Star Wars ROK Rock
The stunningly knowledgeable Helikkopter (of Indieful ROK), who was kind enough to remember I’ve been trying to get a handle on the status of SF fiction and film in Korea, very kindly notified me of the fact that in March of this year… a very odd little album was released by Ruby Record. It’s called Star Wars Project Compilation. SF fans, panic not! It features not some Korean form of the filk (perish the thought) but rather original works by (seemingly) competent musicians in homage to, reference to, or all about the Star Wars movie series. I can’t get the …