Lastly, the final section of the book reproduces correspondence that Goulart received from various pulpsters during his researches. Seeing these typed letters from the late sixties, with their strikeovers and penned corrections, is now almost akin to examining the pulps themselves: an exercise in nostalgia and melancholy and joy.
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Zeno Has the Answers?
Is philosophy a science? It's a discipline, certainly, and much good SF has been written to examine philosophical questions, mainly in the areas of ontology and epistemology. Where would PKD be, for instance, if he couldn't play out his thought experiments on the nature of reality?
In any case, I probably shouldn't push too hard to label Paul Hornschemeier's The Three Paradoxes (Fantagraphics, hardcover, $14.95, 80 pages, ISBN 978-1-56097-653-0) as SF, since that's likely a betrayal of its real nature as autobiography. Still, it does deal in a genuine speculative manner with Zeno's famous three paradoxes involving motion and change, as exemplified in some lived-in historical moments from the life of its narrator.
We encounter young Chicago artist Paul as he's visiting his parents in his childhood town in Ohio. He struggles with a graphic novel story he's currently composing; he takes a walk with his father; he has flashbacks to his childhood; then he drives away when his visit is over, to meet a woman he's never before seen in the flesh. A simple enough arc, but one that becomes dense with interplay between memory and consciousness, illustrating the mutable nature of reality.
Hornschemeier's masterstroke in the telling of this tale involves his formalistic gameplaying. There are five modes or visual styles on display here, all superbly rendered. Predominant is the naturalistic mode that's used for the realtime parts, reminiscent a bit of Dan Clowes's work. Then there's the naked, cartoony pencils of the graphic novel in progress. There's some Dennis the Menace-style art for one flashback thread. There's a kind of early-sixties romance comic or EC comics look for another flashback. And finally, we travel back to the philosophers of ancient Greece via a kind of Peanuts blended with Classics Illustrated format.
These mixed media, so to speak, convey the varying levels of reality, which begin to bleed into one another, especially when the Dennis-type characters are seen in the background of a naturalistic panel. Such a formalistic achievement conveys thematic points in ways more subtle—and, paradoxically, more forceful—than most strictly textual material could.
As Jonathan Lethem says in his blurb for this neat book, there's no ultimate resolution of all these matters. But simply watching the heretofore hidden machinery of the cosmos and consciousness in action through one man's life is reward enough.
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Dark Companion
Another volume at hand is both autobiography and more than autobiography. In fact, with Dark Reflections (Carroll & Graf, trade paperback, $15.95, 295 pages, ISBN 978-0-78671-947-1), our old pal Samuel Delany, proving himself still an innovator after such a long and illustrious career, seems to have invented a new format entirely: call it “counterfactual autobiography” if you will.
What precisely do I mean by this?
Well, first consider counterfactual fiction, or uchronias, or alternate histories, as we commonly know them in the genre. They are thought experiments designed to highlight how subtle (or major) alterations in recorded consensus events can lead to strange and different and unexpected outcomes.
In this book, Delany has done a counterfactual run on his own life.
Here's a quick snapshot of the protagonist of Dark Reflections, Arnold Hawley: he's a gay black man, a poet, who teaches on the side. He lives in a book-cluttered, rent-controlled apartment in New York City. His aunt is a charismatic, educated figure in his life. He had a brief marriage to a young woman when he too was young, followed by a nervous breakdown. He's won an award or two, and has a good critical reputation, but his work is considered rather abstruse.
Wow, you think, that's pretty close to Delany's C.V. This is going to be a novelized version of Chip's actual autobiography, The Motion of Light in Water (1988). But you couldn't be more wrong.
For despite the surface affinities, Hawley is almost the anti-Delany. (He's the “dark reflection” of the author, although the multivalent title here also refers to one of Hawley's own books.) And his life's story, told in exquisite and aching detail, serves to illuminate both Delany's own career and vast sociocultural-political wavefronts.
Born five years prior to Delany, in 1937 versus 1942, Hawley is just older enough to be stuck in the binding mentality of the closeted gay man. And his natural temperament reinforces this isolation. Timid, fearful, full of misinformation, Hawley never embraces his sexuality. Instead, he buries his passion, deliberately killing it and sublimating it after some hasty, botched experiments.
And esthetically speaking, Hawley is no innovator like Delany. He's rather stodgy and traditional in his writing, his likes and dislikes, his literary heroes. But he does proudly embrace the African-American experience in American literature, and thus his stifled, less-than-ideal career will serve as a useful vessel for Delany's history of change in the field, how cultural attitudes have progressed over the latter half of the twentieth century and into the new one.
And although there is nothing overtly fantastical about this book, this very impulse of examining sociopolitical trends and paradigm shifts through representative characters is SF's core methodology.
But let me also be clear on this: the main thrust here is toward a portrait of Hawley and those in his sphere, and Delany does a superb job limning a writer's marginal life. One might think of Saul Bellow or Philip Roth or John Updike—if one didn't know that Delany himself has done this task ably time and again, only in more fantastical settings. Another fruitful comparison is John Crowley's The Translator (2002), which likewise evokes a vanished era.
Delany's writing retains its immaculate sheen when it comes to depicting action, texture, physical reality. Hawley might be a failed poet to some extent, in the world's eyes, but he still possesses a poet's sharp perceptions, and Delany crystallizes Hawley's vision for us with precise and robust language.
This book supplements Delany's previous assessments of contemporary society through a most unlikely messenger—one who comes fully alive even though he is living a buried life.
By the way: Carroll & Graf itself is now a dead imprint, abandoned in the wake of various corporate mergers. It would be a shame if Delany's book got lost in these maneuvers, and I suspect that this edition will soon be very collectible. For all those reasons and more, you need to grab a copy.
Copyright (c) 2007 by Paul Di Filippo
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* * *
Department: SF CONVENTIONAL CALENDAR
by Erwin S. Strauss
Winter is a great time for indoor weekends with other SF enthusiasts, especially in northern areas. Plan now for social weekends with your favorite SF authors, editors, artists, and fellow fans. For an explanation of con(vention)s, a sample of SF folksongs, and info on fanzines and clubs, send me an SASE (self-addressed, stamped #10 [business] envelope) at 10 Hill #22-L, Newark NJ 07102. The hot line is (973) 242-5999. If a machine answers (with a list of the week's cons), leave a message and I'll call back on my nickel. When writing cons, send an SASE. For free listings, tell me of your con 5 months out. Look for me at cons behind the Filthy Pierre badge, playing a musical keyboard.—Erwin S. Strauss
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JANUARY 2008
4-6—GAFilk. For info, write: 890-F Atlanta #150, Roswell GA 30075. Or phone: (973) 242-5999 (10 am to 10 pm, not collect). (Web) gafilk.org. (E-mail) [email protected]. Con will be held in: Atlanta GA (if city omitted, same as in address) at a venue to be announced. Guests will include: none announced. Filk (science fiction & fantasy folksinging).
18-20—ConFusion, Box 8284, Ann Arbor MI 48107. stilyagi.org. Marriott, Troy MI. Westerfeld, Larbalestier, Scalzi.
18-20—RustyCon. rustycon.com. Airport Radisson. General SF & fan
tasy convention.
18-20—MarsCon, 4618 Olde Stone Way, Chesapeake VA 23321. marscon.net. Williamsburg VA.
18-21—Arisia, Bldg. 600, #322, 1 Kendall Sq., Cambridge MA 02139. arisia.org. Cambridge MA. L. Gilman, Marrus.
25-27—VeriCon, HRSFA, 4 Univ. Hall, Cambridge MA 02138. vericon.org. Harvard Univ. Lois Lowry, S. November.
25-27—ConFlikt. www.conflikt.org. Renton WA. Steve MacDonald, Arlene (Callie) Hills. SF and fantasy folksinging.
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FEBRUARY 2008
1-3—COSine, c/o 1245 Allegheny Dr., Colorado Springs CO 80919. firstfridayfandom.org. M. Resnick. SF/Fantasy.
8-10—CapriCon, capricorn.org. Sheraton, Arlington Heights (Chicago) IL.
8-10—OwlCon. owlcon.com. Held at Rice University in Houston TX. For fans of gaming, fantasy and science fiction.
8-10—IkkiCon, Box 1641, Bastrop TX 78602. ikkicon.com. Austin TX. Japanese pop-culture and animation convention.
15-17—Boskone, Box 809, Framingham MA 01701. (617) 625-2311. boskone.org. Westin Waterfront, Boston MA. SF.
15-17—Farpoint, 11708 Troy Ct., Waldorf MD 20601. farpoint.com. Marriott, Hunt Valley (Baltimore) MD. Trek, etc.
15-17—VisionCon, Box 1415, Springfield MO 65801. (417) 886-7219. visioncon.net.
15-17—KatsuCon, Box 79, Clarksville MD 21029. katsucon.org. Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington DC. Anime/manga.
22-24—SheVaCon, Box 416, Verona VA 24482. shevacon.org. Holiday Inn Tanglewood, Roanoke VA. Joe Keener.
22-24—Con DFW, 750 S. Main #14, Keller TX 76248. www.condfw.org. Dallas TX. General SF & fantasy convention.
22-24—ConNooga. connooga.com. Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel, Chattanooga TN. A “multi-genre” convention.
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MARCH 2008
7-9—PortmeirCon, 871 Clover Dr., N. Wales PA 19454. portmeiricon.com. Portmeirion, UK. “The Prisoner” TV show.
14-16—LunaCon, Box 432, Bronx NY 10465. lunacon.org. Hilton, Rye NY (near NYC). Carey, Klukas, Siclari, Howlett.
14-16—StellarCon, Box F-4, EUC, c/o UNCG, Greensboro NC 27413. stellarcon.org. Radisson, High Point NC.
14-16—MillenniCon, 5818 Wilm. Pike #122, Centerville OH 45459. (513) 659-2558. millennicon.org. Cincinnati OH.
14-16—OmegaCon. omegacon.com. Birmingham AL. Ben Bova, Alan Dean Foster, David Drake, Stephen Brust.
14-16—RevelCon, c/o Box 130602, Houston TX 77219. severalunlimited.com/revelcon. Low-key relax-a-con.
20-23—NorwesCon, Box 68547, Seattle WA 98168. (206) 270-7850. norwescon.org. Seattle WA. D. Simmons, Ciruelo.
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AUGUST 2008
6-10—Denvention 3, Box 1349, Denver CO 80201. denvention3.org. Bujold, Sternbach, Whitmore. WorldCon. $130+.
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AUGUST 2009
6-10—Anticipation, CP 105, Montreal QE H4A 3P4. anticipationsf.ca. Gaiman, Hartwell, Doherty. WorldCon. US$150.
[Back to Table of Contents]
* * *
Department: NEXT ISSUE
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MARCH ISSUE
In our lead story for March, popular and prolific UK writer Brian Stableford returns to the near-future setting of stories like “Hot Blood” with another carefully plotted and chilling example of the possible effects advanced biotech might have on humanity. In “Following the Pharmers,” the biotech can be as subtle as a flower's perfume on the wind, yet still be insidiously harmful to humans exposed to the scent. It's an exciting and compulsively readable story, though we at Asimov's earnestly hope this kind of future remains wholly fictitious!
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ALSO IN MARCH
Marching on, we find Cat Rambo, prolific semi-prozine contributor and up-and-coming talent, making her Asimov's debut with a charming and funny tale about an intergalactic shopkeeper who finds all four of his hands full as “Kallakak's Cousins” descend upon his threatened livelihood; Elizabeth Bear joins us again with an unsettling Lovecraft-inspired tale called “Shoggoths in Bloom,” in which the words “stygian,” “Cyclopian,” and “shambling” are not used (we promise!); Ian Creasey plumbs the darker side of life when a loved one is lost for good in “This Is How It Feels"; Tom Purdom, whose “The Mists of Time” was one of our most popular stories with readers last year, returns with the exciting science-fiction adventure, complete with swashbuckling augmented humans, “Sepoy Fidelities"; Sue Burke,whose name ought to be familiar to fans of the poetry in Asimov's, makes her short fiction debut here with “Spiders,” a poetic and evocative tale of familial relationships on a recently colonized world; and Carol Emshwiller returns in an American gothic style, with a tale of strange nomadic beings somehow both human and inhuman and their search for a permanent home—a home that can be found only by “The Master of the Road to Nowhere"!
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OUR EXCITING FEATURES
In his"Reflections” column, Robert Silverberg trawls online flea-markets seeking peculiar “Space Junk for Sale"; James Patrick Kelly examines a mysterious sub-genre of SF called “Mundane” in On the Net; Peter Heck brings you “On Books"; plus an array of pleasant poetry by many of your favorite poets. Look for our March issue at your newsstand on January 29, 2008. Or you can subscribe to Asimov's—by mail or online, in varying formats, including downloadable forms, by going to our website, (www.asimovs.com)—and make sure that you don't miss any of the great stuff we have coming up!
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COMING SOON
brain-balming stories by Kate Wilhelm, Barry B. Longyear, Ian R. MacLeod, S.P. Somtow, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Neal Barrett, Jr., Kij Johnson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Nancy Kress, Steven Utley, Catherine Wells, Jack Skillingstead, Robert Reed, and many others!
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Visit www.dellmagazines.com for information on additional titles by this and other authors.
Asimov's SF, February 2008 Page 22