Demon Theory

S T E P H E N G R A H A M J O N E S

Aliens and Hamsters and Pianos

July 4th, 2009 Stephen

Which is to say, three new stories, “Piano Theif” and “Because My Therapist Asked Me to Tell a Story Using Hamsters,” each over at the July Hobart, and “Close Encounters,” up now at 365 Tomorrows. Also, “Endless Buffets” is in the current Western Humanities Review. And, hitting the shelves at Readercon in a week here, in New Genre 6, “Lonegan’s Luck,” a zombie western — or, a western with zombies. Too, though it’s still a ways away, I’ve got a horror story, “Till the Morning Comes,” to be included in Rare and Different Fictions of the Grateful Dead, and then a science fiction piece, “Heaven,” forthcoming in, of all places, English Language Notes, their “Literature and Pseudoscience” issue. I dig both those stories. In addition, I’m guessing that “Little Lambs” is either current or a day or two away from being current in Iron Horse — “Little Lambs” being one of my favorite stories that I’ve written. Another of my favorites, the title piece from my October 2010 Prime collection The Ones That Almost Got Away (well, cut the ‘almost’ and it’s the title story), it’s in Phantom, from Prime Books (though that site’s being rebuilt right now). Not sure about how available that is yet, though; I have it already, but, I don’t know, maybe I got special treatment there or something. Notice at Prime, though, that Sean Wallace acquired an Ellen Datlow collection. Very excited about this. Too, that “Raphael” story of mine, it’s in Prime’s Horror: the Best of the Year.

And and: Readercon. I’m there, in Boston. My panel’s Friday night at 9:30, looks like, “Exceptions to the Rule,” I think, right before the “Meet the Pro(se)” event, leaving me all day Saturday to hit panels, then Sunday to hit the Shirley Jackson Awards, see how bad I got beat (which, I read all the books in my weight class there, and, yeah, impressed, though of course none of them had giant time-travelling caterpillars, which I consider a prereq for just a lot of things, when you get right down to it).

Too, the studious among you may have noticed: with that ELN story publication, I’ve now got a story in a journal covering every letter of the alphabet. Even Q and X and Z (Quarterly West, X-Connect, Zygote in my Coffee). Haven’t run the letters, either, but I’d guess I’ve got stories published beginning with all the letters too (even Z: “Zombie Sharks with Metal Teeth”). So, I don’t know, maybe now’s the time to go cyrillic, see if I can jam through that character set as well.

Anyway, on the non-story front, I’ve got an essay in a forthcoming photographic book on the Llano Estacado, but, while all the funding’s in place, the four or five other writers tapped, I think the title may still be tentative, so I’ll wait to announce it all the way, along with another anthology thing happening.

And, reading-wise, I can only remember about a week and a half back, but in that time I’ve burned through all but about forty pages of the Twilight books. Reading them at stoplights, in line at the bank, everywhere; pretty hooked. Soon as they’re put away, though, it’s on to Lansdale’s Vanilla Ride and CJ Box’s Below Zero. Very excited about each of them (too, got CJ Box, at a reading at Tattered Cover the other day, to sign my book “To the President of the Miller’s Weasel Fan Club.” which’ll mean something to Box fans). Also have all these big plans for Let the Right One In, which I’ve had sitting by my monitor now for a while. However, it either just went Kindle or I’m just noticing it having went Kindle, so, yeah: I can finally get at it. Happiness^*.

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* ( which song, it only brings me back to Alias days. Probably the most fun I’ve ever had watching television, save Arrested Development. and Firefly. and X-Files. Sledgehammer. STNG )

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Three Stories, One Interview

June 3rd, 2009 Stephen

First story, “Monsters,” with Niteblade. A nice little ‘What I did this summer’-story. Or, ‘What I did this summer and who-all died,’ kind of, I suppose.

Second story, in the “Broken Clocks” issue of ColoredChalk, “Good Times.” It goes maybe three hunrdred words? Not even that, likely. Things take a pretty sharp turn down some hill, though. One nobody should ever really ever even look down.

Third story, “Rendezvous with Sula Prime” (yep, I’ve read a lot of Clarke), at the brand-new shiny happy Trailer Park Quarterly.

And, the interview, at the Shirley Jackson Awards Blog, here. A three-question trick (for which I should have answered “blue” for one of them, I know).

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— trailer park quarterly — niteblade — colored chalk —

We Have Always Wanted to Live in that Castle

April 15th, 2009 Stephen

Looks like The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti’s up for a NDg Shirley Jackson award (!, yep). Here’s the field:

NOVELLA

Disquiet, Julia Leigh, (Penguin/ Hamish Hamilton)
“Dormitory,” Yoko Ogawa (The Diving Pool, Picador)
Living With the Dead, Darrell Schweitzer (PS Publishing)
The Long Trial of Nolan Dugatti, Stephen Graham Jones (Chiasmus Press)
“N,” Stephen King, (Just After Sunset, Scribner)

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Me and My Ansible

April 11th, 2009 Stephen

My take on the Kindle2, over at Slushpile. Click here to get there.

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List of stories out there in the world

April 7th, 2009 Stephen

Trying to get them somewhat organized — keep finding mags &etc stuffed in shelves, that I’ve forgotten I was in, and never much bothered to write down. So, if you have any to add, please do. And, apologies in advance for the essential wrongness of print and on-line pubs being in different lists here. It’s laziness, pretty much; to wedge the link into the ‘citation’ or whatever that is, it changes the format, jacks with the next line, so it was easier to segregate. To put them the zines on reservations, yeah. Feeling eviler and eviler here. May have to find a way to fix this. Except: that’s a lot of retyping numbers. As for why I’m even messing with this, too: want to see what letters of the alphabet I’m still missing. And I don’t have stories that have shown up (or are about to) in anthologies¹ or textbooks listed here. And I may even (this is a lie) try to keep this list updated. Anyway, in a fake attempt to not be so evil, I’ll at least put the zines up front, here:

e-pubs:
1) “Abducted,” Fiction Attic 18, Fall 2005,
HTTP://MICHELLERICHMOND.COM/FICTIONATTIC/?P=44

2) “The Ballad of Tad and Kim Rodgers,” Zygote in My Coffee 50, October 2005,
HTTP://WWW.ZYGOTEINMYCOFFEE.COM/ISSUE50THEBALLADOFTADAND.HTML

3) “Bestiary,” Word Riot, Spring 2006,
HTTP://WWW.WORDRIOT.ORG/TEMPLATE.PHP?ID=701

4) “Captain’s Lament,” Clarkesworld, February 2008
HTTP://WWW.CLARKESWORLDMAGAZINE.COM/

5) “Cops & Robbers,” Mississippi Review: “High Pulp,” 11.1, Spring 2005,
HTTP://MISSISSIPPIREVIEW.COM/2005/VOL11NO1-JAN05/1101-010805-JONES.HTML

6) “Episode 43: Incest,” Taint 2.13, March 2003,
HTTP://TAINTMAGAZINE.COM/INDEX.PHP?WORK_ID=205

7) “Exodus,” 5_trope 16, June 2003,
HTTP://WEBDELSOL.COM/5_TROPE/16/JONES.HTM

8) “The Fatherland is Rich and Varied,” The Bare Root Review 5, Fall 2007,
HTTP://WWW.SOUTHWESTMSU.EDU/CAMPUSLIFE/BAREROOTREVIEW/5JONES.HTM

9) “Hemingway Hills in the Afternoon,” Pindeldboz, Fall 2002,
HTTP://WWW.PINDELDYBOZ.COM/SJHILLS.HTM

10) “How Billy Hanson Destroyed the Planet Earth, and Everyone on It,” Juked
HTTP://JUKED.COM/2009/04/BILLYHANSON.ASP

11) “The Man Who Would Cross Time,” Juked, March 2006,
HTTP://JUKED.COM/2006/03/CROSSTIME.ASP

12) “The Meat Tree,” Dogmatika, Spring 2006,
HTTP://DOGMATIKA.COM/DM/WRITING_MORE.PHP?ID=1233_0_7_200_M

13) “My Hero,” Taint 2.20, July 2003,
HTTP://TAINTMAGAZINE.COM/INDEX.PHP?WORK_ID=236

14) “The Prisoner at 36,” Convergence Winter 2005,
HTTP://WWW.CONVERGENCE-JOURNAL.COM/WINTER05/FICTION_PRISONER.HTML

15) “So Perfect,” Grok, Winter 2008
HTTP://ALERTNERD.COM/BLOG/WP-CONTENT/UPLOADS/2008/12/GROK_WINTER08.PDF

16) “Rendezvous with Sula Prime,” Trailer Park Quarterly 1
FORTHCOMING, THEIR DEBUT ISSUE

17) “These Amber Waves of Grain,” Colored Chalk 5, November 2008,
HTTP://COLOREDCHALK.COM/MODULES/SMARTSECTION/ITEM.PHP?ITEMID=107

18) “The Wallace Maneuver,” Xconnect, Fall 2003,
HTTP://CCAT.SAS.UPENN.EDU/XCONNECT/V6/I3/G/JONES.HTML

19) “Zombie Sharks with Metal Teeth,” Juked, September 2005,
HTTP://JUKED.COM/2005/09/ZOMBIESHARKS.ASP

And yeah, in a perfecter world, those URLs would be hot, and I’d even have some thumbnail covers to go along with some of these mags. But it’s all I can do to keep the numbering half-straight; no clue how I’m supposed to figure out which letters are missing, though I am keeping to alphabetical, I think (hope). and now for the rest:

Read more… or Read more right here… »

print:
1) “Adultery: A Failing Sestina,” special issue: “One Blood: The Narrative Impulse,” Alaska Quarterly Review, 2000
2) “After Eveline,” Abiko Quarterly Review, Spring 2000
3) “Amateur Hour,” Rejected Quarterly 3.1, Summer 2002
4) “Amateur Hour,” River City 22.2, Summer 2002
5) “Bestiary,” Yellow Medicine Review 1.1
6) “Bile,” Open City 14, Winter 2001-2002
7) “The Calorie Doctor,” Sleeping Fish 0.875, Summer 2006
8) “Captivity Narrative 109,” South Carolina Review 36.2, Spring 2004
9) “Carbon,” Blood & Aphorisms 25, Winter 1997
10) “The Calorie Doctor,” Sleeping Fish 0.875, Spring 2006
11) “Cars,” Meridian 9, Spring/Summer 2002
12) “Ceramic Buddha, Stone Angel,” Seattle Review 22.1, 2000
13) “Code,” Grasslimb 5.2, Fall 2007
14) “The Complete Absence of Cats is Another Definition for Silence,” Literal Latte 8.1, Summer 2002
15) “The Complete Absence of Cats is Another Definition for Silence,” ONTHEBUS 19/20, 2005
16) “Conquistadors,” Studies in American Indian Literature 14.4, Winter 2002
17) “The Decomposition of a Conversation,” Vincent Brothers Review 20, 8.1, 2002
18) “Deer,” New Texas: A Journal of the Literature and Arts, ed. Laura Payne Butler, Ian Peddie, and Jerry Craven, 2005
19) “do(this),” Asimov’s, December 2007
20) “Domestic Man,” Southern Hum, September 2005
20b) “Endless Buffets,” Western Humanities Review (forthcoming)
21) “Every Night Was Halloween,” The Journal 27.2, Autumn/Winter 2003
22) “Fabergé,” Third Coast 20, Fall 2005
23) “Father, Son, Holy Rabbit,” Cemetery Dance 57, Spring 2007
24) “The Fear of Jumping,” Controlled Burn 10, Winter 2004
25) “Filius Nervosa,” Gulf Coast 14.2, Summer/Fall 2002
26) “For Darius,” Phoebe: A Journal of Literary Arts 51, Winter 1997
27) “Fresh Cut,” Minnesota Review 61-61, Fall 2004
28) “The Great Escape,” Sulphur Springs Literary Review 19.2, Fall 2003
29) “Hatchery,” New Texas: A Journal of the Literature and Arts, ed. Laura Payne Butler, Ian Peddie, and Jerry Craven, 2005
30) “Hell on the Homefront Too,” Cemetery Dance 58, Spring 2008
31) “Jumpers,” Fresh Boiled Peanuts 2, Spring 2006
32) “Lakeside,” Georgetown Review 5.1, Spring 1997
33) “Last Success,” Cutbank 48, Fall 1997
34) “Little Lambs,” Iron Horse (forthcoming)
35) “Lonegan’s Luck,” New Genre 6 (forthcoming very soon here)
36) “The Many Stages of Grief,” The Styles 3, Summer 2002
37) “Marriage is a Fable in Two Parts,” Rainbow Curve 2, Fall 2002
38) “Matinee: A Love Affair,” New Orleans Review 27.2 Fall/Winter 2001
39) “The Many Stages of Grief,” The Styles [can’t find mine right now, to see the when]
40) “The Minotaur at the End of Love,” Iconoclast 72, Summer 2002
41) “The Mourners,” Fourth River 4, August 2007
42) “My Hometown,” Southeast Review 23.1, Winter 2004
43) “Nobody Knows This,” Bordersenses 6, 2003
44) “The Nature of Man,” South Carolina Review 35.2, Spring 2003
45) “Paleogenesis, Circa 1970,” Black Warrior Review 22.1, Fall 1996
46) “The Parable of the Gun,” Clackamas Literary Review vol.11, Fall 2007
47) “Pistil, Stamen, Bloom,” Kaleidotrope 3, October 2007
48) “Raphael,” Cemetery Dance 55, Fall 2006
49) “The Sadness of Two People Meeting in a Bar,” Red Rock Review (forthcoming? think it’s the second time this has happened to this one²)
50) “The Scenic Wonders of America,” Beloit Fiction Journal 14 , Spring 2001
51) “Screentime,” Sundog 19.2, Spring 2000
52) “The Sons of Billy Clay,” Doorways Magazine 4, January 2008
53) “Southern Gothic,” Big Muddy 2.2, Fall 2002
54) “The Talk,” Yellow Medicine Review 1.1
55) “Teeth,” Brutarian 44, Spring 2005
56) “This is Not What I Meant,” Bust Down the Door and Eat All The Chickens 6, Fall 2007 “Time,” New Texas: A Journal of the Literature and Arts, ed. Laura Payne Butler, Ian Peddie, and Jerry Craven, 2005
57) “To Run Without Falling,” Pleiades 23.2, Spring 2003
58) “Twenty-Odd Seconds,” Concho River Review 13.2, Spring 2000
59) “The Vanity of Open Spaces,” Arts & Letters 17, Spring 2007
60) “True Love,” Fourth River 4, August 2007
61) “Venison,” South Dakota Review 38.1: Native American Writers 2000, Spring 2000
62) “Zombie Sharks with Metal Teeth,” Juked 4, Fall 2006

Then there’s also these little stories, which have run as poems — or, in poetry sections/mags, anyway:

1) “Animals I’ve Known,” Passages North, Winter 2008
2) “Green Pants,” American Literary Review 13.2, Fall 2002
3) “Hansom Is,” 32 poems 1.2, Fall 2003 (yeah, 32 Poems rocks)
4) “Lunch,” 32 Poems 4.2, Fall/Winter 2006
5) “States of Grace,” Quarterly West 53, Fall/Winter 2001-2002
6) “’Tis the Season,” Passages North, Winter 2008³

And, no juice left anymore here, to italicize what-all needs the slant in these lists, sorry. Feel kind of like a hypcrite, I mean, not doing that, like what everybody says about the web lowering standards is coming true. But I am using full words in here, anyway. And no emoticons. Never any emoticon. And, I plan on clicking on this soon here, seeing what letters are missing.
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1. never too tired for footnotes though, yeah? anyway, of these, I’d especially try to direct you to “The Ones That Got Away,” in Phantom, out soon from Prime (maybe already?), edited by none other than Paul Tremblay. And, the reason for me to direct you there: it’s one of the stories I still like, even a year after I wrote it. One of the very, very few. For reference, that “Carbon” story from Bleed Into Me‘d be another.

2. had I kept track, I could probably get a fifteen-item or so list of mags that have accepted and then blipped off the radar (talking to you, Flyway), but I’d have to dig through lots of old stuff for that, and most of them (except Flyway) haven’t blipped back, so it wouldn’t help anybody. And, only reason I’m remembering Flyway is that I had to draw an author self-portrait, which took longer than it should have, me having only words, not lines. But surely they’re cool now. And, I used to have more e-pubs too, but lots of those links turned up dead, so those stories are goneville. Can’t even find them on my hard-drive anymore. So it goes.

3. so, not counting anthologies and reprints and ‘incunabula’ (love that word; sounds like an incubus’s bad news cousin) &etc, the count’s eighty-eight (eighty-seven, not counting Red Rocks, and, my math’s not bad, it’s that there’s a “20b” in there, that came in at the last minute). Not nearly good enough, private. Drop and give me twelve.

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Juked

April 1st, 2009 Stephen

Got a new story up over there, “How Billy Hansen Destroyed the Planet Earth, and Everyone on It.” A happy little piece. Only six or seven billion people die, I mean.

So, click here to get there.

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Harry Warden for President

February 13th, 2009 Stephen

My write-up for My Bloody Valentine’s finally up. Links to a couple of other reviews in the post below this. Hitting Friday the 13th today, in Chicago. Even brought my mask.

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February Updater

February 8th, 2009 Stephen

– my AWP Chicago events this week (two readings, one panel, a meet-up*, one screening**) :

Wednesday the 11th, 6:00, Chiasmus Press Reading and Party , Barbara’s Bookstore, 1218 South Halsted Street; no clue what I’ll read, but likely something from Dugatti

Thursday the 12th, 7:00, FC2 Reading and Reception, Curtiss Hall, 10th floor of the Fine Arts Building, 410 S. Michigan Avenue; who knows what I’ll read there

Friday, 12:00 - 1:15, Lake Erie 8th Floor, F142 ( I trust all this will mean something once I’m there), a panel: Digi-Analog: Bringing Together Print, Online, and Alternative Delivery Methods for Literary Journals.

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* that meetup being with all the Velvet people who show up
** that screening being, of course, Friday the 13th, which, talking about:

– look for a follow-up to that “State of the Slasher Address*” from a few months ago, this one being the write-up I did the night I saw My Bloody Valentine. Trumpets sounded, gates opened, some cool dude in the corner nodded yeah. The title I had on it’s “We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby.” Maybe it’ll be the same. Anyway, hopefully more Friday morning, provided I remember to lug a laptop with me, or can bum one.

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* not that there aren’t already excellent write ups out there, and a lot faster: Mike Bracken and Vince Liaguno’s, to be specific. But there can never be enough good word when the word’s slashers.

Read more… or Read more right here… »

–be aware:

Brian Evenson’s Last Days is upon us. If how a person might scribble* in the back’s any indication, then, yeah: it’s something excellent.

Kris Saknussem’s Private Midnight** looms.

Paul G. Tremblay’s The Little Sleep’s leaning our way as well.***

And, talking two days after that release, Joe. R. Lansdale’s Vanilla Ride.

Red is on DVD now: get thee to a video store. still bummed not to have caught it big-screen style.

Pygmy (was going to say ‘looms’ again, but I don’t think that fits with ‘pygmy,’ really. ’sidles?’)

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*this being one of I-don’t-know-how-many pages I filled. A story, yeah. Like always. Have to write upside down to the text when I do this because it always spills onto the last pages, and, as you can tell, my handwriting’s so good I could get confused, not know which words where whose.
** which, yeah, I’ve hit it too, and it’s so excellent, so cool, so not what anybody’s seen before.
*** got the galley of that too (’too’ meaning the Evenson; I didn’t have the galley for Private Midnight). And, talking Tremblay, he rightfully beat me (and others) out in Darkscribe’s Black Quill Awards.

–that chapter I wrote for Texas Monthly’s Texquisite Corpse “Twin Wells” novel, the audio for the whole thing’s up now, here. I didn’t want to make it easy for Elmer Kelton, I mean, c’mon.

– that zombie western I was talking about forever ago, “Lonegan’s Luck,” it’s up in the next New Genre, #6, available at the very least by ReaderCon.

– one of my favorite pieces I’ve ever accidentally written, “Little Lambs,” will be up soon in Iron Horse Literary Review, along with a self-interview involving aliens, dogs, and I forget what-all.*

– really seems like I have one or two more recent acceptances, but I’m so terrible about keeping track of things until somebody puts something in my mail- or inbox. so, apologies to which magazine I’m forgetting here.

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* was going to link it, but it looks they haven’t updated their site in a while. New fiction editor, though: Lee Martin (I think — my latest issue’s up in my office)

–and, talking links you just can’t do without, I know:

Christopher Moore’s in Boulder on the 20th here, at Boulder Bookstore, promoting Fool. Very excited (still sucks I had to miss Gaiman). Just coming back from Providence then, a mystery panel I’m doing at Brown U. Guaranteed fun, though. Well, Moore, anyway. Can’t say anything for myself. I’ll likely end up trying to steer the conversation to werewolves, the latest Lycans installment (forget the vampires), or who knows.

I’m just discovering Talks@Google.* Some wonderful stuff there. So far’ve only hit the Junot Diaz, but I predict hours of viewing.**

Dan Butterworth’s got a hilarious poem up, here

and, talking Facebook, yep, I couldn’t help it, had to do that 25 Random Things list. Kept saying no, but then finally wrote it on the back of a receipt while I was, I don’t know, running from a pack of koalas or something. Mean, uncuddly ones.

who I’m listening to a lot lately, aside from David Bowie and Shooter Jennings and Christopher O’Riley: Slim Cessna Auto Club. Thanks to Benjamin Whitmer for that/them, of soon-to-be-Pike fame.

FML (being a family-friendly blog here, nevermind all the horror, you’ll have to click to get to the fun)

OverHeardEverywhere (I’m thinking there’s no real cap on how long I can spend here)

Married to the Sea

some crazy stuff going on here

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Like chocolate and peanut butter

Land of the Lost’s getting a reboot? (apparently I’d know this if I’d watched the Superbowl). Anyway, hopefully this means there’ll be more Sleestak swag around. I’ve bought a lot over the past few years, but none of it so far’s been cool enough to keep, really.

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* thanks for most of these links to: Christopher David Rosales, Trevino Brings Plenty, Matthew J. Purdy
** if I haven’t said it yet, either, no book’s deserved the Pulitzer so much as The Brief Wondrous Journey of Oscar Wao lately. And I still think Virgin Suicides and Love Medicine and American Psycho got robbed, should have won the world. But I’m trying not to talk about that so much anymore. And yes, The Road, The Road, okay, it deserved it too.

Aside from all that, just pounding away on the new novel — hundred and twenty or so pages in, since January 13th — and trying to figure a way to get to Coraline, and to steal enough time to burn through Sean Carswell’s Train Wreck Girl, which I’ve been meaning to do forever now, and to nab The Wrestler soundtrack, which has got to be the best soundtrack ever. except maybe for Footloose. because, I mean, Footloose’s had Quiet Riot and Bonnie Tyler.¹

overout,
stephen

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1. yeah, this is more a Bandits song. any excuse to link it, though. and, while I’m here and not being on-point, I highly suggest the complete Avatar series (that is, 1, 2, 3). best animated series I’ve caught since Starblazers, I think (though I did really dig that Mtv Spider-Man, incomplete as it was. The Maxx as well. [ and no, in that Starblazers clip: ask not what the arrows on their costumes are pointing to; if you poke that kind of fun, they point to you] ) .

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Despereaux

January 1st, 2009 Stephen

Ninety-nine percent of the time, I’m a fool for an animated feature film. Cars, Wall*E, Bolt. Monsters, Inc, the Shreks, the Toy Storys. Flushed Away, Ratatouillie. Anxiously awaiting Aliens vs. Monsters. Have never quite gotten all the way over the brilliance of Hoodwinked. So, yeah, was expecting The Tale of Despereaux to be another sure thing. I mean, just look at the starpower: Sigourney Weaver, Dustin Hoffman, Matthew Broderick, Tracy Ullman, Emma Watson. Even Kevin Kline. This is more talent than the Princess Mononoke dub, maybe.

However.

Not to say anything negative about the animation, it’s maybe the best I’ve seen, and all those actors on voice, they’re of course doing everything perfect. Early on, though, you can tell something’s wrong — usually animated movies have their stories gone over a lot more thoroughly. In Despereaux, the catalyst — [spoilers abound] that pirate-rat falling into the soup — it doesn’t even feed into the title character’s development arc. That seems kind of unforgivable. And then, this being a children’s movie and all (yes?), there’s just a conglomeration of narrative levels (denoted by animation), flashback, and subplot that finally only serve to diffuse any narrative impetus that catalyst is supposed to have given us. Granted, there’s reconciliation, there’s redemption, there’s surprise, there’s touches of humor and the necessary action sequences, there’s cuteness, but finally, maybe halfway into it, you realize, like I did, that you’re watching a novel pasted up onto the screen, not something originally conceptualized as a movie. Which is to say Despereaux’s making that big mistake you don’t see so much in anymore, at the very market-driven box-office: staying too loyal to the source material. Which, judging by what’s on screen, is likely very excellent. The Tale of Despereaux would seem to be an excellent novel. As a movie, though, it fails, even with Sigourney Weaver as our voiced-over Deckard, trying to keep the story on-track.

As to how to fix it, in some perfect world? I’d say we need a lot straighter line drawn between the good and the bad here. As-is, the person in the Cruella De Vil roll is the King, who’s so suffering from grief that the ‘bad thing’ he does is instantly excused away, kind of making the rest of the quest just the usual paces (nevermind that the king never ‘learns his lesson’). And the princess in her tower, she doesn’t even have a love interest, does she? I mean, unless you count Despereaux the mouse, but not only is he a mouse, but he’s a good deal younger than her too. I don’t know. We don’t ever even get the pirate-rat who started all this teaming up with Despereaux to, against every single odd, save this kingdom. And, by ’save,’ I mean, return them to their soup. Which I think kind of goes hand-in-hand with the the bad guy not being bad enough: soup’s that vital? It’s not a dragon raining down fire in the streets, anyway. But, I guess soup or the lack therof’s in keeping with the very low-key, muted approach in Despereaux, where everything turns on human nature, on understandable responses (which plays wonderfully, say, in a Kieslowski film), on unintended consquences, rather than the loud flashy easy-to-get stuff we’re used to from our animated fare.

Is this the animated movie growing up, though, trying to inhabit, in some American way, the Miyazaki landscape? I don’t think so, no. I think it’s just a broken movie, which, judging by how uncrowded the theatre was when I saw it, the audience is kind of cued into as well.

And, as for the Neo-meets-Dumbo ending, I honestly can’t even guess. The title character trying to fly into some other movie? Kind of wished I’d just gone to the gumball shower silliness of Bedtime Stories, really.

But there’s always Aliens vs. Monsters somewhere in the future, here. A premise like that, I don’t know how it can go wrong.

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— the tale of despereaux —

Books: the 2008 installment

December 31st, 2008 Stephen

Accidentally cribbed a little list down last night, of books I’d somehow, embarassingly, to my own detriment, not got around to reading in 2008. No excuses, really. I mean, as usual, I read just a whole tower of novels, but I couldn’t even start to say how many or what they were. Had never considered keeping track, really. Though it could be cool, except then I’d probably figure some way to make it a schedule, a chore, reading, and that’s not at all what it’s about. It’s a place you find to hide, a touchstone that’s always there; a doorway, like everybody says.

And, so, though I hope to remedy this in the by-and-by, here’s the doors I already regret not having opened this year:

Let the Right One In, John Ajvide Lindqvist and Ebba Segerberg (I suck, yes)
Leather Maiden, my hero Joe R. Lansdale (this confirms it)
2066, Roberto Bolano (I haven’t even hit The Savage Detectives, I mean; good grief)
The Love Song of Monkey, Michael S. A. Graziano (my guess is that too many people haven’t read this yet)
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (think I gave this twice as a gift just now, too)
Burial of the Dead, Michael Hogan (a blurb from Clevenger even, which means it’s some serious writing)
Anathem, Neal Stephenson (I even went and saw him)
Just After Sunset, Stephen King (though I did fondle it a few times, and continue to)
The Plague of Doves, Louise Erdrich (some days, she’s my all-time favorite-ever writer)
BASS 2008, Rushdie (though, lately, I always wait until January to read the new one, as I assign it for workshop, and want to discover the stories with my students)

I could also add old ones I’m still behind on, I suppose, some of which are now on my Spring syllabus: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; Martin Dressler; The Mysteries of Pittsburgh; Midnight’s Children (yes); J.R.; The Zombie Survival Guide (in spite of how much I dug WWZ); What is the What; A Prayer for Owen Meany; any China Mieville.

2009 holds a couple I’m very much looking forward to, too: Vanilla Ride, from the always-excellent Joe R. Lansdale, and Three Weeks to Say Goodbye, from CJ Box, a writer I’ll follow into the woods just over and over. Too, there’s Paul Tremblay’s teasingly-delayed The Harlequin & the Train, hopefully. It’s very, very cool (he’ll also have The Little Sleep, which Lansdale’s blurbed). Oh, and yeah, I’m there for The Solomon Key as well, should it surface. And Godspeed. Definitely Godspeed.

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— 2008 novels —