Life and Those Who Live it

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!

One of my relatives (I'll find out on Christmas Eve) gave me a subscription to Weird Tales and I'm enjoying reading it immensely so far.

This month they are celebrating the 200th birthday of Edgar Allen Poe. There are several articles from various authors about how Poe affected them growing up. Very interesting.

I was reading some of the stories on my breaks during work today, let me tell you. There are some things that should not be read while eating... Weird Tales is one of them! Not that I let that stop me. Let me see if I can give you a taste of what I mean without giving away any plot points. How about "gut-locked stony constipation on one side, and fluid Lovecraftian bowel-horrors on the other." (From Twisted by Kevin Veale). Ok... that one didn't gross me out as much as make me laugh out loud. But in my defense I was running on four hours of sleep. I haven't finished your story yet Mr. Veale, but I'm working on it! You keep up the good work. : )

Another Magazine I try to keep track of (but fail miserably at) is Fantasy Magazine. It is run by Cat Rambo, who also helps out and has fiction for Podcastle, Pseudopod, and Escapepod. Three of my favorite podcasts... Anyway. I just finished reading The Raccoon's Daughter by Nicole Kornher-Stace. And I loved it! The mood it created was wonderful and surreal. I also really love when people tell me stories. I really didn't want it to end. Please go check out her fiction! I know I can't wait to see more. It says in her info that she has a collection of poetry, and I can see how she could be a poetess. Her words flow smoothly, even if the story is set up like a journal.

Well, I should get back to the real world. Nice talking to you!
Amy

Horror

When I was little, I terrified at the idea of being scared.

One of my first memories of the horror genre is of Dad and I, home alone. It was raining, hard. Dad was watching a movie on Tv. I think, it was The Mummy. It involved, of course, an ancient Egyptian mummy coming back to life and trying to kill the living. I remember being so scared and trapped. I was scared of the darkness, scared of being alone, and scared of watching the movie. I cowered next to Dad the whole time.

Probably one of the scariest things for me about Horror is the lack of control you feel in the events as they occur. I now have an appreciation for Horror, so much so, that I wanted to create a creepy environment to heighten it's effect. To do this my friend Superdestructivesheep and I walked silently to a graveyard late at night, listening to music created in an asylum. We wore dark colors and hoods to hide from infrequent oncoming traffic. Then we sat under a aged twisted tree, and listened to a Pseudopod episode called "The Sons of Carbon County".

All in all, it was quite a good experience. My friend left at one point to get something from the house, and I was able to sit alone in a graveyard, late at night. It was a bit frightening, simply being alone and waiting in such an open but shadowed space. It was soothing to have the light of the moon shining on the bleached gravestones.

I would like to do this again someday, someday soon.

Great story

I was listening to a Call of Cthulhu RPG podcast last night. It was run by British people. Apparently they think that wintergreen is only for rubbing on sore spots, that root beer is gross. and that we don't use the word jelly. It's so funny how we have these little stereotypes for each other. I wonder if their readers set them right..

Call of Cthulhu

I was listening to a Cthulhu podcast today, and I learned that there is a role playing game called "Call of Cthulhu" (I'm not posting links today, I'm on a different computer). It sounds really interesting.

It is quite different than Dungeons and Dragons. You play a regular person who discovers that something is not quite right in the world. Then you must try to stop the world from coming to an end. You might win or you might lose, but hopefully what will really happen is that you will be drawn into the story playing out before you and feel real, strong emotions. I'm intrigued by this, and I really would like to try to play it.

My brother recently played a game very similar to this with a friend and he told me about it. It has cards to pick out the character you play and the monster you must defeat. It was really more of a complicated board game. My brother said he didn't really get into the story the way the creator of the Call of Cthulhu described in the podcast. I would like to try this game too, but we'll see how the rest of this summer goes.

Feminist Science Fiction?

I'm a member of a feminist science fiction book club online.

You can find it here.

Last month we read "The Female Man" by Joanna Russ. It was quite different from any other science fiction book I have ever read. I considered it preachy. But it was written in the mid-seventies and the world was changing quickly. Women were entering the work place more and more.

I had trouble relating to some aspects of the book, I don't think I have as much life experience in many ways. I have not had many jobs yet, I have not dated many people. Thinking about it now I can see times where perhaps being a woman holds me back. Traveling in Peru, for example. I did not feel comfortable traveling alone. I wish I had.

This month's book is "Woman on the Edge of Time" by Marge Piercy. It's about a Chicana woman in New York. She ends up in an asylum. I'm not really sure how it's science fiction yet. But I'm sure it will become obvious soon.

Dr Who!

Doctor Who has become a favorite of mine. I started watching episodes late at night on PBS, and was absolutely amazed at how much I cared about the people in the story. My brother and I are watching season one of the new series, and we are loving it! Yes, the aliens are pretty hokey looking. But I really find myself excited and scared at some parts.

Freemartin

I've just started reading Brave New World for the, well probably the sixth time. And came across the term "Free Martin" wikipedia defines "Free Martin" as: an infertile female mammal which has masculinized behavior and non-functioning ovaries. Genetically and externally the animal in female, but it is sterilized in the womb by hormones from a twin male, becoming an inertial partial intersex. Freemartinism is the normal outcome of mixed-sex twins in all cattle species that have been studied, and it also occurs occasionally in other mammals including sheep, goats and pigs.

Interesting that this should be such an important part of Huxley's world in this book. It doesn't occur in human females. Or at least not as often as cattle.

For you C.S. Lewis Fans Out There

I read an interesting article in Dark Fantasy today. There is a man called George MacDonald, who I have never heard of, but am now quite curious about.

I'm not sure that the author talking about his own faith was really necessary. Faith is such a personal thing. Also, Mr. Lee did not differentiate between predestination--God destined certain people for heaven. And double predestination--God predestined some people for heaven and some people for hell. (No offense, but there is a difference, even if it doesn't seem to make sense).

On the other hand, this article has made me very curious about George MacDonald. I now am hoping that I can find some of his works to look at.

I especially like this paragraph: But here is the difference between MacDonald and Grimm: when boys and girls go into Grimm’s woods, they emerge victorious over some monster, terrified into some life lesson, or they do not emerge at all. When they go into MacDonald’s woods, they come out the other side gentler, stronger men and women.

I hope as I journey through life, I will find myself becoming a gentler but stronger person.

I just realized that MacDonald wrote The Princess and the Goblin. Huh, that is a classic.

I've just reserved Lilith and Phantasies from the library, and hopefully it will come in soon. Not that I don't have other books to read.

First Post

Tonight I was listening to Escapepod trying to sleep, and I realized just how much I love science fiction. This story (All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein) is a piece of classic American fiction. The first book I read by Heinlein was Have Spacesuit Will Travel followed by Red Planet which I have read several times, and still enjoy to this day.

This is the first entry of The Milwaukee Science Fiction Book club.

We will be reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. He seems to be a fairly Prolific author, but this is his best none work. I wonder if he would be happy about it?

Please comment if you are interested in joining the book club online or in person. Also, tell me what you think of "All You Zombies"