Blog Archives
sSuperversive Press is here, and for their first offering they serve up a bit of short dystopian fiction for your edification. Who is the author lampooning: Soviet Russia or the Pacific Northwest…? And what is the titular “product”? Is it pulp fantasy or vintage role-playing games? (Oh come on, you know it could have been!) […]
SUPERVERSIVE ROUNDTABLE: Do Conservatives and Liberals write Sci Fi differently?
Sunday , 16, October 2016 Superversive 1 CommentIt’s a big, rambling conversation that touches on decades worth of film, comics, fiction, and politics that you won’t want to miss! And if you were hoping for a good, hard and fast answer to this… well… this isn’t it. Several points about this question can be accounted for as a function of genre binning, […]
SUPERVERSIVE Review: The Peripheral by William Gibson
Tuesday , 11, October 2016 Superversive, Uncategorized 3 CommentsThe problem with cyberpunk is that it generated a handful of wonderful, iconic works and then as far as I can tell, it just sort of disappeared. On one hand, I think we left behind the context that birthed it pretty drastically in the 1990s. On the other hand, as I understand it, both William […]
SUPERVERSIVE: A Superversive Theory of Violence
Tuesday , 27, September 2016 Superversive 11 CommentsI’ve been trying to show my niece one of my favorite childhood films for some time now; probably a year or two. But I guess kids are pretty opinionated, want to watch what they know, and are sometimes a little obnoxious when they’re not being endearing. It was a war. She wanted to watch Star Wars […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Unlikely Bastions of Superversion
Tuesday , 20, September 2016 Computer Games, Games, Superversive, Uncategorized 14 CommentsThe first and only video game I ever got in trouble for playing was Squaresoft’s Chrono Trigger. You see, early on in the game, there’s a chapel in the woods that has been taken over by monsters, and in order to keep the charade up and hide their dastardly deeds, several snake-women disguise themselves as […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Blue Remembered Earth by Alastair Reynolds
Tuesday , 13, September 2016 Superversive 1 CommentI’m just gonna come out and say it: I was doomed to have a complicated relationship with Blue Remembered Earth from the get go. Africa has never been a continent to hold much fascination for me, for whatever reason; but I have, by the same token, known so many warm, humorous, and friendly African folks […]
SUPERVERSIVE Review: “The Old Man and the Wasteland”, by Nick Cole
Tuesday , 6, September 2016 Book Review, Superversive 9 CommentsLet me get my big criticism out of the way first. The problem with the book is that, minus a slightly more positive ending, the book is EXACTLY the same as “The Old Man and the Sea” updated to a post-apocalyptic setting. It doesn’t even pretend not to be, which is admirable…but if we’re criticizing Scalzi […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Even “Rick and Morty” has a heart under its hideous, Cronenberged exterior
Tuesday , 30, August 2016 Superversive 18 CommentsApologies for the long title; it seemed appropriate for what, as tends to be my wont, is a long post. Also, by the way, prepare yourself for spoilers. It’s unavoidable, so I’ll just get the warning out of the way now. Nothing from here on out is going to be marked, so if you don’t […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Why Joanna Russ Feared Heroic Fantasy
Tuesday , 23, August 2016 Appendix N, Superversive 29 CommentsJoanna Russ was perhaps the most influential critic of the seventies fantasy and science fiction scene. Here she is unceremoniously hurting a lot of feelings in her column in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Ficiton: I know it’s painful to be told that something in which one has invested intense emotion is not only […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Cat Pictures? No Thank You.
Tuesday , 23, August 2016 Superversive, Uncategorized 7 CommentsAnother year, another Hugo War. I largely sat it out this year; life is a harsh master and I had better things to spend the money and time on. But one of the nice things about the internet is that it’s much easier to look into short stories that people are talking about; a quick […]
John Denver’s album Poem’s, Prayers, and Promises is surprisingly eclectic. It’s got two of his most famous songs on it– “Sunshine on My Shoulders” and “Take Me Home Country Roads– but they are set off with some real oddities. At one extreme, you have the surprisingly churchy “Gospel Changes” and at the other you have […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Pan, Stone Henge, and the Gods of the Copybook Headings
Tuesday , 9, August 2016 Appendix N, Superversive 7 CommentsIn reading through Appendix N, one of the things that most struck me was how Pan has all but dropped from the literary conversation over time. In Lord Dunsany’s day, that third tier Greek god was something of a rock star. He was so captivating, he was even fundamental to one of the era’s most […]