Maybe it's because Ballard died (at last week's Recession Session Live, Stewart Home {ever contentious} claimed Moorcock to be a better writer than Ballard... not sure "better" is the word but Moorcock's work does have the wider scope) - or because I'm back in Tokyo with its futuristic buildings & gadgets - but science fiction seems to be in the ascendancy - I am also reading China Miéville's spellbinding Perdido Street Station & have just bought a copy of The Scar so I may be somewhat hypersensitive to things sci-fi (apologies to you purists out there). This week, Chris Beckett's collection The Turing Test was nominated for the Edge Hill Prize for the short story - I liked Chris's quote about being unable to write "straight" short stories & thinking, "Oh, just put a robot in it".
I love book covers - good book covers - so here's a treat. Penguin have launched an amazing site charting the changing face of their science-fiction list. Here is my favourite. I own all the Ballard editions (in various degrees of dilapidation & mackerelling). Plus Gollancz is in the process of publishing a set of Future Classics (including M. John Harrison's The Centauri Device) - the minimalist covers are superb.
Over on 3:AM, Richard Marshall (in his special way) reviews Tony White's steampunk-influenced pamphlet Albertopolis Disparu.
& while I've been writing this blog, random songs with a science-fiction feel/theme have played on my iTunes: Silver Machine by Hawkwind (checkout Stacia), Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun by Psychic TV, & Trans-Europe Express by Kraftwerk.
PS: I had my hair cut today in a Japanese barber's somewhere between Ueno & Asakusa - strange experience - after communicating that I wanted a number 2 (could've been embarrassing), I was offered a small whicker basket - hmm.... ahhh... it was for my glasses (never do know where to put them), then a head massage & a meticulous cropping using a razor & finished off with scissors, my head, face, & neck were washed, dried, then my head was vacuum cleaned for any loose hairs - cool - & all for ¥1,000, about £6.50 - beats Mr Topper's any day.
& you'll see that I've compromised on the blog title...
3 comments:
This blog is just great, starting from the name; it is fullof thinhs I like, like Mieville or Siratori, and what not.
I'm gonna link you to mine, to my "favourites" (iy means, ironically, that I feel like you do me a a favour if you let me do so...). You don't need to do the same for me.
Congratulations, Vidrio Man, this blog rocks!
oh Rick sent me back here. I thought you'd stopped updating this blog.... Yes my mentioned of Ballard and the joke about his death did get people going, but the point was Moorcock wrote a lot of books I like, whereas I think only 2 Ballard books are really good (Crash and Atrocity Exhibition). And the best Moorcock I do like a lot more than Ballard. Plus don't forget I started on Moorcock when I was about 12, two or three years before I got onto Ballard, and now it wasn't the cool Moorcock but the sword and sorcery.... and is still think Elric is great! But not Moorcock at his best! Both contributed to New Wave of Sci-Fi, but Moorcock a lot more!
Ballard is among my favorites, and the Elric books by Moorcock remain at the top of my sword and sorcery list. The Scar was my intro to Mieville, read Perdido Street Station too--liked both but The Scar particularly. Hope you enjoy it.
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