Gene Wolfe on literature’s mainstream

“Incidentally, I’d argue that SF represents literature’s real mainstream. What we now normally consider the mainstream—so called realistic fiction—is a small literary genre, fairly recent in origin, which is likely to be relatively short lived. When I look back at the foundations of literature, I see literary figures who, if they were alive today, would probably be members of the Science Fiction Writers of America. Homer? He would certain belong to the SFWA. So would Dante, Milton, and Shakespeare. That tradition is literature’s mainstream, and it has been what has grown out of that tradition which has been labeled SF or whatever label you want to use.”

Larry McCaffery interview with writer Gene Wolfe.

Blogging in the mainstream

I’m not sure how popular blogging is these days; I’ve read about a mass turning away from traditional blogging in favor of Facebook. My own evidence is only anecdotal. I find quite often when going through my bookmarks that blogs I had once visited now lie dormant, neglected and forgotten, or worse, show a 404 error code.

But together with this, popular news sites like the Guardian are now full of articles that read more like blog posts, and would be better suited to the blogosphere, instead of taking up space for the news I’d gone looking for.

Last week when I came to the end of a glowingly positive take on a just-terminated Netflix science fiction show – one which I had given up on after a single episode – I was just thinking well maybe I hadn’t given the show enough time, when I glanced at the talkbacks. The first commenter said that this show was truly juvenile rubbish and that if he encountered more stories like this in the Guardian he would cancel his sub. And I thought wow – I still have that gullible mentality that if something is appearing in a reputable journal like the Guardian, then it must have some sort of value. But actually, this more critical reader was dead right. The story was just a shitpost. It belonged to the democratic blogosphere, where everyone can post, and we keep our noses primed accordingly.

So that’s what I did today when reading a blog-type story about coffee – also in the Guardian, called: My neverending search for the perfect cup of coffee. Perfect blog material indeed, with lines like “The perfect cup of coffee is like the perfect lipstick: a quest that will end only with your death.” Which isn’t strictly grammatical. It’s a pleasant post, though you don’t actually learn anything (partly because she’s lazy about hyperlinks).

I love my blackened stove-top Bialetti for reasons to do with nostalgia and all-round stylishness, but it makes pretty mud-like coffee: good for days when you’re knackered, but very bad indeed when the last thing you need is to be wired like Frankenstein.

It doesn’t matter – it’s an engaging and enjoyable read – perfect blog material. Just a pity I’m reading it in the Guardian. I could be moseying around Medium or WordPress instead.

But maybe I’m being too narrow in my views. I think as I’m growing older I’m becoming dogmatically taxonomic. Hey Bob, you’ve misfiled that in the wrong folder again and assigned the wrong file name. And how can I relate to the subject of your email, if you’ve written about it in a reply to something completely different?

There’s a legitimate middle ground of excellent themed webzines that are entirely blogs. Like 972mag.com or Scroll.in. There are dozens of these. I don’t think many people go to them with the same religious regularity that they go to news sites. It’s more likely that someone recommends a story on Twitter of Facebook, and they follow a link, and then perhaps find themselves reading more stories. And one of the reasons that I’m coming across these blog type stories on the news sites, rather than in the blog venues, is that I’m not so much into social media lately, and have been neglecting my news-feed aggregators.

TLDR; – hard to say; it’s like that story about coffee. Just a few reflections.

At the film festival

This year at the Jerusalem Film Festival we saw three films: “House of Hummingbird”, “Young Ahmed” and “The Invisible Life of Eurydice Gusmao”. All three were special. “House of Hummingbird” was the best; a poignant coming-of-age film where not a lot happens (for its 2 hours and 20 minute running time) but it holds the attention and keeps the eyes moist throughout. For a lot of people, this will have been their favourite film in the festival.

“The Invisible Life…” is a very strong movie, at times hard to watch. Full of raw emotions, this film also runs for 2 hours + but it does occasionally feel a bit long. The discomfort that it creates is probably deliberate. I think the filmmakers want us to suspect that the story is not what it seems. There are hints to the film’s undercurrents in the name of Eurydice and the references to Greece. This caught my attention immediately because the views of Rio reminded me of the old French film “Orfeo Negro” (which is also of course set in Rio and based on the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice).

My working hypothesis is that the two sisters, who never find each other despite years of longing and searching, are actually two sides of the same person, which can never be reconciled. When one thinks of it this way, certain aspects of the film begin to fall into place. So although this is a very challenging movie, it somehow works because it keeps one thinking about it long afterwards.

“Young Ahmed” is not, in my opinion, a great movie. It’s well-made and interesting, but also annoying, perhaps subtly flawed. The main character, a teenager who falls under the spell of a radical imam, is surrounding by gentle, caring, mostly fairly enlightened people. There are no justifications in sight for his murderous zeal. This may represent a part of reality; it may even be what the film is trying to show. But in reality the state of our societies is less perfect than is shown in the film. There is racism, inequality, and all the rest. There are other films, like “Paradise Now”, that make a better presentation of the background, though this one is special in its depiction of a likable, but often inscrutable young man.

Affectation

Twice in 24 hours, I’ve come across news articles that muddle the use of the words effect and affect; today it was CNN: ‘Some protesters say this is their last chance to affect change before 2047, when the “one country, two systems” model that Hong Kong is governed by expires.’

Sometimes I think we should just relax the rules of English spelling; other times I think that insisting on rules helps us to think more precisely. What’s certain is that we unconsciously give less credence to writers with poor or unorthodox spelling.

Afternote (from xkcd):

Making clothes last longer

The Guardian has a very informative article on making clothes last longer, with many links to related matters, such as buying second-hand, preferred methods for laundering, which fabrics to buy, how to fix clothes, etc. If we think of our three essential needs – food, clothing, shelter – obviously looking after clothes is one of the most important subjects to learn about, as we go further into the climate emergency. Last week they had a related article about an organization that is working with clothing companies to improve the manufacture of jeans.