Many people say writing can’t be taught. But it can certainly be learned. (I actually think it can be taught as well, or I wouldn’t teach it.) When we’re young and full of beans we like to think we know it all. It’s hard to admit to ourself we don’t how to do something. ButContinue reading “5 indispensable guides for fiction writers”
Category Archives: Journalism
The Quest for Weird
Fellow seekers, I need your help as I seek the grail of great, original and independently-published fiction in ebooks and on the web. People have been telling weird stories for as long as we’ve been huddling around fires attempting to keep the dark at bay. Our earliest stories overflow with the weird. The Babylonian EpicContinue reading “The Quest for Weird”
Why English culture is bewitched by magic
From Merlin to Harry Potter, English magic has a long tradition. But what does it say about today’s culture? English occultist, bohemian and author Aleister Crowley defined magick as “the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will”. Crowley’s will was aided by the inheritance age 11 of a tidy fortune,Continue reading “Why English culture is bewitched by magic”
Will the book and the internet merge?
The difference between ebooks and the internet is minimal, and we should be glad the two are growing closer and closer. It’s easy to forget that the world wide web as we know it today evolved from an early attempt to put books on the internet. When Tim Berners-Lee envisaged what would become the worldContinue reading “Will the book and the internet merge?”
Are we living in a corporate society?
The corporate society has been an enduring wellspring of stories over the last century. Inspired by the factory production line, Aldous Huxley predicted a future where humans were born and bred only to fulfil a corporate function in Brave New World. The cyberpunk vision of William Gibson’s Neuromancer charted a future where government had collapsedContinue reading “Are we living in a corporate society?”
The Fantasy of Romance
“People would never fall in love if they hadn’t heard love talked about.” Or read about it in books, we can assume. Which is all very well for Francois de La Rochefoucauld, French nobleman and writer of maxims, to say – but is much harder to live by. Yes, perhaps, in the postmodern sense loveContinue reading “The Fantasy of Romance”
Winter reads: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
This potent rite-of-passage tale offers readers some useful pointers on keeping the heart warm in allegorically wintry times. The novel that raised Haruki Murakami to literary superstardom ranges across the seasons, but the heart of its meaning is found in winter. When 30-something Toru Watanabe hears a fragment of the titular Beatles track after a long airplaneContinue reading “Winter reads: Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami”
Can science fiction lead us away from economic collapse?
Recent SF novels dealing with the fall of western capitalism seem right on the mark. But do they offer any answers? It’s a truism that science fiction, however distinct its vision of the future, is always just as much a reflection of its present. The golden age of SF writers, including Isaac Asimov, Robert HeinleinContinue reading “Can science fiction lead us away from economic collapse?”
At the Mountains of Weirdness
(I was too ill to link this from my blog when it was published on The Guardian online, so here it is now.) I am forced into speech because men of letters refuse to act without knowing why. It is altogether against my will that I tell my reasons for opposing the publicationContinue reading “At the Mountains of Weirdness”
Osama Bin Laden : Vigilante
Lavie Tidhars novel Osama makes me wonder why we can’t all just get along. No, really, why the fuck can’t we? One common problem for all science fiction writers is reconciling the wondrous world we could have with the one we have negligently stumbled into. At this exact moment in time, in an alternate realityContinue reading “Osama Bin Laden : Vigilante”
The Magicians is Harry Potter for grown-ups
If you could journey to any fantasy world, which would it be? I, like many millions of others, would have to choose JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth – although, given the option, I’d divide my time between Gondor and Rivendell, and skip the guided tours of Moria and Mordor. Lev Grossman, author of The Magicians andContinue reading “The Magicians is Harry Potter for grown-ups”
New Liberal Arts
It’s hard to know what the future will bring: the only thing you can be sure of is that it won’t be the past. This is a truth that seems to have eluded the current government as they busily reshape our nation’s education system in preparation for the 19th century. The Tories have indicated aContinue reading “New Liberal Arts”
Damien Walter 