I just rearranged our bookshelves so that all the unread books are in one place. The end result is depressing, as it shows what a lazy slob I am when it comes to books I oughta read. That’s 34 titles there alone, some purchased quite a while ago, most still unopened. And that’s not even counting the books from the library. If we count those, the total sum goes up to 73. Depressing.

On the other hand I’m quite happy with the DVD shelves and Tiuku obviously enjoys the bookshelf. So it’s not all doom and gloom.

How not to write science fiction like a total hack, an informative and entertaining read.

Bruce Sterling on whatever happened to cyberpunk?

In a cyberpunk analysis, Frankenstein is ”Humanist” SF. Frankenstein promotes the romantic dictum that there are Some Things Man Was Not Meant to Know. – – In the moral universe of cyberpunk, we already know Things We Were Not Meant To Know. Our grandparents knew these things; Robert Oppenheimer at Los Alamos became the Destroyer of Worlds long before we arrived on the scene. In cyberpunk, the idea that there are sacred limits to human action is simply a delusion. There are no sacred boundaries to protect us from ourselves.

Rucker, Shiner, Sterling, Shirley and Gibson – the Movement’s most fearsome ”gurus,” ear-tagged yet again in Shiner’s worthy article, in front of the N. Y. Times’ bemused millions – are ”cyberpunks” for good and all. – – But the dreaded C-Word will surely be chiselled into our five tombstones. Public disavowals are useless, very likely worse than useless. Even the most sweeping changes in our philosophy of writing, perhaps weird mid-life-crisis conversions to Islam or Santeria, could not erase the tattoo. – – Seen from this perspective, ”cyberpunk” simply means ”anything cyberpunks write.” – – ”Cyberpunk” will not be conclusively ”dead” until the last of us is shovelled under. Demographics suggest that this is likely to take some time.

Today I had a revelation, a manifestation, an apparition. (Yes, atheists get them too.) I was nosing around the library, looking for intresting books in the movies section. Thus far I’d only browsed through the sort of skimpy section 77 but today I happened to take a peek two meters to the right.

My god! There’s a proper class for all things celluloid! Why didn’t anyone tell me about before? What sort of conspiracy is this? The orgastic joy of finding new books rapidly reached its apex as I realized I’d once again hoarded way too many books to actually a) fit into my bag or b) have time to read.

This finally brings me into my true subject today. Now in case you want to read a general, introductoryish book on modern Finnish cinema, you can choose (at least) between Levottomat sukupolvet and Lyhyttä ja pitkää. Here’s a friendly word of advice: don’t touch the second one. It’s a collection of mini-bios, written by various authors, so there’s no coherence, no style and almost no substance, either. The first one, on the other hand, is an enjoyable romp that’s been organized thematically rather than chronologically. It’s written by the editor-in-chief of Finland’s national filmography, which is the kind of merit that qualifies one for writing these sort of books. I recommend the book highly, but others have had differing views.

In completely unrelated news, here’s my contribution to the old tech beats new tech discussion: I used our old-school timeshifter to record a telly program on Asterix. The show was broadcast on FST, was made by Germans and the interviewees all spoke French. Unfortunately there was no subtitling because of the binary wonders of DVB-C and Yle, so the program was a no-go.

Ei meinaa pysyä minulla oikein holtti kirjastossa asioidessa. Eilenkin raahasin mukaani kassillisen kirjoja, jonka lisäksi minulla oli taskut täynnä cd-levyjä ja vielä kolme eeposta jäi kourassa kannettavaksi. Tosin asiassa on se hyvä puoli, että ilman ylikuormaa olisin varmaan pysähtynyt kirjaston aulassa olleilla kirjamessuilla ja käyttänyt rahaa, jota ei ole olemassa.

Minä tarvitsisin kirjastopalvelun, jonka toimintaperiaate olisi kuten Netflixillä. Siellä kasataan veppikäyttöliittymän avulla lista leffoista, jotka haluaa nähdä, ja firma lähettää ne postitse. Homman clue on siinä, että yhtä aikaa yhdellä ihmisellä on lainassa vain kolme leffaa. Niitä saa pitää niin pitkään kuin haluaa. Sitten kun yhden palauttaa, saa toisen tilalle.

Minä hamstraan kirjastosta kirjoja juuri siksi, että pelkään niiden häviävän ja unohtuvan seuraavaan visiittiin mennessä. Varauksiakaan ei kehtaa kymmenmäärin tehdä, kun se maksaa, eikä läheskään kaikkia kirjoja tule luettua. Kuka lähtee kehittämään jonolainaussysteemiä Suomeen?

Mainittakoon, että Suomalaisen kirjakaupan hyllyiltä löytyy näinä aikoina sekä Suomen historian että Maailman historian Pikkujättiläinen. Hintaa näillä sinivalailla on 20 euroa / kpl, mikä on mielestäni ihan edukasta, koska paketin alkuperäinen yhteishinta on kuitenkin 150 euroa.

Nyt voisitkin kertoa, miksi Pikkujättiläiset ovat huonoja hakuteoksia, etten ehdi nauttia materiastani.

Guardian tarjoilee sivuillaan läjän lyhyitä tarinoita (novelleiksiko niitä tavataan sanoa?) ”johtavilta nykykirjailijoilta”. Halvempaa kuin novellikokoelmien ostaminen ja nopeampaa kuin odottaa, että ne saapuisivat paikalliseen kirjastoon.

Päivän sitaatti tulee Thomas M. Dischiltä.

Ballard cannot be held responsible for the way his publisher chose to promote his work, but Judge Bryan’s bening assumption that no one is hoping to profit by an appeal to the lewd and lascivious minded begins to sound a bit disingenuous. The plain fact is that many writers, from Flaubert to Mickey Spillane, have exerted all their writerly resources to appeal to the lewd and lascivious minded, and for at least two compelling reasons: (1) they are lewd and lascivious minded themselves and find some gratification in sharing their erotic fantasies with those of a similar disposition, and (2) they stand to make good money by doing so.

Lähde: The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of, p. 117