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Short and Sublime: February 2015 Round-Up

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February’s shorts include emotionally resonant stories about family and friendship and trippy genre-benders. “The Language of Knives” by Haralambi Markov (Tor.com) is a secondary world fantasy in which the main character has given up the life of a warrior and chosen to prepare the dead; when he must perform this task for his husband, he mourns not only his lover but also substantially lesser status in the eyes of his daughter. Parents having favorites amongst their children is very much part of our cultural milieu, but not so frequently presented is the reverse, and this is a rendering of complex emotions that feels very true. Gwendolyn Clare’s “Indelible” (Clarkesworld #101) is another such resonant tale of grief, following the loss of one’s sister in a science fictional far future in which aliens are characterized by their physical malleability.

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Short and Sublime: The Awakened Kingdom by N.K. Jemisin

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The Awakened Kingdom, a 2014 fantasy novella by N.K. Jemisin released both as part of The Inheritance Trilogy omnibus and as a standalone e-book, is told from the point of view of a baby god. And as adorable as the central premise is, the execution is enough to sorely tempt me to quote large swaths of the text in lieu of a real review. The novella opens thus: I am born! Hello! Many things happen! The end! Hello again! How are you? I am fine. I have learned more about the Proper Ways from Papa Tempa. Papa said that what I did before is not the Proper Way to tell a story, so I will do it over. I do not like the way he says I should tell it, though. That is BORING… What follows is the coming-of-age story of Shill, a god newly born following the death of another god, in which she tries to find her purpose and her nature. Shill isn’t born knowing how to god, so to speak; her first attempt to interact with mortals results in, um, an accident:

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Indy Genre: Shorts Directed by Women

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I thought I’d start off this year with a few short films — and since we’re doing women and non-binary people in genre, how about some short films directed by women? Well, my friends, easier said than done. It probably shouldn’t be a surprise (consider for example that only 6% of top Hollywood features were directed by women in 2013, and films with female directors are often chronically underfunded) that it’s already slightly more challenging to find films directed by women, let alone trans-women or non-binary people. But most of those short films tend to be documentary (women filmmakers often gravitate toward documentary, actually), drama, or romance. Looking specifically for sci-fi and fantasy short film — already only a small percentage of all short films made — directed by women is even more challenging. I actually had a much easier time finding genre short film done by African directors. After a mighty amount of googling, I’ve found a couple of excellent full short films for you, and two trailers that I wish I had the full films for!

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Mining the Genre Asteroid: Mary Renault

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Jo Walton’s Among Others works as an interesting reading list of novels and authors that the author herself read and thought about growing up. Much of the matter of the book is her protagonist reading, and thinking about the many writers whose work she discovers. One of those writers mentioned by Mori that she discovers in the course of growing up and reading is somewhat different than the more familiar science fiction and fantasy authors in her self-created curriculum: Mary Renault. Mary Renault was a mid-century British writer. In 1948, after her novel Return to Night won an MGM prize worth $150,000, Renault and her lifelong lover Julie Mullard immigrated to South Africa, where they remained for the rest of their lives. Starting in the 1950s, Renault turned from writing contemporary fiction, to ancient historical fiction. The King Must Die (1958) is the second of her ancient historical fictional novels, and the first that tackles a character straight out of ancient myth and legend: Theseus. 

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The Disquieting Guest — Ruth Rose

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February is Women in Horror Month (details about which can be found here), and in the spirit of that celebration, let me say a few words of appreciation for Ruth Rose, the screenwriter to whom all giant apes owe a great debt. Her most celebrated contribution to horror film is her re-writing of the script for King Kong, though she also wrote Son of Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949). I want to pause on her contribution to King Kong, though, because what she did with an already existing story gave it a sophistication and a depth that the film’s remakes, no matter how ambitious, have failed to equal. King Kong’s original script was by the mystery novelist Edgar Wallace, who died before he could revise the initial draft. This was extensively reworked by James A. Creelman, and then his script was, in turn, reworked by Rose. Ray Morton’s King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson describes Ruth’s specific contributions, such as streamlining the plot and improving the dialogue, but what I find most interesting is this:

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