Science Fiction

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My Superpower: J. Giambrone

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My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome J. Giambrone to talk about how the power of Seeing Metaphors relates to Transfixion. ——————————– In the 1999 M. Night Shyamalan film, The Sixth Sense, a boy is blessed, or cursed as it were, with the ability to see ghosts. “I see dead people” was his memorable catch phrase. Well, I see metaphors. All around us. Lingering in the background like vermin crawling in the shadows. So I’d better write about them, before someone else does. A “superpower?” Shhh. Let’s just leave it as a gift — a gift that keeps on giving.

Blog Posts

“Where Are the Wise Crones in Science Fiction?” by Athena Andreadis (Reprint)

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[This essay first appeared at the Astrogator’s Logs of Starship Reckless.] “The childishness noticeable in medieval behavior, with its marked inability to restrain any kind of impulse, may have been simply due to the fact that so large a proportion of active society was actually very young in years.” — Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century Until recently, women died on the average younger than men, primarily in childbirth – though they also died from overwork, undernourishment and beatings, like the beasts of burden they often resembled, or were killed in infancy for having the wrong hardware between their legs. However, this changed in the last few decades. UN records indicate that most of the world’s aged are now women (ignoring the “girl gap” of China, India and other cultures that deem sons a sine qua non). Concurrently, biology is (reluctantly) coming to the conclusion that grandmothers, particularly maternal ones, may have made humans who they are.

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Book Review: Upgraded edited by Neil Clarke

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As a rule, I loathe anthologies in which the stories are united by a narrow subgenre. A general editorial direction is something I appreciate, but I have had several experiences in which I was lured in only to throw the book across the room after two or three stories. “Self, what the hell were you thinking? Did you really want to read twenty some-odd stories in a row about the Lovecraftian mythos/sapient aliens/marketing gimmick du jour?” It is therefore a great testament to the quality of the stories in Upgraded, a 2014 anthology edited by Neil Clarke, that I actually finished it.

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Indy Genre: African Shorts

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I get the sense that short films are often viewed as a way to develop skills and advertise those skills, or as a proof of concept for a feature-length film. I’m starting to see more and more short film available for general viewing on Youtube, Vimeo, and even Hulu as a way to reach audiences that don’t normally go to film festivals. Shorts, because they can be filmed much more quickly, also give filmmakers who have a very limited budget a chance to still tell an engaging story. Finding genre film from Africa is a challenge in the US. Other than District 9, I don’t think much has made it over here as of yet, and I don’t honestly know how much is actually made, (tough there is plenty of film being made in various African countries, particularly Nigeria! Just do a bit of googling about Nollywood if you don’t believe me. In terms of sheer number of films produced per anum, it’s right on Bollywood’s heels and ahead of Hollywood). Read on for a selection of African short films. On the strength of these, I hope we will see more feature length films from these countries over here soon!

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

224. Multicultural Steampunk, World SF, and War Stories w/ Diana Pho and Andrew Liptak at ICFA

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode224DianaPhoAndAndrewLiptakAtICFA/SandF%20–%20Episode%20224%20–%20Diana%20Pho%20and%20Andrew%20Liptak%20at%20ICFA.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSRetrofuturism, power armor, and awesome clothes, oh my!  In one of our last recordings from ICFA, Diana Pho and Andrew Liptak join us to discuss Beyond Victoriana, multicultural sf, Western influence, and the now-available anthology, War Stories edited by Andrew Liptak and Jaym Gates. We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 224 — Download (MP3) Show Notes: Beyond Victoriana (Diana’s Website) Diana’s Twitter Andrew’s Website Andrew’s Twitter Andrew’s Kirkus Page War Stories (buy it!) Apex Books The Reads: SteamPowered:  Lesbian Steampunk Stories edited by JoSelle Vanderhooft Steampunk World edited by Sarah Hans Virtuoso by Jon Munger Boilerplate:  History’s Mechanical Marvel by Paul Guinan and Anina Bennett Frank Reade:  Adventures in the Age of Invention by Paul Guinan and  Anina Bennett Leviathan Series by Scott Westerfeld The Clockwork Century Series by Cherie Priest Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

Blog Posts

Metropolis (1927), Feminism, and Influence

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Since there seems to be so much noise these days about the Golden Age of SF, I decided to begin rewatching (or in some cases, watching) classic genre films in order to get a more sound foundation in my chosen genre. If I do this with novels, why not films? In this case, I’m glad that I did. One of my graphic design professors had us watch Metropolis in class. I’d vaguely remembered it as stylish — it’s a fine example of Art Deco design — and only a little coherent. At the time, I wondered why anyone would sit through the whole thing. It made no sense. The professor didn’t mention that the film had been censored. I’m not sure she was aware of how much it’d gotten cut as she didn’t mention it in the introduction. When I looked for it on Netflix, I found two versions. The first claimed to have restored footage and an 80s soundtrack. The second also had restored footage. What I failed to notice was that the first print was one hour and fifteen minutes long. The second? Two hours and fifteen minutes. I recall the version I saw in class was less than an hour. Wow.

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