So, one of the cool things about blogger is that it lets you know where in the world you're being read. Which I think is a wonderful, fascinating thing, because when you start a new blog, you are fairly sure that only some of your friends read it (those that have the time and when you're in academia, that's not always the biggest number). Keep in mind, it doesn't tell you any details of the people who visit your site aside from where they're from, what browser they use (why I should need that information is beyond me, though I'm sure there's a technical reason for it) and their operating system, and none of that information appears to be linked up. Maybe I should be doing something to make it easier for users on other operating systems to see this? I don't know. The techie stuff fails to interest me, but the countries do, because some of you are reading me from countries where I'm not sure that I know anyone, and that I've certainly never visited. Which is so cool!
So, the point of this post is that it is a shout out to my friends and family that read this (Hi guys) and a shout out to the people I have never met in countries I have never been that have read this. It is an amazing testament to our modern world that you're here! I hope I am managing to entertain you and enabling your procrastination just enough that you can still get work done.
In the meantime, here's the link to the latest Lovecraft Live! Don't forget to go to the main page for some amazing news as well!
Friday, August 24, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Lovecraft
What? Two posts in one day? Well, this is more of a linky one than the other.
A few of us are getting together and creating a series of podcasts of HP Lovecraft's stories. We're up to episode 2 of season 1, which was read by yours truly! So if you are at all interested in the most rambling story of all time, head over to http://hplovecraftlive.podbean.com/ and have a listen to 'The Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson', and, while you're there, have a listen to the other stuff. It's good!
I'll be doing another story later in the season, and will link you on to it when it comes up. In the meantime, we have other amazing readers (mostly gentlemen with marvellous voices) and I hope you enjoy it all.
Now shoo, and go listen to Lovecraft.
A few of us are getting together and creating a series of podcasts of HP Lovecraft's stories. We're up to episode 2 of season 1, which was read by yours truly! So if you are at all interested in the most rambling story of all time, head over to http://hplovecraftlive.podbean.com/ and have a listen to 'The Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson', and, while you're there, have a listen to the other stuff. It's good!
I'll be doing another story later in the season, and will link you on to it when it comes up. In the meantime, we have other amazing readers (mostly gentlemen with marvellous voices) and I hope you enjoy it all.
Now shoo, and go listen to Lovecraft.
CRSF 2012
So, this isn't going to be one of those blogs where I talk about why I haven't updated lately. I'm taking it for granted that you understand that occasionally life gets in the way of blogging and leaving it at that. However in this case, I will make a slight exception to that rule by saying that I've been writing papers, and one of them was presented at the brilliant Current Research in Speculative Fiction conference in Liverpool last month.
For those of you not in the know, the University of Liverpool is one of the best places in the world to study speculative fiction. Home to Professor David Seed, Andy Sawyer, the journal Foundation and a phenomenal amount of speculative fiction in the library, it is the place I might have gone had I not been in love with Trinity College Dublin. It is also home to a wonderful set of graduate students including Glyn Morgan, Chris Pak, Michelle Yost and David McWilliam, who organised the CRSF conference, bringing together all of us mad researchers in speculative fiction in one place. You can find their post-conference report here: http://currentresearchinspeculativefiction.blogspot.ie/.
With thirteen panels running in four time slots and no time turners available, I clearly didn't make it to everything, much as I would have liked to. The day started with Professor David Seed's keynote speech on narrative frames in early science fiction, which was incredibly interesting and reinforced my belief that one of the most entertaining elements of science fiction is its ability to play with literary forms and techniques. After that I went to my panel on American TV to give my paper on ecocriticism and the disruption of bodily integrity in Fringe. My panel buddies were Eve Bennett and Anna McFarlane, talking about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Lost respectively. As always when I'm presenting at a conference with such good speakers, I worried that my paper wasn't up to scratch, but it was a really fun panel with lots of conversation afterwards. The only downside was that my panel was simultaneous with one of my friend's, so I didn't get to hear her talk. After that I wandered into the gaming panel to hear Christos Callow discuss morality and philosophy in Fallout: New Vegas and Andrew Ferguson's paper on how glitches and narrative theory in Final Fantasy VI. The afternoon kicked off with a second keynote speech from Professor Fred Botting of Kingstong University London, "More Things: Horror, Materialism and Speculative Realism". Then came the afternoon sessions, starting with the European SF panel, where I learned about Spanish dystopias from Mariano Martin Rodriguez, Italian SF magazines from Giulia Iannuzzi and the potential end of anthropocentrism from Sandra Mänty. I wrapped the afternoon at the Transhuman/AI panel with Hallvard Haug's talk on Mnemotechnics in Charles Stross’ Accelerando, Amy Christmas's paper on augmented intimacies and Caroline Egan's paper on sterility in dystopias. (A special shout out goes to both Caroline and Ruth Doherty, the remainder of the 'Trinity Contingent', as we came to be known. You guys were amazing conference buddies!)
There are of course many other papers that were presented that day, but these were the ones I was fortunate enough to hear, and from the standards that I saw, the rest of the conference was equally brilliant. Outside of panel times, it was a great group to spend time with, and my only regret is that the conference didn't last a few days.
This won't be my only conference this year. I'll be speaking first at the Grant Morrison conference in Trinity in September, then at the Tolkien Forest and the City conference, also in Trinity in September, and at a symposium at the University of Aberdeen in October (for which I don't yet have a link). So it'll be a busy year, but a good one, I think, if CRSF is anything to go by.
For those of you not in the know, the University of Liverpool is one of the best places in the world to study speculative fiction. Home to Professor David Seed, Andy Sawyer, the journal Foundation and a phenomenal amount of speculative fiction in the library, it is the place I might have gone had I not been in love with Trinity College Dublin. It is also home to a wonderful set of graduate students including Glyn Morgan, Chris Pak, Michelle Yost and David McWilliam, who organised the CRSF conference, bringing together all of us mad researchers in speculative fiction in one place. You can find their post-conference report here: http://currentresearchinspeculativefiction.blogspot.ie/.
With thirteen panels running in four time slots and no time turners available, I clearly didn't make it to everything, much as I would have liked to. The day started with Professor David Seed's keynote speech on narrative frames in early science fiction, which was incredibly interesting and reinforced my belief that one of the most entertaining elements of science fiction is its ability to play with literary forms and techniques. After that I went to my panel on American TV to give my paper on ecocriticism and the disruption of bodily integrity in Fringe. My panel buddies were Eve Bennett and Anna McFarlane, talking about Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Lost respectively. As always when I'm presenting at a conference with such good speakers, I worried that my paper wasn't up to scratch, but it was a really fun panel with lots of conversation afterwards. The only downside was that my panel was simultaneous with one of my friend's, so I didn't get to hear her talk. After that I wandered into the gaming panel to hear Christos Callow discuss morality and philosophy in Fallout: New Vegas and Andrew Ferguson's paper on how glitches and narrative theory in Final Fantasy VI. The afternoon kicked off with a second keynote speech from Professor Fred Botting of Kingstong University London, "More Things: Horror, Materialism and Speculative Realism". Then came the afternoon sessions, starting with the European SF panel, where I learned about Spanish dystopias from Mariano Martin Rodriguez, Italian SF magazines from Giulia Iannuzzi and the potential end of anthropocentrism from Sandra Mänty. I wrapped the afternoon at the Transhuman/AI panel with Hallvard Haug's talk on Mnemotechnics in Charles Stross’ Accelerando, Amy Christmas's paper on augmented intimacies and Caroline Egan's paper on sterility in dystopias. (A special shout out goes to both Caroline and Ruth Doherty, the remainder of the 'Trinity Contingent', as we came to be known. You guys were amazing conference buddies!)
There are of course many other papers that were presented that day, but these were the ones I was fortunate enough to hear, and from the standards that I saw, the rest of the conference was equally brilliant. Outside of panel times, it was a great group to spend time with, and my only regret is that the conference didn't last a few days.
This won't be my only conference this year. I'll be speaking first at the Grant Morrison conference in Trinity in September, then at the Tolkien Forest and the City conference, also in Trinity in September, and at a symposium at the University of Aberdeen in October (for which I don't yet have a link). So it'll be a busy year, but a good one, I think, if CRSF is anything to go by.
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