Tag: novel

Geekscape Reviews: Harper Lee’s Controversial ‘Go Set A Watchman’

by Gabriel von Grünbaum

Well, after covering the tease of the first chapter, I finished up Go Set a Watchman. For those of who have yet to read it, I’m sure you’re still probably wondering what the truth behind the recent hubbub really is. In Harper Lee’s first—and until now, only—book, To Kill a Mockingbird, the epic father figure, Atticus Finch is basically a superman (given the time period) lawyer for civil rights. He set the bar for basic human decency during a period of awakening in American society. He was a bright beacon for the reformation of white guilt into something more constructive, as a nation began the attempt to make right the sins of our fathers.

There are probably several other ways to describe the character’s impact on society but—judging by the headlines these days—whatever it is, we’re still working on it all these decades later. . . which is rather mind blowing. So it is that, while Mockingbird was a wonderful dream to shoot for, Watchman is probably a more realistic presentation, kissed with optimism for finding a path that was still out of reach then and there—a path we’re, shockingly, still trying to navigate.

The new Atticus is not a superman—probably unrelatable to many but the most progressive at that time—he’s just a sorta decent (for the time) old dying white guy who recognizes that times are rightfully changing. He knows the new America needs to happen and recognizes that he won’t be welcomed by it because of his ingrained prejudices and his contemporaries’ actions in the old. His only hope of contribution to the new order is that he might have succeeded in raising his daughter to be a strong intelligent leader—that she will help overtake his generation and, hopefully, wipe their sins from the nation.

The most important thing to remember here is that this is a progressive book for the fifties, when it was written, offering little more today than perspective and understanding for a bygone era. The fact that that time is not quite as bygone as we’d like, makes Watchman all the more relevant.

Now, I must say, hopefully not giving too much away, people’s reactions are actually the whole point of the story! What I’ve read in articles and on Twitter—some from people refusing to read it!—are the themes directly addressed in the book. I find that telling. It may be the issue we have yet to face as a society—that we’d rather imagine everything’s fine instead of facing the truth and doing something to correct it.

In that regard, Watchman could prove to be even more powerful than Mockingbird, especially for today, because it pops that bubble of optimistic illusion and forces us to look at the ugly truth still facing us—daring us to make it right once and for all.

For the literary geeks; I have to say I quite enjoyed the experience of the author’s work with little touch from an editor. It felt raw and immediate to find her thoughts spit out across the pages just as they had formed in her brain. Switching between perspectives, time periods and storylines as they occurred to her. Did I occasionally have to reread some sentences to realize a subtle transition had taken place?—yes. But it was exciting and thrilling to feel like I was cresting the wave of inspiration with her as the muse pulled her in a new direction. The way she used words and sentences to paint her creations was beautiful to experience. I fell in love with Jean Louise (Scout) Finch and her world from the first chapter and felt the horrible sting as that world changed before her eyes.

GoSetAWatchman_Cover01_360x544Honestly, as a reader, my favorite moments were those where we find Jean Louise flirting—with Henry, life and adventure or possibility. Her character is sharp and witty—a pleasure to experience. Her vulnerabilities are charming; her strengths, admirable. She’s tough and unwilling to take guff from anyone but, for all her experience living in New York, it’s her naiveté that I found most disarming. Scout as a young woman may actually be the perfect avatar for America today—believing the world to be sunnier than the hard truths lurking under the surface—truths that must be addressed to cure the persistent cancer. In her defense, she may not know all the facts but she knows what’s right and she’s ready to take a stand. My favorite exchanges were between her and Henry as he does his best to court her. My favorite line out of context was actually delivered by her uncle (probably my second favorite character), “I’ve played hell with her fruitcakes.” I’m considering adopting it as a non sequitur hashtag, #IvePlayedHellWithHerFruitcakes. You know that has a lot of uses—let’s make it a thing.

That said, however, I’m left with the impression that this is a short story that was stretched out like taffy, reaching out beyond what was necessary to tell the tale. That is to say, as author’s drafts tend to be, it was not efficient. It’s easy to see why some wise editor, over half a century ago, advised Lee to take some aspects of this story and build a new one from them. It’s the recommendation that gave Lee immortality with Mockingbird. However, her raw skill and talent here for carving characters and worlds from words breaks my heart that she wasn’t inspired to write more through the decades.

All told, I think Go Set a Watchman, is a read you won’t regret. It may not leave you feeling like you’re connecting with a rosy dream world but the lingering effect may be the impression of a better connection with an ever evolving real-world America and inspire you to make it the best you can.

‘Go Set a Watchman’: Review of Harper Lee’s First Chapter

by Gabriel von Grünbaum

I really wanted to do this right, so I set up my e-reader with the first chapter of Go Set a Watchman available online, poured myself a drink and went out to sit by the pool and read it. I didn’t go back and re-read To Kill a Mockingbird first; honestly, it’s been years since I read it and I have fond memories of experiencing the book—but I didn’t want to do a direct comparison. I figured tons of people would be doing just that already and I wanted to see how this story, that takes place about 20 years after Mockingbird, would stand on its own.

Wow. I was taken by its elegant simplicity. The sheer beauty of the commonplace and Harper Lee’s uncomplicated skill to expose the opportunities for delight and discovery in routine elements. Her lines pulse with a subtle magnetic vibration that ushers you wholly into a full sensory experience of grown Scout, Jean Louise Finch. To say it another way; Lee makes the regular feel luxurious with no heavy lifting on the reader’s part. Additionally, I found that I often chuckled to myself as I read the chapter and laughed out loud several times. The characters are instantly and easily related to, so that you’re quickly delighting in their interactions like watching old friends at it again—although you’re meeting these adult characters for the first time. Even a train conductor we never meet feels as familiar as a lovable uncle!

Quite simply: this is writing at its finest and I’m really excited to read the whole novel. My sincere compliments to legendary talent, Harper Lee. Just beautiful and—wow.

GoSetAWatchman_Cover01_360x544Now, some things to keep in mind. This manuscript was written in a very different social and political climate. Even in this first chapter, there are references to race and gender that can feel archaic and uncomfortable—and from what I understand, there’s much more of this to come throughout the book. Lee bats at these conventions like a cat with a piece of string—I was laughing with Lee on the conclusion of the encounter at the end of the chapter but maybe for different reasons than readers of the past would’ve laughed. It stands the test of time because the material finds new meaning as the eras tick by. The important thing is the feeling of Harper Lee’s soul and intentions behind these dusty words and references—judging by this first chapter, that feeling is unconditional warmth. Remember that this is a manuscript she wrote in the mid-1950s—this is a hot-off-the-presses time machine directly into the past. I’m sure that, if published then, there would’ve been a backlash from certain “conservative” groups about her progressive thinking. I feel like she was building a bridge between these people of the past and their brighter future—while, now in that future, seeing these old words and references can feel a little weird. She logically used the lexicon and referential structures born from the history, perspective and customs of those times as she kindly joined the shifting in then-current events.

It’s also interesting to note, as far as her writing timeline, that To Kill a Mockingbird was actually written after this manuscript; a prequel that ended up getting published first. At that point this manuscript wasn’t touched again; lost until it was recently found in storage! Some are talking about Atticus’s portrayal in Go Set a Watchman as being at odds with the character we loved in Mockingbird. One likely possibility here is that Lee refined her vision of Atticus Finch as she wrote Mockingbird and never had the chance to go back and apply those same refinements to this original manuscript for Watchman. I’ll be approaching the experience of reading this full novel as a chance to take a little peek behind the curtain of remarkable wordsmith, Harper Lee—and to ride this excellently eloquent time machine her young idealistic-self crafted for us. In hardback. On paper pages.

The full novel will be released everywhere by HarperCollins Publishers on July 14th, 2015. You can taste the first chapter of Go Set a Watchman for yourself here at The Guardian.

Behind The Kickstarter Curtain: ‘The Astonishing Adventures of Heracles Flint’, Interview with Creator Nick Moore

by CJC

Today on Kickstarter, we explore the weird and wild of steampunk storytelling with Nick Moore’s “The Astonishing Adventures of Heracles Flint“, a promising action-filled steampunk and horror extravaganza that not only allows, but invites prospective writers to come roll around in the Victorian dirt with Heracles and his team a while. The adventure pits the titular Heracles Flint against a time-travelling Dracula who obtains this infamous time-travelling device from a descendent of H.G. Wells out on one of those carefree time-travelling sprees. That’ll teach you to drink and time-travel (unless you’re drinking necks, apparently).

As an opener, I interviewed Mr. Moore on why we should be giving Heracles Flint a first, second, and possibly a hundredth look.

So I have to say it: Alan Moore… Nick Moore… steampunk comic-style…

No relation unfortunately, but maybe there’s something about the name that makes us seek out the weird.  Shame he’s not a relative as trips to the pub would be damn cool!  I am a huge fan though with his run on Miracleman, rather than everyone’s favourite Watchmen, being my top comic read.  Strangely though I’ve never actually read his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books!!

Was Kickstarter your original goal for this project?

Not originally as I’ve been tinkering with Flint’s world for years before Kickstarter launched in the UK allowing me to submit a project.  Every passion project at some point, if you want to let other people into the little universe in your head, will need money behind it to grow and flourish.  Kickstarter gives me two things if it’s successful.  Firstly a professional edit of the book, which is a necessity for any writer.  Apart from checking spelling and grammar, it’s a pair of fresh eyes to ensure you haven’t sliced the same vampyre twice, and the airship is pointing the right way when battling on the Las Vegas strip.  When you’re in full flow little crucial details can trip you up.

The second thing is art. While comics are a huge passion of mine, I’ve a 10,000+ collection causing stress fractures in my house, I’d already spun the novel out of a movie idea, and didn’t want to change formats having expanded the tale to try to fit it into a comic, yet.  But the chance to have those characters made real as comic art was too good to pass up, so the funding also goes to bring the services of fantastic artist Bentti Bisson on board.  He’s already done one amazing piece for me to make sure we were on the same page creatively, and wow he just stepped into my head and laid Flint out in grand comic book style.  I really want the Kickstarter to work to get all his character pieces done as a showcase of just how good he is.

Have you slept at all?

Ah… no 🙂  Crowd-funding is all about getting eyes on target, as no matter how good a project may be if no one knows it’s there, you’ll get nowhere, there’s no crowd-funding without a crowd.  While there are plenty of tools to let you automate Tweets, G+ posts, etc, there’s still a huge amount of work in setting that up, and trying to balance getting the word out without spamming networks to death.  I hope I’m getting that right with reaching 41% funded in less than two weeks, though the lack of sleep is making things blurry.

Steampunk opens up a rich opportunity for world-creation as well as social commentary. What’s your favorite twist about the genre, and how do you keep it all straight in your head?

I have no shame in saying I’m an action fan, and I think my favourite thing is the element of shock and awe you can give to a Victorian setting. Everything is sedate and oh so very proper, ladies and gentlemen dressed in their finest, horses hooves and carriage wheels on cobblestoned streets is about as loud and busy as it gets. Then you can smash into that street with a four story high mechanical man, all gears and boilers, smoke belching from huge chimney stacks on its back, and a maniacal crackpot inventor sitting in its chest pulling levers. You get to quickly and spectacularly shatter that civilised veneer, that was always pretty thin as it covered horrible divisions in society between the rich and poor.  This was the era that found it ok to stuff children up chimneys to clean them, maybe some people still do, but I can’t get any of my three to fit!

As for keeping it all straight, reading is the key, along with Evernote, man it’s a blessing.  If you want to write about a place or real person from the era that Steampunk springs from, it’s essential to read up on them and find out as much as you can. There’s a wealth of history to play with and it’s a delight to delve into historical figures, and learn about things that don’t make it into the general view people might have of them.

'Forever in Shadow' cover
‘Forever in Shadow’ cover

How much does historical accuracy factor into Heracles Flint’s world?

Historical accuracy is a double edged sword when it comes to writing fiction.  You can have great fun tying a character into a factual setting, but it can quickly become a creative nightmare if you can’t get room to manoeuvre in that setting to tell your story.  For Flint’s world I haven’t rewritten history as many Steampunk themed tales do, as the battles Heracles and his Society of Esoteric Technica fight are kept away from the public.  Their efforts are meant to spare the everyday person from the horrors that the forces of darkness want to visit upon them.  It’s the small, I suppose geeky, details of history that I get to have fun with.  For example Queen Victoria fell down stairs in Windsor Castle in 1883 which had a permanent effect on her health from then on.  That tiny detail I work into her appearance in the story just for the lark of having it there, it’s terribly geeky 🙂

You list several impressive genres in your description of the story. Tell us something loveable about these genres that can be seen in your book.

The story touches on several of the ‘punk’ genres of sci-fi in some way or another, and the expanded universe, will give more focus to each one.  In addition to these the classic monsters of horror are also along for the ride.  Vampire hordes led by Dracula himself, none of whom sparkle by the way.  Werewolves, who are a misunderstood society pushed to extinction by humanity.  Frankenstein’s butt kicking bride, a McDonalds loving stranded alien, and a traveller from the 22nd century.  For Steampunk elements, aside from just having the general air of Victorian science fiction, I have the staple of the genre, the airship.  A grand leviathan that makes it to present day Las Vegas to take on some modern aircraft above that brilliantly crazy city.  As for the other fringe sci-fi elements we have, without wanting to give too much away, cyborgs, biological nightmares, other worldly nanotechnology, and some lightning infused Teslapunk.

Now how about something new that this world brings to the genres.

Beyond the fact that I don’t think I’ve seen a story that mixes up the wide range of sci-fi and horror that runs rampant throughout the book, I hope the thing it brings is accessibility. Flint’s first astonishing adventure is a wild ride that acts as a mainstream on ramp to the many genres it incorporates.  It will allow the deeper themes of those genres to be further explored in the planned sequels, the expanded universe, and in other tales featuring the characters together and on solo adventures.  If you ask people in the street if they’ve heard of Steampunk, or perhaps Atompunk, you’ll most likely get a blank stare.  I hope to be able to give them a doorway through which new readers will take their first steps into a fantastical new world, within which they find tales to make the heart race, and challenge their attitudes on many social issues.  If I can gain an audience for my stories, and signpost them to William Gibson, G. D. Falksen, or Gail Carriger, I’ll be a happy man.

What’s your hope in regards to opening the world of Heracles Flint up to other artists and writers?

I’d love to be able to build a platform for other talented creators to set up shop in a corner of Flint’s universe, and create spin off novels, comics, maybe even web series or radio dramas featuring the characters.  I’m writing some new ones just for this purpose and it will give people the opportunity to make things like roleplay blogs, which Tumblr is brilliant for, though there’s far too many Tony Starks on there 🙂  The book establishes a time-line of events that spans over a century, and the sequels will expand that further.  There’s the potential for a new comics and novel universe waiting for people to dive in and have fun, the sky’s the limit.  It would be so amazing to head to my local comics shop, or make my weekly download from Comixology, and see some of my characters in books that have other people letting loose with their imaginations.

Who would win in a fight: Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Heracles Flint?

Hmmm this one is hard to call. While Heracles is a Victorian era gentleman he has a healthy respect for women’s abilities as warriors, and is all too aware that some may outclass him. So as soon as he sees Buffy is capable of possibly kicking his ass he’ll give no quarter in his efforts to put her down.  He’ll also have an edge due to a handy array of gadgetry so I’ll give this one to him 🙂

Thank you to Nick Moore for sparing some of his blood, sweat, and no-sleep filled time with Geekscape! You can donate to the Heracles Flint society here. In fact, one of the rewards even includes your visage as a society member! Don’t wait. Act now. The world may depend on it.
 

Fandom Planet 51: Time After Time After Time

by SaxCarr

The boys geek out about Time Travel this week, as the proprietor of
Los Angeles’ own Time Travel Mart (https://826la.org/store/), Lauren
Rock joins us.  She discusses not only time travel, robots and sci-fi,
but also the great things that the Time Travel Mart does to promote
literacy and education all over America.

In addition, our good friend Robert J. Peterson, the novelist, chimes
in and promotes his new science-fantasy novel, “The Odds”
(www.TheOddsNovel.com) and tells YOU how YOU can help it get
published!  (hint:  http://bit.ly/theoddsnovel ) .  Bob is a good
friend of the show and you will enjoy his articulate insight.  We find
that it’s a welcome diversion from Tim & Sax’s usual tomfoolery.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:48:56 — 99.7MB)

Joe Cornish Attacks the Book ‘Snow Crash’

by Matt Blackwood

Since his outstanding debut with Attack the Block, Joe Cornish has been searching for his next project. Now it looks like he’s finally found it.

Cornish has signed on to write and direct the film adaptation of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, the dystopian cyberpunk classic about a sword-wielding pizza man trying to save the world from a computer virus.

Paramount has been trying off and on to get the film made almost since the novel’s 1992 release. Will Cornish be the man to finally realize the cinematic vision?

Allow it!