'Fairyland', connection fail, the branch strikes, vampire ideas

Finished reading ‘Fairyland’ by Paul J. McAuley. It’s a very good novel dealing with the emergence of new genetic modification technology and the emergence of artificially created creatures called Dolls.

One of the things that impressed me about the novel, was that the future world felt believable through the technique of accumulated little details. We know we are in the future when the lead character remembers an event from his childhood dated to before the end of the twentieth century. It makes references to small things, rather then having long passages about how the world works.

These posts are getting less frequent at the moment, because my internet connection seems to fail, in windy weather. And now it appears to be on the verge of a massive fail.

Well actually it did. We had a man from the phone company around. Basically the problem was that a branch had poked its way through the phone line. This is probably symbolic of something, but I am not sure what.

I am still trying think of a new angle for a vampire story. Think that I might have got one, but still in the stages of making it work. Just having the idea is not good enough. Where I have stumbled before is having the idea, then that moment of err, and then what? I still don’t want it to be one which tries to find a scientific explanation for vampires. It’s not that, this notion is a good one; it’s just that it seems to have been by people before, who are more talented then me. So that’s out.

Also, really uneasy about the whole vulnerable to Christian symbols thing. That could end up asking for a scene where the vampire is confronted with a cross and then tries to hide behind the complete works of Richard Dawkins. (I’m sure somebody has done something like this.)

Sleepwalking, TV book clubs and the power level of vampires.

I’ve recently read ‘The Sleepwalker’s Introduction to Flight’ by Sion Scott-Wilson. I picked this up, because I liked the sound of the novel’s premise. Practising to become a cliff-diver in the garden, Mikey Hough hits the ground and puts himself into a coma. When he comes out of it, he learns that in the accident, he has lost the ability to sleep. While in hospital, he befriends a former RAF pilot and vows to track down his stolen Distinguished Flying Cross.

However, this apparently is a comic novel. What this translates into is a succession of grotesqueries. None of them are funny. It also turns into another story where the teenage narrator is able to win the girl next door. This is a familiar device that feels more like fan fiction then anything believable. The difficulty I have is that the novel strains to be funny, when it would work better with a more restrained style. Not everything has to be humorous.

I’ve finally seen the new channel 4/More 4 programme ‘The TV Book Club’. It suffers from having less than 30 minutes to cover an interview, an author profile, a look at obscure words and a study and review of the featured book. So the book that some person has been trying to fit in time to read in a week gets dealt with, over four minutes.

I’ve also been trying to think of a vampire story that could work and be relatively fresh. The difficulty is that it does all seem as if it has been done before. Something that I have noticed is that the power level of vampires seems to have been going down since ‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker. In the novel, Van Helsing sits down and tells everybody about Dracula’s powers. According to him, Dracula has the strength of 20 men, the powers of necromancy, can control the weather, control rats, owls, bats, foxes and wolves, change himself into mist, go out in the day and dematerialise. But vampires rarely demonstrate all these powers in one novel these days

Spider-Man, jobs, Day of the Triffids

Sad to hear that Toby Maguire and Sam Raimi have been dropped from doing another Spider-Man film. Sony doesn’t really seem to be getting much goodwill from doing this. Criticism of Spider-Man 3 was largely defected from Ramie, as he clearly didn’t want to have Venom in the film. The studio has been talking about doing a reboot of the franchise, although the audience may not be that interested in sitting though another origin story. Unless it’s all over in 20 minutes.

Do you have ever those moments, when it feels that your ambitions have been thwarted by geography? I’ve seen an advert for a job of a library assistant that I would have liked to apply for but it’s in a different part of the country.

Saw the adaptation of ‘Day of the Triffids’ that was shown over Christmas, eventually. Good updating of the reason for the breeding of the Triffids and Eddie Izzard was impressive as the villain. However I ultimately felt that it was a let down. Firstly have the traffics gain roots that can grasp people and drag them though things, may have sounded impressive, but makes no sense. If they can do that, why have a sting, when they could just have prey dragged to them? It also weakens the basis for their name. (Three main roots – tri). Then there is the whole idea that the hero needs to have unresolved issues with his father. This smacks of something from an American book on screen writing. As does the whole ‘trying to remember something important from his childhood’ strand.

More snow and qoutes

Another day of snow. My father is going out buying new sacks of coal and getting batteries for the radio. I sometimes wonder if there is something in the nation’s mindset that looks forward to things going wrong.

Noticed on the website for Wired magazine a list of 100 quotes every geek should know http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/01/100-quotes-every-geek-should-know/. Here’s the ones I think they should have had in:

“Help, Help I’m being repressed” - Dennis the Peasant, Monty Python and the Holy Grail

“You’ll regret being so damn abusive when the electric UFO gods transphase in from dimension ten to appoint me manager of the universe. I said that out loud, didn’t I?” - The Drummer, from Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday.

“Look at us! Are we not proof that there is no good, no evil, no truth, no reason? Are we not proof that the universe is a drooling idiot with no fashion sense?” Mr Nobody from Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison and Richard Case.

“A coward you are Withnail, an expert on bulls you are not.” - Marwood from Withnail and I by Bruce Robinson.

“I was having a mildly paranoid day , mostly due to the fact that the mad priest lady from over the river had taken to nailing weasels to my front door again.” - Spider Jerusalem from Transmetroplitan by Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson.

“People like listening to characters. Characters are safe, because they’re not real. So today I become a character.” - Doktor Sleepless from Doktor Sleepless by Warren Ellis and Ivan Rodriguez.

“Listen to them – the children of the night. What music they make!” Dracula by Bram Stoker.

“Why is there bacon in the soap?” Invader Zim

January snow and monsters on the rampage

January and yet again the country is paralysed in the face of snow. Because we are so unused to it, we never seem prepared. No doubt, the news will show the lines of cars, trapped on the road while the snow piles up. Of course, children will overjoyed at the closing of schools. In a few years, that won’t matter. So many children will have computers with internet connections, that they will be made to work from home.

I’d ordered the films ‘Q-The Winged Serpent’ (1981) and ‘Alligator’ (1981) on DVD, as the price had dropped down and the former has arrived. I’d ordered the two from fond memories of seeing them on video. That was from when they were part of a double bill from the format of ‘Moviedrome’ on BBC2. This was film director Alex Cox introducing a movie considered to be ‘cult’ on a Sunday night. This could be anything from ‘The Terminator’ (1984) to ‘Yojimbo’ (1961).

Both ‘Q-The Winged Serpent’ and ‘Alligator’ admittedly lack the technical sophistication of ‘Jurassic Park’ (1993). But it may be agued that they have more interesting, frightening and intelligent scripts then the latter movie.

Sorry for the break in transmission

Okay, normal services should be resumed by now. I’m sorry for the break in transmission caused by doing November Novel Writing month and then getting a brief Christmas job.

I did manage to get past the total for finishing November Novel Writing month with 50408 words. Unfortunately, the book has not got the main action so is only about a quarter of the way through. I have a feeling that once I finish the first draft, I will have to throw out most of it. Still at least I proved to myself I can have a chance at writing a novel. I’ve now got to finish the first draft in the next couple of months. However, there is another one I need to plan enough to get into a workshop at the World Horror Con. Ho hum.

I’ve finished reading ‘The New Annotated Dracula’ edited by Leslie S. Klinger. It’s a fascinating look at the text and its influences and references.

The general election campaign appears to be already starting. It’s hard to shake the feeling of a lack of excitement. Neither of the two main parties seems to be offering anything except degrees of austerity. There appears to be no promise of any new and exciting approach. Just the same as before.