// Category Archive for: Books

Hey! Someone Got Romance In My Sci Fi!

By Lisa Anderson

For me, it all started with a gift bag.

An acquaintance of mine runs a paranormal romance* book club. Last year, she gave me a goody bag she had obtained, a reusable tote containing books, bookmarks, pencils, and other gifts. One of the ad fliers included had a starry background (indicating the book’s location in outer space) and featured a sexy embrace between a tough-looking woman in a black tank top . . . and a man wearing glasses.

It took my breath away. I couldn’t recall having ever seen a hero with glasses on the cover of a romance novel before. I’d been intrigued by the concept of Sci-Fi Romance (SFR), but had been burned by my first attempt, putting the book down after the third time the hero threatened the heroine’s life. I decided to give it another try, though, and bought the book from the flier—Rebels and Lovers, by Linnea Sinclair. Now SFR is my favorite romance subgenre!
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The Silver Metal Lover

By Less Lee Moore

Robots have frequently played pivotal roles in science fiction. In Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, the False Maria robot is created to destroy. Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner features several replicants, or biorobotic androids, created as human soldiers and slaves. There is Pris, the “basic pleasure model” and Zhora, an assassin. Both have a predetermined lifecycle of about three years. When the end approaches, both Pris and Zhora turn deadly. There is also Rachael, an even more advanced replicant, who does not even realize she is a replicant.

And then there is Tanith Lee’s 1981 novel, The Silver Metal Lover, which intriguingly combines elements of Metropolis, Blade Runner, and even Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, to weave a spellbinding tale of the other part of the story: What happens when someone falls in love with a robot?

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Life: Keith Richards with James Fox

By Magda Underdown-DuBois

If one has ever heard Keith Richards interviewed, one knows his stories are amazingly well remembered for a man who was rumored to exist only through artificial means. The front flap of the dust jacket of Life explains this memoir of Keith Richards’ life completely and succinctly, “This is the Life. Believe it or not I haven’t forgotten any of it. Thanks and praises Keith Richards.”

Expected was a standard rambling account of drugs, sex, and rock & roll. Instead, what was delivered displayed a coherent story of Tolkien-inspired male friendship; awkward yet endearing fumbles through art, business, and parenting; a tribute to those who didn’t survive; and music of all genres soaking into the words, like the mixed odor of tobacco and whiskey.
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I Slept With Joey Ramone: A Punk Rock Family Memoir

By Less Lee Moore

The Ramones have infiltrated pop culture to the point where one can hardly imagine a world without them. Yet out of the original lineup, all have passed away except for Tommy. Dee Dee died in 2002; Johnny died in 2004. Joey died from lymphatic cancer in 2001. His brother Mickey Leigh started writing I Slept With Joey Ramone not long afterwards, with the help of longtime friend and punk writer Legs McNeil.
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The Mistress And The Maid: Mildred Pierce

By Less Lee Moore

When I learned of the Mildred Pierce miniseries—directed by Todd Haynes and airing on HBO—I was thrilled. I’ve been a longtime fan of the novel and film, as well as of Haynes. Then I started to second-guess my excitement.

Would another male-directed version of this story merely intensify the story’s “male gaze”? Furthermore, should I revere Mildred Pierce as a feminist text when the original novel was written by one man (James M. Cain) and first captured on screen by another (Michael Curtiz)?
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Beyond Twilight: Stephenie Meyer’s The Host

By Lisa Anderson

Stephenie Meyer: Few writers have ever had their work loved and hated so deeply at the same time.

Her Twilight series, consisting of four novels and a novella, has sold over 100 million copies worldwide and been translated into 38 languages, as well as being adapted into a film saga that is set to conclude this year. Meyer has a wide variety of critics, from vampire purists who resent the liberties she has taken with the lore, to feminists who find the relationship between her romantic leads unhealthy. In all the hubbub, though, you hear almost nothing about Meyer’s other brain child: A science fiction novel called The Host which was released in 2008.
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In Defense Of Elizabeth Gilbert

By Lisa Anderson

Elizabeth Gilbert seems to be a rather divisive literary figure. Her 2006 memoir, Eat, Pray, Love told the story of the year she lived abroad after her first marriage ended. It spent almost two hundred weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and was praised by Oprah Winfrey. At the same time, it received a lot of criticism in the blogosphere. The gist of the criticism is that many people have problems starker than Gilbert’s, that very few people have the resources to travel for a year as she did, a and that to use other countries as the backdrop for her personal salvation was imperialist at best, racist at worst.

I don’t think that any writer is above criticism, and I’m not trying to silence anyone. I certainly agree that racial and cultural sensitivity are important. However, a lot of what I’ve heard said about Gilbert misses the point of her work, and some critiques are quite sexist. I’d like to point out a few of the things that I’ve heard and explain why I don’t believe they apply.
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Sing It, Sister? An Eve Ensler Comparison

By Maureen

I first read The Vagina Monologues when I was in late adolescence and thought it was brilliant. Eve Ensler’s collection of stories and vignettes made me proud to have a vagina and to know that other women had similar experiences with menstruation, first-time tampon use, annoyance at “feminine itch” commercials, and so much more. I saw a performance of the Monologues at my college during which not only did my recently discovered distant cousin perform a monologue, but one of the professors at my university also simulated a rollicking orgasm.

As a young person just discovering ideas of sexuality and feminism, I was in such awe of Ms. Ensler ad her ability to ask the uncomfortable questions, publish the painful stories, and organize a foundation to help women who don’t have opportunities to be as bold as those of us who don’t live in fear of being stoned to death for mentioning sex or showing skin.
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The Adventures Of Miss Flitt: Q&A With Designer Beth Hahn

By Chelsea Spear

In the late 2000s, knitwear designer Beth Hahn took the knitting world by storm with her series, The Adventures of Miss Flitt. Blending steampunk-friendly Victorian style, elegant knitwear designs, and an addictive narrative, the series follows the adventures of Emma Flitt as she traverses 19th century Brooklyn to find her sister. Her travels take her to seedy vaudeville theaters, pickpockets’ dens, and—in the most recent edition—to a most spooky séance. Ever the master storyteller, Hahn weaves her story through a series of simple-yet-gorgeous and thoroughly wearable cardigans, berets, overskirts, and other accessories.

On a chilly weekend in early January, I took virtual tea with Beth Hahn to find out more about her knitting endeavors.
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Destroy All Movies!!! The Complete Guide To Punks On Film

By Less Lee Moore

Any marginalized subculture bristles at being misinterpreted on film. Then again, the punk subculture is by now so fragmented and unrecognizable, one hesitates to even attempt to define it, much less depict it on the screen.

Yet best friends Zack Carlson and Bryan Connolly spent five years documenting each and every appearance of punks on film. They were inspired to undertake this monumental task after re-watching Penelope Spheeris’s quasi documentary Suburbia and then shortly thereafter, seeing Joysticks, a video arcade comedy from 1983, for the first time.
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