In the jargon of science fiction fandom, Rich Coad is publishing a “sercon fanzine” — an amateur publication that emphasizes serious discussion of science fiction literature and issues, rather than social chatter, autobiographical writings, or in-group humour. Long before the existence of blogging or the web, fanzines were the vehicle that carried much of the same functions and sensibility. A few science fiction fanzines of the old-fashioned print-on-paper variety still survive, but fewer still are “sercon”. There’s a special pleasure in holding the stuff in your hands, and my hat goes off to Rich for facing the daunting barriers of high postal rates and computer-generation apathy. Read more »
(Rich Coad –ed.) Sense of Wonder Stories #0–2, Feb-July 2008 [zines]
Classical Composition in Early 19th Century Canada
When it comes to formal composition in Canada, before 1860, I know of nothing that was composed outside of Québec, the only part of the country with anything resembling an urban culture. There was, of course, plenty of folk fiddling, folk singing, tavern ballads, and hymn singing going on in Ontario, the West, and Atlantic Canada, but only Montréal and Québec City could support professional composers. Most of their work is unobtainable, but a sampling has been put together by l’Ensemble du Nouveau Québec under the titleAnthologie de la musique historique du Québec, vol.1 ― l’époque de Julie Papineau, 1795–1862. As you might guess, it is pretty tame, provincial stuff, polkas, mazurkas and art songs of modest ambition. The most ambitious piece seems to have been Joseph Quesnel’s comic opera Lucas et Cécile(c. 1808), of which only the vocal parts survive. The two excerpts on the album display some panache, but they would have been old-fashioned in style at the time of their composition. All the works, by Quesnel, Frédéric Glackemeyer, Théodore Molt, Charles Sabatier, Ernest Gagnon, Célestin Lavigueur, and Antoine Dessane have the charm of small drawing-room compositions in a backwoods environment. They are most vigorous when they draw on folk material and local themes. However, the environment wasn’t entirely unsophisticated: Dessane made a setting of Alphonse Lamartine, at the time an avant-guarde poet. Nothing on the album, however, comes close to the impact of its best track: Antoine Gérin-Lajoie’s “Un Canadien Errant”. Strictly speaking, Gérin-Lajoie merely wrote evocative (and, at the time, politically charged) lyrics for a traditional folk song, but these lyrics are so perfect ― an exiled patriot, after the Rebellion of 1837, wanders the world, shedding tears of homesickness ― that earlier folk versions were entirely supplanted. The song has been performed by an astonishing variety of artists, ranging from Nana Mouskouri to Paul Robeson, as well as virtually every Canadian folksinger.
16400. (Jana Švábová & Tomáš Rygl) Prague
When I returned from up north, I found this book in the mail — a wonderful gift from my friend Filip Marek in Prague. It’s a beautiful, highly detailed guide to the medieval, renaissance and baroque architectural treasures of Prague. Filip knows how much I love those buildings, and how much this is a treat for me. The above photo is from elsewhere, but it gives you some idea of Prague’s charms, if you haven’t been there.
16397. (Robert McCloskey) Homer Price
This was one of the “children’s classics”, written in 1943, that I had glanced at as a child, but never actually read. A pity. McCloskey was a gentle humorist with a charming style and great human empathy, who chose to write for children rather than, say, subscribers to the New Yorker. He was also a talented artist, in a style reminiscent of Ernie Pyle. The world he writes about now seems so far away that a contemporary child might have some problems interpreting it. It would seem exotic, rather than comfortingly familiar. But if you are an adult with any feeling for North American social history, the child-viewpoint stories about pet skunks, donut machines, and giant balls of string will be fascinating.
16396. (Michael H. Shuman) The Small-Mart Revolution ― How Local Businesses are Beating the Global Competition
I would like to see everyone involved with urban reform and with democratic activism to read this book. There is a powerful undercurrent of change going on in both the United States and Canada, definitely something moving up from the grass roots and ignored by both the media and the elite political drones. It’s something far more creative and significant than a mere flaky fashion for “anti-globalism” demonstrations, with which the reader might at first confuse it. It’s the fact that people — ordinary people — are starting to question the orthodoxies they have been taught about how things “have to be”, and realizing that their self-interest, as well as their future, depends on re-invigorating local economic and political power. You would never guess it from following the media, but Americans and Canadians are starting to shake off the passivity and morbid fatalism that their rulers have energetically cultivated. They’ve begun to notice that Wal-Mart moving into your neighbourhood produces poverty, not prosperity, that North American society has been rapidly hemoraging cash into a “global” empire of multinationals-kings-dictators, and that if they don’t do something about it they are going to become helpless paupers. Shuman describes some of the things that people have been doing, mostly in small scale entrepreneurial and social action, to turn the tide. His analysis of the issues and processes is not entirely accurate — he still suffers from the confusion of categorical terminology, such as the idiotic “left-right” concept, that cripples reform thinking — but he is definitely on the right track. Read more »
(Anderson 1995) Mortal Kombat
My rationale: Somebody went to the trouble to get sufficiently stoned to make this movie. I felt that I owed it to them to get sufficiently stoned to watch it.
16390. (Thomas T. Allsen) The Royal Hunt in Eurasian History
This is an excellent book, which demonstrates that historians do not have to be sequestered in continental ghettos. Allsen is able to cite the Armenian and Georgian Chronicles, the classics of Indian and Persian literature, and the vast bureaucratic documentation of China with the same ease and familiarity as when he cites standard European sources. “Eurasia” actually means something to him. In other words, the man is modern. With this kind of attitude, he is capable of addressing a phenomenon that other historians have ignored: the Royal Hunt. This institution — which often called up an impressive chunk of a society’s resources — persisted as a continuously interconnected phenomenon from the earliest antiquity to near-modern times. It demonstrates that the whole supercontinent of Afro-Eurasia has been a cultural continuum throughout recorded history, with ideas and customs traveling back and forth from end to end to end. Allsen tries to get some sort of handle on how and why the rulers of states engaged in spectacular collective hunting expeditions and maintained vast “game parks”, a custom which transcended all the barriers of empire, language, ecosystem, and religion. His work has no “theory” behind it, only a relentless curiosity and a respect for the sources. The only deficiency that I found was that he seemed to never ask the question “what happened to the meat?”. It’s my hunch that he could have reached a more complete understanding of the phenomenon if he had explored the issues of who got to eat the vast quantities of meat that these hunts produced, how it was distributed, and how this distribution served social and political ends. I’ve noticed that there is a similar absense of the question in studies of Rome’s “games”.
Monday, August 4, 2008 — Still Time To Do What’s Right
I admire athletic talent and consider many Olympic events to be important expressions of human achievement. For that reason, I oppose the Olympic organization and the people who run it, especially when they conspire to hold their spectacles in lands without freedom or democracy, an act which underlines their contempt for the human race. The Olympics debase and corrupt athletics. The Olympics are in their essence about money, power, and exploitation. The current Olympics in Beijing are the worst to date. Their only purpose is to put the world’s stamp of approval on the Communist Party’s imperial conquests and assaults on human rights. They are being held to glorify and legitimize slavery, imperialism, and genocide.
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(Robert A. Heinlein) Four Frontiers
This is an omnibus volume presenting Robert Heinlein’s first four “juvenile” novels, originally published by Scribner’s in 1947, 1948, 1949, and 1950. Heinlein wrote twelve science fiction novels for teenagers, and put more care and artistry into them than most writers put into serious adult fiction. Their impact has been astonishing, and they remain widely read long after their science and “futurity” has become outdated. They were tremendously liberating for young readers, especially when you judge them in the context of North American society when they were written. Unlike any author writing for young people, up to that time, Heinlein treated his readers with honesty and respect, as well as providing them with a rich intellectual feast. Heinlein struggled with his editors, who constantly panicked over the possible “unsuitability” of his treatment and subject matter. But they were devoured by libraries, and thus were available to people (like me) who were in no position to buy books. Scribner’s published them in a handsome format, with illustrations of great artistic merit by Clifford Geary. I came to them when they were starting to show their age, but their “sense of wonder” and their moral impact remained vivid. Citizen of the Galaxy, for example, was one of the three books that most stimulated my life-long fascination with the issue of freedom and slavery.
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