Celebrating Inclusive Spec-Fic and Poetry with A Zombie Anthem

It's no surprise that speculative poetry and fiction are growing to include more diverse points of view.  In this kind of writing, everyone gets to define "normal" in their own way.  As we as a species learn to value our differences, spec-fic offers an excellent platform for working out our unconscious (and conscious) ideas of how we can view the "other" as "just another one of us."  Here we can teach ourselves how to see all humans (and perhaps someday all robots and aliens) as "normal."

So along these lines, I have to say how happy I am that my poem "A Zombie Anthem" was picked up by Eye to the Telescope for their July 2012 themed issue of LBGTQ Speculative Poetry.  The poetry reflects a range of moods, concepts, and experiences which play with the whole notion of gender.  Also, keep your eye on this "Eye" since ETTT has a different editor for every issue, which offers up its own kind of diversity in themes and styles.

In the process of submitting for the above, I encountered some publications I didn't know were out there.  This is hardly an exhaustive list, but I thought I'd mention one or two.

Back in January, Stone Telling produced Bridging: The Queer Issue. This speculative poetry quarterly has been inclusive since its inception, stating, "we are especially interested in seeing work that is multi-cultural and boundary-crossing, work that deals with othering and Others, work that considers race, gender, sexuality, identity, and disability issues in nontrivial and evocative ways."

The speculative fiction magazine The Future Fire has published feminist and queer themed issues, and actively "seeks stories by women, people of colour, LGBTQ folk, and other groups under-represented in genre fiction."  They have an upcoming issue requesting "new stories told from the perspective of the colonized.  We want the cultures, languages and literatures of colonized peoples and recombocultural individuals to be heard.  We want stories that neither exoticize nor culturally appropriate the non-western settings and characters in them."

The twice yearly publication Collective Fallout is "dedicated to queer-themed sci-fi, fantasy, horror, mystery and other speculative short fiction, poetry, and art.  We hope what you find here opens your minds and makes you think about what queer literature means to our culture. It is not just entertainment. It is a teacher and a tool. It is a statement of past, present, and future."

The Outer Alliance is a group of "SF/F writers who have come together as allies for the advocacy of LGBT issues in literature. Made up of individuals of all walks of life, our goal is to educate, support, and celebrate LGBT contributions in the science-fiction and fantasy genres."  Their site offers news, links, and updates on upcoming themed issues of interest.

Of all the publications I've run into so far, the "encouraging diversity" award goes to Expanded Horizons.  Now I consider myself a very inclusive and welcoming individual, but EH has a list of types of diversity I had not even considered.  I mean it.  Beyond issues of gender, ethnic background, the physically and mentally disabled, they specifically call out those who are "otherkin" and those with unusual sensory perceptions.  The success of this approach is evident in their May issue, of which every single story is unique and engrossing.

I'm always looking for more.  What inclusive speculative fiction journals and resources are your favorites?

Pax, all

Image Credit:  Chalk Rainbow, by Pink Sherbet Photography, on Flikr via Creative Commons, CC 2.0

Top Ten Cult Movie Favorites: Fantasy

Tim Curry as Darkness.  Oh yeah.

I'm back for more fun with my personal cult movie favorites.  Last week I gave out my Top Ten Cult Movie Favorites: Science Fiction.  In that post I go into some detail about what "cult movie" means to me, and how I decided if a movie could be considered for the top ten.

Interestingly, this list was the most fun to make of any of my top three (I'll post horror next week.)  I'm not sure why - perhaps because most of my fantasy cult favorites are also adventure films in one way or another.  My sci-fi seems more serious, and horror can be, you know ... scary.

In any case, trying to pull this together was both very entertaining and very frustrating.  I had to drop a huge stack of fantastic films in order to whittle this down to ten.  Fantasy ends up being a catch-all genre for anything with supernatural elements that are not horrific or futuristic.  I had to cut Raiders of the Lost Arc, Clash of the Titans, The Hobbit, Highlander, Yellow Submarine, Conan the Whatever, The Beastmaster, Charlotte's Web, and on and on.

10.   Krull - 1983 - There was more hokey, campy fantasy in the 80's than Max Headroom could shake a stick at.  Here we have witches, horses with fire coming out of their feet, a cyclops, a magical ninja throwing star, and the whole prince-saves-princess thing.  At least that last cliche is busted when it takes both of their powers (their love, actually, yikes) to defeat the big bad.

9.   Wizard of Oz - 1939 - The oldest film on all three lists, this classic is still one of my favorites.  Based on Baum's book published in 1900, this movie is still entertaining (sometimes in ways it wasn't meant to be).  The fantasy elements are handled beautifully, with joy, awe, horror, and a nice neat little moral all rolled up into one.  The color is of course phenomenal, because (egads) every single frame was hand painted.

8.   The Last Unicorn - 1982 - Okay, back to the 80's.  This one has that creepy Rankin Bass animation style, but is still fun to watch.  It's also surprisingly disturbing for a kid's fantasy flick.  The voice cast is canonically star-studded again, and the group America did the soundtrack.  Really.

7.   Legend - 1985 - More eighties bizarre camp with so many stars it just does not make sense.  Tim Curry as "Darkness" (in a costume that makes Rocky Horror look subtle) is the best thing in the film.  Oddly juxtaposed music from Tangerine dream and the lead singers from Yes and Roxy Music add to the sense of the surreal.

6.  Excalibur - 1981 - This movie was the first full-blown treatment of high fantasy I ever saw, so it made a huge impression.  The movie also doesn't really make much sense, as it is cobbled together from a mass of different legends, and blends historical features from a span of several hundred years.  I still enjoy it for the epic feel and the amazing images.  Still have to laugh at the sex scene where the dude does not even bother to take his armor off. 

5.  The Dark Crystal - 1983 - Okay, yes, you think I am crazy now.  I can't help it, I really like this movie.  It has so much fun fantasy, great puppeteering, and excellent voice work.  I re-watched it recently for the millionth time and realized that I Am Fizgig. 

4.  Sleeping Beauty, Disney - 1959 - The style is so lush and iconic.  It formed a strong idea in my head of what was meant by "medieval."  The real stars are the fairies, who mess up the day and then save it.  Oh yeah, I Am Also Merryweather.  Make it blue.  Seriously. 

3.  Ladyhawke - 1985 - Once again, stars all over the place in this one.  This movie has an 'A' movie feel with a 'B' movie plot.  Some great sets and good acting, as well as a really creepy story and nasty villain, make it a favorite. 

2.   Monty Python and the Holy Grail - 1975 - Fantasy at its absolute craziest.  This movie truly defines 'cult' for me.  You watch it over and over and laugh every time, and then get pissed off at the stupid ending.  The foul tempered rodent and the holy hand grenade are total genius.

1.  The Princess Bride - 1987 - Too romantic?  Too mushy?  Well, probably, but this just has to be my number one in this category.  It simply must.  Wonderful jokes, more star studded than the other stuff I said was star studded, gorgeous sets and scenery, as well as fencing.  As the bad guy says, "a trifle simple perhaps but her appeal is undeniable."

Well, there you have it.  I'm really curious to find out what your personal cult fantasy favorites are, and how you chose them.  Drop me a comment, or point me towards your blog!

Pax, all.

Image Credit:  Character 'Darkness'.  Actor - Tim Curry.  Promotional photo for the movie Legend.  

Rhysling Spec-Fic Poetry Winners

The Science Fiction Poetry Association has announced their winners for the 2012 Rhysling Awards (which I blogged about just this Friday).  I was happy to see a number of my personal favorites from the contest anthology on this list.  These poems are of excellent quality, with that fascinating twist one only gets from speculative writing.  It is great to see that speculative fiction poetry is alive and very well!   

Short Poem

1. Shira Lipkin, "The Library, After" (Mythic Delirium 24)
2. Erik Amundsen, "The Lend" (Stone Telling 5)
3. Lyn C. A. Gardner, "In Translation" (Tales of the Talisman, vol 7, issue 4)

Long Poem

1. Megan Arkenberg, "The Curator Speaks in the Department of Dead Languages" (Strange Horizons, 27 June 2011)
2. G. O. Clark and Kendall Evans, "The 25-Cent Rocket: One-Quarter of the Way to the Stars" (Dreams & Nightmares, issue 89)
3. Mary Turzillo, "The Legend of the Emperor's Space Suit (A Tale of Consensus Reality)" (NewMyths.com, issue 17)

Pax, all

Credits: Format taken from Strange Horizons, here,  

Prompt the Muse #38 - Speculative Writing Prompt

Image: Warrior with Gun

Your main character wields an unusual and powerful weapon.  Choose an item that is unexpected for the genre (i.e. if fantasy, no swords or wands, if sci-fi no ray guns or light sabers, etc.)  Take 150 words to describe this weapon, what makes it strange, and what it can do.

Image Credit:  Warrior with Gun, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

What's the Best Spec-Fic Poetry? - Reading the Rhyslings

Did you get your Rhysling award votes in on time?  It certainly wasn't easy this year, given the excellent lineup in the 2012 Rhysling Anthology.

If you enjoy poetry about science-fiction, horror, fantasy, science, astronomy, slipstream, and the otherwise speculative, then you will want to take a look at the Science Fiction Poetry Association.  The SFPA is the society that produces the Rhysling Anthology, and one of the best perks of being a member is being able to both nominate and vote for poems to win this award.  Poems are nominated from those published in the previous calendar year of 2011.

This year the anthology holds 175 pages of entertaining, creepy, thought-provoking, bizarre, humorous, scary, technical, inspiring, awesome, quirky, and unique poetry in a range of forms and styles.  A lot of poetry anthologies come out every year, but if you are a fan of the spec-fic genres, then this one is a definite must.  You don't need to be a member to get a copy; they are available on the SFPA site.

I'm not going to give away my personal tops from the book ... but I am going to mention a few of the pieces that really struck me for one reason or another.

The Witch's Heart by Nichole Kornher-Stace is a nice slice of dread.  The witch represents a host of what humans grieve, regret, and fear.  The language is colloquial but not contrived, and the pace clips along evenly to the creepy end.

the more space by Ann K. Schwader is just a tiny thing, only five lines and sixteen words.  But with great conservation of language, it conveys a powerful sense of loss.  Taking it somewhat literally, it brings to mind the loss of the night sky to the light pollution of cities.

The Curator Speaks in the Department of Dead Languages by Megan Arkenberg is a well woven piece that brings the reader in immediately.  The speaker laments the struggle of translating ancient texts when the languages have completely vanished, yet the poem conveys the hope found in tenacity and fortitude.

Speaking to the Hangman is Not Permitted by J.E. Stanley is a poem describing a corrupt trial in a dystopian future.  The piece conveys apprehension that grows into horror when the reader realizes that either the (apparently innocent) defendant will be executed, or the whole jury.

Did you have a favorite poem published last year that didn't get nominated?  What (and where) was it?  Do you have your own favorites from this anthology to share?  Let me know your opinions.

Pax, all

Top Ten Cult Movie Favorites: Science Fiction

Logan 5's time has run out.

What is a cult movie?  There are a mind-numbing number of possible definitions.  I read a bunch of them for the sake of being educated.  Then I figured I would go ahead and make up my own definition and rubric for that extra-personal touch.  

Most definitions I read online focused on the movie doing poorly at initial release, but later becoming an underground success with a niche audience.  But for me, the most important aspect of "cult" is that I have - and will - watch the movie over and over and over.  It has to be a movie that isn't just a personal favorite, but is one I'm obsessive about.  You know, like a cult sort of thing.

So here is how I picked my top ten ...

1. Has to be at least 25 years old.  I took anything from 1987 or older. 
2. I have to have seen it at least five times.  Points for every time over that I've watched the film.  Special bonus points for anything I've seen 25 times or more.
3. Points for movies my family and friends can't stand
4. Points for movies that didn't do well at the box office
5. Points for movies that have not been remade/rebooted, and have not lead to any sequels. 
6. Points if I own a copy.  I don't buy many movies, so this is a pretty good sign of my feelings towards a film.

Then I realized I also had to define "Science Fiction," since there are plenty of movies that mix genres.  I decided I'd consider anything with a science-fiction setting like spaceships, other planets, or the future.  If the movie had elements of either fantasy or horror that overwhelmed the impact of the sci-fi setting, then I moved it to that category.

So okay, in proper top ten style, starting with number ten ...

10.  Tron - 1982 - Some think it's too bad to be good, but I really enjoy this film.  The vision of what goes on inside a computer is fascinating, and of course the difference in tech between now and then leads to many laughs.  I didn't see the sequel, and probably won't.  (You're a user!)

9.   Blade Runner - 1982 - This is of course an amazing movie that has great acting and an overwhelming atmosphere.  It's a bit darker and more drama-like than most of my preferred sci-fi, but was too awesome to leave out. (It's too bad she won't live.)

8.   Logan's Run - 1976 - Amazingly hokey and predictable, but still an entertaining romp through a bizarre future world.  It was supposed to be serious, but seeing Farah Fawcett try to act in a bit part here pushes it over into the realm of the ridiculous.  York is good, as always.  (Renew!)

7.   The Andromeda Strain - 1971 - Even though this movie has been remade, the old version still makes my list.  This was one of the first sci-fi movies I wanted to see anytime it came on the tube.  (Flashing lights remind me of my time in a bordello.)

6.   Dark Star - 1974 - A lesser known dark comedy about a crew of humans who have the job of destroying planets that might become orbitally unstable, thereby making the universe safe for human colonization.  The scenes with an alien beach ball creature eventually gave rise to the concept behind the movie Alien. (Phenomenology.) 

5.   Robocop - 1987 - I love the juxtaposition of "real" gritty city life against the shiny corporate machine (literally), all set against dry gags about our dystopian future.  There is so much ass-kicking, too.  (Sun Block 3000)
 
4.   Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan - 1982 - In spite of the massive Star Trek franchise, The Wrath of Khan is very high on my cult movie list.  In fact, I have to say it's an awesome movie all around, with a very tight script, good acting, excellent pace, solid plot, and great special effects. (Khaaan!)
 
3.   The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension - 1984 - A fabulous, bizarre adventure with the canonical star-studded cast.  The humor ranges from surreal, to dry, to dark, to utterly absurd.  The concepts are so whacky you just can't stop watching. (What's that watermelon doing there?)

2.   Flash Gordon - 1980 - This fantastically campy comic book of a film has a score by Queen and a huge number of disturbingly famous actors.  It is in my top five cult films of ANY genre, time, or place.  I can hardly say why, but I love this film. (Fly my hawkmen!)

1.   Star Wars Trilogy - 1977, 1980, 1983 - In spite of its popularity, the fact that it is a huge franchise, how much money it has made, etc., I was forced to put the original Star Wars Trilogy at the top of my list.  I have long, long since lost track of the number of times I have seen Star Wars.  Added to the number of times I've seen Empire and Jedi, it's probably over a hundred. (It's a trap!)

A brief moment of silence for all those great movies that just didn't make the cut like The Road Warrior, Time Bandits, and the Planet of the Apes.

I want to hear from you!  What are your top ten cult sci-fi movies?  How did you pick them?  Go ahead and put your thoughts in the comments here, or do your own blog post on the subject and post the link in my comments so I can come and check it out.

Pax, All

Image:  Logan 5 from the movie Logan's Run, Wikipedia

Prompt the Muse #37 - Speculative Writing Prompt

Art:  Horned Man

One of your characters has traits that others in the same culture consider to be indicators of evil.  However, this character is in fact very good.  What are these traits that the others mistake for signs of evil?  How does this character convince others that they are mistaken?  Express your thoughts in 200 words.

Image Credit:   Horned Man, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Honoring Your Guru - A Few Callouts on the Fourth of July

Art:  Guru Purnima by Sarah Noble

July 4th seems to be a good moment in time to consider the idea of honoring our "gurus" - the people who have inspired, encouraged, taught, motivated, and generally allowed our dreams to take form.  Sarah Noble, the artist of the piece Guru Purnima chose to honor her science gurus, and more, with this meeting of Moon and lotus.

I've always been troubled that for some people, the fourth of July is only about military achievement.  While I deeply appreciate the sacrifices of service men and women, and was raised by two service people myself, I don't choose to emphasize that element on the fourth (I do that on Memorial Day and Veteran's Day).  On the fourth of July, I choose to focus on great endeavors by Americans that have enhanced our quality of life, deepened our sense of shared culture, expanded our minds, and paved the way for a new future.

I do not mean to suggest that the people on my list were perfect, or had universally noble lives.  But for me, each has added something to my personal world that I appreciate.  I can't offer my full list since it would go on for hundreds of pages, so here are just a handful of Americans that I'm going to call out:

George Washington, mostly for refusing to be king
Martin Luther King, Jr, for promoting civil rights
Edgar Allen Poe, for creepy literature and poetry
Harriet Tubman, for sneaking slaves north, like herself
Jonas Salk, for polio vaccine and other research
John Muir, for institutionalizing conservationism
Nikola Tesla, for incredible and bizarre inventions
Jackie Robinson, told not to fight back for two years and did it 
Clara Barton, for founding the Red Cross

Although I have to add a couple specifically related to my own fields of specialization in astronomy/planetary science/and especially the Moon, like: Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker, Carl Sagan, everybody who made the Moon landings possible ... I could go on for a while ...

So, who are some of the people that would be on your list?  Who has inspired your dreams, from both near and far?

Pax, All

Image Credit: Artist Sarah Noble, Piece Guru Purnima.  Sarah's words - "The next full Moon is Tomorrow, July 3rd. The Moon will be opposite the Sun at at time when we cannot see it (2:52 pm EDT), but will appear full for about 3 days centered on this time, from late Sunday night/early Monday morning through early Thursday morning. This month's painting is from Hindu tradition, this is the Guru Full Moon (Guru Purnima) and is celebrated as a time for clearing the mind and honoring your guru."

Prompt the Muse #36 - Speculative Writing Prompt

Image: Planetary Nebula

A civilization is using a special device to monitor another people.  The device remains undetected even though it is in plain view because it looks like something else.  What is this device and how is it disguised?  Will those who are being monitored ever figure out that the object isn't what it seems?  Give yourself 200 words to put down your ideas.

Image Credit:  Planetary Nebula NGC 6751, NASA, Hubble Heritage Project