Words of writers

A couple of friends who are not absorbed into the viral entity that is LiveJournal have been blogging on interesting topics lately. First up is Al Robertson, on Quatermass, science and absurdity. This is a topic close to my heart at the moment, for reasons that I’ll get into if and when they’re public domain. I find Quatermass to be a very interesting character, but some of my opinions don’t particularly fit. At the moment, having watched The Quatermass Experiment only, I’m seeing the story as a somewhat Promethean allegory, and perhaps thinking of Quatermass as a tortured soul. By all accounts, Nigel Kneale’s later work has a fairly dark and depressing (yet amazing) take on life and the universe, but as much as it sets the stage in many ways for the things that were to follow, the first show is, to me, Quatermass’ attempt to right the wrong that he has unleashed on Earth. That there is recurring torture to follow may either prove or disprove my thinking, depending on how you look at it. I know Al himself disagrees with the Prometheus comparison, and he knows Kneale’s work a lot better than I, but regardless… I’d be interested in anyone’s thoughts on the topic, should they have any.

Second up is the inimitable Matthew Woodring Stover, who has been talking about his new novel (Caine: Black Knife, a follow up to Heroes Die and Blade of Tyshalle) as well as the problem of reading as a writer. Here’s a quote:

So this is the thing I really want to drive home for any and all people who find something special in my books (or, for that matter, in anyone else’s).

It’s not the book. It’s you. It’s your mind doing all the work. Your commitment, your willingness to be touched, your suspension of disbelief and the power of your imagination. That’s why there are many, many people who will never be moved by some story you love — or, for some impoverished souls, by any story at all.

If you find something extraordinary in one of my books, it’s because it was already inside you, and the words just helped you locate it, that’s all.

If you don’t know why Matt Stover is one of the most incredibly talented writers living and breathing on Earth at this moment, then click here and peruse the prologue that he tacked onto the beginning of the minutes to certain events in a galaxy not so close to ours. I’ve read the book three times, which is two times more than I’ve watched the not exactly mind-blowing movie. You make your own judgement… it’s geek material, but I can dig that. Can you?