| Spotlight | Purchase: Meet ‘Olive Kitteridge’ Elizabeth Strout, the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “Olive Kitteridge,” read from the book at Manhattanville College this week. feeds.nytimes.com |
Name the best science fiction titles Speculative fiction has produced some of the most intriguing story titles ever. But which are the best of the best?You should never judge a book by its cover, but should you judge a story by its title? If the recent success of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is anything to go by, then for many readers today the answer is yes. Seth Grahame-Smith's bestselling mash-up of Jane Austen and George A Romero became one of the most pre-ordered titles this side of The Lost Symbol, based solely on a zeitgeist-surfing title. And if those readers came to the story expecting an obvious joke stretched thin over 316 pages too many, they were not disappointed.But the best titles do much more than persuade readers to shell out £7.99 for a paperback. Beyond grabbing a reader's attention, a great title should open up the meaning of a story, revealing layers of character, theme and subtext beyond the simple plot. And for a work of speculative fiction the challenge is even greater, as the title should give a taste of the wonder and weirdness the reader can expect from the story to come. The Nine Billion Names of God by Arthur C Clarke – a story of religion colliding with science written in the early 1950s – is certainly an early contender for Best Ever SF Title. From around the same era, The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester is still at least partially fascinating. And two classics of dystopian fiction, George Orwell's 1984 and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, take not-dissimilar paths to titular greatness.But for my money the single greatest era of SF story titling came in the 1960s and early 1970s, when speculative fiction reflected on the political and social changes of the era and became ever weirder and more challenging. The Left Hand of Darkness perfectly encapsulates the feminist arguments of Ursula Le Guin's masterpiece. Just a tad further to the right on the political spectrum, Robert A Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in Strange Land nonetheless made their conservative author a key figure of the counterculture. Perhaps my personal favourite of the era comes from no less than Harlan Ellison, whose I Have No Voice, and I Must Scream is every bit as brutal and nasty a story as you might expect. (Although nowhere near as nasty as The Atrocity Exhibition by JG Ballard.)However, if any single author cornered the market on great titles it was the supremely strange Philip K Dick. The Exit Door Leads In, We Can Remember It For You Wholesale, The Penultimate Truth, A Scanner Darkly, The Man in the High Castle and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? are only a few of the classic titles that Dick penned in his prolific career.Today's SF writers are no less inventive in naming their stories, and in the last few years the long title has come into its own once again. Eugie Foster proves that meter never goes out of fashion with Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast. The prolific Jay Lake goes long with The Sky That Wraps the World Round, Past The Blue and Into the Black. But multiply award-winning Kij Johnson trumps both with [http://www.kijjohnson.com/evolution.html] The Evolution of Trickster Stories Among the Dogs of North Park After the Change (although her superb 26 Monkeys, also the Abyss is equally catchy). Perhaps Jeff Vandermeer was reacting against the trend towards length when he penned the monosyllabic beauty of Finch? But what are your favourites?Science fiction, fantasy and horrorPhilip K DickDamien G Walterguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |
Hollywood Chronicle Tony Curtis on Marilyn Monroe; Orson Welles’s daughter on her father; a biography of Clint Eastwood; and a memoir by a celebrity biographer. feeds.nytimes.com |
Toronto Women's Bookstore seeks help Nearly two decades after almost being destroyed in a firebombing, the Toronto Women's Bookstore is once again fighting for its survival. cbc.ca |
The digested read Simon & Schuster, £12.99To start with, here's the end. You might be wondering why we're putting the end of the book at the beginning. It's to give you an idea of why there's absolutely no point reading it. So here's what this book is going to do for you. It's going to get you the job you want. It's going to get you the love life you want. Yes, that's right. This book is going to singlehandedly end the Ârecession. Because everyone who reads it will become a millionaire. And sleep with George Clooney or Keira Knightley.So read carefully. Think of all the things you want. Now think about how to get them. And if that doesn't work, think of other ways to get them. It's that easy. All you have to do is to Âimagine you are extremely talented and drop-dead gorgeous, instead of the kind of loser who will buy a book like this. Even if you don't think you can do this Âconsciously, we have written the book in such a way you will learn the techniques subconsciously. And if you don't, no one will be any the wiser. Though we, of course, will be £12.99 richer!First, you've got to understand your thinking. People are very good at saying what they don't want. It's much harder to say what you do want. That's why so many people come back from a Ârestaurant having eaten a meal they didn't want. To get what you want, you need a plan. Take Megan. Megan wanted to be a star and win The X ÂFactor. But everyone needs three plans to Âguarantee success. If she had also Âentered Britain's Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance, she'd have Âdefinitely had her own TV show.To get what you want, you have to be able to get inside other Âpeople's heads. Everyone can be persuaded. Think about it. You've been Âpersuaded this book is going to make a Âdifference. You just have to sound Âconvincing. How do you do it? You create a Âconnection. Look at someone you want to know. Bono, say. Now put on some ridiculous shades, become a tax exile and look deeply Âcompassionate. See? You are friends already. And don't worry about being a fraud. With any luck the person you want to form a connection with has also read this book, so you're both faking it.Here's the end again. This time in the middle. Why have we put it here? To fill up a bit of space.Have you ever wondered why Âcelebrities tend to get what they want? It's because no one can resist fawning over talentless narcissists with loads of dosh. Now think about it. You too are a talentless narcissist, so you are Âhalfway to being a celebrity. All you have to do to convince someone you are a celeb is to get yourself an Elton John Âhair-weave and flash loads of cash. Just get a bank loan and go to a nightclub, and watch everyone falling over Âthemselves to offer you a recording contract and sleep with you.Now that you are famous, everything should fall into place. But there are still some important techniques to remember, as it is very easy for your Âinner tosser to reassert itself. The golden rule is Never be Yourself. ÂBeing yourself was the reason you had a crap job and never got laid. The key to success is fooling other people into believing you are halfway interesting and attractive, and the way to do this is to be manipulative, withholding and deceitful. It's worked for us and it can work for you. And if, by any chance, you do come across someone who has integrity and refuses to play by the rulebook, then kill them. Pour Âencourager les autres, comprenez?And that's all there is to it. So here's the end again. You don't have to be the sort of loser who buys a new self-help book every January. But luckily for us, you are.Digested read, digested: . . . Like a hole in the head.John Craceguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds feeds.guardian.co.uk |