M John Harrison in the Guardian

Just what it says on the tin: A profile of M. John Harrison in the Guardian.

"If Ray Bradbury wrote to forestall a future, Harrison says he writes to 'forestall a present'; the militarised capitalism, environmental destruction and short-sighted self-obsession of his imaginary universe are only 'a description of the world we live in'. It's a brutal, soulless world where human beings see the unknowable wonder of the Tract only as a chance to make some money; people visit the 'chop shop' to genetically modify their bodies to look like Marilyn Monroe or grotesquely over-muscled fighters; and the distant war against the aliens is 'your war, to be accessed however it fitted best into your busy schedule'."

The Parisian Underground & Secret Societies

Gizmodo has an piece on Parisian underground, tunnels and the like, and cataphiles.

Wake the Snake

Gibson at the Bar

William Gibson on The High Bar on memory and atemporality.

SDCC 2012: News via CBR

Terry Moore, the creator of Strangers in Paradise, talks about his future comics plans. Looks like more SiP for it's 20th anniversary and Rachel Rising, a new horror series.

Robert Kirkman talks about the Skybound imprint at Image, including more Witch Doctor from Brandon Seifert.

An interview with Gary Whitta and Darick Robertson over Oliver!

The Image Panel featuring Matt Fraction, Joe Casey, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Howard Chaykin, Joe Casey, Jim Robertson, and people mentioned above. I'm stoked for Image in the coming year.

Dark Horse's horror panel.

Joe Keatinge and Ken Garing go Intergalactic in a new future sf series at Monkeybrain.

File Under: Recipes, sub, Mmmmm

Avocado Chili Brownies topped with Avocado Tequila Ice Cream

Playwrights, Fabulists, & WWI: AA Milne

Winnie the Pooh was inspired by a Canadian black bear that was the mascot of a WWI military unit. Winnipeg the bear, or "Winnie", sat out the war at the London Zoo. Winnie was so tame that children could feed her honey but only under the supervision of the zookeepers. Christopher Milne was one of those kids.

A listing of poets of the Great War. I forgot that Saki was in that number.

Fabulists & WWI: JRR Tolkien Edition

One of the oldest ideas in my projects drawer concerns writers, primarily fabulists, that were more known as playwrights during their lifetime but are now usually known for one thing or in one area. Most of those on my list lived during the reign of Queen Victoria and/or King Edward VII. This afternoon's project is WWI. I'm just going to slide links for research material around here:

Tolkien and WWI: He joined the Lancashire Fusiliers as a second lieutenant.

More on the Battle of Somme which Tolkien experienced before being mustered out with trench fever.

Green Man Review covers John Garth's Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle Earth.

Kate Nepveu covered John Garth's "Frodo and the Great War" for Tor.com. Interesting, but it appears here that Garth goes overmuch into connections between the war and The Lord of the Rings, and Tolkien maintained one wasn't a metaphor for the other.

Or not. From a letter to Professor L. W. Forster dated 31 December, 1960: The Lord of the Rings was actually begun, as a separate thing, about 1937, and had reached the inn at Bree, before the shadow of the second war. Personally, I do not think either war (and of course not the atomic bomb) had any influence on either the plot or the manner of it's unfolding. Perhaps in landscape. The Dead Marshes and the approaches to the Morannon owe something to Northern France after the Battle of Somme. They owe more to William Morris and his Huns and Romans, as in The House of the Wolfings or The Roots of the Mountains.


Picture of a WWI revolver, 2nd Lt Tolkien's, in this case.

The Pietist Schoolman covers WWI as regards Tolkien and CS Lewis.