Death of a Writer Notice: Frank McCourt

The New York Times announced on Sunday that author Frank McCourt passed away at the age of 78 from metastatic melanoma. A long time writing teacher in New York City, McCourt was best known amongst literary circles for his 1996 memoir “Angela’s Ashes,” a tale of his difficult Irish and Brooklyn childhood that won several awards and was adapted to film in 1999.

“I must congratulate myself, in passing, for never having lost the ability to examine my conscience, never having lost the gift of finding myself wanting & defective. Why fear the criticism of others when you, yourself, are first out of the critical gate? If self-denigration is the race I am the winner, even before the starting gun. Collect the bets.” – Frank McCourt

News Update: Quirk Books announces next classic mash-up

After keeping fans in suspense for the last few months, the wait is finally over: Quirk Books has announced the next title in their “Quirk Classics” series of literary re-imaginings, following on the excellent “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”

The winner? Might actually be a bit of a surprise:

The new title, “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters,” is a remake of another Jane Austen novel, this one weaving Victorian manners and social breeding with the nautical images of kraken, pirates, sharks and other denizens of the deep. The book is scheduled to be released on September 15 of this year.

My take on this? Well, “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” is one of my favorite books of all time, and I thought the imagery of the Flying Dutchman crew was one of the only factors keeping the “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequels from sliding into “Matrix” sequel-level mediocrity. Still don’t understand why so many people are fascinated with the Cthulu mythos, but I do give the imagery credit for inspiring so many T-shirts and RPGs.

Anyway, I think the expansion to sea monsters is a great stylistic choice on their part,with room for expansion into fields ranging from a great battle with a kraken to giant lobster claws ripping waistcoats asunder. The imagery concocted is inspired, and there is a fountain of information to draw off of. Additionally, it’s more creative than I was expecting, and keeps the series alive rather than sliding into too much meme territory – yes there will be pirates, but it promises to be more creative than that.

I am a little disappointed that they’re sticking with Jane Austen again rather than trying out a new author, but for a new franchise like this it’s probably best not to stray too far out of the comfort zone for risk of using up all your ideas. Plus it does keep my “Tale of Two Cities” steampunk project open.

Speaking of authors, one change is that this project will be handled not by Seth Grahame-Smith of PPZ, but by Ben H. Winters, best known for his work on the “Worst-Case Scenario” series of books. I remain slightly concerned that switching horses will make for a marked difference, but as long as they keep to formula of the first one – not dramatically altering the original work, making the changes fit in with the themes and characters – it shouldn’t be too hard to mess up. Winters does say that the “monster-to-Austen ratio” will be higher in this book, but being only a 10 percent shift there’s not real room for alarm.

Plus, Grahame-Smith’s absence means he will be free to work on his upcoming release “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” a title I’m possibly looking forward to even more than the new Quirk Classic.

Well, for right now I’m going to regard this project as one of the most anticipated releases for the fall, and will look forward to getting my hands on it. In the meantime, I wholeheartedly recommend that you watch their announcement trailer as many times as you possibly can.

Les Chappell is open to discussing any ideas for his Dickensian steampunk project. Currently brainstorming guillotine advancements.

Links of Literacy: June 3, 2009

1. Move over Oprah? Obama sells books by Amy Pirnes, POLITCO, May 30, 2009

With print media desperately trying to use Obama’s image to keep public attention on their front pages, it’s no surprise that the book world is also attuned to his star power. Of course presidents are invaluable in driving up statistics, but Obama’s gravitas and literary success make him even more credible than previous chief executives.

It’s also reassuring to see that Obama has good taste, with “What is The What” a mutually appreciated title by the President and your overseer.

2. Literary Losers by Mark Savras, Booklist, May 11, 2009

A brief list by Mark Savras, host of The Elegant Variation, one of the better literary blogs out there (and one of my chief inspirations after learning about it and getting some advice during last year’s Wordstock festival in Portland). Interesting characters, and he makes a good point that literature seems to lack more realistic protagonists these days. I would also add Thomas Lang from Hugh Laurie’s “The Gun Seller” to the list.

3. Summer 2009: Rebecca Blood’s Reading Lists by Rebecca Blood, Rebecca’s Pocket, June 1, 2009

Following composition of my summer reading list for 2009, I was soon informed that it had been added to a list itself. A lot of interesting variants here, ranging from recommendations by college professors to the reading list of armed forces to books that will be turned into films in the next few months. If you burn through my list quickly or aren’t interested in my suggestions, there’s bound to be something interesting on here for you.

4. At BookExpo This Year, the Talk Was of eBooks by Motoko Rich, The New York Times, May 31, 2009.

Following up on last week’s post, it’s no surprise to see the industry struggling and camps being drawn in the war with eBooks. Authors against it, publishers desperately trying to profit from it, but everyone realizing that this isn’t something that’s going away.

Personal note: the notice that Macmillan’s  was “holed up in bunkerlike rooms in the bowels of the convention center.” Considering they laid me off as a project manager three months ago, it’s small comfort to see my circumstances aren’t isolated ones.

5. Lawsuit targets “rip-off” of “Catcher in the Rye” by Doug Gross, CNN, June 3, 2009

J.D. Salinger, one of the most reclusive authors in known memory, has finally resurfaced – at least in the form of legal documents, more specifically a lawsuit seeking an injunction against Swedish publisher Nicotext for their novel “60 Years Later: Coming Through The Rye,” that depicts his protagonist Holden Caufield as an old man. Personally, my take is that by the fair use doctrine the character can be reprinted – even if it’s essentially published fan fiction – but Salinger appears to be keeping a tight grip on his intellectual property. Any thoughts on this?

Links of Literacy – May 27, 2009

Another week, another five snippets of literary news to be shared with the masses.

1. Put the book back on the shelf: 13 book-to-film adaptions that the authors hated, by Josh Modell, Keith Phipps, Leonard Pierce, Nathan Rabin, Scott Gordon, Scott Tobias, Tasha Robinson, and Zack Handlen; The Onion, May 26, 2009

A piece by the marvelously talented team at the Onion A.V. Club, I enjoy it because it touches on the negative side of film adaptations, one of my pet interests. It’s hard enough to please the fans of a book, I can’t imagine authors are any easier to work with. I was surprised to see Ken Kesey or Anthony Burgess didn’t make the list, but that just frees me up to spend more time on them in my upcoming Text-to-Screen Ratio: Retrospectives.

2. Then and Now: Robert Downey Jr. brings a new look to Sherlock Holmes, Jonathan Crow, Yahoo! Movies, May 20, 2009

Another post on the topic of film adaptations, but this one even dearer to my heart since it deals with probably my favorite character in literature: Sherlock Holmes. I’m approaching this adaptation very cautiously, as while I love both Guy Ritchie and Robert Downey Jr. I’m very skeptical of a film that appears to have a steampunk Holmes channeling Jack Sparrow to fight vampires. Yes, it sounds awesome, but so apart from the Holmes I know and love I don’t know what affection I can give it. I do like the article’s points on how it might gel with the more “Bohemian” perspective of Holmes, but I shall remain a skeptic.

3. Small sf press rallies despite recession, Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing, May 25, 2009.

This one’s not exactly a major news article, but it cheers me up for the soft spot I have for independent presses. It’s a bad climate for publishing (as my recent unemployment from a project management position at Macmillan can attest to) but some people are stillgoing forward and I’m happy for them.

4. Worried book industry gathers for convention, Hillel Italie, Associated Press, May 26, 2009.

And here we of course have the sign of dark clouds unable to be banished from the industry. I will not be attending this convention as I am nowhere near important enough to warrant an invitation,  but I shall keep my eyes on what comes out of the area and keep you posted.

5. 1984: The masterpiece that killed George Orwell, Robert McCrumb, The Observer, May 10, 2o09

Something for the academics of my reader base, a stunning article on just how much “1984″ killed its author. It’s certainly not an unheard of occurrence for a writer’s masterpiece to devour its composer (Truman Capote comes to mind after “In Cold Blood”) but “1984″ is rarely thought of in that light.

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/then-and-now-sherlock-holmes.html

Article Repost: Longing for Great Lost Works

For your reading pleasure, here’s an interesting article I located on the WSJ’s arts section. It’s always an interesting concept to think about just what could be laying in wait for us if we could locate it, Hemingway’s briefcase of stories or Capote’s final manuscript for “Unanswered Prayers” – and always a sense that the mystery of looking for it is better than actually digging it up.

Longing for Great Lost Works

By Stephen Marche

The Wall Street Journal

April 18, 2009

In 1995 Unesco named April 23 World Book Day because of a morbid literary coincidence. Both William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes died April 23, 1616, the same exact date but 10 days apart, since England was on the Julian Calendar while Spain was on the Gregorian. It’s a fortunate coincidence (or near coincidence) because collectively, they produced one of the greatest missing literary works of all time, the play “Cardenio.” And on World Book Day I always find myself thinking about the books that don’t exist more than the ones that do.

(Read more here)

Death of a Writer Notice: J.G. Ballard

BBC News and Boing Boing have noted that acclaimed author J.G. Ballard passed away today as a result of a long illness. Credited as a pioneer of science fiction writing, he was best known for his novels “Empire of the Sun” and “Crash,” both of which were adapted to film.

While I personally have not read enough of his work to write a formal obit as I have done previously, Ballard was a legend in the field of literature and his bibliography is impressive by any writer’s standards. Take a moment of silence to acknowledge his passing, and then I urge you to get your hands on some of his works. For an intro, the Boing Boing story has quite a few related articles of interest at the bottom of the page.

“All over the world major museums have bowed to the influence of Disney and become theme parks in their own right. The past, whether Renaissance Italy or ancient Egypt, is reassimilated and homogenized into its most digestible form. Desperate for the new, but disappointed with anything but the familiar, we recolonise past and future. The same trend can be seen in personal relationships, in the way people are expected to package themselves, their emotions and sexuality in attractive and instantly appealing forms.” – J.G. Ballard, “The Atrocity Exhibition”

Book News: Amazon deranks “adult” titles, uproar follows

As CNET reported this weekend, major online bookseller Amazon has come under fire for delisting titles in their ranking system,  particularly titles with gay and lesbian themes. Titles affected include books on homophobia and novels such as Radclyffe Hill’s classic novel about lesbians in Victorian times, “The Well of Loneliness,” and Mark R. Probst’s (who uncovered the story) novel “The Filly” about a young man in the wild West discovering that he’s gay. Not only did this remove them from the ranking system, it also meant the titles no longer came up in Amazon’s main product search.

A furor rose online in reaction, criticizing the company of offenses ranging from censorship to homophobia, and now Amazon has issued a statement claiming that it was an “embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error.”

Personally, I’m actually willing to give Amazon the benefit of the doubt here, as I have doubts that any corporation would be stupid enough to actually make a move like this with the awesome power of Twitter now able to unite against them. My money is on it being either a computer error or some overzealous Puritan employee who got their hands on the ranking system, who the company will now be burying in the bureacracy.

It is interesting that so many people are making a fuss over the ranking on Amazon though, something that outside of the Top Ten I’m guessing very few ever pay attention to. God bless the mix of anti-homophobia and big corporation paranoia that leads to a news story when space is short.

What’s your thoughts, Hive Mind? Are Amazon secret bigots or is this just an error that is being blown out of proportion? Or is the answer somewhere in between?