The Joy Factory Weekly - Issue #1 (4/5/2021)
Alright. Now that you've got your ticket, let's get this adventure started!
Clickable Geekery
The last seven days have been filled with thoughts on the latest Godzilla film, Godzilla vs. King Kong. While I've not seen that movie yet (no spoilers or I will cry), I have been pleased to see many new articles on some of the other kaiju that deserve our attention, including this Film School Rejects piece on Gamera, a flying, fire-breathing mega-turtle with whom David Annandale is most certainly friends.
Speaking of SF from across the sea: the fine folks at Vector recently re-published a piece on the industry of Chinese science fiction! The work gives us a look into the world of SF publication in China, including a look at some of the major organizations and groups involved. Definitely worth a read! Genre histories can also be found on Puzzle Box Horror, where they explore the history of psychological horror, one of my favorite subgenres.
Also on horror: The Guardian looks at the rise of the horror podcast, of which there are an exceedingly high number of truly exceptional works! Alas, they don't mention Nightlight Pod, but they darn well should have!
Clickable Factoids
Al Gore might have invented the Internet (lol no), but he certainly has nothing on Claudio Maccone! Maccone recently proposed that we could use gravitational lensing -- something made possible by space being weird -- to start up a galactic Internet (via arXiv). Obviously, the idea is pretty "out there," but the fact that scientists are still doing the "hey, let's actually look at how this absurd science fiction concept might actually work" thing certainly makes me smile. My only concern is whether we can keep Comcast's dirty hands off of the future Galactinet...
Meanwhile, scientists recently discovered the biggest supernova remnant ever. And it's big, y'all. It takes up 4 degrees of the sky and looks suspiciously like a piece of cosmic candy!
Oh, and I've managed to find a handful of interesting digital archives that y'all should check out! First, there's Project 3541, which is an archive of the Italo-Ethiopian War. I had no idea this war was a thing until I saw this project, and now I'm exciting to learn something by perusing the archive! Then on the nerdy side, there's this old project called Space Archaeology, which catalogues and explores the history of space tech, science, and more. One of its most visible features: profiles of various satellites dating back to the 60s!
And lastly, there's this fun fact about Neanderthals, wherein scientists at Binghamton University discovered that they likely had the ability to produce and perceive human speech. In other words, they might have been able to talk and communicate similar to us. It makes me want to write a story from their perspective as humans quickly encroached on their world. How did they see it? Was it terrifying? Maybe it was like Childhood's End!
Clickable Writing Advice
As some of you may know, I've been hard into this "horror writing" thing, so you can imagine my joy at seeing a Writer's Digest piece on writing cosmic horror. It's a set of three tips which have fairly broad application, but that's also the charm here: when you add this in with all the other interesting tidbits about writing horror, you start to see a map of unconventional weirdness to explore!
If you're about to start a new TTRPG campaign or dip your toes in for the first time, you might want to take a look at Sly Flourish's tips for running a session zero (an increasingly important function for play). I may write about this myself in the future. Keep an eye out!
Mythcreants also has some great advice for TTRPG runners, though their latest work on the six principles of worldbuilding applies across all forms of writing. I'm not convinced by principle #1, but I do like #2 because it acknowledges the result of cultural merger that comes from different places interacting with one another. A related article looks at conflict and tension, which folks might find interesting.
Clickable Fiction
Here are a few of the most interesting reads I discovered in the last week:
"Moses" by L.D. Lewis (Anathema Magazine)
"Catching the K Beast" by Chen Qian and translated by Carmen Yiling Yan (Clarkesworld Magazine)
"The Field Tiger" by Endria Isa Richardson (Clarkesworld Magazine)
"The Trolley Solution" by Shiv Ramdas (Slate)
"Jimi Hendrix Sang It" by ZZ Claybourne (Apex Magazine)
"The Amazing Exploding Women of the Early Twentieth Century" by A.C. Wise (Apex Magazine)
"Last Girlfriends Guide to Subversive Eating" by Sabrina Vourvoulias (Apex Magazine)
"Of Castles and Oceans" by Nicole Tanquary (Mithila Review)
"Fembot" by Carlos Hernandez (DayBreak Magazine)
"Binguni!" by Binyavanga Wainaina (Boston Review)
You might also want to check out the 3rd issue of Baffling Magazine, the special Palestinian issue of Strange Horizons, issue 26 of Grimdark Magazine, and the April 2021 issue of Fantasy Magazine.
What have I been consuming or producing lately? Well...
Currently Reading:
This week, I'm recording a podcast on Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson with Alex Acks. Naturally, this means I have to finish the book quite soon. Once finished, I expect to start work on Acacia: The War of the Mein by David Anthony Durham (also for a podcast) and eventually I'm Waiting for You and Other Stories by Bo-Young Kim, which just arrived in the mail.
Beyond that, I'm contemplating sticking my eyes into an academic work on SF. Why? Oh, you know. Secret projects...
Currently Watching
For the past week, I've been digging into Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island (2017), and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019). With the arrival of Godzilla vs. King Kong, it seemed prudent to go back in time to see how the films have aged since I first saw them.
And the verdict? Well, I had the same reaction to Kong: Skull Island as I did the first time I saw it. It's a perfectly decent film with some interesting narrative choices amidst somewhat lackluster characters who take up more screen than the giant ape himself. Yet, I appreciate its look at post-Vietnam American imperialism and some of its shot selections, which offer (yet again) some of the most beautiful sequences in modern cinema.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters, on the other hand, remains a deeply troubled film. Its main flaw are the human characters, who are, at best, annoying and, at worst, monstrous. The story wants the monstrous ones to either be pure villains (which is fine) or redeemable monsters, but its effort to pretend like intentional or accidental genocide are easily forgivable offences is painful. However, the film also gives us possibly the most beautiful portrayal of Mothra in all of cinematic history, so beautiful in fact that when she dies, I felt my heart fall straight through the floor.
Just look at her below. Is she not the most beautiful creature you've ever seen? I swear to you that I have never wanted to keep a moth in my house until this movie. *dies of pure joy*
Finally, we come to the movie that started it all. And boy has my opinion changed! When I first saw the film, I thought it had some nice touches but was generally pretty meh. In the years since, my opinion has taken a 180. Not only do I consider Godzilla (2014) to be the best film in the franchise thus far, it is also hands down one of the best kaiju movies ever made. The sound design and cinematography are nothing short of awe-inspiring. There are so many incredible sequences throughout. Plus, it is well-paced and, I'd argue, uses its human characters to good effect (as vehicles for witnessing the kaiju so we can understand the scale). I may write about this some more in the near future!
By the way, here is one of my favorite scenes in the entire movie. It is still terrifying!
Currently Listening To
Since I've been grading a lot over the last few weeks, the type of music on my playlist has fallen squarely in the EDM tunnel. This has recently included chunks of songs in the deep house and progressive trance genres. All of the music I have consumed will be collected in the 2021 Joy Factory Playlist on Spotify! Check it out if you dare.
Currently Writing
As for writing, I'm putting extra work into "That Which Lives After Them in the Nothingness of Their Bones," a horror story about Florida's history of slavery and segregation as told through its descendants and a creepy oak tree. I shared an excerpt of this story on Patreon a while back, but now I'm trying to get it finished and in decent shape to submit to Nightfire, which recently announced it will be open to un-agented submissions on June 15. I doubt I'll get it finished in time, but having a nice goal is fun! Wish me luck.
Now on to media you should check out!
Did you know the Soviets created a live action TV version of Lord of the Rings before Peter Jackson's trilogy hit theaters? Yup. They did. It's utterly bananapants and cheap, but it exists, and it's now on YouTube for you to watch. There are no English subtitles or dubs, though. This probably wouldn't be a problem if the production itself bore a legible resemblance to Tolkien's work; instead, the experience you get is surreal.
There's also something that looks suspiciously like The Hobbit, but I honestly have no idea what is going on...
Speaking of interesting stories! Cast of Wonders recently dropped a story called "Bargain" by Sarah Gailey (read by Trendane Sparks). As a podcast, Cast of Wonders is pretty cool for being one of the very few YA speculative fiction shows (or magazines) out there. Also: I have no idea what the cats cats images are about, but it made me giggle!
On a more serious note, Charlie Jane Anders recently gave a TED Talk for the TED Radio Hour on science fiction and imagining better futures. This seems especially timely (and topical for the Joy Factory). I've been thinking a lot about how impoverished the U.S. view of the future has become, so much so that it seems like almost nobody in our political sphere has any idea what this country should or even could look like in 5, 10, or 20 years. It used to be a thing all over our papers, in our news, etc. What happened?
If you want to take a trip back in time, Memories of the Future interviews Reed Johnson about the wild world of Soviet speculative fiction from the 1920s, including a look at some of the odd theories of the universe from that period! This is a period I don't know a whole lot about, so you better believe I'm curious!
And as per usual, the Astronomy Picture of the Day folks have shared some truly stunning images of the universe, including a new shot of M64 (the Evil Eye Galaxy) and the image of the Leo Trio (linked below). Space continues to be an gorgeous and utterly terrifying place.
I've taken the liberty of adapting Ship Library Editions to the newsletter, which is quite handy in reducing the workload for the feature and making it more usable for readers! Starting now, Ship Library Editions will be weekly and feature interesting new books dropping in, well, that week!
This week's books make up the bulk of what I consider to be some of the most compelling reads for April 2021. This is probably the norm (dropping new books at the start of the month rather than in the middle).
Here this week's selections (yes, you should buy them all if you can afford it):
Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff Vandermeer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 4/6/2021)
Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian (Penguin Press; 4/6/2021)
I'm Waiting for You and Other Stories by Bo-Young Kim (Harper Voyager; 4/6/2021)
Oculta by Maya Motayne (Balzer + Bray; 4/6/2021)
A River Called Time by Courttia Newland (Akashic Books; 4/6/2021)
Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi (Riverhead Books; 4/6/2021)
First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami and translated by Philip Gabriel (Knopf; 4/6/2021)
Gaming Utopia: Ludic Worlds in Art, Design, and Media by Claudia Costa Pederson (Indiana University Press; 4/6/2021)
Of these, I've been fortunate enough to receive an ARC of Bo-Young Kim's collection, which I am stoked to check out. The others are what I call "really interesting books that I really want to read right away."
Jeff Vandermeer's new book is certain to mess with your mind, as most of his work does; I had the fortune of seeing him give several talks at ICFA last month, some of which addressed Hummingbird Salamander. Meanwhile, I tend to think that anything released by Helen Oyeyemi and Haruki Murakami are, at worst, really fascinating and powerful books and, at best, stunningly amazing. One of my colleagues is a Murakami-head (if that's the name for it), so I'm sure he'll be excited to hear about this one!
The rest on the list are works by authors totally new to me. Sathian's Gold Diggers offers a magical realist approach to immigration and community in post-9/11 America, something I expect to read in hopes it'll be a good fit for a class one of these days! Meanwhile, Motayne's Oculta is the second in a series with truly incredible cover art! I've not read the series or anything by Motayne, so hopefully I'll get a shot at this in the near future. It sounds like fun!
Then there is Newland's new book, which offers an alternate history in which slavery and colonialism didn't happen and which doesn't bother with the idea that this will necessarily lead to some kind of paradise. I'm compelled by this work because Newland is a British writer of Jamaican and Bajan descent and should have a unique perspective on a familiar alternate history trope.
And lastly, there's Pederson's Gaming Utopia, which I've included here for entirely selfish reasons. First, it's affordable for an academic book of 280 pages. Second, it's on a subject that relates to a course I hope to teach in Spring 2022 on the Rhetoric of Gaming. It's been wild watching all of these academic books on gaming come out in 2021. I realize there's a totally unrelated reason for that (i.e., the rise of gaming studies), but I'm going to keep pretending that academic publishers are reading my mind!
And there you have it! Go on. Get you some books!
Speaking of books! It's time for another reading list!
Each week, I'll ask my Twitter followers what they're reading to create a reading list for y'all to enjoy. Here's what folks were reading this week:
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (from @RainbowWar71)
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (from @BeverlyBambury)
The Chronicles of Corum by Michael Moorcock (from @Hoopmanjh)
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (from @JadeBethJ)
History of the Persian Empire by A.T. Olmstead (from @carturo222)
Demon Moon by Meljean Brooks (from @mikaela_l)
Foundation by Isaac Asimov (from @BobHole)
Labor's Untold Story: The Adventure Story of the Battles, Betrayals, and Victories of American Working Men and Women by Richard O. Boyer and Herbert M. Morais (from @StrongholdMag)
Dark Lullaby by Polly Ho-Yen (from @runalongwomble)
A Broken Darkness by Premee Mohamed (from @AlteredInstinct)
The Cursed Titans by Ricardo Victoria (from @AlteredInstinct)
An Inheritance of Ashes by Leah Bobet (from @RhondaParrish)
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin (from @sfhelmut)
Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff Vandermeer (from @sfhelmut)
The Princess Bride by William Goldman (from @sarahmiyoko)
Embassytown by China Mieville (from @MrLaurieMercer)
Dark Entries by Robert Aickman (from @SteveJWright1)
The Ikessar Falcon by K.S. Villoso (from @LoopdiLou)
Small Magic by Terry Brooks (from @SithHounds)
Family Tree by Sheri Tepper (from @delagar)
We Who Are About To by Joanna Russ (from @knkeegan)
Parallel Prairies edited by Darren Ridgley and Adam Petrash (from @bloginhood)
Making Wolf by Tade Thompson (from @Meddwl_Coed)
Space Opera by Cat Valente (from @if_this_goes_on)
If you're reading this, then you'll have discovered the biggest update for the week: I've now got a newsletter! Oh boy!
In more serious news, however, I've just received my second jab of the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19, which promptly kicked my butt over the weekend. I'm doing better now, of course, and I wouldn't trade those days for life without the vaccine. As far as I am concerned, it's a small price to pay for the almost 100% reduction in the chance for serious complications from the virus!
As for other things I've been up to:
The Skiffy and Fanty Show recently announced that Brandon O'Brien will be the new main co-host for the show. This has been in the works for a few months, and I can say that I am mega excited to have Brandon contribute to the direction of the show going forward!
Also on S&F: the latest episode of Torture Cinema featured myself and Alex trying to understand the 1991 Canadian disaster called Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe. The episode is full of laughs, and you're sure to get answers to questions you didn't ask...
It has been a quiet week for me, which I blame on grading, job hunting, and the vaccine. But I'm hoping to ramp things up soon!
And that's it! The first ever Joy Factory Weekly in newsletter form has concluded. If you've made it this far, then you returned to port at the appropriate time. We can now proceed to our next destination, which will be announced in the next issue!
A new week also means more things to expect around these parts. These include:
A new episode of The Skiffy and Fanty Show on Captives of the Flame by Samuel R. Delany w/ Trish Matson (dropping 4/5 or 4/6).
A new episode of The Joy Factory Monthly podcast! I have no idea what it will be about yet.
Movie Roulette on Pete's Dragon (in the newsletter first; also...finally...)
Thanks for reading. If you have suggestions, questions, or other shenanigans you want to let me know about, you can hit me up on Twitter or on my contact form!
Joyful Transmission Concluded!
Thanks for reading The Joy Factory Weekly newsletter! As always, if you want to support the project or my other work, head over to patreon.com/thejoyfactory. You can find me @shaunduke on Twitter and at shaunduke.net!