This extended trailer for the forthcoming film Cloud Atlas — written and directed by Lana (formerly Larry) Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski, and adapted from David Mitchell’s 2004 mindblow of a novel — looks positively extraordinary. I don’t know how the film can possibly live up to it. But I’m hopeful, since the Wachowskis…
Category: Arts & Entertainment
“We will never be out of these woods” – The terrors and pleasures of Robert Frost
We are on a routine journey home; we are on the threshold of the universe, serenity mingling with awe; we are far from civilization and terribly near the ancient fears: separation, insignificance, darkness. (âHe will not see me stoppingâ is one false step from âHe will not hear me screaming.â) The boundaries between these conditions,…
Angelic dread: Cinematic representations of terrible angels
Last December, in one of those minor seasonal news-cycle events that the sober and/or cynical among us have come to greet with a yawn, various mainstream media outlets reported that, according to a new poll (or, more accurately, yet another new poll), a majority of Americans believe in angels. “Angels don’t just sing at Christmastime,’…
Discount for preorders of DARK FAITH: INVOCATIONS featuring my story “Prometheus Possessed”
Apex Publications announced yesterday that Dark Faith: Invocations, the sequel to their very well received Dark Faith anthology, is now available for preorder. As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m pleased to be back again for this second outing with a new story — part dystopian science fiction, part supernatural/spiritual horror — titled “Prometheus Possessed.” I’m also…
To escape into twilight realms
(The above music was retitled “Escape” when used in the soundtrack for the film The Hours.) “They had chained him down to things that are, and had then explained the workings of those things till mystery had gone out of the world. When he complained, and longed to escape into twilight realms where magic moulded…
The wisdom of waiting
In a super essay at FT.com (“Waiting Game,” June 22), Frank Partnoy, law and finance professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, delves into the psychology and physiology of optimum performance among professional athletes to draw out a profound insight about the supreme value of waiting. This value, he says, isn’t just…
Top books in my current “to be read” pile
A few days ago SF Signal invited me to participate in one of their Mind Melds, with the topic announced in the form of a question: “What book(s) in your ‘to read’ pile are you most interested in reading? Why?” So I whipped up something and sent it to them, and it was published just…
Twitter vs. blogs in an age of cheap language
Here’s a nicely nuanced and truly elegant little meditation on the meanings (note the plural) of Twitter in an age of universally blogified (in the bad sense) writing — with equal attention given to the latter phenomenon. Few things could appear much worse, to the lurker, glimpser, or guesser, than this scrolling suicide note of…
“Reincarnation”: An entrancing experimental video
Find a quiet, solitary environment free of distractions, turn up your speakers or put in your earbuds, and let this thing unfold in full-screen mode. I was mesmerized myself. The music, not incidentally, is Black Sabbath’s psychedelic and hypnotic “Planet Caravan,” representing a style that is pointedly not what the band is most widely remembered…
A world without Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury, photo by NASA (http://history.nasa.gov/EP-125/part6.htm) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons I was stunned when the news of Ray Bradbury’s death broke today. Yes, he was a very old man who suffered from declining health, a man who obviously stood near the end of his life. But that’s immaterial to my emotional reaction. When…