Music:
Ive been pretty psyched about this new song from Boredoms affiliate OOIOO. Its basically just drums and girls chanting. Its like the pogo-girl punk equivalent of japanese noise, and it's awesome.

OOIOO - UMA


Sci-fi:
In the vein of Laz's last post I think I should write a little more about science fiction, which is my supposed topic. And not the sci-fi-esque crap I normally do. Speaking of sci-fi-esque crap, I should mention that I feel there are a lot of sci-fi books and short stories which are totally disappointing. It has to do with the nature or this genre of para-literature as the actual literary community calls it, or litterature as I've begun to call it recently. Being a genre of ideas, the best writers are not masters of prose or character development or similar things which are normally the main focus in fiction. The point in science fiction is to establish a future as close to as what the reader can imagine to be realistic. If not that, then to create a setting for a totally forein situation or conflict. Some books can be dense highlighted with a few or one long really incredible, mindblowing passages.

Take The Demolished Man, by Alfred Bester, not to be confused with the movie Demolition Man starring Wesley Snipes and Sly Stallone. Although I think there is a vague influence on the latter involving the setup of the near perfect crime. Anyway, in the book the writing is only so-so. Not to say that it's juvenille but it can move pretty slowly at times. Throughout the book there is constant reference to Demolition. "Count down to Demolition," "This was the beginning of Demolition," etc... I wont say exactly what "Demolition" is, but the second to last passage, the one leading up to it is a stunningly well written, gripping section requiring every bit of your imagination to follow. It's difficult to explain this phenomenon. Maybe its the hooker with a heart of gold, if a heart of gold can mean less disembodied from its hooker body. Or maybe the section could easily stand alone without any context in all its vaguery. Laz recently said about Neuromancer, which recently convinced her to read, that some parts could be considered prose poetry. The difference here is that with stand alone poetry, so much is left to interpretation, where in The Demolished Man and Neuromancer everything is elaborately set up and everything explained or at least can be understood from the context of the rest of the book. Asimov once said that he loved puzzle stories. You'll often hear scientists and mathematicians talk about the beauty of a certain equation or process. It is this kind of beauty that these science fiction stories come closer to than a purely aesthetic one. Its the beauty of the the future worlds setting coming to the final conclusion that the writer was going towards where everything is explained. All the time gone into setting up is so that the parts, now established can unfold naturally creating these certain heart of gold passages. It's almost like a + b = c. It's beautiful because of the order it creates and the sense it makes.