Random Bits

Ursula Le Guin reviews Margaret Atwood's new novel The Year of the Flood. Included in the review is a wonderful discussion of Atwood's claim that her books are not science fiction. See the discussion at io9, to which I owe a tip of the hat.

Nnedi Okorafor provides an interestingly different take on District 9. Found this at SF Signal.

John Scalzi, author of Old Man's War and others, entertains us with his discussion of epic design FAILS in both the Star Wars and Star Trek. Also amusing are the various fan attempts to show Scalzi he is mistaken.

Check out the 9 most questionable Batman toys at Topless Robot. Especially the water pistol.

Oh, no! Not another [insert expletive here] Ewok!

In class the other day we touched on a longstanding debate among Star Wars fans about the merits (or demerits?) of Return of the Jedi. Here's one guy's opinion from a while back, in a piece entitled "50 Reasons Why Return of the Jedi Sucks." Anyone care to weigh in?

By the way, this post's title is an allusion to an infamous remark by Hugo Dyson in a meeting of the Inklings in Oxford. Reportedly, Tolkien was about to read from his "new hobbit book" and Dyson, who was lying on a couch, groaned "Oh, no! Not another [insert expletive here] elf!"

Fandomania--Star Wars

When Star Wars came out in 1977, I was about 13. I fell for it, hard. I saw it many times. I read the novelization over and over until I had it practically memorized. And when none of that was enough for me, I eventually did a dramatic reading of the novelization into a tape recorder (along with sound effects and a musical prelude on my clarinet). This is a clear and embarrassing example of what I'm calling "fandomania." It's what happens when fandom gets way out of control. A long time ago in a low tech setting far, far away (California, which sometimes feels like another galaxy), that's the best I could do. But now we can do much, much better.

For example, check out these instances of musical fandomania here and here. Yes, the first one is a lip synch. Doesn't that make it an even clearer case of fandomania?

Okay, it's your turn. Give me your stories of people whose love of Star Wars has gotten out of control. Confess as I have, if you want. Or give us another link.

I'm not talking about Star Wars humor here. We'll do a post on that at some point, I promise. But for the most part we're now looking for people who aren't trying to be funny. So save the Robot Chicken etc. for another day.