Miscellany

Some of the past week’s pauses for thought:

• The Hugos are almost habitually a stage where The Olds vs. The Youngs duke it out over genre and social relevance, and this year’s was only the most recent such Donnybrook. Horror writer Tim Waggoner has been a member of the SFWA for over 30 years and recounts some earlier variants of this turf war. He also proffers sage advice.
• Speaking of SF, when it comes to television the content creators tend to have a singularly myopic (understatement) view on religion. Jessica Price’s Twitter thread breaks it down and clears the Wiggle Room for some intriguing potential — read the whole thing, over here. (Update: it took me a few tries to get the link right, but I think I’ve got it. Start with, “Okay so I want to preface this...” then scroll down and hit ‘Show this thread.’)
• Artist Bill Stout was interviewed by John Arcudi for The Comics Journal back in '02. They covered a lot of ground, because, frankly, Stout’s been everywhere — Underground Comix to bootleg album covers to legacy comics to movie design to prestige format coffee-table books to . . . well, you get the idea. Stout has been posting the entire interview — with annotations — in instalments at his blog. Today we’re at number 22, but start at the beginning. I haven’t missed a single one.
• Jack Kerouac’s literary star has cooled somewhat since the turn-of-the-mil. But for them what’s still innurressed, the inspiration for On The Road — a 16,000 word letter from Neal Cassady — is about to receive its first general publication.

I’ve also picked up this novel, and have been filling it with insightful marginalia, including: “wow!” “Perfect!” “oh NO!!” Still a little more than half to go, mind you, so things MIGHT change. I read a Meg Wolitzer novel which began just as promisingly, only for her to pull a stunt two-thirds of the way through that I have a very difficult time forgiving story-tellers of any stripe. Stay tuned . . .