Currently, I am reading Jem by Frederick Pohl. It’s all right, quite interesting really, a very dark view of humanity with some well-rounded characters. Of course, characterization has always been science fiction’s missing link, but that never seemed to stop Frederick Pohl.
I am reading this novel because my favorite science fiction novel ever is Gateway. I guess I could even take away the words ’science fiction’ and call it my favorite novel. Of course, it is also by Frederick Pohl. And Frederick Pohl was a great writer.
There has always been an academic divide between what is considered literature and your so-called genre fiction. I am here to tell you that this divide is illusory. The best genre fiction is on a par with your so-called mainstream crap, and perhaps even superior. Well, okay, I really enjoyed Blue Angel by Francine Prose, but how does that compare with Orwell’s 1984. Even Wells’ War of the Worlds is still immanently readable one hundred years after the fact. I’m not sure that will be true with the Prose novel.
The problem that most people have with Gateway is that the main character is an alcoholic. If you read the negative reviews on amazon.com, the people who gave it one or two stars are wondering where is the action. The people that rated it highly seem to appreciate the chapters where the main character is talking to his robot psyochotherapist.
As for me, I like novels with a fully realized main character and Robinette fits the bill, even if certain aspects of him are not very likable. I think the alternate chapters with his robot psychotherapist are the weak link in the book, although it does all come together in the end.
Quite frankly, I identify with Robinettte. Life is a crapshoot, and I think the deciding factor has more to do with the family you are born into than your innate abilities. (Thus, George W. Bush.) Robinette won his way into this incredible situation through the lottery. And once there, he had a failure of nerve. But you know, who really wants to be a ‘winner’ anyway? Science fiction would be much better perceived if more of its novels invoked this sort of humanity.
My partner gave me a Zune for Christmas. I’d asked for an MP3 player because my job is really dull and this would help get me through it. I’d only wanted a 4 gigabyte device, but I ended up with 30. It took me over a week to get all my CDs loaded onto the computer and still I had over 20 gb left. So I decided to get myself a Zune pass and listen to all the music I’d always wanted to hear but couldn’t afford and wasn’t played on the radio.
So I downloaded a bunch of Lou Reed and Sigur Ros, Television and the Residents, Wire, John Cale, Alien Ant Farm (they sucked), more Brian Eno and Patti Smith’s latest. I also discovered a great band called Ladyhawk that Carrie Brownstein mentioned in Monitor Mix. It’s great having access to all this music, and as long as I pay the monthy fee, I can keep it.
I really don’t buy many CDs these days but last summer I went to my local gay-owned CD store and one of the co-owners, Curtis, mentioned the name Electrelane to me. I’d never heard of them before. But I managed to get a few downloads off the internet, enough to know I liked them, and I went back just before Christmas and bought myself their Axes CD. Perhaps it’s not one of their best, but I do love the third track. Overall, I find the album to be a bit uneven. The jazz influence is a little too strong for my taste, although I do admire the piano player.
But now that I have the Zune pass, I can go in and check out their influences. So I started listening to a bunch of Stereolab. This is band that I’d heard of, but never heard. During the 90’s I was too busy raising children and dealing with a failing marriage to pay much attention to new music. I feel lucky that I was able to find Sleater-Kinney during those days.
But further research revealed a band called Can from the late-60s and 70s. Now where did this come from? I have never heard of Can and neither has my partner. But I already love one of their earliest albums, Soundtracks. I’ve also listened to Tago Mago a few times, and the first half is great but some of the latter pieces are a bit trying. O Peking reminds of the Resident’s song about Westinghouse which really is not very pleasant to listen to. I need to listen to more of their stuff, and it is so exciting to discover this band from so long ago. How could they have been so thoroughly buried? Why are most people content to listen to pop crap? I doubt that these questions can ever be satisfactorily answered.
Lately I’ve been playing around with the demo version of TypeTool3 from Fontlab. Back in the mid-80’s I lived in NYC and worked for a few years as a typesetter. This was on the cusp of the home computer revolution. Our machines were computerized Linotypes and cost in the 6-figure range. We printed the type out on special photographic paper that ran through a big developer right there in the room. The letters were very, very black with clean, crisp edges. And we paid close attention to kerning, the spacing between individual letter sets. When the paper dried, we took it to the strippers to be cut and pasted into place.
Of course, now, anyone can set type in the comfort of their own home and cut and paste it into place with Quark Xpress or css style sheets. But no one pays attention to kerning. Even in otherwise slick magazine advertisements, I’ll see gaping holes between “W” and ”o” or “A” and “v”. It used to make me feel a little bit ill but now I’m getting used to it.
I never had any formal training in graphic design, but my years as a typesetter instilled a love of type in me that is still there two decades later. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at designing my own typeface, but it seemed like so much work. And now, thanks to TypeTool, I know that it is. I heard about Fontographer several years ago, but it was quite expensive. TypeTool is fairly cheap and quite powerful, but there’s a bit of a learning curve. I don’t know if I have the patience to master it.
Anyway, while thinking about type, I looked up a website that I had bookmarked some time ago. It features one man’s collection of travel brochures from the 1920’s and ’30’s, primarily from Europe. There is some great stuff here and anyone with an interest in design would do well to spend some time checking it out. Just to pique your curiosity, I thought I’d share a couple of my favorites. I particularly like the watercolor illo in the German piece ( which is written for an Italian audience), but the type is nice, too. Futura, I think.
The website is called Travel Brochure Graphics. Spending time there is like walking through a wonderful little museum. Kudos to David Levine for making his collection available to all of us.
