Alrightreads: Futures Past

Various, Arthur C. Clarke's July 20, 2019: Life in the 21st Century

1986 / Ebook / 92 pages / Various

***

Scoff at its speculations of a modest moonbase and continuing dominance of the VHS format by 2019 if that gives you pleasure, but as Clarke makes clear in his introduction, this is more aspirations than expectations (which is the case for utopian sci-fi generally, when its not being satirical, idiots). He brings together a bunch of specialists in various fields, few of them writers, to wax prestalgically to varying degrees of accuracy and interest. Reality sometimes kept up. Excellent synthwave cover.

Scott Bukatman, Blade Runner

1997 / Ebook / 96 pages / USA

****

I haven't read Future Noir, but this made do as a lightweight substitute covering the production, symbolism 'n' shit, with a few production sketches thrown in. I don't know whether it stopped being amusingly verbose after the introduction or if I just got used to it.

Dan Kois, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's Facing Future

2009 / Ebook / 168 pages / USA

***

A concise and comprehensive overview of a singer who's apparently better than the other singers they have. I don't get it, but I'm strange.

Peter Krämer, 2001: A Space Odyssey

2010 / Ebook / 96 pages / Germany

***

It was a bit optimistic to hope for a fresh take, but this wasn't any meatier than a Wikipedia page, complete with several pages of synopsis for a film that most people reading this will probably have seen.

Brad Gilmore, Back From the Future: A Celebration of the Greatest Time Travel Story Ever Told

2020 / Audiobook / 164 pages / USA

***

Primarily an advert for a podcast, this goes over well-known trivia from the films before exploring the lesser-discussed expanded universe of cartoons, comics, rides, musicals and other works of minimal value tellingly described as "content."

Alrightreads: Fowl

Kurt Vonnegut, Jailbird

1979 / Audiobook / 246 pages / USA

**

Tied with Bluebeard as his blandest and least idiosyncratic novels, this would get a boost if I was more interested in socialism or 1970s American politics. Alas.

Iain Banks, The Crow Road

1992 / Audiobook / 501 pages / UK

****

Seeing the TV adaptation at a relatable age has always made me warmer to this one than his other post-80s books, even if I did leave it to cool for a decade before actually getting through it. By Banks' standards, this tale of murder, electrocuted parents and exploding grandparents is really chill.

Camille Paglia, The Birds

1998 / Ebook / 103 pages / USA

***

This wasn't one of my favourite Hitchcocks, but this enthusiastic making-of and close viewing makes me think it's probably one of the best and that the director was all he's built up to be after all. The suggestion that the head-pecking gulls predicted the Kennedy assassination is academic madness at its finest.

Robert C. Bird, Andrei Rublev

2004 / Ebook / 87 pages / UK

**

The animal cruelty cut my tolerance of Tarkovsky's interminable biopic short, but it turns out I didn't miss much. This short book struggles to find much depth in a film its creator said not to bother dissecting, so retreats to historical background and summary.

Ric Menck, The Byrds' The Notorious Byrd Brothers

2007 / Ebook / 152 pages / USA

***

The author admits his anxiety about writing a whole (quite short) book about one album, then realises he can use half of it on the band biography before unleashing the lifelong fan's obsessive analysis.

Alrightreads: Farm

Philip José Farmer, To Your Scattered Bodies Go (a.k.a. The Day of the Great Shout & The Suicide Express)

1965-66 (collected 1971) / Audiobook / 206 pages / USA

****

A new writer to me, this spin on the back-to-basics dystopia is some of the most original and unnerving sci-fi I've read in a while, though I'm sure I'd get more of a kick out of all the historical figures if I knew more about the real world.

Yvonne Tasker, The Silence of the Lambs

2002 / Ebook / 96 pages / UK

****

An academic goth explains convincingly why this is a justly celebrated '90s classic, whether you enjoy its feminist spin on the procedural or stroking your beard to bird symbolism. The class segregation of horror films never occurred to me before, but makes uncomfortable sense.

Philip Shaw, Patti Smith's Horses

2008 / Ebook / 151 pages / UK

***

The first two thirds of this stuffy "critical biography" left me increasingly bored and annoyed until he finally started talking about the album in question at the end, with the brief but insightful track-by-track analyses I'm here for. He didn't convince me that it's the greatest rock album of all time, but it was nice to know what's going on.

John Lewis-Stempel, Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field

2014 / Ebook / 308 pages / UK

****

A charming memoir of living intimately with the land, when he's not shooting bunnies and googling historical facts and literary quotes to show off. Probably written as much to celebrate the rustic life as to keep delicate city folk away, points taken.

David Duchovny, Holy Cow

2015 / Audiobook / 206 pages / USA

**

Duchovny wrote at least one great X-Files episode back in the day, so I wasn't as surprised and suspicious as I'd be for the average celebrity fiction. If anything, I let my guard down. Kids might learn a thing or two, but Okja is less annoying.

Alrightreads: Face

Hergé, The Adventures of Tintin: The Broken Ear (L'Oreille cassée)

1935-37 (collected 1937) / Ecomics / 62 pages / Belgium

***

Oh yeah, I forgot Tintin was a journalist. This starts promisingly as he investigates the theft and forgery of a museum piece (no commentary on it being plundered heritage in the first place, alas), then the generic South American adventure is stretched out with the familiar cycle of imprisonment and lucky escapes. Tintin blacks up at one point, and the villains are so racist that they don't even spot him as a grotesque caricature. I'll pretend that's the point Hergé was making, anyway.

Kurt Vonnegut, Deadeye Dick

1982 / Audiobook / 240 pages / USA

****

I'm glad I didn't read a blurb, so I could enjoy the perspective shift when the nature of this self-described notorious murderer's crimes is revealed and it turns out this isn't edgy nihilism after all, but resigned despair. With recipes.

Kurt Vonnegut, Bluebeard, the Autobiography of Rabo Karabekian (1916–1988)

1987 / Audiobook / 336 pages / USA

**

Reading about a real artist would have been more interesting and probably more entertaining, but these bibliographies won't complete themselves. More mature (i.e. boring) than the typical Vonnegut, I didn't get this one or care enough to try.

Dan Simmons, The Guiding Nose of Ulfant Banderoz

2009 (collected 2012) / Audiobook / 78 pages / USA

***

Written for a tribute volume to the Dying Earth series, this is appropriately indulgent tomfoolery as Simmons digs out Vance's genre-troubling toys and decides his pirate ship will be an impractical sky galleon, because when else are you going to get to write that?

Luis Sanchez, The Beach Boys' Smile

2014 / Ebook / 144 pages / USA

**

For want of an actual album to talk about (though it basically exists), this recounts the public domain history of the 'Boys and their contemporaries instead and figures you'll be okay with that.

Alrightreads: Fives

M. R. James, The Five Jars

1922 / Audiobook / 172 pages / UK

**

The celebrated ghost story teller's less popular novel, this was supposedly written for children, but I don't know how bored they'd have to be, even a century ago, to keep reading this uneventful saga of idle gentry hanging around in the woods with his imaginary friends.

Hergé, The Adventures of Tintin: The Blue Lotus (Le Lotus bleu)

1934-35 (collected 1936) / Ecomic / 62 pages / Belgium

***

"Seventy-seven suffering Samurais!"

The opium plot continues from the previous book, but you'd be forgiven for forgetting what's supposed to be going on as Tintin dons another cunning disguise, gets captured and escapes enough times to fill out the serial. It's interesting to see a work of this vintage being sympathetic to foreigners by sending up racist expats, taking the time to debunk urban legends about the Chinese and having Thomson & Thompson fail to blend in with their stereotypical Fu Manchu cosplay. Those untrustworthy Japanese are a different matter and get what's coming to 'em.

Jean "Moebius" Giraud and Philippe Druillet, Mœbius 5: The Gardens of Aedena

1978-88 (collected 1988) / Ecomic / 76 pages / France

***

These self-introduced retrospectives seemingly went to the artist's head and gave him the self belief needed to manoeuvre himself right up his own arse and conceive the Mœbius Universe. That's his theory, anyway – the main story here's as freestyle as ever, but it's a pleasant pastoral detox from the zany dystopias. Other stories are a crime pastiche and Fantastic Voyage with AIDS; the method behind the curation eludes me sometimes.

Fave: 'The Gardens of Aedena.'

James Hepokoski, Sibelius: Symphony No. 5

1993 / Ebook / 124 pages / USA

***

It's 1914 and Europe is thrown into tumult by the war between the liberal-bourgeous modernists and young radicals with their New "Music." One Finn can't be bothered to keep up any more, so writes some accessible music about swans.

David Fanning, Nielsen: Symphony No. 5

1997 / Ebook / 138 pages / UK

***

The most painstaking bar-by-bar analysis I've seen so far – certainly the first where the background music overtook the commentary when listening along – the fan writer makes no apologies for imposing his own skewed interpretations of which passages he reckons represent malevolence and healing or when the triangle and oboe are duking it out. That made it easier to follow than a technical analysis alone, and there are diagrams to help with that part.

Alrightreads: Fours

Hergé, The Adventures of Tintin: Cigars of the Pharaoh (Les Cigares du pharaon)

1932-34 (collected 1934) / Ecomic / 69 pages / Belgium

****

Introducing the supporting cast, ancient history and exotic mysticism, this finally feels like the Tintin I vaguely remember from the cartoon, but authentically unsanitised with guns, drugs and mummified murder victims intact. The downside of this vintage is that the locals suddenly transform into gollywogs when you travel south of Cairo.

T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

1935-42 (collected 1943) / Audiobook/ebook / 40 pages / USA

***

Skipping from the dark chaos of The Waste Land to the illuminated confidence of these wartime sermons is good advertising for the therapeutic benefits of religion. A lot duller though.

Jean "Moebius" Giraud, Dan O'Bannon and Philippe Druillet, Mœbius 4: The Long Tomorrow and Other Science Fiction Stories

1971-87 (collected 1987) / Ecomic / 80 pages / France

***

Best treated as detailed storyboards for awe-inspiring matte paintings and expensive model shots for films that don't exist, kids will also appreciate the hardcore sex and gore. There was at least one 2000 AD style twist I enjoyed, but those directors didn't hire Mœbius for the quality of his non-existent scripts.

Faves: 'The Long Tomorrow' & 'Blackbeard and the Pirate Brain.'

Jim Samson, Chopin: The Four Ballades

1992 / Ebook / 116 pages / Ireland

***

You can enjoy these pretty piano poems without the analysis, but as a fan of the pompous prog rock epic and closed-circuit stand-up set, it was satisfying to find the same preoccupation with structure and callbacks playing out over the course of a decade almost two centuries back.

Algernon Blackwood, Four Weird Tales

1911-38 (collected 2005) / Audiobook / 136 pages / UK

***

The first story was authentically nightmarish and shockingly nasty at the end, no doubt the result of the decades-later rewrite after the War desensitised everyone. The rest get worse as they go along, but the themes of mental illness and obsession are largely consistent.

Faves: 'The Insanity of Jones: A Study in Reincarnation.'

Worsties: The rest.

Alrightreads: France

Jean "Moebius" Giraud, Mœbius 3: The Airtight Garage

1976-87 (collected 1987) / Ecomic / 120 pages / France

**

Art: ****
Plot:

The sort of freeform nonsense you'd produce at 12 to amuse yourself, but better drawn and for a bewildered audience, even after George Lucas-style revisions that were supposed to make it more coherent.

Jacques Lob and Jean-Marc Rochette, Snowpiercer, Vol. 1: The Escape (Le Transperceneige)

1982 (translated 2014) / Ecomics / 110 pages / France

****

Like Galactica's convoy or Ballard's high-rise laid on its side with wheels attached, you could tell all sorts of pertinent stories in this inspired setting, now the introduction's out of the way. I guess that means I'll be watching the series then. '80s comics were the best.

Julian Rushton, Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette

1994 / Ebook / 119 pages / UK

***

One of my favourite types of idiotic knowitall YouTube comments is those proclaiming Bach or whoever to be Metal AF. Rushton's analysis of this operatic symphony similarly led me to foolishly conclude that Berlioz is the progenitor of the modern rock opera. Only without the rock, obviously. And apparently not really opera, what do I know?

Kent Jones, L'Argent

1999 / Ebook / 96 pages / USA

**

I had a lot to learn about impassive French cinema, but Kent wasn't the best teacher, with his excessive comparisons to other films I hadn't seen for every point made followed by basic summary of the story I'd just watched. Though I did learn that lingering shots of the back of vehicles are actually good and not boring.

Darran Anderson, Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson

2013 / Ebook / 136 pages / Ireland

**

It's a wild ride from concentration camp gravitas to old-school celeb goss before he remembers to get around to the album, and the writer failed to convince me that this sleazy singer whispering his pervy concept album in our ears deserves a critical rehabilitation. At least it was in French, so I couldn't understand it. No, that makes it worse.

Alrightreads: Fantasies

Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea

1968 / Audiobook / 205 pages / USA

***

This mildly subversive fantasy saga might have absorbed me if I'd read it at ten, but today it's only the world-building that did anything for me.

It's better than Harry Potter, but that's a low bar.

Steve Jackson, Steve Jackson's Sorcery!: The Shamutanti Hills

1983 / Ebook / 176 pages / UK

****

This is already shaping up to be one of the great gamebook series. Less childish (comparatively) than the parent Fighting Fantasy series and more akin to Lone Wolf, its USP is a spell system that requires buying a companion book to properly get to grips with (crafty), before you proceed to buy the three sequels to finish the game. There's also an unusual realist streak that punishes players for treating it like a video game and not making time for dinner and naps, while at the same time offering a deus ex machina continue screen if you get in a real pickle. I completed it on the fourth try, there are more feindish books out there.

Jean "Moebius" Giraud, Mœbius 2: Arzach & Other Fantasy Stories

1973-87 (collected 1987) / Ecomic / 72 pages / France

****

It would be too entitled to expect Moebius to write as well as he draws. These darkly comic fantasies get by on mood and spectacle, the adventures of his pterodactyl-riding warrior-rapist dispensing with text altogether.

Faves: 'Arzach,' 'The Detour.'

Nicholas Marston, Schumann: Fantasie, Op. 17

1992 / Ebook / 136 pages / UK

***

I would have written this off as a calculated Beethoven rip-off. Finding out that that's basically what it is doesn't make me appreciate it any more, but good effort at a defence.

Kirk Walker Graves, Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

2014 / Ebook / 152 pages / USA

***

I normally listen along with these, but it was too distracting, the guy didn't shut up, so I just trusted that this twitterpated analysis was accurate and the problem must be with me. When he's not topping up a supreme narcissist's ego, there's an interesting essay on the digital world we live in.

Alrightreads: Firsts

Jean "Moebius" Giraud, Jean-Paul Appel-Guery and Paula Salomon, Mœbius 1: Upon a Star

1983-87 (collected 1987) / Ecomic / 72 pages / France

***

The selective reprint retrospective doesn't run chronologically, instead choosing to lead with the free-reign corporate commission that produced the strangest car advert in history. The introductions explaining his creative process really skirt around the drugs.

Faves: 'The Repairmen' & 'Upon a Star (A Citroën Cruise).'

Sean French, The Terminator

1996 / Ebook / 72 pages / UK

****

A convincing defence of James Cameron's derivative feminist killer cyborg B-movie against snobs and people who haven't seen the film since before their lit crit senses were honed to delight in clumsy Biblical symbolism.

Warren Zanes, Dusty Springfield's Dusty in Memphis

2003 / Ebook / 121 pages / USA

**

It seemed a strange choice to kick off these tributes to classic hipster albums with an easy listening staple where someone sings other people's songs with the house band. But in prioritising the personal over the analytical, it's a good demonstration of this series' free-for-all mission statement, for better and worse.

Jacqueline Rubin, Naturally Healthy First Foods for Baby: The Best Nutrition for the First Year and Beyond

2008 / Ebook / 275 pages / USA

****

Good if obvious advice, handy reference tables and plenty of home recipes broken down by month if you have the patience and morals to make everything yourself and not rely on Nestlé.

James S. A. Corey, Leviathan Wakes

2011 / Audiobook / 577 pages / USA

***

Decent solar system building and distinctive characters to set up the series, but it mainly made me want to read some Firefly sequels instead.

Alrightreads: F

Isaac Asimov, Foundation

1942-51 (collected 1951) / Audiobook / 255 pages / USA

****

All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again. A classic of space politics, though admittedly I prefer my feuding space empires to be differentiated by rubber forehead prosthetics and borderline racist parodies of historical cultures.

Arthur C. Clarke, The Fountains of Paradise

1979 / Audiobook / 256 pages / UK

****

Earlier in his career, Clarke would have presented his space lift proposition via a concise short story, subsequently padded out to a less engaging cash-in novel. Later on, he would have got someone else to write it for him. This is the sweet spot where the elder sci-fi statesman was taking the time to explore the technicalities of his idea in detail, blended with literary pomp to scoop all the awards.

Iain M. Banks, Feersum Endjinn

1994 / Audiobook / 279 pages / UK

****

Anyone like me who lamented the lack of off-putting experimental wank in Banks' mainstream novels after the '80s will find it alive and well in his sci-fi line. This was the first all-new one after he ran out of juvenile first drafts to rewrite, and after edging for so long, he earned the indulgent release. The Gothic megastructures and cheekily frustrating phonetic narration of the '80s are back, pushed to new extremes, updated with nostalgically '90s cyberpunk. Easily my favourite of his sci-fi books (so far) and encouragement to keep going.

Andrew Hultkrans, Love's Forever Changes

2003 / Ebook / 127 pages / USA

***

The music barely gets a look-in in this paean to paranoid psychedelic prophet Arthur Lee. Probably best digested on the same aperitif you're pairing the album with, but be prepared for things to get heavy.

Nikki Stafford, Finding Lost: Season Six – The Unofficial Guide

2010 / Ebook / 319 pages / USA

****

Reliably in-depth recaps, observations and faux real-time postulations for any newcomers reading along as they watch, until everyone's up to speed and the rest of the book can be a compulsory defence of the polarising finale, which apparently disappointed some people who required hard science fiction explanations for everything that happened in their supernatural show. I was never so engaged with the final year generally, so this wasn't the nostalgic trip the other guides were.