Joe-mentum

Fox 2000 has acquired rights to Joe Haldeman’s 1974 novel “The Forever War,” and Ridley Scott is planning to make it into his first science fiction film since he delivered back-to-back classics with “Blade Runner” and “Alien.”

Scott intended to follow those films with “The Forever War,” but rights complications delayed his plans for more than two decades. —Variety

(Via File 770)

My scattered Forever War thoughts can be found here and here.

Under the chalk

"Didn't mean to startle you." He offered his hand, dry and strong under the chalk. "I'm Paul Collins, your pilot. Recognized you on the passenger roster."

—Joe Haldeman, Marsbound (2008)

UPDATE: "My" Paul Collins has discovered the solution: "...It's a shout-out to the Australian sci-fi Paul Collins!"

Distant Worlds Australian SF & F 4

Collins, Paul, Series Editor

[ISBN: 0909117098]

St Kilda, Victoria: Cory and Collins, 1981. 242 pp. Cover slightly edgeworn and a little rubbed. Spine uncreased. Pages uniformly yellowed, but clean, unwrinkled and tightly bound. Foreword by Joe Haldeman. Stories by Jack Wodhams, Cherry Wilder, Darrell Schweitzer, Trudy Rose, Michael Hailstone, Wynne N. Whiteford, Howard Goldsmith, John J. Alderson, Keith Taylor, David J. Lake, and Leanne Frahm and Paul Collins.. First. Paperback. Good+. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. (more information)

Offered by Wormhole Books (Australia)

Table-Talk of Parkus Grammaticus for July 12–13

I. My latest Astral Weeks column, on a YA novel by John Scalzi, is up at the L.A. Times. (Strange photo?!) Tantalizing excerpt:

No wonder Scalzi would want to linger in the universe he's created. For the follow-up, "The Ghost Brigades" (the title refers to troops generated from the DNA of the dead -- including Perry's late wife), he gave Perry's voice a rest; it's told in the third person. Perry, now in his 80s, returned to narrate 2007's "The Last Colony," in which he and his once and future wife Jane Sagan (it's complicated) spearhead a colonial venture that turns out to be an elaborate trap (it's also complicated). The ending is right out of "The Forever War" -- or do I mean "Hannah and Her Sisters"?

II. The Chosun Ilbo story on Personal Days that appeared in Korean is now readable in an accurate translation. (The photo, alas, is inaccurately credited—it's Sylvia Plachy's portrait of moi.) Tantalizing excerpt:

If the author Ed Park stands out among his fellow Korean-American writers, it is because there is no trace of Koreanness in his work.

III. Salon gives props to new essays by Dzyds Jessica and Mike on Moving Image Source, and calls it:

"the wide-ranging, deep-thinking film magazine America has long lacked, published online. Launched only last month by the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, N.Y., Moving Image Source also includes an international calendar of film and TV-related events and a guide to online research resources. Edited by critic and former [PTSNBN] editor Dennis Lim, it has almost overnight become a must-read for serious film and television buffs."

IV. Someone gives the highlights of my St. Mark's reading on Thursday!

UPDATE: Post hoc propter hoc? You be the judge! John Scalzi himself blogs about my review of Zoe's Tale—and it turns out he and Keeler Society honcho Richard Polt are old buds/collaborators!...Levi has a Galchen-inspired dream—and the NYT reviews Atmospheric Disturbances!

PLUS: A nice assessment of Personal Days from the blog Afropologë, which brings up a good point: "It's a quick, easy and inexpensive read, taking only $13 out of my wallet and a couple hours of my time (the story only spans about 241 pages of this small paperback)."

Ed Park's Return of the Reluctant

Catching up! Thanks for all the kind words and e-mails and shout-outs attendant to the arrival of DUNCAN.........

I'm going to try to ease my way in.......Hats off to Team Dizzies (including newest hire Devin McKinney—a/k/a THE HAWK) for their excellent posts, please please keep posting.......

For now—a little summary of recent "action"!

1. Over at Mr. David Cairns's Shadowplay, which has been on a roll from day one, my moment of cinema euphoria gets its day in the sun. (Until rewatching the clip, I'd forgotten that Alec Baldwin narrated The Royal Tenenbaums—nice!) "These Days" inadvertently became D.'s lullaby this morning....a bit melancholy but very pretty—

2. I'm perpetually finding and losing an article about the Oulipo that I wrote back in 1999; last night, looking for something else, I found it again, and I figured I'd better type it out on the computer just to have a record. This is early EP, so be kind! There are a few bum notes, and some sentences strain under the weight of LEARNEDNESS, but there are also some nifty things that I'd forgotten and a brief look at Harry Mathews's Cigarettes. (You can find the article at The Unarchivable, along with two other rarities, one from New York, one from Modern Painters.)

3. Jump back in time with me: In this month's Astral Weeks column (out for a while now), I read (and re-read) Joe Haldeman, with a little shout-out to Duncan!

4. Novel news: The cover for Personal Days can be seen on its Amazon page—and also right here!


I must say that I love it! (I'll post the U.K. cover as soon as it goes up—different concept, but very cool indeed!)

I'll also be posting, occasionally, to a Personal Days blog — some news about the novel, but mostly (I hope) links to interesting work-related articles and fun time-wasters.

5. This deserves a post of its own—the 50th Believer is out! I can't "believer" it! I'm an old man! It's a suitably great issue.....More on it later.....you can catch a glimpse here for now.