Going Out on a Limb: Lack of Skunk Fiction Stinks

My recent discussion here of the relevance of F&SF’s corporate name of Spilogale, and the subsequent discussion in my Rumor Mill message board, got me thinking about skunks and fiction. You don’t see too much of that. Am I the only one outraged? When’s someone going to do for Mephitidae fiction what has been done for the literature of Muroidea and Leporidae?

I seem to be a fan of such fiction in general; my favorite piece of short fiction is “Flowers for Algernon,” which, while not strickly a Muroidea story, it wouldn’t be the same without its titular rodent character. In addition to that, I grew up reading those Beverly Cleary Ralph the Mouse books (The Mouse and the Motorcycle, et al.). The Secret of NIHM was always one of my favorite animated films. You get the idea. If I’d been exposed to those Brian Jacques books as a kid, I’m sure I would have devoured those too.

On the lagomorph side of the coin, of course, is Watership Down, which is not only a fantastic book, but also a wonderful animated film (so is Plague Dogs, but Canidae are well-represented in fiction, and so are not relevant to this discussion, except in a Richard Adams-tangential sense). I’m not as well-versed in Leporidae lore–in fact, I can’t think of another rabbit story off the top of my head–but it seems equally as appealing.

So, though skunks are actually of the order carnivora, putting them in the same league as the likes of lions and tigers and bears…(don’t say it), it seems like they’d be a natural to follow in the footsteps of the aforementioned creatures.

Plus, with a sinister name like Mephitidae, how can all you fantasy writers resist?

Or am I wrong? Is there some vast treasure trove of skunk fiction out there I’m not aware of?

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Free Speculative Fiction Online

Marian, on the Asimov’s Forum, pointed out this handy website: Free Speculative Fiction Online. As the name implies, this is a portal to the various SF stories you can find online for free (all legit, no copyright-pirated stuff). You can sort through the stories by author, awards won, or by magazine. What piqued my interest was the archive of F&SF stories. Looks like most of these are reprinted on SCI FICTION or Infinity Plus, so they’re not all obscure links, but there are a few stories on author websites that you might not otherwise have been aware of. Plus, it’s kind of nice to see all these F&SF stories in one place, so that you can get your friends to read some stories from F&SF, even if they’re too cheap or lazy to go buy a copy. Of course, once we’ve got them hooked, surely they’ll run right out and subscribe so they can get their next fix.

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This stinks

If any of you can’t wait to get your very own F&SF rejection letters for free, check out eBay: some generous soul is auctioning off an old rejection letter, with the starting bid of just $24.99. Quite a bargain!

Actually, there is a somewhat interesting angle to the item, in that back in the old days, the editors sometimes wrote rejection letters on the back of cover proofs. Upon seeing the item, Gordon remarked “Yeah, instead of using the backs of old cover proofs, I’ve been thinking of using the backs of envelopes, old napkins, discarded review slips.”

In light of our corporate name, Spilogale, I think we should mail dead skunks in lieu of rejection letters. Not only does this reinforce our brand, but it clearly spells out our opinion of the submitted story, namely, that it stinks. In the long run, this would probably be a bit more expensive than reusing random pieces of trash around the office, but it would certainly make quite a statement, and would make for far more interesting eBay auctions in 50 years.

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Save Enterprise?

Another link, but with sufficient commentary by me that I thought this warranted a separate post:

Save Enterprise: Tim Brazeal, founder of Save Enterprise, sent F&SF an impassioned plea for any assistance with his campaign to, as the name of the site suggests, save the show Enterprise from cancellation. Apparently, ratings have climbed this year, but not enough for the head honcho. So hop over there and find out how you can offer your support.

Personally, I’m not entirely convinced Enterprise is worth saving–I had quit watching it at some point during season two I think, then picked up watching it again over the summer since everything else was re-runs. I wouldn’t call it must-see-tv, but there’s precious little SF on tv these days, and it somehow seems important that a show like this be on the air, on a non-cable network. Or am I wrong? Does a bad or mediocre SF show do more harm than good to the genre, or does the very presence of SF on television benefit us all in the long run, no matter the quality of the product? If Enterprise and all shows like it disappeared from the airwaves, would those loyal fans who get their SF fix from tv seek out new media and new forms of entertainment…would they boldly go where no sci-fi fanboys have gone before?

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Blackmask Online & An SF Questionaire

A couple of links I wanted to point out:

(1) Blackmask Online: This is a site that provides lots of free public domain ebooks, mostly if not all Project Gutenberg stuff, but they provide them in a variety of user-friendly formats that makes it easy to pop the books right onto your PDA. Project Gutenberg’s files are sometimes formatted strangely, so when you transfer the TXT file it doesn’t display properly on a PDA. Blackmask Online has most of their books available in MS-Reader, Acrobat, Rocket eBook, Zipped format, iSilo, and, my personal favorite: Mobipocket. The Mobipocket editions I downloaded all look to be nicely formatted and excellent reading editions. Blackmask Online also has a number of convenient genre groupings that make browsing easier, including, of course, our friend science fiction.

(2) SF Reading Habits Questionnaire: Farah Mendlesohn, SF critic and editor of the academic journal Foundation, has posted this questionnaire to gather material for a book called, The Inter-Galactic Playground of Children’s Science Fiction to be published by McFarland Press. And hey, she just wants you to talk about your tastes in science fiction; and you do that all the time, even to random strangers, don’t you? So why not help out an academic with her research?

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Award-Worthy?

So the Philip K. Dick Award finalists have been announced (for best science fiction paperback original):

Air, Geoff Ryman (St. Martin’s Griffin)
Apocalypse Array, Lyda Morehouse (Roc)
Banner of Souls, Liz Williams (Bantam Spectra)
City of Pearl, Karen Traviss (Eos)
The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad, Minister Faust (Del Rey)
Life, Gwyneth Jones (Aqueduct Press)
Stable Strategies and Others, Eileen Gunn (Tachyon Publications)

Yeah, so, The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust is on the list. This, the same book that I rated a D- in my Science Fiction Weekly review last year. This is starting to bug me. Not only did I see a ton of positive reviews of this book, but now it’s up for a major award. Yet I do not waver in my conviction; I truly dislike that book, and I’ll defend my opinion of it. Still. Plus, it’s not even science fiction–it’s fantasy, and so shouldn’t even be eligible for this award. But the judges have some leeway apparently as to what they consider “science fiction”; apparently their definition differs greatly from mine (as does their definition of “quality”).

Which is not to dis any of the other titles. The only other one I read was Air by Geoff Ryman, which is brilliant, so I hope that wins. The others might all be equally deserving (though I note that Apocalypse Array also appears to be fantasy…it’s got angels in it).

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