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Chronscast Episode 6 – House of Leaves with Ed Wilson

This episode Christopher and I finally open that door of the Chronscast household we’d not dared to open before and plunge into the abyssal labyrinth that is Mark Danielewski’s maddeningly epic debut novel, House Of Leaves. A book that defies conventional categorisation, it’s been described as a horror, a literary piece, a puzzle, and even a love story.

We’re joined on this subterranean literary odyssey by renowned literary agent Ed Wilson. Ed is the director of the Johnson & Alcock literary agency, representing a vibrant and developing list of fiction and non-fiction, from new and debut writers to established, bestselling and award-winning authors.

With Ed we gleefully dip down the House Of Leaves rabbithole, discussing ergodic literature, innovation in writing, the perils of over-analysing texts, and the Manic Street Preachers. We also chat about the submissions process and navigating the slush pile, and the options open to authors and agents.

Ed was a great guest, full of energy, information and inspiration. Any aspiring writer should listen to what he has to say. The bottom line is, if you’re a writer, you’re going to write. And to paraphrase the old millennial meme, you should write like nobody’s watching. Enjoy it.

Elsewhere, The Judge gives a sumptuous talk on the use of clothing in worldbuilding, and the effects that clothing can have on society, and our writing. We’ll hear the winning entries to May’s 75-word challenge, and April’s 300-word challenge, written by Oliver Helm Victoria Silverwolf respectively, and we get an unexpected phone call from an ex-President of the United States, whose home extension has gotten out of hand and seems to lead to the belt of Orion.

Next Month
Join us next month when we’ll be joined by literary agent John Jarrold to talk about Rob Holdstock’s winner of the 1984 World Fantasy Award, Mythago Wood.

Index
[00:00 – 52:54] Ed Wilson Interview Part 1
[52:54 – 54:07] Voicemail 1
[54:08 – 1:08:28] The Judge’s Corner
[1:08:28 – 1:09:10] Voicemail 2
[1:09:11 – 1:12:31] Writing Challenge Winners
[1:12:32 – 1:13:43] Voicemail 3
[1:13:44 – 2:07:31] Ed Wilson Interview Part 2
[2:07:32 – 2:09:36] – Credits

How To Listen
Listen to Chronscast on Anchor, or through your usual podcast provider (links below). And please like, subscribe, and share – and if you do like our podcast, please do leave a review with your podcast provider!
Apple Podcasts
Amazon Music
Google Podcasts
Breaker
Castbox
Pocketcasts
Radiopublic
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Stitch

The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 10

After engaging in a traumatic dialogue with Em and realising the truth behind his own deceptions, Manu is disturbed and thrown. But these revelations are nothing compared to what is to come. The day of Edourado’s exhibition has arrived.

Em,

Em? Are you in there? I keep staring at the flight case, where you were left, wishing I could take you out. The thought of having you paraded in front of a gamut of bourgeois faux-intellectuals sets my teeth on edge, and makes me want to grind them all into dust. You weren’t meant to become something to be gawked at in public like a cheap trinket, or an ivory box. You were to sit in me, and yet you forced you out of me!

I spend my time sketching other things: dark things, broken things, but though I bring technical proficiency to them, they do not have the same violent fizz that the picture of you carried. Bosques nods appreciatively at these new drawings, occasionally choosing an idea to be developed, and he then provides his own artistic interpretation and advice on the drawings, and I robotically carry out the instructions. I’ve become quite the craftsman in just a short space of time. He’s had an effect on me, no doubt. I start to wonder if I might be able to have a career in this after all. Does this mean I’m not a failure? The thought is alien and even unnerving. Bosques is filled with praise and good voice and humour, and tells me I’ll be the toast of the town.

Masters of Two Worlds: Superheroes and Fantasy Heroes

My good friend and master blogger Peat Long has developed some of the thoughts from this month’s Chronscast episode with Tade Thompson on Watchmen, and posted them in a marvellous essay based around Joseph Campbell’s idea of a character becoming a master of two worlds. Well worth a read.

Peat Long's Blog

Before I get into the essay proper, I shall warn that this essay will mention the following works in some degree of spoilery detail: Three Hearts and Three Lions, Lord of the Rings, Earthsea Quartet, The Eternal Champion, His Dark Materials and of course, Watchmen.

It’s also probably not very good. The level of all round genre knowledge I needed for this is something I underestimated before starting the essay. I’m not bad, but I’m not that good either. I also underestimated the scope. This could be a dissertation.

But hey it’s “done”, so you’re getting it.

Another week, another essay, and this one inspired by listening to some mates’ podcast. The podcast is Chronscast, and the episode that inspired me was this one where they talked Watchmen with Tade Thompson. While the whole thing was inspiration, the bit that caught me was…

View original post 2,168 more words

The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 9

Last week Edouardo announced his intention to hold an exhibition, and to have Manu be a central part of it. So Manu sets to work, and has an unexpected and difficult reunion with Em, his epistolary correspondent. The truths, hidden behind layers of paint and wine, begin to reveal themselves.

Em,

I’m still here, my sweet, I’m still here, don’t be consumed by it yet.

I didn’t so much as glance at the sketch of you after that. Couldn’t bear it. I scrunched you up, and tossed you in the huge pile of discarded ideas by the window. Pity me, Em, but I couldn’t bear to burn it, so there it stayed for days, eyeing me up like a crumpled accuser. Even among the dozens of other screwed up leaves of paper, I could tell which one was you, the line of your creases, the rage in your discardedness. And I felt your burning hot breath on me as if you were right there with me. In me.

The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 8

Last week Manu engaged in a strange nightbound union with Agnes and Katarina. Unsure of their relationship with one another, they somehow know that they are bound to Edouardo in some way, and that this is the thread that connects them. When Manu approaches him, the old artist reveals his plans: an art exhibition, his first in several years.

But I did not wake in that squalid apartment in Tres Cantos, oh no.

I woke in Madrid, in Bosques’s workshop, on the sofa, covered by a flimsy blanket. It was a complete tip, as though a methed-up gorilla had waded through the place. Easels were upturned, paint pots were scattered, paper was strewn across the floor, and ink and paint and colour and sketches twitched animatedly.

Cold breeze made my flesh horripilate, until I saw the source: an open window. Had I clambered in last night? Had I escaped after the bizarre encounter with Bosques’s other followers? I have no idea what the mad sex-bat Katarina had meant by “creations”. Had I even dreamed it? No matter. After crawling from the sofa only to be pounded about the brain by hammers made from the void inside old wine bottles, I decided it was better not to try to think about anything much at all.

Chronscast Episode 5 – WATCHMEN with Tade Thompson

On this episode of Chronscast we’re joined by award-winning SF author Tade Thompson to talk about WATCHMEN, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s comic-book masterpiece that skewers the superhero genre using its own architecture. Tade is the author of numerous novels, including the critically acclaimed sci-fi novel Rosewater, the first in his award winning WORMWOOD TRILOGY, Making Wolf, and most recently Far From the Heaven, and the Molly Southbourne series. He has won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Nommo Award, the Kitschies Golden Tentacle award, and the Julia Verlange award, and been shortlisted for the Hugo Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, and the Shirley Jackson Prize.

We talk about how WATCHMEN reflects contemporary 1980s existential anxieties around the Cold War nuclear annihilation, and how it skewers the absurd braggadocio of the superhero genre. We dig down into the weeds of the book, picking apart the characters, their differing pathologies, and whether salvation lies in a masked figure. We ask how the genre can innovate from here, and why WATCHMEN endures. We also touch on the free spiritedness of Manga, writing fractured timelines as seen in Rosewater, and how the creation of narratives builds a psychological bridge between art and clinical practice.

This episode’s special guest, Tade Thompson

The Judge gives us the second part of her talk on defamation, reminding us that usually the only winners of such altercations are the lawyers – so watch out! Elsewhere we hear Starship, Christine Wheelwright’s excellent winning entry to the April 75-word writing challenge, and Superman has an axe to grind with Pine Marten Man… or is he just jealous?

Further Reading
You Better Watch Yourself
Superfolk
The Kryptonite Kid
Quack This Way
Where Are You Now, Batman?

Next Month
Join us next time when we’ll be joined by Ed Wilson, literary agent and director of the Johnson & Alcock literary agency. Ed will walk with us through the labyrinth that is Mark Danielewski’s mad millennial monster story House Of Leaves.

Index
[00:00:00] Tade Thompson Interview Part 1 [1:04:03] Voicemail 1 [1:05:10] The Judge’s Corner [1:18:03] Voicemail 2 [1:19:00] Writing Challenge Winner [1:21:02] Voicemail 3 [1:22:00] Tade Thompson Interview Part 2

How To Listen
Listen to Chronscast on Anchor, or through your usual podcast provider (links below). And please like, subscribe, and share!
Apple Podcasts
Amazon Music
Google Podcasts
Breaker
Castbox
Pocketcasts
Radiopublic
Spotify
Stitcher

The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 7

Last week Em partook in a strange dinner with Edouardo and some of his associates, and wasn’t quite sure of what to make of it. Upon Edouardo’s recommendation, Em agrees to meet with Agnes, one of the people who joined them for dinner, and they take a trip just outside Madrid.

I did as the old man asked, and met Agnes at Sol. The morning made her seem more agreeable, and she displayed none of the odd aggression she’d shown last night in the toilets. I didn’t like it, and as the morning progressed I wondered if this perceived altercation was merely the hissy fit of a capricious artist, or whether we were, in our collective silence, breeding an elephant in the room of our company. If she felt any awkwardness, she didn’t show it.

Literature Long Read: This World Is On Fire – Mysticism, Rejuvenation and Peace in The Waste Land

2022 is the centenary year of TS Eliot’s modernist masterpiece The Waste Land. It is one of the 20th century’s greatest and most influential poems, and yet seethes with such profound imagic, linguistic, cultural and religious references that it appears intimidatingly impenetrable to the lay reader. That’s the modernist way. But let’s not be tempted to think that works such as The Waste Land are early examples of gnashing postmodernism, written where the impenetrability is the point. Despite the poem being written in the aftermath of the utter dismemberment of the First World War, there is no absoluten Zerrissenheit on display here.

That’s not to say that abject nihilism isn’t far from the surface, but the poem is essentially one of hope, an emotion or theme that postmodernism is incapable of eliciting. This strange dichotomy of doom attenuated by hope is right there in the poem’s famous opening lines.

The Rings Of Saturn – Chapter 6

Last week Em began work as the amanuensis of Edourado del Bosques, and meditated upon the horrors of growing old, and how the old view the young. Would even the great ones be resentful to those in the flushes of youth? This week, Emmanuel joins his mentor at a dinner in Madrid, where he sees strange things he cannot account for, and meets other associates of the old artist.

Aiming High Part 2: Failure = New Information

Last week I worked through the idea of trying to capture one’s aspirations with as much detail as you can bear. The justification being that specific objectives enable one to create a useful plan or map of how to reach those objectives. The alternative is a sort of fuzzy goal that may or may not be succeeded at any one time, because the definition of failure is also iteratively fuzzy. Writers seem to be particularly poor at defining success in this way. I’ve given it a little thought and there seems to be some sort of connection to personality types. A short while back I wrote a couple of posts on creative personality types and whether one could be orderly and creative.