Speculating Canada: Canadian Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

June 2, 2013

Quote – Humans Have Much To Learn From “Inferior” Life Forms

“The mortals have much to learn from what they deem inferior life forms.” -Nancy Kilpatrick – Berserker (in Vampyric Variations)

Quotes Comments: 0

June 1, 2013

Abstract – Speculating Diversity: Nalo Hopkinson’s Brown Girl In The Ring and the Use of Speculative Fiction to Disrupt Singular Interpretations of Place

A few readers have expressed some interest in my academic work researching Canadian Speculative Fiction. I have sent out versions of my abstracts for upcoming conferences to people directly, but I thought it may be worthwhile for me to post them on Speculating Canada so that people can see them. For those of you who are not from academic backgrounds,...

Editorials Comments: 0

May 30, 2013

Final Voting for Speculating Canada for the Prix Aurora Awards

Dear Readers, As many of you know, Speculating Canada made it to the short list for the Prix Aurora Awards. This is a huge accomplishment that is largely due to the work of fans and readers of the site and the brilliant authors that I have had the incredible opportunity to interview. I have been honoured to be able to...

Editorials/News Comment: 1

May 29, 2013

Illustrating Speculative Fiction

An Editorial By Derek Newman-Stille As an artist, I have always been fascinated with the art that accompanies Speculative Fiction novels. So many readers focus on the cover art when making their decision about which books to read, and often the author has little or no say about which art is attached to their book. The art of a book is...

Editorials Comments: 2

May 28, 2013

Quote – Art About Opening Lines of Communication and Resisting Uncritical Media

‘That’s what art’s all about too… they’re all lines of communication. But they’re harder to keep open now because it’s so much easier for most people to relate to a TV set than it is to another person. They get all this data fed into them, but they don’t know what to do with it anymore. When they talk to...

Quotes Comments: 0

May 27, 2013

Nostalgia for the Stars

A review of Steven Appleby’s The Captain Star Omnibus (Sybertooth, Inc., 2008). By Derek Newman-Stille Society tends to disregard humour as less significant than other forms of social discourse, but humour contains within it a mechanism for piercing status quo barriers and interrogating issues that people may prefer not to look at critically. Humour pushes boundaries, breaks down walls, and...

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

May 26, 2013

Quote – Mature People Need to Take a Break From Being Mature Sometimes

“Festivals and holidays were intended to be days when mature people could have a break and stop being mature for a little while. If someone doesn’t need to take some time off, maybe they aren’t really being all that mature during the rest of the year.” -Shen Braun – Costumes (Tesseracts Fifteen: A Case of Quite Curious Tales)

Quotes Comments: 0

May 25, 2013

Quote – Becoming What You Are Studying

“Getting too tangled up in his own quest for understanding. Delving too deeply into the calendering trees that he lost track of where he left his body, until one day he looked around to find that he’d become what he was studying” -Charles de Lint – Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood In The Very Best of Charles de Lint.

Quotes Comments: 0

May 24, 2013

Meme Zombies

A Review of Tony Burgess and Bruce McDonald’s film Pontypool (Maple Pictures, 2009) By Derek Newman-Stille As many of you know, I tend to focus Speculating Canada primarily on literature. This is not meant to ignore other types of texts and media, but has been an area that fascinates me. I have recently been drawn to the film Pontypool through...

Other Reviews Comments: 5

May 23, 2013

Quote – Writers Expose Their Innermost Emotions To The World

“To wear your heart upon your sleeve is to expose your innermost emotions to the world. Writers do that. They expose their most private feelings to total strangers. Not once, not by accident, but deliberately and, to all extents and purposes, permanently.” -Julia Czerneda – Introduction to Douglas Smith’s Chimerascope

Quotes Comments: 0