At the Bent Spine!
http://bentspine.blogspot.com/2010/12/audreys-door-by-sarah-langan-2009.html
Cool Discussion of Audrey’s Door
December 2nd, 2010Inside Job
November 29th, 2010Over Thanksgiving weekend, I saw the documentary “Inside Job” (2010, dir. Charles Ferguson, narrated by Matt Damon) about the stock market collapse of 2008. It’s a movie with a liberal agenda and zero pretense toward neutrality. At times, I was frustrated by the cuts the editor made, because it seemed unlikely that the subjects interviewed (lobbyists for investment banks, professors at Harvard who advocated for less banking regulations, and also happened to command six and seven figure consulting fees from large banks, politicians) could be both so corrupt and so stupid. So I’ll give those subjects the benefit of the doubt.
Regardless, director Ferguson makes a good argument for banking regulation. Since deregulation began in the 1980s, the rich have gotten richer, and the American middle class has shrunk. For the first time in America’s history, this generation will be less educated and earn less money than its parents (says the movie). Basically, the bankers get disproportionately high salaries, even during times of loss. These salaries are funded not just by tax payer funded bailouts, but by the lost income and investments of the middle class. We let them merge after nullifying Glass-Steagall, then called them too big to fail. Someone ought to have noted that they were too corrupt to succeed.
How did they all have AAA ratings when their actual liquidity was only about 3%, with 97% debt? They bet against their own investments, and created a demand for crap mortgages, which no one inside these banks believed had value. Essentially, traders knew their investments might harm the economy, and their own companies, but they were in it for the very quick profit. And they got it. Thanks, guys! Hope that house in the Hamptons is awesome! Can I come over and use your pool?
The New Yorker this week has a good companion piece on the subject:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/11/29/101129fa_fact_cassidy
I’ve been thinking about this a lot. It doesn’t make sense that we keep backing the very institutions that destroy us. Banks are necessary. They are good. They grease the economy. Already, they’re paying the government back. But they need regulation. Laws that prevent them from committing harm. So do insurance companies, hospitals, armies, and governments. People are good, and can often be depended on to make good decisions. Corporations, where no one individual is responsible, and everybody works for a paycheck, are not people. They’re a unique and cold-hearted beast. Everybody knows that. Liberals and conservatives surely must agree on that point, at least. So why has this banking system been so difficult to correct? I think I know.
We have a God in this country, and we worship him before all others. That God is money. We assume that people who have it are somehow better than us. They’re smarter, craftier, more savvy. The Kennedy money came from bootlegging, and probably a few dead bodies in some rivers here and there, but who cares? They’re so good looking! They have a family compound! It’s got a rose garden and guest houses! What they have defines them more than their actions.
We’re all guilty of it. I treat people in suits differently than those who wear jeans. I assume they know more about social rules, have more self-respect, are smarter. I forget that maybe they just work for their dads; maybe they’re just like everybody else, only luckier.
I grew up on Long Island, in a town where half the dads were investment bankers, and half the kids were complete assholes. This is not random coincidence. It’s not just the rich who believe their own hype—sure bankers totally deserve 100 times more annual salary than engineers, who actually went to school to learn math! They’re REALLY good at their jobs! It’s the poor who believe it, too. And the middle class. We all buy into the God of money. So when it comes time to slap their wrists for doing wrong, we just can’t bring ourselves to do it. After all, how can we punish the very people we wish to become?
Doomsday predictions belong to the Atlantic Monthly, and I’ve never liked them. But this banking crisis seems symptomatic to me. It’s not just the banks, it’s the fuel companies, and the lobbies, and the institutional corruption of corporations that no longer follow free market rules, or even rules of common sense. They don’t have to: they’ve bought everybody who might stop them, and are free to act irrationally. Small publishers can’t acquire small, good books, because they’re owned by monoliths, and now there’s just one party line. Who wants small profit when you can mass produce a blockbuster? Or a flop, and lose everything? Doctors can’t treat patients unless they sign on the dotted line, in triplicate. Or maybe the corrupt ones can just testify against sick people, or double bill Medicare. Monsanto owns the patent on soy beans. Food is patented! We don’t produce anything in this country. We consume. And have somehow misapprehended this as a virtue. So has the rest of the world, because they, too, worship money. It is the only reason for our continued cultural dominance. But what happens when we go broke?
The Great Recession was the warning. Like the 1890s blip in the Gilded Age before it, the Great Recession of 2008 indicated a need for market correction. Regulation. Prosecution of individuals who took bribes, or knowingly committed harm, not just in banking, but in all industries. Otherwise, we really are headed for a Great Depression.
“Is This Seat Taken” is alive!
November 9th, 2010Everybody!
My radio play, “Is This Seat Taken,” is now out! Listen to it at:
http://www.talesfrombeyondthepale.com/
About “Is This Seat Taken”–
Says the Publicity Dept:
“A young man meets an alluring woman on the long Island Railroad and slowly comes to realize they have a common past… but maybe not the one she is recollecting.
From horror novelist Sarah Langan comes this twisted commuter’s tale, directed by JT Petty and starring independent filmmaker Joe Swanberg and New York actress Vonia Lania.”
Play runs about thirty minutes, and is one of my best pieces of writing. It is also my first collaboration with JT Petty (my husband, whose radio play “Johnny Boy” will be released in another two weeks). The actors are pretty awesome, too. “Is This Seat Taken” is a black comedy with moments of sweetness, meaning your non-horror-loving friends will love it, too. It’s set on the Long Island Rail Road, and in my hometown of Garden City.
While taping, I was lucky enough to have JT Petty, Larry Fessenden, Glen McQuaid, and the awesome Joe Swanberg, all directors in their own right, giving their best to the project. Vonia Lania kicks some serious ass a the story’s femme fatale. It was a humbing and delightful experience. Seriously, this is a good one, and I’m happy to stand behind it 100%. That doesn’t always happen.
The play is one of ten, produced by Glass Eye Pix. A new play will go live every Tuesday.
Shoot me an e-mail if you’ve got an comments. And spread the word!
Happy Halloween!
October 31st, 2010Happy Halloween, everybody!
To celebrate:
An interview with yours truly at Sheepish Fashionista : http://bit.ly/langaniv
The interviewer is a fellow writer and friend whose talent is the real deal.
An article in the Chicago Tribune, along with recommended reading:
http://tinyurl.com/22khyo3
http://tinyurl.com/25yow2
And your Halloween present:
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html
PS: Boo!
Upcoming events
October 26th, 2010The Events:
1) Tonight, October 26, the hubby talks about horror in the second installment of FEAR-MONGERS: FIRESIDE CHATS ABOUT HORROR MOVIES
The details: Hosted by Clay McLeod Chapman. Featured guests include: Dennis Paoli (screenwriter, Re-Animator), JT Petty (director, S@Man), Douglas Cheek (director, C.H.U.D.), and Jason Zinoman (NY Times critic)!
Hear what films send shivers down the spines of Jason Zinoman (New York Times theater critic), Douglas Cheek (director of 1989 creeptastic creature feature C.H.U.D., and Dennis Paoli (who wrote Re-Animator, the 1985 flick about a med student who brings his dead professor back to life). – Time Out NY (CRITIC’S PICK!)
Tuesday, October 26th at 9 PM (Doors open at 8:30)
at Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street (corner of Delancey)
http://www.dixonplace.org/html/lit_fearmongers.html
FREE to the public. Seating is limited. Please RSVP at: (212) 219-0736
2) Tales from Beyond the Pale should be debuting its first installment, along with poster art.
http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/40557/tales-beyond-pale-debuts-october-26th
The details:
AN ON THE LEDGE by Joe Maggio (BITTER FEAST)
With Vincent D’onofrio (MEN IN BLACK, FULL METAL JACKET)
Buy them individually for $2 a pop, or the whole season for $20.
3) The Chicago Tribune is running a state of horror fiction article on October 30. I was interviewed! http://www.chicagotribune.com/
4) I’m blogging at http://sheepishfashionista.com/
Happy Halloween!
“Hindsight” up on Lightspeed Magazine
October 5th, 2010http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/hindsight/
Also out this month from “Lightspeed” is astrophysicist Pamela Gay’s article about gravitational anomalies. It’s the Halloween issue, so later in the month Lightspeed will also run stories by Joe Lansdale and Stephen King. You can buy all three stories, as well as accompanying interviews and articles in one shot, or read them as they appear for free, online.
Read up, and plunk some bling down while you’re at it!
Press Release below:
For immediate release:
The October issue of Lightspeed Magazine is now underway. Our first piece of fiction–“Hindsight” by Sarah Langan–and first piece of nonfiction–“When Universes Collide” by Pamela Gay–are both now available.
Lightspeed is serialized throughout the month, for free online, but it is also available directly from Prime Books in DRM-free ePub format, and is also available in Kindle, iBooks, and Mobipocket format from external vendors, or from Fictionwise, which offers a variety of formats. So if you don’t want to wait for the content to be released on the site throughout the month, or you’d just like a handy, downloadable version of the magazine on your favorite handheld electronic reading device, you can buy the ebook edition for just $2.99.
Here’s the schedule for October, with some editorial teasers of the content. The first piece of fiction and nonfiction are available now (see October 5, below).
We’re doing a little something different this month. Because October is Halloween month, and Halloween is a time for scary stories, we thought it would be appropriate to make October “Horror Month” here at Lightspeed. But never fear, we haven’t changed our scope completely—each story in this issue is still science fiction; it’s just that you’ll be getting your daily dose of sensawunda but also a liberal helping of whadafrakwuzzat as well.
Here’s the schedule and teasers for this month:
October 5
In our lead story this month, “Hindsight,” horror author Sarah Langan tells the story of an apocalypse-in-progress, a world in which the laws of physics no longer seem to behave properly, and a mysterious cosmic anomaly called Black Betty. The last remaining survivors have one last hope, but can the technological singularity defeat the threat of a gravitational one?
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/hindsight/
In the related nonfiction, astronomer Dr. Pamela Gay discusses what there was before the Big Bang, gravity, the mediocrity principle, and just what might happen if two universes collided.
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/when-universes-collide/
October 12
In “Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back,” author Joe R. Lansdale tells the tale of a mad scientist and his family who spend twenty long, hard years Down Under waiting for the war to end. By doing so, they manage to survive the end of the world, but when they go back Topside, they find a world very different than the one they remember—a world in which even a rose is supremely dangerous…and not just because of its thorns. (Reprint)
In our feature interview this month, Matt London talks to Marc Laidlaw—creator of Valve Software’s Half-Life series—about video game creation, his literary and gaming influences, and the intersection of SF and horror.
October 19
Imagine you’re awakened early from cryonic stasis aboard a starship traveling to a colony world where tens of thousands of starving colonists will die if you don’t get there to help them. John R. Fultz’s chilling “The Taste of Starlight” explores whether the lives of many outweigh the lives of few, as we experience the lengths the good Doctor Pelops is willing to go to in order to ensure his mission’s success. Would you—should you—be able to do the same thing?
The idea of cryonic suspension has been around nearly as long as science fiction itself, but just how plausible is it? And if it is scientifically viable—would it be a good investment? Scientist (and SF author) Dr. Gregory Benford weighs all the (cold, hard) facts, figures, and probabilities in “Considering Cryonics.”
October 26
There are few authors in the world about whom you can honestly say “he needs no introduction.” But when you’re talking about Stephen King, that’s most certainly the truth. “Beachworld,” one of the horror master’s rare forays into straight-up science fiction, follows the plight of the two survivors of a far-future interstellar spaceflight, who crash land on a harsh and unforgiving planet. (Reprint)
And if you think that place would be a terrible planet to crash land on, well, you’d be right. But, in case you’d like a little variety when choosing your final extraterrestrial resting place, author Genevieve Valentine scoured the cosmos and found “Five Planets that Will Kill You Dead.”
That’s it for our fiction and nonfiction selections, but be sure to also look for our author spotlights, and keep an ear out for the podcasts of “Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back” by Joe R. Lansdale and “The Taste of Starlight” by John R. Fultz.
***
All that, plus author spotlights on Sarah Langan, Joe R. Lansdale, and John R. Fultz, along with podcasts of “Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back” and “The Taste of Starlight.”
4 Train Creep
September 23rd, 2010A weird thing happened yesterday, that I feel I ought to blog about:
My husband and I had a meeting in midtown, and were rushing to get home in time to relieve the babysitter. After the first train at Times’ Square was too packed to board, we pushed our way onto the second. A guy pushed his way behind me. I hardly noticed him until about five minutes later, when he shoved up against me in a way that literally felt familiar, and I turned to discover that his pants were split open along the crotch, and his hairy unit was peeking out. He seemed proud of this. I did a double take. Then I moved away. The man to the side offered me a seat. By the time my husband looked, my split-panted friend had put the mouse back in the red plaid boxer house.
He moved to the center pole. I said, “His penis was out, I saw it, and he bumped it against me. I’m not sure, but my best guess is, he meant it.”
Nobody on the train wanted to get involved. They were in subway mode, and probably hadn’t noticed. We had our daughter to pick up. The dude was sad, and weird, and wearing thick sunglasses in the middle of the day. We actually laughed right in front of him. Still, my husband followed him off the Brooklyn Bridge stop to alert the police. I kept riding, to pick up our daughter. A train chase ensued, all the way to Union Square. The creep got away. Twenty minutes later, my husband caught up with me back in Brooklyn. Strangely, all felt fine with the world.
Something similar happened to me when I was nineteen. A freak on the Vatican bus from Rome grabbed and grinded me. I bit back the tears, shouted “Scuzzi!” and nobody came to me defense. The guy rode on, like nothing had happened. I carried that event with me for years. A part of me wondered if, because I was heavy-set, an obvious indication of low self-esteem, I’d been an easy mark. Maybe he’d thought I’d wanted it. It was horrible, though I wouldn’t go so far as to call it traumatic.
This time wasn’t like that bus ride in Vatican City. I knew Captain Perv had no personal qualms with me, and felt strangely anthropological about the whole thing. I even pitied him. How weird. How inappropriate. Did he dress like this at home? Did he live in a squalid flea trap? How sad for him, that this was his only form of human contact.
I’m glad I was able to brush it off, and in a way, turn the tables of objectification by laughing at him. It only occurred to me after my husband had left to chase him, that he probably did this ten times a day. After all, he’d tailored an outfit specifically for grinding purposes. What if he’d done this to another nineteen year-old? Or a drunk girl, who hadn’t noticed until she gotten jizzed? Or, crap, a kid? Or worse, what if he had his own little boy or girl waiting for him, at home?
It’s hard to figure out what to do under these circumstances, when you’re in the middle of them. At the time, I wasn’t quite sure it had really happened. I mean—how bold! How totally, bat-shit nuts! I was reassured when he ran from my husband, because it meant it had really happened.
In retrospect, I think I ought to have shouted for the police right then and there. Stopped the train, even. Rush hour be damned. Next time, I guess. And if it happens to you, maybe you ought to shout, too. Because even if you’re unfazed, maybe next time, it’s a twelve year-old girl, or his own child, that he’s pushing around.
The Details:
4 train, around 5pm, September 22.
He got on at Times’ Square, and off at Brooklyn Bridge, where he gave chase. Rode the uptown at Brooklyn Bridge to Union Square, where my husband had arranged to meet the cops, but by then, had disappeared.
Description:
5’8’’, about 240 pounds, black
Wore big, opaque black sunglasses, black parachute pants; red plaid boxers; plaid, dark blue short-sleeved shirt. No bags, nothing, seemingly, in his pockets.
My guess: he rides that 4 train at rush hour every day, to get his jollies.
Excuse the personal nature of this entry. Also, no need to console me; I’m fine.
Speaking tonight
September 20th, 2010I’ll be reading tonight from Audrey’s Door at the Brooklyn Public Library, Arlington Branch (203 Arlington Ave) at 6:30pm. All are welcome.
I’ll also be the online guest at the writer’s chat room on October 10, 7-9pm (www.writerschatroom.com).
Last (for now!), I’ll be speaking at the Brooklyn Public Library, Saratoga Branch at 4:30pm.
Hope to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Sarah Langan
Appearances
September 1st, 2010It’s over! Summer, that is. And good riddance. I can’t stand the heat!
Anyway, a couple of things:
I’m reading, along with John Langan, at the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art (138 Sullivan St., NYC) on Tuesday, September 7, at 7pm. Come on down!
I’ll also be speaking at the Brooklyn Public Libraries this fall:
September 20th, 6:15pm, Arlington Branch
October 21st, 4:30pm, Saratoga Branch
Stories:
My story, “Are You Trying to Tell me This is Heaven,” is now out in John Joseph Adams’ anthology The Living Dead 2. The antho has gotten a starred pw review, and tons of praise. Other authors include David Wellington, Kelly Link, Cherie Priest, Kelley Armstrong, Max Brooks, John Skipp and Cody Goodfellow, and Catherynne Valente, to name a few. The website is here, and contributors will also be blogging for Tor Books all month.
Glass Eye Pix’ Production of my radio play, “Is This Seat Taken?” is underway, and will be directed by JT Petty.
On that note, JT Petty’s Mock-Doc “S&MAN” is now out. I’ve got a cameo, and it is one of the best films on the decade. It’s scheduled to have its theatrical debut at ReRun in October.
My first science fiction story will be published in October. More on that to come when I know I can announce it!
Work continues on the fourth novel. When I decide it’s ready to go, you all will be the first to know.
I hope your summer has been fantastic. Thanks for staying tuned.
Sincerely,
Sarah Langan