HiLobrow 2Q2016

By: HILOBROW
June 30, 2016

What did we publish, here at HILOBROW, during April, May, and June 2016? Check it out.

BEST OF HILOBROW: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 1Q2020 | 2Q2020 | 3Q2020 SNEAK PEEK.

GROK MY ENTHUSIASM

We continued to publish new installments in the GROK MY ENTHUSIASM series. Each week, one of HILOBROW’s talented and fascinating friends and contributors shared his or her enthusiasm with us.

Josh Glenn is editor of the GROK MY ENTHUSIASM series. He is very grateful to our contributors.

MORE ENTHUSIASM at HILOBROW

THIS:

MORE POSTS by ADAM McGOVERN: OFF-TOPIC (2019–2024 monthly) | textshow (2018 quarterly) | PANEL ZERO (comics-related Q&As, 2018 monthly) | THIS: (2016–2017 weekly) | PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HELL, a 5-part series about characters in McGovern’s and Paolo Leandri’s comic Nightworld | Two IDORU JONES comics by McGovern and Paolo Leandri | BOWIEOLOGY: Celebrating 50 years of Bowie | ODD ABSURDUM: How Felix invented the 21st century self | CROM YOUR ENTHUSIASM: C.L. Moore’s JIREL OF JOIRY stories | KERN YOUR ENTHUSIASM: Data 70 | HERC YOUR ENTHUSIASM: “Freedom” | KIRK YOUR ENTHUSIASM: Captain Camelot | KIRB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: Full Fathom Five | A 5-part series on Jack Kirby’s Fourth World mythos | Reviews of Annie Nocenti’s comics Katana, Catwoman, Klarion, and Green Arrow | The curated series FANCHILD | To see all of Adam’s posts, including HiLo Hero items on Lilli Carré, Judy Garland, Wally Wood, and others: CLICK HERE

RADIUM AGE 100

During 2Q2016, we wrapped up the long-running RADIUM AGE 100 series, via which HILOBROW’s Josh Glenn identified the best 100 science fiction novels published during the genre’s Radium Age (1904–33). 2Q2016 installments in this series include: Victor Rousseau’s The Messiah of the Cylinder (1917), Maurice LeBlanc’s Le Formidable Evènement (1920; 1922 in English, as The Tremendous Event), and Jack London’s The Iron Heel (1908).

THANKS! to Annalee Newitz at Ars Technica for writing a very nice story, in May, about the RADIUM AGE 100 series. The Ars Technica story quoted Josh extensively:

One thing that distinguishes Radium Age from Golden Age science fiction is its faith in the possibility of a post-scarcity, peaceful, tolerant, just social order. For excellent historical reasons, we became very cynical about utopianism after Stalin and Hitler; Golden Age writers prided themselves on being wised-up, compared to their naive predecessors.

But the Radium Age wasn’t naive: We find many warnings about dystopian tendencies in the cultural, political, and economic tendencies of the period: Karel Capek and Aldous Huxley worried about the drive towards efficiency in all things that characterized both America and the USSR; Yevgeny Zamyatin and Edgar Rice Burroughs worried about the effects of Soviet-style collectivism on the individual; and Jack London’s “The Iron Heel” (1908), which is about fascist plutocrats who take over America, feels particularly relevant right now.

But we also find optimism that people can overcome their worst tendencies and build something wonderful together: Rudyard Kipling’s “With the Night Mail” and Hugo Gernsback’s “Ralph 124C 41+” are technocratic utopias, Alexander Bogdanov’s “Red Star” portrays a successful socialist society on Mars; Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “Herland” portrays a successful socialist society without men. (The evolving role of women is a key theme and sub-theme in Radium Age science fiction, too.)

With the benefit of hindsight, we can find problems with these utopias, there’s no doubt about that. But they’re admirable efforts of the imagination, too. My takeaway: While remaining cautious about totalizing visions of social harmony, we shouldn’t conflate “idealistic” with “naive,” nor consider it the opposite of “wised-up.” Radium Age sci-fi is both wised-up and idealistic.

We’re also grateful to sci-fi author Cory Doctorow, who in June wrote a Boing Boing item about the RADIUM AGE 100 series. “For nearly a decade, science fiction historian Joshua Glenn has waged a campaign to resurrect the ‘Radium Age’ of science fiction: the period from 1904-1933 when writers turned their pens to ‘Air Battles, Antigravity, Interplanetary Voyages, Lost Worlds, Mad Scientists, Time Travel, and Utopias,’ before writers like Andre Norton and Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov began their careers.”

And thanks, Leah Schnelbach, for the Tor.com post about the RADIUM AGE 100 series, too! She wrote, about science fiction’s Radium Age: “The era lasted between 1904 and 1933, which stands out for its peculiar blend of science, optimism, and occultism—all of which was tempered by the horrors of the First World War. This led to some truly weird and fascinating works of science fiction.”

PLANET OF PERIL

We continued to publish new installments in Lynn Peril’s PLANET OF PERIL series. Lynn is a long-time chronicler and analyst of what she calls “pink think”: ideas and attitudes about what constituted proper female behavior, crystallized in the form of pop culture and kitsch. Her PLANET OF PERIL series is eclectic — whatever she wants it to be.

2Q2016 installments in the PLANET OF PERIL series include: VINCE TAYLOR | THE SECRET VICE | LADY HOOCH HUNTER.

MORE LYNN PERIL at HILOBROW: PLANET OF PERIL series | #SQUADGOALS: The Daly Sisters | KLUTE YOUR ENTHUSIASM: BLOW-UP | MUSEUM OF FEMORIBILIA series | HERMENAUTIC TAROT: The Waiting Man | KIRB YOUR ENTHUSIASM: Young Romance | CROM YOUR ENTHUSIASM: Fritz Leiber’s Conjure Wife | HILO HERO ITEMS on: Tura Satana, Paul Simonon, Vivienne Westwood, Lucy Stone, Lydia Lunch, Gloria Steinem, Gene Vincent, among many others.

THE BOURNE VARIATIONS & THE KALEVALA

We continued to publish new installments in James Parker’s ~~translation~~ bastardization of THE KALEVALA — a Finnish epic. 2Q2016 installments in the KALEVALA series include: RUNE 5 (150–241): “The Blue Elk” | RUNE 6 (1–114): “Therapy Session” | RUNE 6 (115–130): “Joukahainen’s Mother Counsels Him Against Shooting the Wizard Vainamoinen” | RUNE 11 (1–138): “Introducing Kyllikki” | RUNE 23 (485–580): “The Bride’s Lament” | RUNE 30 (1–276): “Icebound” | RUNE 30 (120–188): “The Voyage of the Sea-Hare” (Part One) | RUNE 30 (185–188): “Losing It” | RUNE 31 (215–225): “The Babysitter” | RUNE 33 (1–136): “The Cowherd” | RUNE 33 (73): “Song of the Blade: Kullervo” | RUNE 33 (118–284): “The Cows Come Home” | RUNE 34 (1–82): “The Pipes of Kullervo”.

We also continued to publish new installments in THE BOURNE VARIATIONS, a series of poems, by James Parker, about the Jason Bourne movies. 2Q2016 installments in the BOURNE VARIATIONS series include: “The Goddess of Memory Speaks to Jason Bourne” | THE BOURNE IDENTITY: “The Duellists” | THE BOURNE LEGACY: “Aaron Cross to the Wolf”.

We’re very grateful to HiLobrow friend and contributor Rick Pinchera, for creating amazing banner graphics for both series!

MORE PARKER at HILOBROW: COCKY THE FOX: a brilliant swearing-animal epic, serialized here at HILOBROW from 2010–2011, inc. a newsletter by Patrick Cates | THE KALEVALA — a Finnish epic, bastardized | THE BOURNE VARIATIONS: A series of poems about the Jason Bourne movies | ANGUSONICS: James and Tommy Valicenti parse Angus Young’s solos | MOULDIANA: James and Tommy Valicenti parse Bob Mould’s solos | BOLANOMICS: James traces Marc Bolan’s musical and philosophical development | WINDS OF MAGIC: A curated series reprinting James’s early- and mid-2000s writing for the Boston Globe and Boston Phoenix | CROM YOUR ENTHUSIASM: J.R.R. Tolkien’s THE HOBBIT | EVEN MORE PARKER, including doggerel; HiLo Hero items on Sid Vicious, Dez Cadena, Mervyn Peake, others; and more.

STUFFED

We continued to publish new installments in Tom Nealon’s popular food secret-history series, STUFFED. 2Q2016 installments in the STUFFED series include: CULINARY ILLUSIONS | AD SALSA PER ASPERA | THE WAR ON MOLE.

Remember! Tom’s first book, the wide-ranging Food Fights & Culture Wars: A Secret History of Taste, will be published by the British Library in September.

GOLDEN-AGE SCI-FI 75

We launched the GOLDEN-AGE SCI-FI 75 series, via which Josh Glenn aims to identify the 75 best science fiction novels published during the genre’s so-called Golden Age (from 1934–63, according to his periodization schema). This is a follow-up to Josh’s RADIUM AGE 100 series, which we wrapped up during 2Q2016.

2Q2016 installments in the GOLDEN AGE SCI-FI 75 series include: E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Triplanetary, Jack Williamson’s The Legion of Space, Olaf Stapledon’s Odd John, H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, Karel Čapek’s War with the Newts, H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Olaf Stapledon’s Star Maker, C.S. Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet, Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot, A.E. van Vogt’s Slan, Hergé’s The Shooting Star, and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation.

SÉRIE NOIRE

We continued to publish Alix Lambert’s SÉRIE NOIRE. This monthly series of posts is dedicated to the crime movies which most influenced Alix when she was a child and young adult.

2Q2016 installments in the SÉRIE NOIRE series include: I CONFESS | IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT | THE RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE.

MORE ALIX LAMBERT at HILOBROW: SÉRIE NOIRE series | GROK MY ENTHUSIASM: The Skies Belong To Us | HERMENAUTIC TAROT: The Eye Floater | MORE: including HILO HERO items on Patty Wagstaff, Nelson George, William Kentridge, Angela Davis, and Vito Acconci.

BEST ADVENTURES

HILOBROW’s Josh Glenn continued to add new installments to the BEST ADVENTURES project, via which he aims to identify his 10 favorite adventure novels of each year from 1904–1983.

Note that we’re now calling BEST ADVENTURES a project, rather than a series, because each installment in the project is itself a series of 10 posts.

2Q2016 installments in the BEST ADVENTURES project include: BEST 1931 ADVENTURES, from A. Merritt’s semi-occult sci-fi adventure The Face in the Abyss to Dashiell Hammett’s crime adventure The Glass Key; BEST 1936 ADVENTURES — from Graham Greene’s hunted-man adventure A Gun for Sale to Eric Ambler’s Ruritanian-style espionage adventure The Dark Frontier; and BEST 1946 ADVENTURES — from Michael Innes’s fantastical WWII crime/espionage adventure From London Far to Boris Vian’s noir crime adventure I Shall Spit on Your Graves.

BEST ADVENTURES SERIES: The 200 Greatest Adventures (1804–1983). THE OUGHTS: 1904 | 1905 | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1909 | 1910 | 1911 | 1912 | 1913. THE TEENS: 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923. THE TWENTIES: 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933. THE THIRTIES: 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943. THE FORTIES: 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 | 1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953. THE FIFTIES: 1954 | 1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963. THE SIXTIES: 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973. THE SEVENTIES: 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983. THE EIGHTIES: 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993. THE NINETIES: 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003. I’ve only recently started making notes toward a list of Best Adventures of the EIGHTIES, NINETIES, and TWENTY-OUGHTS.

LIMERICKANIA

We published new installments in HiLobrow friend and contributor Douglas Wolk’s astonishing, sporadic LIMERICKANIA series.

2Q2016 installments in the LIMERICKANIA series include: “It’s vexatious to perch like Saint Simeon” | “Sore and bobbing, here’s my jeremiad:”.

MORE COMICS-RELATED SERIES: KIRB YOUR ENTHUSIASM — 25 writers on 25 Jack Kirby panels | ANNOTATED GIF — Kerry Callen brings comic book covers to life | COMICALLY VINTAGE — that’s-what-she-said vintage comic panels | DC — THE NEW 52 — an 11-year-old reviews DC’s new lineup | SECRET PANEL — Silver Age comics’ double entendres | SKRULLICISM — they lurk among us

JOSHENILIA

We published new installments in Josh Glenn’s JOSHENILIA series, via which HILOBROW’s editor exhumes his memorabilia and finally throws some of it away.

2Q2016 installments in the JOSHENILIA series include: CRACKTOONS, MOONINITES, O’MALLEY B. SCHWARTZ, ANONYMOUS, AMERICAN FLAG BELT, and ZENMAN.

CURATED SERIES

During 2Q2016, we published the following series, by HiLobrow friends, each of which originally — or simultaneously — appeared elsewhere.

DAILY DRUMPF — a series of political cartoons by HiLobrow friend and contributor Rick Pinchera.

ALL MY STARS — a weekly newsletter, published by HiLobrow friend and contributor Joanne McNeil, in which she discusses books, films, exhibitions, TV shows, music, and podcasts.

BIGFOOT ISLAND — a sampling of images and movies from artist Michael Lewy’s multimedia project, BIGFOOT ISLAND, which conjures up a Land of the Lost-esque cryptid habitat and adventurescape via a combination of Cinema 4D software and analog special effects.

BEDROOM AIRPORT — scenes from an aerodrome, constructed of cardboard and masking tape, in a Brookline bedroom. By an adolescent collective known as “Parson Edwards.”

SERIALIZED FICTION

In 2Q2016, we began our serialization of Victor Bridges’ 1915 hunted-man adventure, A Rogue by Compulsion: An Affair of the Secret Service.

CODE-X

During 2Q2016 we wrapped up the long-running CODE-X series, via which Josh Glenn identified 100 brand and cultural norm/form combinations, i.e., semiotic “codes.” We kicked off the series in April 2014; here’s the series introduction.

Stay tuned!

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BEST OF HILOBROW: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 1Q2020 | 2Q2020 | 3Q2020 SNEAK PEEK.

HiLobrow 2Q2016

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