This week’s word for Wednesday is the noun aquatile. An aquatile is a creature that lives in water. I’m guessing it can also be used as an adjective. Can one have “an aquatile lifestyle?”
Books and Writing:
Likhain is an artist, currently on the shortlist for a Hugo in 2017. File 770 printed the Artist Guest of Honor speech she gave at Continuum 13.
The New York Times has a story about Books of Wonder, a famed children’s bookstore, that is opening a second location as a contingency against a possible lease hike in 2019.
Foul language in the headline, but an interesting if brief article about worldbuilding and politics in SFF.
Have you all heard of this magazine, Persistent Visions? I had not, but it sounds worth checking out.
Locus Online shared a few tidbits from its interview with Ellen Klages, whose book Wicked Wonders we recently reviewed here.
Are you up to date on your zombie reading? Barnes and Nobel wants to help with that.
Wonder Woman opened week before last to great box office, and it is, mostly, beloved by critics. You know what isn’t beloved by critics? Tom Cruise’s remake of The Mummy. And the box office? Domestic receipts for the opening weekend were about $32 mil. For context, the production budget was about $125 mil. Bear in mind that this does not include foreign box office.
Speaking of Wonder Woman, Screen Rant’s review is interesting for its take on the way Diana embraces and uses her powers.
Fans mounted a passionate and spirited defense against Netflix’s cancellation of Sense8, but it was to no avail. The show was cancelled at the end of the second season. This article focuses on the fact that the season ended on a cliffhanger. Wouldn’t you think, with all the new ways to see content, like a webseries, etc, Netflix could have wrapped up the plot?
Orca
Adam West, best known as Batman in the campy TV comedy version of Batman in the 1960s, passed away. There are lots of articles about him, and a lot of tweets. What emerges is an image of a man with a generous spirit and a gentle sense of humor.
Ars Technica devotes its Decrypted podcast to American Gods, the Vulcan episode. Warning; Spoilers. Second warning; there is a little bit of foul language in the Orlando Jones (Mr. Nancy) segment. (I mention it because it’s a little startling.) Also, the Ricky Whittle (Shadow Moon) interview ends sharply (in mid-word) at about 1:17.00.
Boingboing provides a trailer to an SF film called Quadrant. It’s intriguing, weird, campy and gory. So… enjoy?
Space:
NASA salutes its new class of astronauts.
Science:
Two new papers on fossils founds in Morocco add new pieces to the dynamic puzzle of the evolution of modern humans… and brings controversy as scientists argue over whether these fossils are the “oldest examples” or whether anyone should even be using the word “oldest.” Still, these human-like fossil date to 300,000 years ago.
Pictures:
To the extent that there is a theme for today’s pictures, it’s water.
I think you’re right on the idea that most novels that include climate change tend to be classified as “genre” titles; the ones I’ve read or am aware of tend to be post-apocalyptic in nature.
Yes, because of course THE WINDUP GIRL and THE WATER KNIFE immediately sprang to mind. STATION ELEVEN was literary, but the apocalypse there was a virus.
Along with CALIFORNIA and THE ROAD, which both feature the effect of climate change/disaster on human society.
Both of those came to mind for me, and I think THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER dealt with global warming too. I might be wrong about that.
Kim Stanley Robinson has a few books on it
Now that you mention Robinson, Bill, I think most if not all of his books feature some element of climate as an important factor. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t think of him sooner!
Perhaps climate change is a ‘genre thing’ simply because it is science and speculative?
Terraforming always struck me to be a sort of ‘reverse engineering’ application of climate change. Jack Williamson’s novella “Collision Orbit” (1942) is the pioneer there. And then Herbert’s Dune threw the doors open on ecological SF.
Yes, I think it is dismissed as “genre.”
Personally, I welcome the thoughtful and potentially pretentious literary novel that tackles global warming.
Is there a difference between aquatic and aquatile?
Aquatile can be (usually is) used as a noun. Or was, obviously it’s an archaic word. “Our ship was swamped by a huge, unknown aquatile;” that sort of thing.