WWWednesday: November 2, 2016

The Rich by Remedios Varo, 1958

Awards:

The World Fantasy Awards were announced on Sunday, October 30, 2016.  The Chimes, by Anna Smaill, won for best novel. The long fiction award went to “The Unlicensed Magician” by Kelly Barnhill, and the short fiction award went to “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” by Alyssa Wong.

Books and Writing:

Gemma Files talks with NPR about H.P. Lovecraft. She’s deeply bothered by his racism, but that isn’t the only thing she dislikes. On the other hand, she admires the cosmology he invented, and his deeply scary world. “Existential dread,” actually gets used in this interview.  She also says, “He was a grown-ass man when he made those choices,” which made me laugh out loud. Files reads from her story “Hairwork” which appears in She Walks in Shadows.

This isn’t creepy at all; Stephen King has published a children’s book called Charlie the Choo-Choo under a pseudonym. I have the feeling I should be presenting that as a “children’s book,” since the character, and the book (and the fictitious author) first appear in the Dark Tower series. I’m going to guess that this is one scary book. It comes out on November 22.

New York Public Library has reopened the Rose Main Reading Room. Watch them shelve 52,000 books.

It’s not too late to win a pair of Stephanie Burgis books; Shadows and Masks, and her new novel Congress of Secrets. This sweepstakes ends Thursday, November 3, 2016.

TV and Movies:

Here’s the latest Doctor Strange trailer.

Revelation; the Watch by Remedios Varo, 1955

Fox’s remake of the cult classic Rocky Horror Picture Show didn’t garner much audience share or too many good reviews. This one from USA Today is the kindest, but I think they do put their finger on the biggest problems. Some things just don’t need a remake. On the other hand, say what you like, Laverne Cox can sing.

Space:

NASA is all dressed up and ready to go, but Mars is still too far away. Even though they’ve been working on the NextSTEP project for the past two years, the “gateway to space” is finally getting some attention. Ars Technica gives us the details.

In other NASA news, they completely triumphed in the pumpkin carving competition.

My Friend Agustin Lazo by Remedios Varo, 1945

Earth:

“Yes, undoubtedly obsessive,” says Klaus Kemp of his exploration into the Victorian craft of diatom arrangement. This floored me. Truly. Very strange and strangely charming.

Art:

Born in 1908, Remedios Varo was a Spanish-Mexican painter and artist who studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid. She moved to Paris during the Spanish Civil War. Varo was a surrealist, influencing and influenced by the Paris group of surrealists. She died in 1963. You can see her artwork here.