Here's an update on this site. Obviously I haven't been working on it much lately. I admit to sort of having the wind knocked out of my sails by the author, who, as you can tell from the interview, is pretty ambivalent about being back in the writing game. For someone who professes to "just write for me" these days she is very protective of her canon. I made a mistake and posted the text of an early short story that a fellow fan transcribed. When I asked the author's permission (I know, I should have asked first) she sent me a formal email requesting that I remove it immediately. When the Google Directory (via DMOZ) embellished on my site description and called this the "official" site, I wrote Doris asking if it was OK and got no reply.
While I'm a bit disappointed not to get warmer treatment from the author, it's not the reason I started the site. I like many artists' work without having to be buddies with them. I saw it as filling a gap, since so little critical writing on Doris can be found--putting as much of it as I could find under one roof and adding my own thoughts. I like certain other people's writing about Doris much better than my own. (Liz Henry, where are you?) I would still like, during my dwindling spare time, to do a chapter-by-chapter analysis of Doomtime, as I did with Blood County. It was the first book of hers I read and still tugs at me as a singularly strange piece of writing.
The good news is I have had a few inquiries that I have passed along to the author. One was from a screenwriter looking to adapt one of her short stories. The other was from a publisher specializing in print on demand books. The latter seems like a great way to keep good but cult authors in print. If the technology and the economies of scale are there, why not?
I can imagine Doris not going for it, though. For someone who made her mark in science fiction she's kind of retro. She doesn't really get the Net, for example. She was well within her rights asking me to remove the above-mentioned story, but her reason made no sense. I wasn't charging to read the story; it was 35 years out of print, after it appeared once in a science fiction monthly. In so many words, she said people could still find copies of the stories in libraries and secondhand book stores. True, but by putting it on the Net they could find it much easier and faster. A copyright notice was posted giving her full credit, and the text was accurate and readable. In her overweening concern to keep her work out of the public domain, she is also losing an opportunity for a new, computer-literate generation to know and discover it.
Lastly, another reason the site has been moribund is that no one's come forward lately with any critical thoughts to add to it. I get a fair amount of Doris search requests but no dialogue going about the author. One can only go so long working entirely on one's own before interest starts to wane.
Tom, I'm a fan of Doris'. I'm even one of those writers who thought Spinner would make a fun film. I've talked to Doris on several occassions but wasn't able to make anything work. Her stuff isn't really the stuff of classic scifi greats. While it possesses a lot energy and inventiveness, adapting Spinner to the screen turned out to be almost impossible. Some of it is the weird inventions she came up with to explain the presence of the alien; most of it though is just her narrartive style which works in her novel but hardly anywhere else. I have read several of her books and enjoyed them all. I'm just sure that she's also an acquired taste.
The interview was well done; your love for her work shines through. Her pain also shouts loudly from the pages. No matter what happens in the future to her or her work, you should be proud of what you've accomplished here. And acquired taste she may be but one that suits me and I'm sure a lot of scifi fans who were touched in one way or the other by her work.
Thanks, Mark. Now you've got me thinking about ways The Spinner is or isn't filmable. Which reminds me, I haven't really reviewed it yet. I'd say it's more in the horror category than science fiction--like the original Alien, or Night of the Living Dead. Either way, the skewed narrative flavor would be hard to translate to the screen.
|
Here's an update on this site. Obviously I haven't been working on it much lately. I admit to sort of having the wind knocked out of my sails by the author, who, as you can tell from the interview, is pretty ambivalent about being back in the writing game. For someone who professes to "just write for me" these days she is very protective of her canon. I made a mistake and posted the text of an early short story that a fellow fan transcribed. When I asked the author's permission (I know, I should have asked first) she sent me a formal email requesting that I remove it immediately. When the Google Directory (via DMOZ) embellished on my site description and called this the "official" site, I wrote Doris asking if it was OK and got no reply.
While I'm a bit disappointed not to get warmer treatment from the author, it's not the reason I started the site. I like many artists' work without having to be buddies with them. I saw it as filling a gap, since so little critical writing on Doris can be found--putting as much of it as I could find under one roof and adding my own thoughts. I like certain other people's writing about Doris much better than my own. (Liz Henry, where are you?) I would still like, during my dwindling spare time, to do a chapter-by-chapter analysis of Doomtime, as I did with Blood County. It was the first book of hers I read and still tugs at me as a singularly strange piece of writing.
The good news is I have had a few inquiries that I have passed along to the author. One was from a screenwriter looking to adapt one of her short stories. The other was from a publisher specializing in print on demand books. The latter seems like a great way to keep good but cult authors in print. If the technology and the economies of scale are there, why not?
I can imagine Doris not going for it, though. For someone who made her mark in science fiction she's kind of retro. She doesn't really get the Net, for example. She was well within her rights asking me to remove the above-mentioned story, but her reason made no sense. I wasn't charging to read the story; it was 35 years out of print, after it appeared once in a science fiction monthly. In so many words, she said people could still find copies of the stories in libraries and secondhand book stores. True, but by putting it on the Net they could find it much easier and faster. A copyright notice was posted giving her full credit, and the text was accurate and readable. In her overweening concern to keep her work out of the public domain, she is also losing an opportunity for a new, computer-literate generation to know and discover it.
Lastly, another reason the site has been moribund is that no one's come forward lately with any critical thoughts to add to it. I get a fair amount of Doris search requests but no dialogue going about the author. One can only go so long working entirely on one's own before interest starts to wane.
- tom moody 12-02-2003 3:01 am
Tom, I'm a fan of Doris'. I'm even one of those writers who thought Spinner would make a fun film. I've talked to Doris on several occassions but wasn't able to make anything work. Her stuff isn't really the stuff of classic scifi greats. While it possesses a lot energy and inventiveness, adapting Spinner to the screen turned out to be almost impossible. Some of it is the weird inventions she came up with to explain the presence of the alien; most of it though is just her narrartive style which works in her novel but hardly anywhere else. I have read several of her books and enjoyed them all. I'm just sure that she's also an acquired taste.
The interview was well done; your love for her work shines through. Her pain also shouts loudly from the pages. No matter what happens in the future to her or her work, you should be proud of what you've accomplished here. And acquired taste she may be but one that suits me and I'm sure a lot of scifi fans who were touched in one way or the other by her work.
- Mark Sevi (guest) 12-07-2003 2:24 am [add a comment]
Thanks, Mark. Now you've got me thinking about ways The Spinner is or isn't filmable. Which reminds me, I haven't really reviewed it yet. I'd say it's more in the horror category than science fiction--like the original Alien, or Night of the Living Dead. Either way, the skewed narrative flavor would be hard to translate to the screen.
- tom moody 12-12-2003 6:13 am [add a comment]