What we need to see? And read?

I have just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. The book closes with a new Afterword that I don't think appeared in the original version and tries to frame a 'social agenda' for the book.

As a basis, he looks at the introduction of screens into classical music auditions and shows how this resulted in there being more woman in classical orchestras without the need for affirmative action targets. Then, he applies this to conviction rates for different race groups in the US and suggests that we need to be able to remove the consideration of race from the consideration of guilt.

This argument, for me, brings into opposition two of the arguments in the book. The first is that regardless of our perception of ourselves and how open-minded we may be, evidence shows that all of us make rascist and sexist snap judgments. As part of the argument, Malcolm Gladwell outlined how people can be 'primed' and how this affects us. And his argument makes sense. I've heard from many friends who've studied psychology that it is dangerously naive to believe we can assume we are free of prejudice.

The second argument that comes into contradiction is his chapter on the importance of 'mind-reading' and how good - and uniform - humans are in terms of signalling emotion with facial expressions. This suggests that to test someone's inherent honesty, visual cues are important. So, the question is which is more important - do sub-consciouscous biases overwhelm our ability to read people? The statistics cited suggested they do.

So, then, should we remove any indicators or bias from the justice system?

I'm not sure what the answer is. One thing which occurs to me is that abstracting from visual cues in the case of classical musicians makes sense because the most important information is aural. This plays to Gladwell's argument on the need to select the significant information. It seems easy to carry over in certain cases - for instance, in choosing a researcher reading research samples without names seems a clear way to go. But what information provides cues for guilt versus innocence?

This reminded me of a story I recently read by Ken Liu called Real Faces (reviewed below). In this case, it wasn't about abstracting in the case of guilt, but in the case of hiring an individual. Though a different context, it occured to me that the story could be a direct response to Gladwell's closing Afterword and while it doesn't offer a conclusion to the argument, it certainly raised a lot of interesting questions about the role context plays and how perceptions can be manipulated.

It also reminded me how important story-telling is. I read once that CS Lewis always felt furthest from God right after participating in a debate to defend his existence and closest when writing his Narnia stories. Sometimes, a cogent argument is far less powerful and sheds far less light than the same point as part of a narrative.

Another author that reminds me of this is NK Jemisin. I must be honest, whenever I have read her prose, I find it so deeply veined with anger that I struggle to focus on her argument. However, I loved her series, The Inheritance Trilogy and have dived into the first book of her new series. Her books make me think and because they are couched in stories, I find myself far more open into delving into her ideas through narrative than argument.

F&SF - July Edition - Short Stories

I didn't really enjoy the Short Stories - again. But Ken Liu is coming up as a clear favourite of mine. His work is diverse and clever, without sacrificing the emotional side.

Hartmut's World by Albert E. Cowdrey

A wealthy man imports more than he bargained for when he has a European castle transported - brick by brick - to America. I hate reading accents. I didn't like it in Lorna Doone and I still don't. It doesn't work for me and neither did this short story.

The Woman Who Fooled Death Five Times by Eleanor Arnason

A folk tale told for an alien race. Saying at the end of the story that this doesn't have an emotional pay-off for humans because humans aren't the intended audience does not forgive it not having an emotional pay-off for the only sentient species who can read it. I believe strongly that stories have to reach me both emotionally and intellectuelly. If I don't get it in my gut, my head isn't interested. Personal preference, but that's where I stand.

A Natural History of Autumn by Jeffrey Ford

A chance meeting of a businessman and a hostess takes a nasty turn. Clever, but I didn't really care in the end.

Wizard by Michaele Jordon

An ordinary teen meets a handsome wizard - okay, it's a bit better than that sounds. But not by much. It feels like a first chapter in a type of book that there are already too many of. Honestly suprised to find it in F&SF.

Real Faces by Ken Liu

A woman doing an interview in a world only ever so slightly in the future. Definitely the best of the short stories in my opinion. It takes a few current trends, pushes them ever so slightly further and examines the results. Made sense on an emotional, psycological level; made me think; made me feel. Ten out of ten!

F&SF - July Edition - the Long Pieces

The Novellas and Novelets were the stronger part of this edition, from my perspective. I only really loved one, but the rest I found engaging and they all reached the bar of me actually enjoying reading them.

On balance, though, there were too many wizard stories - across the long and short pieces - in this edition. Nothing against wizards, but none of these seemed to add that much. All these wizards came off as twee.

Novella: The Fullness of Time by Kate Wilhelm

Cat recruits Mercedes to help unravel the secrets of a mysterious family. I loved this story as you begin to suspect what's happening right before it happens and there is always another secret behind this. The structure and plotting of the story aid its thematic development - something which always works for me.

I read another story by Kate Wilhem that struck me - and has stayed with me - a few months ago: Bloodletting in the Mammoth Book of the End of the World. I need to track down more by this author!

Novelet: Wearaway and Flambeau by Matthew Hughes

A thief finds there are all sorts of things to be learned on the wrong side of a dangerous wizard. Entertaining and very readable. I enjoyed this and it had a clever ending.

Novelet: The Afflicted by Matthew Johnson

A nurse has decided to stay with her patients in a world where aging has gone badly wrong. A touching story that I enjoyed reading but it didn't leave a deep impression.

Novelet: Jack Shade in the Forest of Souls by Rachel Pollack

Jack Shade has to help a man who believes his wife strayed too far into a world she didn't really understand. Again, I enjoyed reading it and it had some clever moments, but no real emotional pay-off.

January F&SF: the Short Stories

The Comfort of Strangers by Alexander Jablokov

The tale of a sex-worker on a space station, used to accomodating the most peculiar of species. While having interesting aspects to it, this story is not the sort of thing I enjoy.

Maxwell's Demon by Ken Liu

The story of a Japanese-American in the Second World War who has to try and prove her loyalty to both sides of her background. I thought this was a thought-provoking look at what loyalty and patriotism means, if anything at all.

Scrap Dragon by Naomi Kritzer

A humorous take on dealing with the dragon. This is the story that was in the Free Digest that convinced me to subscribe to the Extended Version.

In the Trenches by Michael Alexander

A german soldier is stuck in the trenches and meets a kobold. While eminently readable, I thought many of the ideas in this story (soldiers from opposite sides meeting; how immortality would reduce our enjoyment of life) are pretty tired.

Canto MCML by Lewis Shiner

Short piece set in a historical, futuristic world. Again, I didn't think any of the ideas here particularly interesting or new.

Overall, I definitely preferred the Novelets to the Short Stories, though I did like the Ken Liu and Naomi Kritzner stories.

January F&SF: the Novelets

Small Towns by Felicity Shoulders
Set in the aftermath of World War One, Ms Shoulders weaves together the story of a man trying to rebuild his memories of his home and an unusual young woman trying to find her place in the world. Moving and well-constructed story.

The Secret of the City of Gold by Ron Goulart
A mystery set in London in 1901, featuring Harry Challenge, which I understand is a long-standing character of Mr Goulart. Reminded me of a Sherlock Holmes story. An enjoyable read.

Umbrella Men by John G. McDaid
An unusual conspiracy tale centering around, of all things, umbrellas. I found this story particularly heartening, as even though it showed the world being changed by magic, it somehow conveyed the idea that small things can make a difference.

Alien Land by KD Wentworth
The story of how a housewife responds to an innocuous invasion where aliens simply move into the neighbourhood. I liked how the character changed through the story and how the reader was brought into that journey.

Mindbender by Albert E. Cowdrey
Agent Brown is assigned to the protection of a now-useless Russian spy who has spilled his secrets to the US authorities and who resents being taken away from his primary obsession of pursuing an assasin known as the Mandrake. Enjoyable.

The Colour Least Used by Nature by Ted Kosmatka
The story of the shipbuilder, Kuwa'i, who is caught between an old world of walking trees and the encroaching modern world. While stories of traditional culture and colonialists intersecting are hardly uncommon, I thought the author brought his own unique and moving interpretation to the story.

My favourites of the novelets were Small Towns and the Colour Least Used by Nature. Definitely convinced me that I made the right decision in subscribing to the Extended Edition of F&SF on Kindle.

Setting out with Fantasy and Science Fiction

Several years ago, I read through a few issues of the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (edited by Gordon van Gelder) and, at the time, it didn't really speak to me.

Then, a little while after getting my Kindle, I noticed they were offering a free, teaser subscription so I signed up. After reading three teaser editions, which contained one of the stories and all the non-fiction from the extended editions, I decided to sign up for the Extended Edition subscription this January.

At $0.99 per month, it appears to be the cheapest of the science fiction magazines on Kindle subscription (Asimov's and Analog are both $2.99 per month), plus it is jam-packed with good fiction. I'm still working through the stories from the January edition and I've enjoyed every single one to varying degrees (more about that in future posts).

I also really enjoy the non-fiction, for which I didn't need to upgrade to the Extended Edition. I particularly enjoy Charles de Lint's Books to Look For. He's given me some good recommendations and he always gives sufficient information in his reviews to work out whether it's my kind of book without spoiling the story.

2011: Books I Couldn't Put Down

NK Jemisin's The Broken Kingdoms and the Kingdom of Gods: Very original, very enjoyable fantasy. All the reviews praising these books almost put me off because they made them sound so very esoteric. But while clever, orginal and thought-provoking, these books are eminently readable and have characters that make you care.

Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea: The true life story of a mountaineer whose abortive attempt to climb K2 turned into a mission to educate the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Beautiful, uplifting story of how one person can make a difference.

Ben Bova's Jupiter: I'm not normally a reader of hard science fiction, but I loved this book. One of the things I normally dislike about hard science fiction is that it's all about the ideas and the technology and I find the characters flat and unsympathetic. The characters in this, though a small cast, were eminently believeable and I loved living through their story. Also one of the best portrayals of a character with a deep faith.

George RR Martin's (ed) Busted Flush and Suicide Kings: I've often been fascinated by the question of how super-heroes would deal with the complexities of a world beyond American suburbs fighting crime. Both of these books came from different angles in approaching the issue but had such rich answers. I loved Busted Flush for the complexity of the primary character and Suicide Kings for its wrestling with some of Africa's great challenges.

Veronica Roth's Divergent: I loved how this book dug into very thought-provoking questions about what's really wrong with the world, what self-sacrifice is and how we choose our morality within a highly approachable young adult, fast-moving, plot-driven package.

Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy: I devoured these three books in two days. Definitely my favourite teen craze so far (and I enjoyed both Harry Potter and Twilight), primarily because it highlights so many real issues. For me the Capital and the Districts were a dramatised representation of Dependency theory's Core and Periphery. These books ask hard questions about poverty, social justice and how we judge and treat one another.