General Roundup

The Current Book: Snowcrash

Again. To be honest, I am a sucker for cyberpunk and virtuality but even more of a sucker for the core of the book- the concept of language as a virus. One thing that always grips me is a book with a powerful idea at the core, which is why I spent so much time with Hard SF and why books like Snowcrash keep me coming back to see if there are any bits that I have missed.

I also read The Government Manual for New Superheroes which has been sitting on a shelf feeling unloved. I went through a phase of collecting small and not very serious books like that a while ago and, given the rather obvious nature of the book itself, it raises the odd smile here and there.

The Current Tunes: A Tribute to Chairman Humph

A Radio 4 tribute to Humphrey Littleton, one of those people who's contribution to life you really don't assess until they're gone. The tribute, narrated by Stephen Fry and with contributions from the likes of Barry Cryer, Jack Dee, Graeme Garden, Tim Brooke-Taylor et al, painted a vivid picture of Chairman Humph as a person and as a gentleman. Most telling of all, an anecdote about the man himself on VE day, being wheeled around London in a cart and playing his trumpet. Amazingly, a BBC recording of a commentator overlooking the scene at the gates of Buckingham Palace captures Humph playing the trumpet. In amongst the crowd noise and under the terribly serious tones of a BBC voice long gone, you can make out the sound of "Roll Out the Barrell" and of a crowd singing along.

The Current TV: No Heroics

Since I seem to be on a superhero kick, I thought I'd do a little digging and see what all the fuss is about.
I must be getting old.
The amount of profanity nearly put me off, until I tuned it out. It's...crude, sometimes funny, with large chunks of pathos and some genuinely amusing moments; superheroes can't get their lives together either, it seems, and are as ill-adjusted and uncomfortable as the rest of us.

I knew this.

Well, when you grow up reading reprints of Marvel comics (and Spiderman in particular) the concept that a superhero is all coolness when the mask is on and yet as tenative and insecure as real people in day to day life is simply not news. For the rest of the population who are currently superhero aware thanks to the likes of Iron Man and The Dark Knight, and who have no real investment in the genre, it's probably funnier.

Mind you, there was this anthology...a while back...with contributions from people like Gaiman and David Langford, called Temps. I feel sure that the writers of No Heroics are familiar with it.