Thursday, May 13, 2010

Reading the Story from a Phone Book

I'm probably either still crossing the international dateline or defrosting after the 20-hour plane ride. In the meantime, check out these really links I've trawled from the 'net. Some of them are a bit old (internet-wise) but they're still damn interesting.

The first two links are of particular attraction to me given my own dictionary project. As the blogpost title says, it's like coming up with a story based on a phone book.

1. The Shared Worlds Summer Think Tank at the Wofford College came up with a recent Fantastic Bestiary with a lot of writers chipping in their two-cents worth of monsters. If you need more convincing, think Jorge Luis Borges with a lot of help.

2. Meanwhile, China Mieville has his own dictionary of terms with A to Z part 1 and A to Z part 2. I particularly like the one where he defines xenagogue as "a writer of the fantastic."

3. On the other hand, The Philippine Online Chronicles has this interesting article called a Conversation with a Sorcerer. Here, writer Dennis Villegas actually interviews a local sorcerer on how Siquijor magic works. Lots of good resource material here.

4. Lastly, it looks like World Literature Today has a great May issue out that dives in deep into international science fiction. This one looks good and it actually reminds me of the international science fiction feature in the Words Without Borders December issue.

(I particularly liked the latter as it first led me to read Hiroshi Yamamoto's The Stories of Ibis currently available via Haikasoru and now locally thru FullyBooked.)

No comments: