Fantasy

Fantasy works and climate change – “Fire and Snow” (SUNY Press, 2018) – Marc DiPaolo interview

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Dr. Marc DiPaolo is an English literature academic who likes to write on pop culture. We discuss his latest book deals with climate fiction as found in sci-fi and fantasy books and video entertainment.

1:26 – Marc talks about how he got into studying genre pop culture. He got into Game of Thrones and Narnia audibooks and noted how much they get into climate and environmental issues.

3:46 – Marc talks about how these environmental themes were connected between works and authors. He looked at Philip Pullman, Octavia Butler, GRR Martin, CS Lewis and others. He also considered the Inklings, Dr. Who, Mad Max and so on. He also gets into Star Trek and Star Wars.

6:55 – He didn’t want to just do books or popular culture. He wanted to bring everything together.

11:50 – Marc talks about the inclusion of religion in this climate fiction.

15:56 – Marc talks about he did his research.

 

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Marc DiPaolo

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, Game of Thrones, Narnia, Tolkien, Lewis, Mad Max, Octavia Butler, environmentalism, Dr. Who, Star Trek, Star Wars

Sci-fi and fantasy author – Greg Bear interview

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Author Greg Bear has had and continues to have a prolific and successful career as a sci-fi and fantasy writer. Blood Music is one of his more famous novels and he also helped co-found the San Diego Comic-Con.

2:14 – Greg Bear starts by talking about how he got into writing as a little kid. He talks about all the speculative fiction he was into at the time. He read a lot of paperbacks at the Kodiak base library when he was growing up.

4:02 – He started by trying to write Tom Swift type books and Burroughs type of works.

6:03 – in the 1960s there was a lot more interesting writing coming out and many more interesting writers as well. He started attending sci-fi conventions and meeting writers he liked.

8:26 – Greg Bear talks about how he chooses between making a story a short or turning it into a novel. New York publishers in the 80s were resistant to publishing hard cover science fiction. They turned them into paperbacks.

10:50 – Heinlein loved anyone who had been in the military.

12:18 – Greg Bear talks about his big success in the UK while the same book was sold as a paperbook in the US.

13:30 – Michael Crichton said he didn’t write sci-fi and disparaged it but wrote “techno-thrillers.” Publishers seem to hate genre except for mystery.

15:24 – People in the military love sci-fi but New York is not technically oriented and doesn’t understand sci-fi.

18:04 – A lot of sci-fi writers don’t have steady homes with publishers. Greg Bear has worked on different genres.

19:39 – He’s into every kind of science. He loves studying it all plus politics and military issues. He also loves, mythology, language and history. He’s been writing FBI novels too.

22:53 – Greg Bear talks about the transition from working on typewriters to computers. He also talks about how he tries to please himself in his writing first and hopes he has an audience for it.

24:52 – He’s working on a fantasy novel now.

26:24 – He has a website, GregBear.com and he’s on Facebook too.

 

Links of interest

GregBear.com

 

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

 

Guests: Greg Bear

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, writer, novelist, killing tital, hull zero three, Halo, hard sci-fi, military sci-fi

Dark Crystal and Star Wars actor – Hugh Spight interview

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Hugh Spight is a dancer and a “puppet performer.” He was a Mystic in “Dark Crystal” and a Gamorrean Guard in “Return of the Jedi.” He studied dance in London and worked in Germany before getting into the movie industry. I was able to speak with him at the 2018 Great Philadelphia Comic Con.

1:25 – Hugh Spight talks about he got into acting. He started as a dancer and then auditioned for Dark Crystal. He got the role to help develop how the creatures in that movie move.

4:36 – He actually learned how to gallop with a contraption that carried 60% of his body weight. When he finished at Dark Crystal, Return of the Jedi was being filmed close by and he was asked to do puppetry work on that.

6:20 – Netflix will be doing a prequel to Dark Crystal and they will be using body costumes again. People don’t react to CGI characters as much as they might react to real people in costumes. The industry might be swinging back to three dimensional characters.

9:32 – Passion is vital to succeed in dance or actor. Sacrifice is necessary to succeed in that.

10:57 – Hugh considers himself a Billy Elliot type when he got into dance.

13:58 – His first dance job after school in London was in Germany. When he started he was afraid to tell his parents.

For more of “The Art and Design of Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Mystery and Horror” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi

Guests: Hugh Spight

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: science fiction, fantasy, puppets, daleks, doctor who, gamorrean guard, return of the jedi, mystic, Dark Crystal, dance, Wales, Germany, Billy Elliot