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(These are the articles on-site at pauldifilippo.com. Off-site articles are linked or referenced on the bibliography page.)
Michael Bishop: Since his first
short-story sale in 1970 ("Piñon Fall" in Galaxy magazine),
Michael Bishop has revealed a questing spiritual intelligence
uniquely concerned with moral conundrums. While his works are often
full of both the widescreen spectacles associated with science
fiction and the subtle frissons typical of more earthbound fantasy,
his focus remains on the engagement of characters with ethical
quandries any reader might encounter in his or her daily life.
The Joy of Corporate Journalism, by J. Ives
Turnkey (A Preface to Glass Act): I had a headful of
short-term memories, pages of notes, eight ninety-minute cassettes of
interviews and recorded meetings, and several reference books, all
of which I had to integrate and spin into a story. Over the next
four days, expending massive energies I was unaware I possessed, I
crafted 8300 words that I was naive enough to imagine presented an
intriguing, coherent, accurate account of the past few days and the
issues involved. Late in the afternoon of the 11th, my deadline, I
faxed it to Wired.
Glass Act: The world is full of glass
houses. Made possible by industrial construction methods, Crystal
Palaces and Dymaxion Houses and Biospheres have dotted the landscape
from Victorian times to the present. But not many of them feature
three-story curving exterior walls so delicately artful that they
seem to float in space, topped by transparent swatches of roof. Not
many of them are built in prime hurricane territory. And hardly any
of the rare vitreous residences braving the extremes of Storm Alley
are positioned smack dab on the often wildly tempestuous shoreline of
a barrier island.
Dog Nose and the Tree Mind: The Future of
Art: I am an addict of vicarious experiences. Fully half my
waking hours are devoted to either producing or consuming canned
nuggets of simulated reality. Despite the intrinsic worth and
fascination of my own personal life, lived minute-by-minute in
realtime immediacy, I can't get enough of second-hand experiences,
whether those of actual people or imaginary ones.
Building a Better Simulacrum: Literary
Influences on The Matrix: Very few science fiction
movies of the post-Star Wars era owe a greater debt to printed
SF—or have repaid that debt so spectacularly and
intelligently—as The Matrix (1999). The co-creators of the
film, Larry and Andy Wachowski—who, jointly, both scripted and
directed it—appear to have drawn with wide-ranging familiarity
on a vast range of modern science fiction, from the works of Philip
K. Dick to the mythology of the DC Comics universe.
His Nerves Quivered from that Casual,
Stunning Array of Words: The pong emitted by Ace Double
D-431, like that of all its brothers and sisters, is unmistakable: a
sweet, dusty, vanilla-like odor which can instantly draw me back
across the decades, to a time when my mental horizons were
simultaneously infinite and limited, my literary tastes omnivorous
and indiscriminate.
Three Panels from a Comic Book
Childhood: He spotted the storefront one day while being
driven through the old industrial town on the banks of the Blackstone
River by either his grandmother or his mother. The women had grown
up in this region, several towns away from where the boy now lived,
and they frequently returned to visit relatives or shop at favorite
small stores, in an ancient world where malls had not yet been born.
An Artist In
the Valley of Make-Believe Dreamlands: Todd Schorr believes
more is more. More eye-kicks per square inch of canvas equals more
thrills and fascination for the lucky, awe-struck viewer. More
technical facility and compositional genius and visual verisimilitude
equals more suspension of disbelief in the face of the surreal. More
pop-culture icons rubbing shoulders in frenetic crowd scenes equals
more overwhelming nostalgia explosions and trash epiphanies. This
maximalist man is one giving artist!
Top Cop: When I started angling for my first major
comic-book scripting assignment, I never at the apex of my most grandiose
wish-fulfillment fantasies imagined that I would be hired to extend one of the
many fictional universes created by Alan Moore. And not just any of his
numerous creations, but one that was particularly dear to my heart, the world
of Top 10.
The Myth Goes Ever Downward: The Infantilization,
Electrification, Mechanization, and General Diminishment of King Kong:
One of the qualities of a true, potent myth is its susceptibility—nay, its
blatant invitation—to misprision and betrayal and even denial by perhaps
well-intentioned yet deaf (but unfortunately not dumb), blind and talentless
acolytes. I am not talking about works of deliberate satire or parody here, but
rather about seriously intentioned sequels and offshoots of the Original
Tragedy which fumblingly recast or attempt to extend the material in such a
manner as to rob it of all its archetypical force and resonance.