Satire 1972

Thirty three years ago Randy Newman wrote and recorded “Political Science”, a satirical song about the role of his great nation in the modern world. Listening to it today, it sounds just as topical as it must have then. And, sadly, the description of Australia doesn’t sound satirical at all….

No one likes us-I don’t know why
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let’s drop the big one and see what happens

We give them money-but are they grateful?
No, they’re spiteful and they’re hateful
They don’t respect us-so let’s surprise them
We’ll drop the big one and pulverize them

Asia’s crowded and Europe’s too old
Africa is far too hot
And Canada’s too cold
And South America stole our name
Let’s drop the big one
There’ll be no one left to blame us

We’ll save Australia
Don’t wanna hurt no kangaroo
We’ll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin’, too

Boom goes London and boom Paree
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We’ll set everybody free
You’ll wear a Japanese kimono
And there’ll be Italian shoes for me

They all hate us anyhow
So let’s drop the big one now
Let’s drop the big one now

Locus’s Best of the Best 2005

I’m always interested in what gets overlooked. Hidden in a corner of the February 2005 issue of Locus, in the recommended reading section, is Locus‘s list of the “Best of the Best” short stories of 2004. This list was arrived at by the simplest of methods. Each of the stories listed received a minimum of five votes from our group of recommenders. It’s not a flawless system, but all of the stories recommended are worthy, and if we all might have changed the list (some of my favorite stories of the year are here, some are missing), it’s still interesting. Stories are listed alphabetically, by author.

“Leviathan Wept”, Daniel Abrahams
“The Garden”, Eleanor Arnason
“Quarry”, Peter S. Beagle
“The Fear Gun”, Judith Berman
“A Night in the Tropics”, Jeffrey Ford
“Men Are Trouble”, James Patrick Kelly
“Under the Flag of Night”, Ian McDowell
“Pat Moore”, Tim Powers
“Cold Fires”, M. Rickert
“The Voluntary State”, Christopher Rowe
“The Word That Sings the Scythe”, Michael Swanwick
“The Lost Pilgrim”, Gene Wolfe

SciFiction OzStyle

Ellen Datlow has published several Australian writers on SciFiction, most notably Terry Dowling. This week she has two stories by Australians, “Matricide” by Lucy Sussex and a reprint of A. Bertram Chandler’s “Familiar Pattern“. Check them out.

According to the bio that accompanies Lucy’s story, a new collection, Sancta, is due out later this year, which is terrific news. Her first collection, My Lady Tongue was wonderful, and a second one is long, long overdue.

Ditmar Awards 2005

The good folk at this year’s Australian National Science Fiction Convention have been in touch to let me know that nominations are now open for the 2005 Ditmar Awards. All the relevant information can be found on their website. Nominations can be made by email and close on 1 March 2005.

I’ve had a quick look around on the net and I haven’t found a good list of Australian stuff published during 2004, but I do know there was a lot of it. Novels, collections, and anthologies by Australians were published in Australia, the US, the UK, and Europe. Stories published by Australians were published in just about every venue you could imagine, from high profile magazines, website and anthologies overseas, to small chapbooks locally. Search them out, and nominate! The quality of the ballot, and the result, is determined by the quality of participation. If you read, nominate and vote the awards will be better.

And with that in mind, I direct your attention to the “Best Professional Achievement” and “William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review” categories, which seem to roughly correspond to the editing work I’ve done on The Locus Awards (HarperCollins), Science Fiction: Best of 2003 (Simon & Schuster/ibooks), and Best Short Novels: 2004 (SF Book Club/Doubleday Direct), and the reviewing etc work I’ve done Locus. I hesitate to say if they’re worthy of nomination, but your consideration is appreciated.

…unavoidable stuff from jonathan strahan…