Oliver Arditi

Blog archive

  • Action stations

    Action stations

    Kim Stanley Robinson keeps coming back to what might be described as ‘environmental fiction’, and ecological themes are never far from the surface even in his more fanciful SF writing, but I would guess that it was his Science In The Capital series that put him on the map as an environmental writer. Almost all… Read more

  • Risks and growth

    Risks and growth

    There are a few bands or musical artists of whom it’s possible to say that ‘their first album is the best’. It can happen that the first chance that someone gets to record, they do so with a combination of energy and creative clarity that they will not match again—and I suspect that this becomes… Read more

  • Truth is no fun

    Truth is no fun

    This one-shot comic, which is the first book I’ve pulled at random out of what is to be the last box from Shortbox Comics (although the imprint will continue to release individual titles) could be summarised, I guess, as an allegorical body-horror short story. As allegory I feel it stumbles somewhat, since its allegorical topic… Read more

  • A world of experience

    A world of experience

    I’m not too sure why it’s taken me so long to get around to reading Hilary Mantel’s novels about the life of Thomas Cromwell—I probably found the whole award-winning thing a bit off-putting, as I have a variety of reservations about prizes and awards. I do know, however, a lot of people who read and… Read more

  • Smart roots

    Smart roots

    I’ve been following the work of James Beaudreau since he sent me a trio of beautifully packaged CD albums for review around ten years ago. Those records contained experimental acoustic guitar music, driven by an interest in the presence and specificity of musical utterances—often signifying as much in terms of the space in which they… Read more

  • History of tradition

    History of tradition

    I think I’ve burnt myself out on research now. There’s a lot more I could read to expand my thinking on the areas that will feature in the stories I plan to write, but I’ve been working on the background for so long, and I am so close to being able to write some actual… Read more