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PK Interview: Rebecca Levene (Part 2)

The second part of our interview with author Rebecca Levene. In the first installment, we discussed writing for shared worlds, the secrets of the Afterblight and introducing alien life into Emmerdale. 

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Anno Mortis. Romans - tigers - chariot chases - zombies. 

Simultaneously one of the best-researched and outright campiest books I read all year. How did this come about?

Thanks. I think. When I heard about Tomes of the Dead, my very first thought was “Brilliant – I can do Roman zombies!’. Really, what’s not to love? I’ve been a huge fan of I, Claudiussince I was a teenager – in fact, I recently went on a pilgrimage to Robert Graves’ house on Mallorca. And it was childhood reading of a collection of retold Greek Myths called The God Beneath The Sea by Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen which first got me interested in fantasy as a genre.

The classical world is full of such great characters, too – especially Caligula, who I challenge you not to write in a camp way. Aside from the whole raising-armies-of-the-dead thing, everything I say about him in the book is true, including – reportedly – the fact that he tried to make his horse a consul. He was bananas, but also kind of tragic, always in the shadow of his beloved father, Germanicus, and genuinely devastated by the death of his sister.

PK Interview: Rebecca Levene (Part 1)

The Pornokitsch team was honored to have author Rebecca Levene drop by (virtually speaking) for our site's first interview. 

Ms. Levene has penned countless hours of series television (with another show in the works) and books for all ages: kids, grown-ups and awkward adolescents.

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Let's start in the Afterblight. 

First, what's it like writing in a shared world like this one - and directly following someone like Si Spurrier (who set the bar pretty high with The Culled)?

It was pretty daunting following Si. He’s a terrific writer with a unique voice and I didn’t feel I could – or should – imitate it. That’s why I decided to keep the narrative first-person, which seemed the series style, but to write it from a different, female viewpoint. Writing in a shared world is obviously more limiting than writing something entirely original – but it takes the burden of world creation off your shoulders, too. And being bone idle, I didn’t really object to that.

Is there a big 'map' of the Afterblight somewhere? With "don't write here - Paul Kane's claimed it" or "if you use Vegas, don't forget the druggie cultists"? 

When I wrote Kill or Cure, there was no map – just a brief series bible and Si’s book. These days I don’t know, though I suspect it may exist only in the head of Jon Oliver, our editor. I think writers do tend to be respectful of other people’s creations and generally steer clear of them. In fact, most of the Afterblight writers seem to be penning their own self-contained trilogies within the larger world, which I think works well.

Unexpected Reviews: 24 (Season 7)

[Jared's note: Although I'm a big fan of 24 (even the horror that was Season 6), I'm still not the biggest Bauer nut that I know. Fortunately, I scored a guest review from the latest member of the Pornokitsch team - Mr Pickles.]

 

PK Draft: The Winner is... Dom

Well done to Dom (London Loves Comics). His pick, The Count, was drawn out of our vampiric hat. Dom will be receiving a shiny copy of the Ben Templesmith-illustrated, Bram Stoker-written Dracula. 

We're all winners. Dom just won more.

Stick around. We've got another draft & another prize drawing coming next week.

Alien Invaders Defeated by Earth Technology...

Yip.

Unexpected Reviews: Gossip Girl (Season 1)

To lead with the conclusion: the 18-episode first season of Gossip Girl was fantastic - a shameless and mesmerizing look into the sleazy lives of New York's over-privileged teens. I have a hard time resisting more-ish teen soaps, and, in the case of this show, I'm glad I didn't.

The shows are introduced and - loosely - narrated by the enigmatic 'Gossip Girl'. She's an upper-crust blogger that keeps the plot moving by circulating tips. She's also voiced by the (uncredited) Kirsten Bell, who does the job in her snarkiest Veronica Mars 'I'm making fun of the rich people' accent, which is good fun. 

To get the criticism out of the way, Gossip Girl suffers from the same genre failings as virtually every other teen drama:

Post-script: George Pelecanos & David Simon @ The Prince Charles Cinema, 22 July

The book: Despite hard-sell from Orion and Waterstone's, this signing wasn't really about the books. David Simon and George Pelecanos mostly spoke about The Wire, prompted by audience questions that were nine-tenths about the TV series. 

The stars: The writers took turns to answering questions and supported one another's responses in a way that hinted at their strong working relationship. Pelecanos and Simon both fielded a lot of odd questions, but were largely unflappable. Simon demonstrated a pretty impressive vocabulary. Both demonstrably came to life when interesting questions engaged them (music, the legalisation of marijuana and basketball).

The crowd: This wasn't really about books. The audience was there to talk TV and film. Specifically, how to break into it. 

Star Trek Week: Conclusion

"Ode to Spot" by Lieutenant Commander Data

Felis catus is your taxonomic nomenclature,
An endothermic quadruped, carnivorous by nature.
Your visual, olfactory, and auditory senses
Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses.
I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations,
A singular development of cat communications
That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection
For a rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection.
A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents.
You would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance.
And when not being utilized to aid in locomotion,
It often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.
Oh Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display
Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array,
And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend,
I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.

Remakes

I wondered about Gus Van Sant's decision to remake Psycho shot-for-shot.  In theory, one remakes a movie with the belief that one can improve upon it.  Remaking something like Psycho, widely considered a cinematic classic of the first order, leaves everyone associated with the project a little dimmer by association.

There's more room to argue that remaking a cult classic can actually improve upon the source material.  Cult movies are, virtually by definition, flawed but resonant films that never found mainstream audiences, but have become revered by a smallish and rabidly devoted fanbase.  Without having done any research into the question whatsoever, I suspect that the majority of these cult movies have had much longer and more robust lives than their contemporary mainstream brethren, which may have made (a lot) more money but have gone on to relative obscurity. 

I understand, in principle, remaking a movie like The Clash of the Titans.  It did actually make quite a bit of money upon relase, becoming (fun fact!) the 11th highest-grossing film of 1981.  It features the amazing stop-motion animation of Pornokitsch Hero Ray Harryhausen - wonderful for those of us who grew up on a diet of stop-motion classics like 1933's King Kong -  but unable to compete with the computer-generated wizardry of the Star Wars trilogy or Raiders of the Lost Arc, released within a few years of Titans.  And, to be fair, Titans suffers from a bit of bloat:  too many characters, including  the dead-eyed Harry Hamlin as Perseus and the pretty but blank Judi Bowker as Andromeda.  Dull stretches make the film seem longer than its 118 minutes, and even the film's sense of its own overweaning importance make it faintly ridiculous, despite the wonderful Burgess Meredith's best efforts to lighten things up a bit.

(Bonus fun fact!  The sushi restaurant in Monsters, Inc., is named Harryhausen's.)

Star Trek Week #3: The Next Generation

Growing up in the US in the 1980s meant more than simply becoming acquainted with Star Trek.  It meant coming to refer to it as "classic" Trek - to distinguish it from Gene Roddenberry's new show, Star Trek:  The Next Generation.

I was seven when Picard et al. first blew across my television screen.  Though my parents ordinarily discouraged tv watching (Mystery! and 60 Minutes aside), they had both liked the original Trek, and our famiy tuned in to watch its new iteration.  And we weren't disappointed.  The new series, though it took a while to find reach its stride, not only updated Star Trek for a new world, but created its own iconography in the process.  Where  Shatner's James Kirk was impulsive, Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard was meditative; in place of Kirk's swaggering bragaddicio Picard brought the Enterprise thoughtful decisiveness.  Picard would prove to be every bit as passionate and devoted to his ship and crew, and every bit as tactically cunning as Kirk - Picard simply had a different style.  Softening his sharp edges were his First Mate, William Riker, whose youth and exhuberance provided a strong contrast to Picard's cerebral stability; the android Data, who represented the fundamental naivete of total intellecutalism, and a host of other characters. While some of these characters were less successful than others - neither Troy nor Dr. Crusher were particularly interesting characters - the majority of the Next Generation's main cast proved to be every bit as exciting and, eventually, iconic as their predecessors.