CHICANONAUTICA CROSSED THE INTERSECTION OF XICANXFUTURISM AND GONZO SCI-FI

It's a crosscultural crosswalk crossfire in Chicanonautica at La Bloga.

Looks like some hombres ain't to bad anymore:

 And reality ain't what it used to be:

Are we sci-fi yet?

And what about Anna's Humming bird, besides mutations?

GETTING READY FOR CLASS

I better get ready. For class.

No, I haven’t gone back to school. I’m gonna be the teacher again.

Me. A teacher. Never thought that would happen, me and school never getting on so good and all . . .

Turns out I’m not too bad at it. In all these decades I’ve been a writer, I’ve learned a few things, and people are willing to pay to hear it.

Granted, it meant I had to stop and think about it. I don’t like to think about it. If I was the type to make a list of rules I’d start with “Don’t think about it–do it.” I don’t care for talking about writing, but will do it for money.

There are people for whom talking about writing is their idea of a good time. I try to avoid them and wonder if their writing is as boring as their yacking.

Same for those who want to talk about creativity, and ways to get in the mood. I’m always in the mood. My dangerously overactive imagination grinds away all day and night all the time. Why do you think I became a writer?

I have a file of notes of things to bring up, and I’m going over them, making changes and additions. People have asked me to publish these notes, but they’d make pretty lousy reading. They really are just a bunch of notes. I put them in order to give me things to talk about during each day of the class, and to use if the students (me having students . . . still sounds weird) run out of things to say.

It would be great if they were a lively bunch, and we spent the whole time throwing around ideas and experiences, inspiring each other, y’know, being creative . . .

Sometimes I change my mind about things. Rules come, and go, for reasons. I like to break them now and then to see if they still apply. I break my own rules, to keep myself on my toes, and to weed out the clichés that people say in creative writing classes because they're just are too lazy to come up with real advice.

That’s pretty good. I should put it in the notes . . .

If I go over it, and think (ugh!) about it, my confidence will cancel my imposter syndrome, and I’ll be able to seem enough like a teacher to make the students feel they got their money’s worth.

I’ve never had imposter syndrome about being a writer, or an artist. Throw me into just about any kind of creative activity–even if I’ve no training or background in it–and I’ll come up with something, even if it’s making a fool of myself.

People like it when I make a fool of myself. It's good not to take yourself too seriously. That could be a rule . . .

But I’m uncomfortable being a teacher. I’ve also felt it as a janitor, housekeeper, and a bookstore clerk, though I got good enough at that so when it came time to become a library worker (NOT a librarian, I do the grunt work) I could slip into that role. 

Maybe I’ll be doing more of this in my old age. If the price is right.

 

 

CHICANONAUTICA TAKES NOTES ON A XICANXFUTURISTIC SPRING

 

Spring has been Xicanxfuturistic for Chicanonautica, over at La Bloga.

Something really is in the air: 

And in bad taste: 

But then, there's Xicanxfuturism:

Make your own future:

DISPATCHES FROM THE LAST DANGEROUS VISIONS: DISTORTION OF THEMES

Still, the news gets more Dangerous Vision-y. It’s a struggle to keep the story I’m working on surreal/slapstick enough. What would Mack Sennett do? Or Luis Buñuel? Does it need a sliced-open eyeball or a pie in the face? Hmm . . . How about both?

RUNDOWN by John Morressy

A bit of wacky fun, a caricature of apocalyptic news. Good for a few giggles, but in the light of the way the world has been in the last few years—when you often find the word “surreal” in straight news reports—not very dangerous. Or am I just getting jaded in my old age?

INTERMEZZO 4: ELEMENTAL by D.M. Rowels

A quick splash of blood-spattered astronomical surrealism. The cosmic should never make you forget about spilled body fluids.

THE WEIGHT OF A FEATHER (THE WEIGHT OF A HEART) by Cory Doctorow  

Reads like a tribute to Harlan. The title is Ellisonian, and references Egyptian mythology even though it isn’t brought up in the story, about the effects of technology and a pet robot on a couple’s relationship. Some heavy emotions are exposed. Was probably more dangerous a couple of decades ago, these days we all have to deal with what Philip K. Dick called “artificial constructs masquerading as human” all the time, and mostly they’re annoying.

I remember reading Doctorow’s first story in Science Fiction Age way back in the day. I wrote to editor Scott Edelman about it. I was right. He’s gone places.

 

THE MALIBU FAULT by Jonathan Fast

This one really is dangerous. A New York writer living the good life writing scripts in Hollywood faces a manifestation of his liberal guilt. Harlan could relate. You hear about the void between the haves and the have nots, but no one seems to be able to do anything about it. The rich get richer—you never heard about billionaires when I was a kid, where did all this money come from?—and the homeless, excuse me, unhoused, are everywhere.

Is this why Trump won? What will happen when the people who voted for him realize they’ve been screwed? And more cities are in the peculiar situation where only the wealthy can live there and the people who cook, clean, and keep the good life coming have to commute from a dystopia slapped together, on the cheap, next door. One of these days, something’s gonna give . . .

 

THE SIZE OF THE PROBLEM by Howard Fast (Jonathan’s dad)

 

Another bit of flash fiction. A lot of super-short things in this book -- is there a reason? This one’s a swift kick in the frontal lobes about sanity, dreams and the nature of reality that may be dangerous if you think too much about it—which it demands.

Once more we’re in life, the universe, and everything. I don’t see many people contemplating the Great, Big Cosmic What-ever-ya-callit these days, maybe they’re all too busy dealing with the flaming chunks that are raining on us. But reality is dangerous. Especially is you’re wrong about it. 

And I think we’re about to see a lot of folks going through that soon . . . 

Danger! Danger!

INTERMEZZO 5: FIRST CONTACT by D.M. Rowels

Ah yes, one of the classic science fiction themes turned inside out and put in a domestic setting, in a bathroom. I suppose aliens are going to have to go to the bathroom. The cosmic mixes with body fluids again. What is a dangerous vision, but the aspirations of sci-fi colliding with yucky, dirty, smelly realism? 

Can we ever achieve a workable utopia? If we give up, does it just get more dystopian? What will the next news broadcast reveal?

And there are more stories to go!

 

CHICANONAUTICA UNLEASHES XICANXFUTURISM AT PALABRAS BILINGUAL BOOKSTORE

 

Chicanonautica covers a Xicanxfuturist event in Phoenix, at La Bloga.

The landing was successful:

Near the last drive-in movie theater in Arizona:

 At Arizona's first bilingual bookstore:

 And it has a cat: