ALL WRITERS HAVE THEIR PROCESS. SOME are planners; some set off without necessarily knowing where they're going. George Saunders belongs in the latter category, but in a very particular way. He likens his approach to "procedural pointillism", after a postImpressionist painting technique in which images are made up from small dots of paint.
Saunders edits and re-edits his prose. "What I'll do is take a given story and then go crazy on one section of it, try to perfect it," he explains. "Then, if I do that, it'll start telling me what the next section needs to do, and so on." As to how this works in practice, the short stories in Saunders's new collection Liberation Day resonate with each other without being thematically linked in a conventional sense. This is slipstream fiction where past, present and future are in a dynamic relationship. The tone set by the title story, which retells the Battle of the Little Bighorn, reminds us of our current reality of societies with huge inequalities, and introduces a cast of actors in the future cut adrift from their own identities.
Rather than over-thinking themes or plotting, Saunders says, "I'm trying to make [the story] mean whatever it means more decisively." It's an approach in part rooted in a need to "assuage my own anxiety about writing".
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Denne historien er fra November 2022-utgaven av SFX UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Making Alien - Jaws in Space - Forty-five years on from its original release, Alien continues to terrify. We dissect what arguably remains the most chilling instalment in the saga
The seven-strong crew of the commercial mining spacecraft the Nostromo seal their fate after reluctantly responding to a mysterious distress signal on a hostile planet. Here, a face-hugging alien from a derelict ship impregnates and later kills executive officer Kane (John Hurt) after its offspring is birthed onboard. After being unleashed, the fearsome newborn with acid for blood proceeds to dispatch the remainder of the crew.Ridley Scott's much more convoluted prequels have yet to reveal how the knowledge that led to this initial interception was acquired. However, the premise of the original Alien is perfect in its uncomplicated purity.
PURE AND SIMPLE
IN THE FINAL PART OF OUR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW, SHOWRUNNER RUSSELL T DAVIES TALKS RELAUNCHING DOCTOR WHO
TO CAP IT ALL OFF
CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF THE BBC SERIES THE TRIPODS
FRENCH REVOLUTION
THE WALKING DEAD SPIN-OFF SHOWRUNNER DAVID ZABEL ON BEING GIVEN THE TOUGH TASK OF REUNITING DARYL AND CAROL IN FRANCE
SILENT KILLERS
THE DIRECTOR OF HOLLYWOOD'S SPEAK NO EVIL REMAKE ON HORROR, COMEDY AND JAMES MCAVOY
BRING OUT YOUR DEAD
THE GHOST WITH THE MOST RETURNS FINALLY - IN BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
TEENAGE DREAM
JOE LOCKE HITS THE ROAD RUNNING
MOB RULE THE PENGUIN
GOTHAM'S UP FOR GRABS IN BRUISING NEW CRIME SAGA BUT WHERE IS THE BATMAN?
SEASON OF THE WITCH
AS MARVEL TELEVISION CARVES OUT A NEW PATH FOR ITSELF, WE SPEAK TO CREATOR JAC SCHAEFFER, PLUS A CAST OF STARS LED BY KATHRYN HAHN AND JOE LOCKE, ABOUT THE MAGIC OF WANDAVISION'S SPIN-OFF AGATHA ALL ALONG
Ghouls Allowed
Even silence can't save you at this year's Halloween Horror Nights