Online Sci-Fi Mag Lightspeed Will Mix Science Fact, Fiction
www.wired.com: The storied days of your grandfather’s print sci-fi journals are mostly over. For proof, look no further than Prime Books, indie publisher of Fantasy Magazine, which is joining the digital evolution with a new online science-fiction and science-fact mag called Lightspeed written for a new generation of sci-fi fans.
“We’re reaching out to a new audience that isn’t as familiar with science fiction as the folks who read Gardner Dozois‘ Year’s Best Science Fiction every year,” said editor John Joseph Adams, who will handle Lightspeed’s sci-fi selections. “The idea is to show the reader where science fiction comes from, where it is and where it’s going.”
But it’s not all going to be virtual. The material world still bleeds in.
To steer the mothership, Wallace recruited Adams, editor of popular anthologies like The Living Dead and Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. Andrea Kail will mind-meld with them to pull together and edit a nonfiction slate that complements the fiction.
“Print magazines seem to be slipping away, but I think short fiction is just beginning to find its voice online,” said Kail. “And sci-fi is still growing, so starting an online mag now that speaks to its many different facets seems to be less of a risk.”
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Why Richard Kelly Is Obsessed With Water, And Won’t See the Darko Sequel
io9.com: The Box director Richard Kelly has played with water imagery in all his scifi films, including Donnie Darko. We caught up with him and asked why all his characters are perpetually wet, and his thoughts on the Donnie Darko sequel.
Why are you drawn to science fiction?
I think that science fiction is something that can capture the imagination of any human being, in the way that it lets us speculate and analyze the mysteries of the world. We live in a world that’s filled with a lot of mystery. Fundamentally it gets to the heart of why we pay fourteen bucks to sit in a movie theater for two hours with a bunch of strangers. It’s to discover new mysteries. And you know, with something like Avatar coming out, it sort of helps me reclaim the childhood sense of discovery I got from Jim Cameron when I saw Alien or when I saw Terminator for the first time, seeing the trailer for that film brings back all of those memories and makes me realize why I got into this business so… I think science fiction is where some of the most exciting stories are told.
Cameron Diaz and James Marsden are seen getting water dumped all over them in this movie, you’ve used water before as a supernatural element, can you tell us what that’s all about?
Well I think sometimes the concept of saltwater coming from the ocean and the ocean being the driving force of the planet and our bodies being made of saltwater almost entirely… there’s something fascinating about embracing that, the essence of it as a higher intelligence, a higher technology of some sort and it allows you to portray a higher intelligence in a visual way that provokes a lot of discussion and interpretation for audiences. So that’s sort of been the reason behind my thought process. People may not understand that when they first see it but it plants a seed in your mind. It’s something that we actually did with Donnie Darko and a little bit in Southland Tales so hopefully people are kind of connecting the dots.
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Looks like everything is turning virtual now, no more piled magazines or trips to the library. What do you think of that? Is it good? I think Fiction and Sci-fi are osme of the favorites genres because you can create other worlds in which you can add as many imaginary things you like. Are you a Sci-fi fan? What do you think of Donnie Darko’s sequel?
