From: Cardinal Sin <Cardinal.sin@thorny.synchro.net>
Newsgroups: alt.slack
Date: Sun, Sep 15, 2002 1:58 AM
Hey! My close, personal friend John Shirley has
asked me to do him
a favor. He is the writing genius
behind the screenplay of The Crow, Wetbones, Demons,
City Come a Walkin'
and Silicon Embrace. He was also the executive script
editor for VR5
and has numerous other books and short stories to his
credit.
He is the undisputed king of horror working today, and
William Gibson
credits John for founding cyberpunk. John's web site
is
http://www.darkecho.com/JohnShirley/
When John Shirley was 19, he was writing science
fiction as his day
job, and was fronting punk bands at night. He has headed
bands such as
Sadonation, Obsession, and The Panther Moderns (a band
name
taken from one of William Gibson's stories.
John has asked me to get out the information that
he will be
releasing a CD of his '70s punk band, Sadonation. There
are several
.MP3 files you may download for free before the album
is released. They
are available at .MP3.com or just use this hyperlink:
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/334/john_shirley.html
John Shirley (I know him as Reverend John Shirley
from the Church
of the Subgenius)-- one of his excellent short stories
appears in
"Three-fisted Tales of "Bob"--199619971998--has
many other
books to his credit, almost all of them available on
Amazon.com
(although you should order them through Mark V. Ziesing
books, who
actually published a few of his novels) or eBay. John's
books can be
ordered from Mark V. Ziesing, and you can sign up for
a catalog mailed
free to your mailbox at www.ziesingbooks.com . Ziesing
books is a
small bookseller that is in competion with Borders and
Hastings
and huge, corporate book chains like Barnes & Noble.
They are very nice
folks, usually have books for the same price as the
competion or less,
and if you sign up for their catalog, you get a really
fine collectible
piece of work. Mark (and Cindy, his wife) have been
doing this for over
25 years now, and it's how they make their living.
The cover is always
by a damned fine artist (except #169, when my artwork
graced the cover),
and there's always a humorous column from Mark and they're
very grateful
for the business.
You can also buy books from Mark V. Ziesing books
and get the free
catalog by writing snail mail to:
Mark V. Ziesing Booksellers, Shingletown, CA, 96088.
They might even
have remainders of that horrible cover I did.
Some other (some hard to find) books by John Shirley
are
Transmaniacon, the Eclipse Trilogy (cyberpunk during
the cold war),
Heatseeker, Dracula in Love, The View from Hell, Cellars,
Three-Ring
Psychus, Kamus of Kadizhar in the Black Hole of Carcosa,
Black
Butterflies, Really, Really, Really, Really Weird Stories,
...And the
Angel with Television Eyes, A Splendid Chaos & The
Exploded Heart. He
also has many many more books published under pseudonyms.
I can tell you for a fact--since I am a punk rock
snob, and
especially a music snob in general, that John's bands
are the real deal.
His most recent release, Red Star, with The Panther
Moderns, is a
great mix of well-laid guitar over a heavy but not too
in-your-face
ryhthm section with John's voice and lyrics stealing
the show. There is
a track on Red Star that is of a desperate, convincing
message on an
ansering machine about a murder committed by teenagers
left by a kid
fucked up on drugs... who eventually realized that he's
being
taped. Really had me going, since John's probably in
his forties and it
sounded for all the world like a teen-ager. I heartily
recommend that
you add his work to your collection. If you get to
email him through
his web site, he may be willing to inscribe your stuff--just
tell him
that "Cardinal Sin" sent you.
He is one of my five favorite writers of all time--and
if you take
into account my love of Harlan Ellison (email John about
the time they
almost got into a fight at Clarion), Lovecraft, William
Gibson and Rudy
Rucker... it's a pretty short list.
Please send this message to as many people as you
can. At least
ten, if you can. Remember that this isn't for everybody,
but John has
asked me to turn as many people on to this as possible
to create some
interest before the release of the Sadonation CD. John's
Books,
especially the horror books are extremely dark and disturbing.
Just the
way I like it.
Thanks, and praise "Bob"!
--Cardinal Sin
----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: El Queso <the_cheese_23@yahoo.com>
WILLIAM PALMER wrote:
> "Cardinal Sin" <Cardinal.sin@thorny.synchro.net>
wrote in message
> news:3D842199.7050609@thorny.synchro.net...
>
>> Hey! My close, personal friend John Shirley
has asked me to do him
>>a favor. He is the writing genius
>
>
> [...] snip
>
> Let me set you straight on something. While I
have a great deal
> of respect for the accomplishments of John Shirley,
essentially
> he is First Generation cyberpunk.
Oh please - "set us straight" from your magical
elevated master's chair.
Have you read anything Shirley has written after 1988?
Your label only
fits one of his suits, and it fits that one badly.
That means, to all intents
> and purposes, he is a more or less traditional
literary type
Less traditional than most.
> who dreamed up a science fiction version of the net.
And a million other cool things. His visions of the
future have proven
eerily accurate. His visions of the net are a miniscule
portion of his
cyberpunk, which is a miniscule portion of his work.
On
> the other hand, I am Generation Two cyperpunk.
So what great fiction have you put out that has people
calling you a
visionary like Mr. Shirley?
People
> like me are born on the net and we come from within
the net.
Nonsensical blather that makes you feel unique without
having to do
anything.
> While we might write science fiction, we feel
that there
> is so much going on on the net right now, that
we don't need
> to dream up a s.f. net.
As opposed to what Shirley has written? Have you READ any Shirley?
And while none of the authors in
> Generation One had an authentic interactive net
life of their
> own,
But they almost all do now, and many as long as you
have. Your theory of
difference is a bit weak. If you grew up on the net
from the age of 15
and are now 30 - what is the difference between you
and the authors who
came to the net at 35 and are now 50? Your perspective
is not
fundamentally different from theirs, is it?
we of cp.gen2 have had our consciousness altered
> through use of the net so profoundly, that we can't
imagine
> our minds without the net. Clear?
Not in any way that makes your artistic voice any more
valid or real
than anyone else's. All this vague talk of generation
one writers makes
me think you have not ever read Shirley, but want to
make yourself seem
more modern based on what someone else wrote about him.
No specifics -
just "A" was this, and I am "B",
and we need not the things that "A"
offered, as merely being "B" makes us have
a perspective which is above
"A's". If you think your consciousness is
altered in a way that Mr.
Shirley just can't grokk - I say phooey on your wankishness.
You should
not even begin to compare yourself to John Shirley -
he invented more
trends than you ever followed. Write some great books
or kill me.
Queso
Original file name: cyberpunk found*3s of.txt - converted on Thursday, 29 May 2003, 19:17
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