"Fiction should be a firestorm"

Such were the sage words that greeted my eyes upon my daily scouring of one of my favorite websites: Little Man, What Now?, a site that features witty and often scathing social commentary that runs the gamut from politics to mayonnaise (which, I agree, is an extremely unsettling substance. As an American, I slather everything in ketchup, a slightly less creepy compound).

Little Man is part of my morning ritual: email, myspace, Little Man. Usually I laugh over the latest humorous post, but imagine my surprise when this morning I found an article on me! ME!

Ok, it's not all about me. Edwin Hesselthwite writes about the state of modern publishing, that (and I'm paraphrasing here) much of the fiction being touted today is not very good (despite what the cover blurbs and popular reviews say). Unfortunately, the publishing world is subject to the same greed for the almighty dollar that has infected much of the artistic world at large - much to literature's loss.

A statement that bears repeating, fiction should be a firestorm. And really, how many "tales of people heroically struggling against their limitations and overcoming their hurdles" do we need? Amen.

I may not be photogenic, but my hair looks fierce

Head on over to Little Man and have a look around; while you're at it, you might want to read a review of 28 Weeks Later, a healthy dose of (completely justified, in my opinion) paranoia, a great article for the science fiction fan, and much much more.